• Speech Sciences
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• 제14권4호
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• pp.41-52
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• 2007

Recent experimental studies have shown that language-users' knowledge of the statistical characteristic of their native language plays a key role in their task performance. One specific instance of this that the current study focuses on is the effect of phonotactic probabilities on speakers' wordlikeness judgment of nonwords. In this paper, I explore the question of whether the judgment of Korean speaking subjects as to the wordlikeness of Korean nonsense words is influenced by the degree of association between two-phoneme sequences in Korean. The current results suggest that the objective measure of correlations (expressed by $r_{\phi}$ values) between an onset consonant and a vowel inside Korean syllables play an important role in Korean speakers' nonword processing. The current results additionally indicate an effect of the correlations of two-phoneme sequences including vowels and coda consonants on nonword processing. Implications of these findings for Korean speakers' learning the correlations between adjacent segments inside the syllable are discussed.

• Speech Sciences
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• 제7권3호
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• pp.87-98
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• 2000

Timing in speech is determined by many factors. In this paper, we introduce and discuss some factors that have generally been regarded as important in speech timing. They include stress, syllable structure, consonant insertion or deletion, tempo, lengthening at clause, phrase and word boundaries, preconsonantal vowel shortening, and compensation between segments or within phonological units (e.g., word, foot), compression due to the increase of syllables in word or foot level, etc. and each of them may playa crucial role in the structuring of speech timing in a language. But some of these timing factors must interact with each other rather than be independent and the effects of each factor on speech timing will vary from language to language. On the other hand, there could well be many other factors unknown so far. Finding out and investigating new timing factors and reinterpreting the already-known timing factors should enhance our understanding of timing structures in a given language or languages.

• Speech Sciences
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• 제13권3호
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• pp.121-132
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• 2006

In Hangeul, the graphemes of syllables are organized in horizontal, vertical and mixed (both horizontal & vertical) orientations, and the graphemic position of consonant(s) and vowel(s) within a each syllable needs to be maintained within a square pattern. We investigated the characteristics of writing errors of 9 stroke patients with right hemisphere (RH) lesions and compared it to the performances of 15 normal subjects. The subjects were asked to write to dictation of 90 Korean syllables. One of the interesting findings was that our patients manifested visuospatial errors which are not commonly observed in other language-speaking (e.g., English) patients due to the unique syllabic organizations of Korean writing system. The prominent errors in the RH group could be explained by the impaired RH which normally controls the visuospatial functions.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 대한음성학회 2000년도 7월 학술대회지
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• pp.86-87
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• 2000

In this paper, we discuss why two different surface forms appear in loanwords for English and German /${\int}$/ In Korean, a vowel is inserted into loanwords if a consonant cannot be properly syllabified. Therefore, /${\int}$/ in some positions of loanwords trigger vowel insertion. Interestingly, /${\int}$/s in the onset cluster of English and German words were borrowed in Korean as Iful with the inserted vowel [u] whereas If Is in the coda position of English and German words were borrowed as Ifil with the inserted vowel [i]. For example, 'shrimp' is adopted as [${\int}urimphi$] whereas 'rush' is adopted as [$ra{\int}i$]. In this paper, we attempt to find out the phonetic reason for the distribution of the surface forms of /${\int}$/. We assume that since the formant frequency of [i] is higher than that of [u], the peak frequency of /${\int}$/ with the surface form of [${\int}$i] in loanwords may be higher than that of /${\int}$/ with the surface form of [${\int}u$]. We also assume that duration may be another factor for the distribution of [${\int}i$] and [${\int}u$]. Since /${\int}$/ and /u/ use lip rounding whereas /i/ doesn't, the duration for [${\int}i$] might be longer than that of [${\int}u$]. German supports our assumption. /${\int}$/ in the onset cluster is longer than /${\int}$/ in the coda position. It also has higher peak frequency than that of /${\int}$/ in the coda position. In loanwords, ${\int}$ in the onset cluster is borrowed as [${\int}u$] as in Spiegel whereas /${\int}$/ in the coda position is borrowed as [${\int}i$] as in Bosch. English, however, does not support our assumption. Peak frequency of [${\int}$] depends on the preceding vowel, not on its position in the syllable structure. If the preceding vowel is front, then the peak freuency of the following of the following /${\int}$/ is high but if the preceding vowel is back, than the peak frequency of the following /${\int}$/ is low. The peak frequency of /${\int}$/ in the onset cluster seems to be in between. As we assumed, however, the duration of /${\int}$/ in the coda position is longer than of /${\int}$/ in the onset cluster. With the mixed results, we question whether Koreans really hear two different xounds for /${\int}$/ in English words. For the future experiment, we would like to perform the perception tet for /${\int}$/ in English words.

• MALSORI
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• 제19_20호
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• pp.58-87
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• 1990

According to Government Phonology, at 1 phonological positions save the domain's head must be licensed in order to appear in the syllable structure. A non-nuclear head is licensed by the following nucleus, and the nuclei with phonetic content are licensed through government by the nuclear head of the domain at the level of the nuclear projection. Therefore, in the theory of Government Phonology it is claimed that words always end with a nucleus. With regard to the licensing of empty nuclei, Kaye(1990a) proposes the 'Empty Category Principle' and its sub-theory of 'Projection Government'. Government Phonology claims that a nucleus which dominates a vowel that regularly undergoes elision in certain contexts is underlyingly empty. This underlying empty nucleus is not manifested phonetically when it is properly governed by an unlicensed(i, e, a nucleus filled with a full vowel). It is when proper government fails to apply, that the empty nucleus is phonetically Interpreted. The purpose of this paper is to present a principled account of the process of $[i]{\Leftrightarrow}{\emptyset}$ alternation in Korean. Following Kaye's proposal, we assume that [i] of Korean is underlyingly empty. This position is pronounced as [i] if it is unlicensed, and is not phonetically realized if is licensed. Empty nuclei ape devided into two categories: domain-internal and domain-final. Firstly, we consider the question why Korean has little word ending with [i]. As for this, ECP states that domain-final empty nuclei are not pronounced if the language licenses domain-final empty nuclei. Whether a final empty nucleus may occur in the structure is parametric variation. This property is seen from the fact that words may appear to end in consonants in this language. Since Korean abounds with words ending in a consonant, it licenses domain-final empty nuclei. Therefore, it is quite natural that Korean has little word ending with [i]. Secondly, word-internal empty nuclei of Korean respect proper government and inter-onset government. That is, an empty nucleus in word-internal position will be pronounced with the vowel [i] if either proper government or inter-onset government fail to apply. Inter-onset government refers to the government established between two onsets across an empty nucleus. Thirdly, we consider words ending with [i], which seems to be exceptional to the final licensing. Host of them are. either mono-syllabic verbs(for instance, [s'i-] 'to write') or derived adjectives ending with [p'i] (for instance, [kip'i-] 'be happy'). As for the former, the 'inaccessibility for proper government' is applied because the empty nucleus appears in the first syllable. In latter case, domain-final empty nuclei are pronounced as [i] because of government-licensing. That is, final empty nucleus is pronounced to license the preceding onset dominating negatively charmed segments which empty nucleus of Korean cannot license.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 대한음성학회 1996년도 10월 학술대회지
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• pp.390-398
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• 1996

Acoustic analysis study was performed on 20 normal subjects by speaking nonsense syllables composed of Korean bilabial stops(/p, $p^{*}$/, ph/) and their Preceding and/or following vowel /a/(that is, [pa, $p^{*}a$, pha, apa, $ap^{*}a$, apha]) with an ultraminiature pressure sensor in their mouths. Speech materials were phonated twice, once with a moderate voice, another time with a loud voice. The acoustic signal and intraoral pressure were recorded simultaneously on computer. By these procedures, we were to measure the intraoral pressure, closure duration and VOT of Korean bilabial stops, and to compare the values one another according to the intensity of phonation and the position of the target consonants. Intraoral pressure was measured by the peak intraoral pressure value of its wave; closure duration by the time interval between the onset of intraoral pressure build-up and the burst meaning the release of closure; Voice onset time(VOT) by the time interval between the burst and the onset of glottal vibration. Heavily aspirated bilabial stop consonant /ph/ showed the highest intraoral pressure value, unaspirated /p$^{*}$/, the second, slightly aspirated /p/, the lowest. The syllable initial bilabial stops showed higher intraoral pressure than word initial stops, and the value of loudly phonated consonants were higher than moderate consonants. The longest closure duration period was that of /$p^{*}$/ and the shortest, /p/, and the duration was longer in word initial position and in the moderate voice. In VOT, the order of the longest to shortest was /ph/, /p/, /$p^{*}$/, and the value was shorter when the consonant was in intervocalic position and when it was phonated with a loud voice.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• 제7권1호
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• pp.50-55
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• 1996

Acoustic analysis study was performed on 20 normal subjects by speaking nonsense syllables composed of Korean bilabial stops$(/P, P^{\star}, P^{h}/)$ and their preceding and/or following vowel /a/ (that is, $[pa, p^{\star}a, p^{h}a, apa, ap^{\star}a, ap^{h}a]$) with an ultraminiature pressure, sensor. in their mouths. Speech materials were phonated twice, once with a moderate voice, another time with a loud voice. The acoustic signal and intraoral pressure were recorded simultaneously on computer. By these procedures, we were to measure the intraoral pressure, closure duration and VOT of Korean bilabial stops, and to compare the values one another according to the intensity of phonation and the position of the target consonants. Intraoral pressure was measured by the peak intraoral pressure value of Its wave closure duration by the time interval between the onset of intraoral pressure build-up and the burst meaning the release of closure ; Voice onset time(VOT) on by the time interval between the burst and the onset or glottal vibration. Heavily aspirated bilabial stop consonant /$p^h$/ showed the highest intraoral pressure value, unaspirated /$p^{\star}$/, the second, slightly aspirated /P/, the lowest. The syllable initial bilabial stops showed higher intraoral pressure than word initial stops, and the value of loudly phonated consonants were higher than moderate consonants. The longest closure duration period was that of /$p^{\star}$/ and the shortest, /P/, and the duration was longer in word initial position and in the moderate voice. In VOT, the order of the longest to shortest was $/{p^h}/, /p/, /{p^\star}/$, and the value was shorer when the consonant was in intervocalic position and when it was phonated with a loud voice.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• 제6권1호
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• pp.46-55
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• 1995

Authors devised an objective test for nasal resonatory disorders using a vibratory sensor(Piezoelectric receiver) which is relatively cheap. The vibratory sensor was covered with duralumin to eliminate contamination of acoustic sound except a small hole which is attached on ala nasi during the test. Electrical signals front the vibratory sensor and the microphone while the subject is phonating vowel/a/ and nasal consonant /ng/ and phonating 8 syllable sentence /papa/ passage and /mama/ passage were digitized with n 12 bit A/D converter. For the evaluation of the hypernasality, the ratio of /ng/ to /a/ and /mama/ passage to /papa/ passage were used instead of individual values to reduce the observational error. For the evaluation of the hyponasality, the cul-de-sac resonation was induced by obstructing the nasal aperture of the ipsilateral side with the finger. In the normal control group, the ratio of /ng/ to /a/ and /mama/ passage to /papa/ passage was larger than 8. In the hypernasality with nasal emission group. the ratio was decreased markedly(p＜0.01). When the nasal aperture was obstructed with the finger, the vibratory signals of /a/ and /ng/ were increased markedly in the control group and hypernasality group(p＜0.01). However, in the hyponasality group(severe), the increment was minimal. So this system can be used to detect the nasal resonatory disorders objectively and differentiate the hypernasality front hyponasality easily.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• 제11권3호
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• pp.5-13
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• 1992

Taking devantage of the property that Korean digit is a mono-syllable word, we proposed a spoken Korean-digit recognition scheme using the multi-layer perceptron. The spoken Korean-digit is divided into three segments (initial sound, medial vowel, and final consonant) based on the voice starting / ending points and a peak point in the middle of vowel sound. The feature vectors such as cepstrum, reflection coefficients, ${\Delta}$cepstrum and ${\Delta}$energy are extracted from each segment. It has been shown that cepstrum, as an input vector to the neural network, gives higher recognition rate than reflection coefficients. Regression coefficients of cepstrum did not affect as much as we expected on the recognition rate. That is because, it is believed, we extracted features from the selected stationary segments of the input speech signal. With 150 ceptral coefficients obtained from each spoken digit, we achieved correct recognition rate of 97.8%.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.29-40
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• 2019

The paper investigates the minimal pair of Korean phonemes quantitatively. To achieve this goal, I calculated the number of consonant minimal pairs in the syllable-initial position as both raw counts and relative counts, and analyzed the part of speech relations of the two words in the minimal pair. "Urimalsaem" was chosen as the object of this study because it was judged that the minimal pair analysis should be done through a dictionary and it is the largest among Korean dictionaries. The results of the study are summarized as follows. First, there were 153 types of minimal pairs out of 337,135 examples. The ranking of phoneme pairs from highest to lowest was 'ㅅ-ㅈ, ㄱ-ㅅ, ㄱ-ㅈ, ㄱ-ㅂ, ㄱ-ㅎ, ${\ldots}$, ㅆ-ㅋ, ㄸ-ㅋ, ㅉ-ㅋ, ㄹ-ㅃ, ㅃ-ㅋ'. The phonemes that played a major role in the formation of the minimal pair were /ㄱ, ㅅ, ㅈ, ㅂ, ㅊ/, in that order, which showed a high proportion of palatals. The correlation between the raw count of minimal pairs and the relative count of minimal pairs was found to be quite high r=0.937. Second, 87.91% of the minimal pairs shared the part of speech (same syntactic category). The most frequently observed type has been 'noun-noun' pair (70.25%), and 'vowel-vowel' pair (14.77%) was the next ranking. It can be indicated that the minimal pair could be grouped into similar categories in terms of semantics. The results of this study can be useful for various research in Korean linguistics, speech-language pathology, language education, language acquisition, speech synthesis, and artificial intelligence-machine learning as basic data related to Korean phonemes.