• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.51-58
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• 2010

This study investigates the perception and production of English front vowels focusing on the distinction in /i/ vs /I/ and /$\varepsilon$/ vs /$\ae$/ by sixty-one Korean speakers. The first portion of this study focused on the perceptional discrimination by the subjects of two sets of English vowel contrasts, /i/ vs /I/ and /$\varepsilon$/ vs /$\ae$/. In the second portion of the study, the production of these vowels by the same subjects who had participated in the perceptional discrimination test was examined acoustically and subsequently compared with that of the control group comprised of native English speakers. The major results indicate that: (1) In perception tests, Korean subjects can discriminate between /i/ and /I/ relatively well, while many of them were not able to discriminate between /$\varepsilon$/ and /$\ae$/; (2) the Korean subjects, however, have difficulty producing a distinct version of these front vowels; and, (3) The relationship between the perception and production is not significant. These results were analyzed with the concept of "under-differentiation" and "reinterpretation of distinction," as well as how phonetic differences influenced the production and discrimination of front vowels by Korean speakers.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.99-108
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• 2000

The purpose of this experimental study was to investigate characteristics of English vowels as spoken by Korean speakers. Ten English mono-syllabic words were spoken six times by six male college students who were born and raised in Seoul. Formant frequencies were measured from sound spectrograms made by the PC Quirer. Results showed that Korean speakers similarly pronounced /i/ and /I/, /u/ and /$\upsilon$/, and /$\varepsilon$/ and /${\ae}$/ respectively. It seems that Korean speakers can not differentiate tense vowels(/i/, /u/) from lax vowels(/i/, /$\upsilon$/) and pronounce low vowels such as /${\ae}$/, /a/, /c/ clearly. It is necessary that Korean speakers practice the correct movements of the jaw, tongue, and lips when they pronounce English vowels.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.101-107
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• 2023

This study aims to propose an automatic method of detecting vowel variation in the Korean dialects of Gyeong-sang and Jeol-la. The method is based on error patterns extracted using phone recognition. Canonical and recognized phone sequences are compared, and statistical analyses distinguish the vowels appearing in both dialects, the dialect-common vowels, and the vowels with high mismatch rates for each dialect. The dialect-common vowels show monophthongization of diphthongs. The vowels unique to the dialects are /we/ to [e] and /ʌ/ to [ɰ] for Gyeong-sang dialect, and /ɰi/ to [ɯ] in Jeol-la dialect. These results corroborate previous dialectology reports regarding phonetic realization of the Korean dialects. The current method provides a possibility of automatic explanation of the dialect patterns.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.35
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• pp.293-314
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• 2014

This paper aims to contrast phonology of Korean and Thai in terms of language universality. Considering consonants, both languages having 21 typologically most plausible consonants display high universality in the number of consonants. However, Thai shows higher universality in regards to their substance, i.e. it differs from Korean when it comes to the structure of plosives and fricatives. Both Korean and Thai show similarities regarding the plosives due to the fact that both languages possess three contrastive consonants. However, the Thai plosives consist of plain voiced, plain voiceless and aspirated voiceless sounds that have higher universality than the Korean plosives which are plain voiced, plain voiceless and aspirated voiceless. In case of vowels, both Korean with its 10 vowels and Thai with its 9 vowels show lower universality when it comes to the total number of vowels. However, all of those vowels belong to the list of most plausible vowels which makes their universality higher in substance. In respect of syllable structure, Korean with its CVC type shows a moderately complex structure while Thai with its CCVC type has a complex structure. The coda may consist of only one consonant in each language but onset is composed of one consonant in Korean, and two consonants in Thai. The contrastive study of similarities and differences between Korean and Thai in terms of phonology will help not only understand the two languages but also provide useful information for increasing the efficacy of Korean language education for Thai learners of Korean whose number is rapidly increasing.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.39
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• pp.9.1-9.5
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• 2017

Background: Nasalance is used to evaluate the velopharyngeal incompetence in clinical diagnoses using a nasometer. The aim of this study is to find the nasalance differences between Vietnamese cleft palate children and Korean cleft palate children by measuring the nasalance of five oral vowels. Methods: Ten Vietnamese cleft palate children after surgery, three Vietnamese children for the control group, and ten Korean cleft palate children after surgery with the same age participated in this experimentation. Instead of Korean control, the standard value of Korean version of the simplified nasometric assessment procedures (kSNAP) was used. Result: The results are as follows: (1) the highest nasalance score among the Vietnamese normal vowels is the low vowel /a/; however, that of Korean normal vowels is the high vowel /i/. (2) The average nasalance score of Korean cleft palate vowels is 18% higher than that of Vietnamese cleft palate vowels. There was a nasalance score of over 45% among the vowels /e/ and /i/ in Vietnamese cleft palate patients and /i/, /o/, and /u/ in Korean cleft palate patients. Conclusion: These different nasalance scores of the same vowels seem to cause an ethnic difference between Vietnamese and Korean cleft palate children.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.49-56
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• 2011

This study investigates how American English high back vowels are identified. American English and Korean speakers participated in a phonetic experiment for this study. This study shows their response times of the vowels and discusses how the speakers identified them. For the experiment I used a synthesized vowel continuum between American English /u/ and /$\mho$/based on American English male speakers' voice obtained by Peterson and Barney (1952). I manipulated spectral steps and vowel duration of the stimuli. The statistical results showed that American English speakers were not able to distinguish the stimuli based on spectral quality. Instead they relied on vowel duration. This suggests that the American English high back vowels have changed since Peterson and Barney recorded them in 1952. The Korean speakers also relied on vowel duration, not spectral quality since they could not distinguish them. American speakers' response times of these vowels were not affected by both spectral quality and vowel duration. Koreans' response times were affected by vowel durations only.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.1
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• pp.201-211
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• 1997

Acoustically a naturally-spoken vowel is composed of five formants. However, the acoustic quality of a vowel is known to be mostly determined by $F_1\;and\;F_2$. The main purpose of this study was to examine how synthesized vowels with $F_1\;and\;F_2$ are perceived by Korean native speakers. In addion, we are interested in finding whether the synthesized vowels are perceived differently by standard Korean speakers and Kyungnam regional dialect speakers. In the experiment 9 Seoul standard Korean speakers and 9 Kyungnam dialect speakers heard 536 vowels synthesized in vowel space with $F_1\;by\;F_2$ and categorized them into one of 10 Korean vowels. The resultant vowel map showed that each Korean vowel occupies an unique area in the two-dimensional vowel space of $F_1\;by\;F_2$, and confirmed that $F_1\;and\;F_2$ play important roles in the perception of vowels. The results also showed that the Seoul speakers and the Kyungnam speakers perceive the synthesized vowels differently. For example, /e/ versus /$\varepsilon$/ contrast, /y/, and /$\phi$/ are perceived differently by the Seoul speakers, whereas they were perceptually confused by the Kyungnam speakers. These results might be due to the different vowel systems of the standard Korean and the Kyungnam regional dialect. While the latter uses a six-vowel system which has no /e/ vs /$/ contrast, /v/ vs /i/ contrast, /y/, and /$\phi$/, the former recognizes these as different vowels. This result suggests that the vowel system of differing dialect restricts the perception of the Korean vowels. Unexpectedly /i/ does not occupy any area in the vowel apace. This result suggests that /i/ cannot be synthesized without $F_3$.

• MALSORI
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• no.29_30
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• pp.61-94
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• 1995

The aim of this paper is to describe the linguistic differences of two Koreas with a special emphasis on the phonetic aspect of Seoul and Pyongyang speech. The sources of the North Korean speech material used in the study are 1) the Pyongyang radio and TV broadcasts, 2) interviews of north Korean defectors and 3) speech material of north Korean scholars collected by the writer in london, Warsaw, France and China between 1989 and 1994. The most noticeable phonetic differences of Seoul and Pyongyang speech are abstracted as follows: 1) The vowels /이/, /에/ and /애/ are higher and fronter in Pyongyang speech than in Seoul speech. 2) The vowels /우/ and /으/ of Pyongyang speech are somewhat fronter than the corresponding vowels of Seoul speech. 3) The Pyongyang vowels /으/ and if are produced with rounded lips compared to the corresponding Seoul vowels. 4) The Pyongyang vowel /h) is much lower in tongue position and at the same time somewhat fronter than the corresponding Seoul vowel. 5) The consonants /r ,i ,n / are pronounced in Pyongyang as alveolar affricates or something close to them whereas they are pronounced in Seoul as post-alveolar affricates. 6) Unlike in Seoul speech there is a very strong tendency in Pyongyang speech to reduce aspiration feature in consonant seouences such as /ㅂ+ㅎ/, /ㄷ+ㅎ/, /ㄱ+ㅎ/. 7) /ㄴ/ and /ㄹ/(flap) freely occur word-initially in Pyongyang speech whereas they are restricted in Seoul speech. 8) Unlike in Seoul speech the phonemic contrast of long and short vowels are generally not functional in Pyongyang speech. Thus the vowels pronounced long in Seoul speech are usually pronounced short in Pyongyang speech.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics B
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• v.32B no.1
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• pp.147-153
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• 1995

In this paper, we propose the position- and size-independent handwritten on-line Korean character recognition system using multilayer neural networks which are trained with error back-propagation learning algorithm and the features of Hanguel consonants and vowels. Starting point, end point, and three vectors from starting point to end point of each stroke of characters inputted from mouse or tablet are applied as inputs of neural networks. If double consonants and vowels are separated by single consonants and vowels, all consonants and vowels have at most four strokes. Therefore, four neural networks learn the consonants and the vowels having each number of strokes. Also, we propose the algorithm of separating the consonants and vowels and constructing a character.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.175-185
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to investigate the acoustic durations of Korean vowels followed by either voiced or voiceless consonants. Six healthy adult speakers (2 females and 4 males) recorded nonsense syllables in which voiced (/b, d, g/) or voiceless (/p', t', k', $p^{h},t^{h},k^{h}$) consonants follow three different vowels (/i, a, u/) embedded in a carrier phrase. Results showed that vowels preceding voiced consonants (e.g., haba) were significantly longer in duration than those preceding voiceless consonants (e.g., hiP' a or $hip^{h}a$). Also vowels were longer in duration when occurring before velar-stops than before bilabial-stop and dental-stops. Finally, the duration of the low vowel (/a/) was substantially longer than that of the high vowels (/i, u/). These findings may be applicable to speech synthesis or therapy.