• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제7권1호
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• pp.57-65
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• 2015

This study aimed to identify the development pattern of final stop consonant perception using the gating task. Sixty-four subjects participated in the study: 16 children aged 4 years, 16 children aged 5 years, 17 children aged 6 years, and 15 adults. One-syllable words with consonant-vowel-consonant(CVC) structure, mokㄱ-motㄱ and papㄱ-patㄱ were used as stimuli in order to remove the redundancy of acoustic cues in stimulus words, 40ms-length (-40ms) and 60ms-length (-60ms) from the entire duration of the final consonant were deleted. Three conditions (the whole word segment, -40ms, -60ms) were used for this speech perception experiment. 48 tokens (4 stimuli ${\times}3$ conditions ${\times}4$ trials) in total were provided for participants. The results indicated that 5 and 6 year olds showed final consonant perception similar to adults in stimuli, papㄱ-patㄱ and only the 6-year-old children showed perception similar to adults in stimuli, 'mokㄱ-motㄱ. The results suggested that younger typically developing children require more acoustic information to accurately perceive final consonants than older children and adults. Final consonant perception ability may become adult-like around 6 years old. The study provides fundamental data on the development pattern of speech perception in normal developing children, which can be used to compare to those of children with communication disorders.

• 한국음향학회지
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• 제31권5호
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• pp.298-308
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• 2012

This study was designed to examine the phoneme recognition errors of hearing-impaired (HI) listeners on a consonant-by-consonant basis, to show (1) how each HI ear perceives individual consonants differently and (2) how standard clinical measurements (i.e., using a tone and word) fail to predict these differences. Sixteen English consonant-vowel (CV) syllables of six signal-to-noise ratios in speech-weighted noise were presented at the most comfortable level for ears with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss. The findings were as follows: (1) individual HI listeners with a symmetrical pure-tone threshold showed different consonant-loss profiles (CLPs) (i.e., over a set of the 16 English consonants, the likelihood of misperceiving each consonant) in right and left ears. (2) A similar result was found across subjects. Paired ears of different HI individuals with identical pure-tone threshold presented different CLPs in one ear to the other. (3) Paired HI ears having the same averaged consonant score demonstrated completely different CLPs. We conclude that the standard clinical measurements are limited in their ability to predict the extent to which speech perception is degraded in HI ears, and thus they are a necessary, but not a sufficient measurement for HI speech perception. This suggests that the CV measurement would be a useful clinical tool.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제5권4호
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• pp.145-155
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• 2013

This study investigated the articulatory characteristics of Korean singleton and geminate sonorants in the word-medial position, effects of the duration of the sonorant consonant and the preceding vowel on perception, and the difference between native Korean speakers and foreign learners of Korean in perceiving the singleton and geminate consonant contrast. The Korean sonorant consonants(/m, n, l/) are examined from the VCCV, VCV sequences through speech production and perception experiments. The results suggest that the duration of the sonorant consonant is the most important factor for native Korean speakers to recognize whether sonorants are overlapped, and the duration of preceding vowel and other factors affect the recognition of singleton/geminate consonant contrast if the duration is not obvious. A perception experiment showed Chinese Korean language learners did not clearly distinguish singleton consonants from geminate consonants. The results of this study provide basic data for recognition of singleton/geminate consonant contrast in word-medial of Korean language, and can be utilized for teaching Korean pronunciation as a foreign language.

• 한국음향학회지
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• 제30권5호
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• pp.295-302
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• 2011

본 연구의 목적은 말지각평가의 기초 자료가 되고 청각장애 자음지각능력의 정량적 정성적 평가가 가능한 음소단위의 한국어자음지각검사 (Korean Consonant Perception Test, 이하 KCPT)도구를 개발하는 것이다. KCPT는 조합 가능한 모든 한국어 단음절어 중 유의미 단음절어만 분류하여, 7종성발음규칙을 적용하고 목표단어의 친숙도를 조절한 사지선다형 초 종성검사문항 시안을 작성한 후, 각 단어들의 조음 특성, 난이도, 음소 출현빈도수를 고려하여 완성되었다. 이를 정상인 20명을 대상으로 평가하여 난이도가 높은 문항을 제거하고 화자 간 변수가 없는 것을 통계적으로 확인한 후 회화체 빈도수에 맞도록 최종문항을 작성하였다. 세부적 수정을 거쳐 초 종성검사문항 각 200개와 100개로 구성된 총 300개 문항을 개발하였다. 30명의 청각장애인을 대상으로 검증하여 A와 B로 구분한 절반목록간 차이도 없음을 확인하고 초성검사문항은 초성자음지각평가에 종성 검사문항은 종성자음 지각평가에 적절한 도구임을 검증하였다.

• 영어영문학
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• 제55권6호
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• pp.1193-1220
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• 2009

This study examined the impact of sonority profiles, positional differences and L2 proficiency on Korean EFL learners' perception of English biconsonantal clusters, using nonce words. The overall results showed that major predictions of the sonority-based typological markedness on consonant clusters were supported, as obstruent plus sonorant and sonorant plus obstruent sequences were better perceived than obstruent only or sonorant only sequences. Yet, some consonant clusters did not show a preference for sonority profiles. Positional effects were also confirmed, as word-initial biconsonantal clusters were better perceived than wordfinal ones across all the participant groups. Participants' English proficiency turned out to be also important in the perception of consonant clusters, since university students' mean rate of accuracy was highest, followed by that of high school students, which in turn followed by that of middle school students. Further, the effects of other factors like frequency and stimuli on speech perception were also addressed, along with some implications for future research.

• 한국음향학회지
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• 제29권5호
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• pp.325-331
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• 2010

청각 범주지각 (categorical perception)은 언어적 자극과 관련되어 나타나는 특징적 현상이다. 본 연구에서는 임상적으로 혼돈되기 쉬운 한국어 초성, 중성, 종성 최소대랍쌍의 지각경계에 관한 분석을 하였다. 이를 위해서 단음절어 최소대립쌍(consonant-vowel-consonant, CVC)인 /곰-공/, /논-눈/, /돈-논/을 물리적 에너지 관점에서 11가지 단계 (index)로 구분하여 변환하였다. 그리고, 정상 성인 (40명)을 대상으로 하여 지각경계 패턴, 지각경계 기울기, 지각경계 폭, 비우위 지수(non-dominant factor) 분포를 분석하였다. 이 결과에서 대립쌍들은 범주지각 과정에서 대립쌍 상호간에서 상대적인 차이가 있음을 보여 주었다. 본 자료에서는 중성 최소대립쌍의 경우가 범주지각이 가장 낮게 나타났으며, 이러한 분석 과정이 청각기능 평가 등에 응용 가능성이 있음을 확인할 수 있었다.

• 음성과학
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• 제11권4호
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• pp.233-247
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• 2004

This study explores sound alternations in a consonant cluster in which at least one consonant is a sonorant (a son/C cluster, hereafter). In this study, I argue that phonological processes affecting son/C clusters result from low perceptual salience rather than from the Syllable Contact Law as discussed in Vennemann (1988), Clements (1990), Rice & Avery (1991), Baertsch & Davis (2000), among others. That is, as a main factor motivating the alternations in the cluster, I consider contrasts of weak perceptibility triggered by phonetic similarity between two members of a cluster (Kawasaki 1982, Ohala 1992, 1993). Based on the findings from a typological survey in 31 different languages, I show that a speech perception-based account makes a correct prediction regarding the patterning of sonorant/sonorant sequences and that of obstruent/sonorant sequences, while the syllable contact account does not.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• 제25권3호
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• pp.124-130
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• 2021

Background and Objectives: The study investigated vowel context effects on the perception of stop consonants in Malayalam. It also probed into the role of vowel context effects in determining the frequency of occurrence of various consonant-vowel (CV) syllables in Malayalam. Subjects and Methods: The study used a cross-sectional pre-experimental post-test only research design on 30 individuals with normal hearing, who were native speakers of Malayalam. The stimuli included three stop consonants, each spoken in three different vowel contexts. The resultant nine syllables were presented in original form and five gating conditions. The consonant recognition in different vowel contexts of the participants was assessed. The frequency of occurrence of the nine target syllables in the spoken corpus of Malayalam was also systematically derived. Results: The consonant recognition score was better in the /u/ vowel context compared with /i/ and /a/ contexts. The frequency of occurrence of the target syllables derived from the spoken corpus of Malayalam showed that the three stop consonants occurred more frequently with the vowel /a/ compared with /u/ and /i/. Conclusions: The findings show a definite vowel context effect on the perception of the Malayalam stop consonants. This context effect observed is different from that in other languages. Stop consonants are perceived better in the context of /u/ compared with the /a/ and /i/ contexts. Furthermore, the vowel context effects do not appear to determine the frequency of occurrence of different CV syllables in Malayalam.

• 대한청각학회지
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• 제25권3호
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• pp.124-130
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• 2021

Background and Objectives: The study investigated vowel context effects on the perception of stop consonants in Malayalam. It also probed into the role of vowel context effects in determining the frequency of occurrence of various consonant-vowel (CV) syllables in Malayalam. Subjects and Methods: The study used a cross-sectional pre-experimental post-test only research design on 30 individuals with normal hearing, who were native speakers of Malayalam. The stimuli included three stop consonants, each spoken in three different vowel contexts. The resultant nine syllables were presented in original form and five gating conditions. The consonant recognition in different vowel contexts of the participants was assessed. The frequency of occurrence of the nine target syllables in the spoken corpus of Malayalam was also systematically derived. Results: The consonant recognition score was better in the /u/ vowel context compared with /i/ and /a/ contexts. The frequency of occurrence of the target syllables derived from the spoken corpus of Malayalam showed that the three stop consonants occurred more frequently with the vowel /a/ compared with /u/ and /i/. Conclusions: The findings show a definite vowel context effect on the perception of the Malayalam stop consonants. This context effect observed is different from that in other languages. Stop consonants are perceived better in the context of /u/ compared with the /a/ and /i/ contexts. Furthermore, the vowel context effects do not appear to determine the frequency of occurrence of different CV syllables in Malayalam.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제6권1호
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• pp.3-10
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• 2014

This study investigated whether Korean vowels, /ɨ/ and /u/, are distinctively perceived after a labial consonant given the fact that native and Sino-Korean nouns showed only vowel /u/ after a labial consonant while this pattern was massively broken by the recent introduction of loanwords. For this purpose, a perception experiment was conducted with $V_1C_1V_2$ sequences in which different vowels /a, i, u/ and consonants /p, t, k/ occurred in $V_1$ and $C_1$ before the target $V_2$, /ɨ/ and /u/. The data was produced by six speakers each from two different age groups, Age20 and Age40/50 in the read speech style. The results showed that consonant /p/ attracted significantly more responses of /u/ from /VCɨ/ sequences and significantly less responses of /u/ from /VCu/ sequence than the other consonants did in both age groups. Furthermore, Age20 group showed significantly less percentage of /u/ responses than Age40 group when the preceding consonant was /p/ regardless of the target vowel. We suggest therefore that unlike the traditional belief of labial assimilation, there is neutralization after a labial consonant in which vowels /ɨ/ and /u/ are often realized as any sound between two vowels, /ɨ/ and /u/. That is, this vowel change is not categorial but it rather produces an ambiguous stimulus which attracts different responses from different listeners. Ambiguous stimulus was produced due to coarticulatory efforts in speech production and perceptual compensation. We also argue that there is generational difference such that Age40/50 group speakers showed stronger tendency to produce /u/ after a labial consonant regardless of whether the target vowel was /ɨ/ or /u/.