• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.41-50
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• 2010

The current study exploresacoustic variation induced by prosodic contexts in different speech styles,with a focus on motherese or child-directed speech (CDS). The patterns of variation in the acoustic expression of voicing contrast in English stops, and the role of prosodic factors in governing such variation are investigated in CDS. Prosody-induced acoustic strengthening reported from adult-directed speech (ADS)is examined in the speech data directed to infants at the one-word stage. The target consonants are collected from Utterance-initial and -medial positions, with or without focal accent. Overall, CDS shows that the prosodic prominence of constituents under focal accent conditions variesin the acoustic correlates of the stop laryngeal contrasts. The initial position is not found with enhanced acoustic values in the current study, which is similar to the finding from ADS (Choi, 2006 Cole et al, 2007). Individualized statistical results, however, indicate that the effect of accent on acoustic measures is not very robust, compared to the effect of accent in ADS. Enhanced distinctiveness under focal accent is observed from the limited subjects' acoustic measures in CDS. The results indicate dissimilar strategies to mark prosodic structures in different speech styles as well as the consistent prosodic effect across speech styles. The stylistic variation is discussed in relation to the listener under linguistic development in CDS.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.15-23
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• 2020

This study examines the duration of Korean lax and tense stops in the prosodic word-medial position, their interactions with nearby segments, and the phonological implications of these interactions. It first examines the lengthening of consonants at the function of the short lax stop. Experiment 1 shows that the sonorant C1 is significantly longer before a short lax stop C2 than before a long tense stop. Experiment 2 shows that the short lax stop C1 cancels the contrast between the lax and tense obstruent at C2, making them appear as long tense obstruents (Post-Stop Tensing Rule). We suggest that such lengthening phenomena occur in Korean to robustly preserve the contrastive length difference between C and CC. Second, this study examines the vowel shortening, known as Closed-Syllable Vowel Shortening, before a long tense stop or before the consonant sequence. Experiment 3 suggests that it be interpreted as temporal adjustment to make the interval from the onset of a vowel to the onset of the following vowel of near-equal length. Conclusively, we suggest that Korean speech be planned and controlled with two specific intervals. One is the duration of contrastive consonant intervals between vowels, and the other is the duration from the onset of a vowel to the onset of the following vowel.

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 2002

Phonologically, the difference between the English stops /b, d, g/ and /p, t, k/ is carried by the presence or the absence of the vocal fold vibration throughout their oral closure phase. If phonology has its foundation in phonetics, there must be phonetic evidence for the voiced-voiceless distinction. This study is aimed to determine whether or not the voiced-voiceless distinction is acceptable or proper in English. The determination was based mainly on findings in the existing literature and in informal experiments. In conclusion, there is no phonetic evidence for the voiced-voiceless distinction both in production and perception. The [voice] appears to be one of potential phonetic correlates of the phonologically voiced stop. It is improper to use the [voice] as independent phonological marker, regardless of position (word-initial, intervocalic, word-final). A feature other than the voiced-voiceless feature must distinguish /b, d, g/ from /p, t, k/.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.13-20
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• 2012

A lax stop in Korean, one of the three laryngeal contrastive stops, has undergone a sound change in terms of its acoustic properties. Prior production studies described this recent lax stop as being differentiated from tense and aspirated stops primarily by fundamental frequencies (f0). And, the acoustic property of voice onset time (VOT) further separates tense stops from lax and aspirated stops. The current research explores how these two major acoustic parameters of f0 and VOT cue the three stop categories in Korean adult listeners' perception. Thirty-one native speakers of Korean participated in two experimental tasks: categorization judgment and within-category goodness ratings. Two sets of audio stimuli were prepared by synthesizing English and Korean male speakers' CV productions. The findings showed that while f0 cues listeners to lax stops as production patterns would predict, VOT were closely related to listeners' categorization and goodness ratings of lax stops. This suggests that accurate characterizations of the recent lax stop category need to be based on Korean speakers' perceptual behavior as well as production patterns.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.93-111
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• 2001

This study investigates the contribution of vocalic information following the release of an initial stop to the identification of the three-way stop contrast (aspirated, lax, and tense) in Korean. Recent studies showed that there is a strong interaction between consonant types and tone. The findings raise questions concerning Korean listeners' use of tonal (or vocalic F0) variation in differentiation initial tense, lax, and aspirated stops. The above issues are addressed in the present study using a cross-splicing methodology. The overall results show that low vocalic F0 provided the most salient information for lax stops; tense and aspirated stop identification depended on a combination of VOT, F0, and H1-H2 characteristics. The perceptual dominance of F0 over VOT for lax stops is consistent with the size of the F0 difference in utterance-initial position, as well as their prominent role in Korean intonational phonology.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.7-19
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• 2007

The present study investigated some phonetic attributes which distinguish two Korean stop types $^-aspirated$ and $lax^-$ in a prosodic position which has previously received little attention, namely medial in an accentual phrase. The intonational pattern across syllables which are initial in an accentual phrase (Jun, 1993) is said to depend on the type of stop (aspirated or lax), while that of syllables which are medial in an accentual phrase are not. In Experiment 1, nine native Korean speakers read sentences with a controlled prosodic pattern in which aspirated or lax stops occurred in accentual phrase-medial position. Acoustic analysis revealed significant differences between aspirated and lax stops in closure duration, voice-onset time, and fundamental frequency (F0) values for post-stop vowels. The results indicate that a wider range of acoustic cues distinguish aspirated and lax Korean stops than previously demonstrated. Phonetic and phonological models of consonant-tone interactions for Korean will need to be revised to account for these results.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.27-40
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• 1999

This study is concerned with articulatory and acoustic experiments about the change of the stop /t/ into its counterpart affricate before derivational and inflectional suffixes beginning with /(h)i/. The present phonetic results show that the stop consonant is articulatorily and acoustically completely neutralized into the underlying plain affricate. Thus this study provides another instance of complete neutralization of manner of articulation in Korean in addition to Kim and Jongman (1996).

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.3-10
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• 2011

This study examined the production of aspirated stop consonants in Korean and English words to address how the influences differed particularly in terms of proficiency in L2 English. Voice onset times (VOTs) were measured from two American monolinguals and seven Korean speakers. The results showed that VOT patterns for both L1 and L2 stops differed according to their proficiency in L2 English. In L2 English, high proficient speakers produced VOTs that were similar to those of native speakers of English whereas low proficient speakers produced VOTs that were significantly longer than those of proficient speakers. In L1 Korean and L2 English, most of the proficient speakers produced VOTs similarly. Unlike previous findings, Korean VOTs were even shorter than English counterparts. The VOT shortening of aspirated stops in Korean was found for most of the proficient speakers. The findings of the present study suggest that cross language phonetic influences as well as the ongoing VOT shortening in Korean aspirated stops may be correlated with L2 proficiency. Since this is a pilot study with a small number of subjects for each proficiency group, further quantitative study is necessary to generalize.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.99-105
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• 2015

The current study investigates whether Korean-speaking adults show differential sensitivities to the sources of auditory stimuli (L1 Korean and L2 English) in utilizing VOT and f0 in the perceptual mode of L2 stops, and how the L2 proficiency interacts with the learners' low-level phonetic sensitivities in L2 perceptual mode. 48 Korean learners of English participated in the perception experiments where they rated the goodness of English /t/ and /d/ using an analogue scale. Two sets of stimuli (English and Korean sources) were prepared by manipulating VOT (6-steps) and f0 (5-steps) values of productions by an English male (L2 source condition) and a Korean male (L1 source condition). Findings showed that, in judging /t/-likeness, the listeners responded differently to the two auditory stimulus conditions by relying on VOT significantly more in English source condition than in Korean source condition. The listeners' English proficiency did not interact with these differential sensitivities to the auditory stimulus source either along the VOT dimension or the f0 dimension. The results of the current study suggest that low-level contextual information of the auditory source can affect the learners in faithfully being in the L2 perceptual mode.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.17-24
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• 2024

The Korean three-way stop contrast (lenis, aspirated, fortis) is currently undergoing a sound change, such that the primary cue distinguishing lenis and aspirated stops is shifting from voice onset time (VOT) to F0. Despite recent discussions of this shift, research on voice quality, traditionally considered an additional cue signaling the contrast, remains sparse. This study investigated the extent to which the associated voice quality [as reflected in the acoustic measurements of H1^*-H2^*, H1^*- A1^*, and cepstral peak prominence (CPP)] contributes to the three-way stop contrast, and how the realization is conditioned by prominence- vs. boundary-induced prosodic strengthening amid the ongoing sound change. Results for 12 native Korean speakers indicate that there was a substantial distinction in voice quality among the three stop categories with the breathiness of the vowel being the greatest after the lenis, intermediate after the aspirated, and least after the fortis stops, indicating the role of voice quality in the maintenance of the three-way stop contrast. Furthermore, prosodic strengthening has different effects on the contrast and contributes to the enhancement of the phonological contrast contingent on whether it is induced by prominence or boundary.