• Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.145-155
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• 2003

This study compared $F_{0}$ and the first three formants of eight Korean monophthongs produced by nine transgenders (male to female) to those of eighteen normal adults. Voice analysis was done by Praat (version 4.049). A one-way ANOVA with Tukey HSD post hoc tests were performed to determine statistical differences in $F_{0}$ and formant values obtained from transgenders, and normal male and female subjects. Results indicated that there was no significant difference in $F_{1}$ of /u/, /$\Lambda$/, and /o/, $F_{2}$ of /u/, /$\Lambda$/, and /i/ and $F_{3}$ of /u/ among the 3 groups (transgenders, normal males and normal females). However, in the comparison of transgenders vs. males, a significant difference was observed in $F_{0}$ of /o/, and $F_{2}$ of /i/, /a/, /e/, and /${\ae}$/ and $F_{3}$ of /e/. Furthermore, in the comparison of transgenders vs. females, a significant difference was also observed in $F_{0}$ of all vowels, $F_{1}$ of /i/, /$\alpha$/, /e/, /${\ae}$/, and /i/. $F_{2}$ of /i/, and /${\ae}$/, and $F_{3}$ of /i/, /$\alpha$/, /$\Lambda$/, /e/, /${\ae}$/, /i/, and /o/. Also, perceptual judgment of the transgenders' voice came out somewhat correlated strongly with their $F_{0}$ values but not much with the formant values. It was concluded that the transgenders' acoustic parameters are placed in between those of the normal males and females in. terms of fundamental and formant frequency analyses of vowels. Thus, it was assumed that those differences might stem from the transgenders' original big resonating cavities.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.39-47
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• 2016

While acoustic studies in the past decade documented a raised /o/ by showing their lowered first formants (F1) almost overlapped with those of high back vowel /u/, no consensus has been made in terms of how this /o/-raising affects the vowels as a system in Seoul Korean. The current study aimed to investigate the age- and gender-related differences of the relative distance among the vowels to better understand the influence of this on-going sound change on the vowel system. We measured the static and dynamic spectral characteristics (F1 and F2) of the seven Korean monophthong vowels /e a ʌ o u ɨ i/ in the spontaneous speech of Seoul Corpus, and depicted the patterns of 30 individual speakers (10 speakers in each group of teens, 20s and 40s) as a function of age and gender. The static spectral examination showed low F1 values of /o/ in the spontaneous speech corpus confirming the vowel /o/ raising, and also revealed greater F2 values of /u, ɨ/ suggesting their anterior articulations. The tendencies were stronger when the speakers were younger and female. The spectral trajectories further showed that the F1 and F2 between /o/ and /u/ were differentiated throughout the vowel mid-point although the trajectories gradually merged near the vowel mid point in the older male speakers' productions. The acoustic evidence of contrast among /o, u, ɨ/ supports that the raised /o/ is not indicative of a merger with /u/ but rather implying a chain-like vowel shift in the Seoul Korean.

• MALSORI
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• no.62
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• pp.1-17
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to investigate and quantitatively describe the acoustic characteristics of current Korean monophthongs. Recordings were made of 33 men and 27 women producing the vowels /i, e, ${\epsilon}$, a, ${\partial}$, o, u, i/ in a carrier phrase "This character is ___." A listening test was conducted in which 19 participants judged each vowel. F1, F2, and F3 were measured from the vowels judged as intended vowels by more than 17 people from the listening test. Analysis of formant data shows some interesting results including the undeniable confirmation of the 7-vowel system in modern Korean. It turns out that quite different sounding Korean vowels and English vowels happen to have very similar formant measurements. Also the difference between "citation-form reading" vs. "natural utterance reading" is discussed.

• MALSORI
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• v.55
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• pp.61-76
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• 2005

This paper aims to analyze the acoustic effects of vowels produced in a distant-talking environment. The analysis was performed using a statistical method. The influence of gender and speakers on the variation was also examined. The speech data used in this study consist of 500 distant-talking words and 500 normal words of 10 speakers (5 males and 5 females). Acoustic features selected for the analysis were the duration, the formants (Fl and F2), the fundamental frequency and the total energy. The results showed that the duration, F0, F1 and the total energy increased in the distant-talking speech compared to normal speech; female speakers showed higher increase in all features except for the total energy and the fundamental frequency. In addition, speaker differences were observed.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.85-94
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• 2020

Vowel articulation in subjects related to speech disorders seems to be difficult. A chant method that properly reflects the characteristics of language could be used as an effective way of addressing the difficulties. The purpose of this study was to find out whether the chant method is effective as a means of enhancing vowel articulation. The subjects of this study were 60 normal adults (30 males and 30 females) in their 20s and 30s whose native language is Korean. Eight utterance conditions including chanting and reading conditions were recorded and their acoustic data were analyzed. The results of the analysis of the acoustic variables related to the formant confirmed that the F1 and F2 values of the vowel formants are increased and the direction of movement of the center of gravity of the vowel triangle is statistically significantly forwarded and lowered in the chant method in both the word and the phrase context. The results also proved that accent is the most influential musical factor in chant. There was no significant difference between four repeated tokens, which increased the reliability of the results. In other words, chanting is an effective way to shift the center of gravity of the vowel triangle, which suggests that it can help to improve speech intelligibility by forming a desirable place for articulation.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.95-111
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• 1997

The human speech organ consists of respiration system (lung, larynx), phonation system (vocal cord), articulation system (esophagus, pharynx, uvula, teeth, gingiva, palate, tongue, lip) and resonating system(oral cavity, nasal cavity, paranasal sinus). Because teeth are components of the articulation system, it has been reported that the persons with abnormally positioned teeth generally have abnormal occlusion and pronunciation. In this study, using /ㅅ(s)/, the most commonly mispronunced consonant in children with malocclusion, and the seven single vowels, /사(sa), 서($s\delta$), 소(so), 수(su), 스($s\omega$), 시(si), 세(se)/ and / ㅏ(a), ㅓ($\delta$), ㅗ(o), ㅜ(u), ㅡ($\omega$), 1(i), ㅔ(e)/ were recorded and analyzed using speech analysis program on computer by measuring formants and compared them for investigating the differences in pronunciation in children with Angle's class I occlusions and those with Angle's class II div.1 malocclusion. The result were as follows: 1. In the Angle's Class II div.1 group, there were no significant differences in F1 of all recorded sounds as compared with Angle's Class I group(p>0.05). 2. In the consonants, there were significant differences in F2 of /스($s\omega$)/ and F2/F1 ratio of /사(sa), 서($s\delta$), 시(si)/ between the two group(p<0.05). 3. In the vowels, there were significant differences F2/F1 ratio of /ㅓ($\delta$)/(p<0.05) and no significant differences in F2/F1 ratio between two group(p>0.05). 4. In the consonants, there were significant differences in F2 and F2/F1 ratio when succeeding vowels were high or low, and F2/F1 ratio when front in accordance with tongue position (p<0.05). 5. In the vowels, there were no significant differences in formant in accordance with tongue position(p>0.05)

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.101-113
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• 2020

This study aimed to explore how effective explicit form-focused instruction (FFI) is in teaching the schwa vowel /ə/ to EFL students in a classroom setting. The participants were 25 female high school students, who were divided into the experimental group (n=13) and the control group (n=12). One female American also participated in the study for a speech sample as a reference. The treatment, which involves shadowing model pronunciation by the researcher and a free text-to-speech software and the researcher's feedback in a private session, was given to the control group over a month and a half. The speech samples, for which the participants read the 14 polysyllabic stimulus words followed by the sentences containing the words, were collected before and after the treatment. The paired-samples t test and non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used for analysis. The results showed that the participants of the experimental group in the post-test reduced the duration of the schwa by around 40 percent compared to the pre-test. However, little effect was found in approximating the participants' distribution patterns of /ə/ measured by the F1/F2 formant frequencies to the reference point, which was 539 Hz (F1) by 1797 Hz (F2). The findings of this study suggest that explicit FFI with multiple repetitions and corrective feedback is partly effective in teaching pronunciation.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.51-70
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• 2000

Twenty normal and 20 severe-to-profound hearing-impaired subjects participated in the present study. The two groups are matched by their chronological age. Each subject made a recording of three vowels of /i/, /a/, and /u/, and nine $VC_{plosive}V$ (hereafter, VCV) disyllables of /epe/, /ep'e/, /$ep^{h}e$/, /ete/, /et'e/, /$et^{h}e$/, /eke/, /ek'e/, and /$ek^{h}e$/, each five times. Formant frequencies of $F_1,\;F_2,\;and\;F_3$ were measured for the three vowels and six measures were made for the nine disyllables. The six measures were (1) the total duration of the disyllable, (2) the duration of the first vowel, (3) the duration of the closed period, (4) the ratio of the first vowel over the first vowel plus the closure period of the consonant, (5) the duration of the aspiration, and (6) the duration of the second vowel. Results shows that the three formants and each of the measures were significantly different between the two groups of subjects.

• MALSORI
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• no.33_34
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• pp.57-69
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• 1997

In this paper, 1 will try to examine the aspects of formants, based on the LPC analysis. In this analysis, five Japanese vowels (a, i, u, e, o) will experience two kinds of experiments: vowels in isolated forms, and vowels in carrier sentences. The analysis results of Japanese vowels of the Japanese natives show a peculiar feature that Japanese vowels form respective vowel groups. Each Japanese vowel makes a statistically significant difference. In the Fl analysis of the vowels grouped by the informant's sex, Japanese vowel (a) shows the greatest standard deviation without regard to the informant's sex. In the F2 analysis of Japanese vowels, each vowel has a statistically significant difference. The fact that the male's [u] shows great standard deviation means that there is a great difference of the frontness of the tongue among the Japanese males in articulating [u]. Isolated vowels and carried vowels show statistically little significance between Fl and F2 frequency values. In another contrastive analysis between the isolated vowel group and the carried vowel group, whether a vowel is articulated in isolation or in a sentence appears to have little effect on its formant frequency.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.9-13
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• 2005

The aim of this paper is to analyze the vowel lengthening in Korean, whose function is distinctive in the word's level. In this paper, I examined two acoustic parameters : vowel length and formants(F1 and F2) to distinguish or to identify the long vowel and his short correspondant, for exemple, /a:/ and /a/. According to the results of experimental analysis and to the discussion on the vowel length's relation and its influence to Korean phonological system, I considered a vowel lengthening as a prosodeme, so as a prosodic element in Korean phonological system.