• Speech Sciences
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.49-65
• /
• 2006

Recently, several theories on the digital speech signal processing expanded the communication boundary between human beings and machines drastically. The aim of this study is to collect dialectal speech in Korea on a large scale and to establish a digital speech data base in order to provide the data base for further research on the Korean dialectal and the creation of value-added network. 528 informants across the country participated in this study. Acoustic characteristics of vowels and consonants are analyzed by Power spectrum and Spectrogram of CSL. Test words were made on the picture cards and letter cards which contained each vowel and each consonant in the initial position of words. Plot formants were depicted on a vowel chart and transitions of diphthongs were compared according to dialectal speech. Spectral times, VOT, VD, and TD were measured on a Spectrogram for stop consonants, and fricative frequency, intensity, and lateral formants (LF1, LF2, LF3) for fricative consonants. Nasal formants (NF1, NF2, NF3) were analyzed for different nasalities of nasal consonants. The acoustic characteristics of dialectal speech showed that young generation speakers did not show distinction between close-mid /e/ and open-mid$/\epsilon/$. The diphthongs /we/ and /wj/ showed simple vowels or diphthongs depending to dialect speech. The sibilant sound /s/ showed the aspiration preceded to fricative noise. Lateral /l/ realized variant /r/ in Kyungsang dialectal speech. The duration of nasal consonants in Chungchong dialectal speech were the longest among the dialects.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.17-24
• /
• 2021

In this study, listening errors by Korean EFL learners are comprehensively analyzed from self-paced passage dictation tasks. Fifty-five Korean EFL learners participated in the study. Listeners were asked to write down dictation passages as accurately as possible, while listening to the audio as much as they needed. The results show that (i) low-proficiency learners tend to misperceive longer phrases than high-proficiency learners, (ii) function words are more often omitted or misheard than content words, and (iii) low-proficiency learners have more difficulties with content words than high-proficiency learners do. Most frequent suffix errors were omissions of past or plural suffixes. Among the function words, the most frequent errors were found with auxiliary contractions, infinitive marker to, and articles, mostly in the environment of linking and elision. It is also shown that C-V linking, C-C linking, and elision are the primary sources for the most frequent errors. C-V linking led to errors in correctly locating the word boundary, while C-C linking and elision resulted in omission. These errors show that Korean EFL listeners have difficulties in detecting fine-grained phonetic details to the extent that native speakers can do.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.323-355
• /
• 2015

This study examined grapheme-to-phoneme regularity effect among late Korean-English bilinguals by using whole word level task (lexical processing) and two meta-phonological tasks(sub-lexical processing): [1] English word naming task(whole word level), [2] rhyme judgement task(rhyme level), and [3] phoneme deletion task(phoneme level). Forty-three late Korean-English bilinguals participated in all three tasks. In these tasks, participants showed better performance in regular word conditions compared to irregular word conditions, demonstrating a clear English regularity effect. Post-hoc correlational analysis revealed strong correlation between word naming task and rhyme judgement task, which is different from the results reported with English monolinguals. The contradicting results might be due to the relevantly low English proficiency level among late Korean-English bilingual speakers. In conclusion, this study suggests that late Korean-English bilinguals make use of L2 grapheme-to-phoneme conversion (GPC) rule when reading L2 English words.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
• /
• v.9 no.6
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2023

This study investigates why Korean English speakers misunderstand the English article system, which article Korean EFL learners use more accurately in their English writings, and implications for English writing instruction from Korean EFL learners' utterances. There have been numerous studies on the acquisition of English article system by non-native English speakers. Those studies agree that acquiring English articles is difficult for learners of English as a second language. As a result, in this study, many English learners use the definite and indefinite articles a/an. Many wrote articles from their writings, and occasionally, errors of excessive use of definite articles occurred. Through this, this paper investigates how a Korean English learner whose native language has no articles chooses the English article system in speech. It is based on the elicited production of the Korean English learner and suggests some implications for teaching English writing in the classroom. When English instructors teach Korean English learners to write English, it is more important than anything else to practice the correct usage of definite articles or indefinite articles.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.27-35
• /
• 2023

This study aimed to investigate the effect of Chinese on the production of Korean rhythm. Korean and Chinese are typologically classified into different rhythmic categories; because of this, the phonological properties of Korean and Chinese are similar and different at the same time. As a result, Chinese can exert both positive and negative influences on the realization of Korean rhythm. To investigate the influence of the rhythm of the native language of L2 learners on their target language, we conducted an acoustic analysis using acoustic metrics like of the speech of 5 Korean native speakers and 10 advanced Chinese Korean learners. The analyzed material is a short paragraph of five sentences containing a variety of syllable structures. The results showed that KS and CS rhythms are similar in %V, VarcoV, and nPVI_S. However, CS, unlike KS, showed characteristics closer to those of a stress-timed language in the values of %V and VarcoV. There was also a significant difference in nPVI_V values. These results demonstrate a negative influence of the native language in the realization of Korean rhythm. This can be attributed to the fact that all vowels in Chinese sentence are not pronounced with the same emphasis due to neutral tone. In this sense, this study allowed us to observe influences of L1 on L2 production of rhythm.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.873-876
• /
• 2016

Background: Studies of quality of life (QoL) of oncological patients is carried out using questionnaires approved in many international clinical studies. The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer EORTC QLQ-C30 (Quality of Life Questionnary-Core 30) and its special brain cancer module EORTC QLQ-BN20 are widely used in the world neurooncologic practice. They are available in more than 80 official versions of 30 languages of the world. Previously we used the official versions in Russian, which often causes difficulty in understanding for native Kazakh language speakers, who comprise more than 60% of our respondents. This was the reason for creating a version of Kazakh language. Therefore, in 2014 for the first time the process of adaptation of questionnaires to the Kazakh language was initiated. Materials and Methods: The translation process of questionnaires to Kazakh language was held in accordance with the requirements of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer EORTC on QoL and consisted of the following stages: preparation - translation - pilot testing - approval. The official permission of authors and "Guideline on translation" was obtained which was developed by the working group of the EORTC on QoL. The pilot testing of EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BN20 questionnaires was conducted on the basis of the Department of Central Nervous System Pathology of the "National Centre for Neurosurgery" in patients with malignant tumors of the central nervous system. Results: The official versions of the EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BN20 questionnaires in Kazakh language were introduced and adapted in practical neurosurgical operations in Kazakhstan. Conclusions: The approved versions of the questionnaires in Kazakh language are now available for mainstream use on the official website EORTC.com. The versions of these questionnaires can be used in domestic cohort studies and clinical practice in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The use of these tools for assessing QoL will help professionals in the planning of individual treatment strategies and selection of the necessary therapy.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.117-126
• /
• 2005

This study investigates the prosodic characteristics of Korean through the analysis of a large database. One female and one male speakers each read 650 sentences and they were segmentally and prosodically labeled. Statistical analyses were done on these utterances regarding the tonal pattern and the size of prosodic units, correlation between the size of higher level prosodic units and the number of lower level prosodic units. and the slope and F0 of the falling and rising contours of an accentual phrase. The results showed that the duration and the number of words and syllables of a prosodic unit were significantly different not only between speakers but also between its positions within a higher level prosodic nit. The munber of a prosodic unit showed a high correlation with the duration and the number of syllables of its higher level units. The slope of the falling contour within an accentual phrase was inversely Proportional to the number of its syllables. The slope was different depending on the first tone type of an accentual phrase, which could be explained with the F0 rising and the different amount of rising between tones when an accentual phrase starts with an H tone. The slope of the falling contour across an accentual phrase boundary showed a constant and larger value compared to one within an accentual phrase. The rising contours in the beginning and end of an accentual Phrase were similar in their slopes but they differ in the amount of F0 change : the former showed a larger amount of change. The slope of the rising contour which forms an accentual Phrase on its own was inversely Proportional to the number of its syllables.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.27-36
• /
• 2020

The aim of this study is to investigate the perceptive aspects of the polysemic sentence final ending "-(eu)lgeol" produced by Chinese Korean learners. "-(Eu)lgeol" has two different meanings, that is, a guess and a regret, and these different meanings are expressed by the different prosodic features of the last syllable of "-(eu)lgeol". To examine how Korean native speakers perceive "-(eu)lgeol" sentences produced by Chinese Korean learners and the most saliant prosodic variable for the semantic discrimination of "-(eu)lgeol" at the perceptive level, we performed a perceptual experiment. The analysed material constituted four Korean sentences containing "-(eu)lgeol" in which two sentences expressed guesses and the other two expressed regret. Twenty-five Korean native speakers participated in the perceptual experiment. Participants were asked to mark whether "-(eu)lgeol" sentences they listened to were (1) definitely regrets, (2) probably regrets, (3) ambiguous, (4) probably guesses, or (5) definitely guesses based on the prosodic features of the last syllable of "-(eu)lgeol". The analysed prosodic variables were sentence boundary tones, slopes of boundary tones, pitch difference between sentence-final and penultimate syllables, and pitch levels of boundary tones. The results show that all the analysed prosodic variables are significantly correlated with the semantic discrimination of "-(eu)lgeol" and among these prosodic variables, the most salient role in the semantic discrimination of "-(eu)lgeol" is pitch difference between sentence-final syllable and penultimate syllable.

• Speech Sciences
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.93-103
• /
• 2002

The purpose of this study was to establish preliminary data on the speech rates in groups of normal speaking adults and children. The results of the present study are intended to serve as clinical measurement guidelines for diagnosis, assessment, treatment planning, and therapy progresses of stuttering. Thirty-one adults (16 females, 15 males), aged 18-30 years and thirty normally developing children (15 females, 15 males), aged 8-10, participated in the study. The subjects' reading of the Stroll (Jeong, 1994) passage and l-minute portion of talking about the daily routine were sampled. The adult speakers had rates of $308.29\pm22.57$ syllables per minute (SPM) or $108.06\pm6.17$ words per minute (WPM) during reading, and $252.87\pm40.86$ SPM and $92.26\pm17.12$ WPM during talking. The children had rates of $176.67\pm33.65$ SPM or $64.07\pm12.62$ WPM during reading, and $149.30\pm33.14$ SPM and $56.60\pm11.36$ WPM during talking. The results of t-tests for reading and talking tasks in adults showed that SPM in reading (t=2.211, p< .05) and WPM in talking (t=-2.284, p< .05) differed significantly by the gender. To answer the questions whether the rate is different across children' s gender and age, a two-way ANOVA was performed. Both SPM and WPM in reading tasks were significantly different between groups of children aged 8 and 10 (p< 01), In speaking tasks, both SPM and WPM were significantly different between groups of children aged 8 and 10, and between 9 and 10.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.14 no.7
• /
• pp.1019-1023
• /
• 2001

An on-farm trial was conducted in temperature-controlled lactation rooms at a commercial pig farm to investigate the efficacy of broadcasting sow suckling grunts from day 4 of lactation, on increasing piglet growth to weaning. In the Broadcast treatment, sows and litters were exposed to a 3-min broadcast from loud-speakers every 42 min. The Control treatment was not exposed to the broadcast. All sows and litters had similar husbandry and piglets were provided with creep feed on the floor twice daily. In each of the three replicates in time, the Broadcast and Control treatments were allocated to different lactation rooms at random and there were 12 sows and litters per treatment per replicate. A total of four identical lactation rooms were available for the trial, each containing 28 conventional sow and litter crates with piglet heater in the creep area. A non-trial room separated the two treatment rooms in each replicate to minimise the chance that the broadcast grunt stimulation was audible to the Control treatment litters. Five "normal and average-looking" piglets from the trial litters were weighed twice, 7 d apart. The cohort of five piglets was identified by ear-tags and formed the experimental unit for the statistical analysis. The average (${\pm}SD$) age of piglets at initial weighing was 7.7(${\pm}2.22$) days. For each litter, mean piglet live weight at day 14 of lactation was estimated by linear regression of the two weights recorded seven days apart, when on average, the Broadcast treatment had been exposed to the stimulation for 10 days. Piglets in the Broadcast treatment were heavier (p<0.01) at day 14 of lactation compared to Control treatment (4.24 and 3.92 kg, respectively) and tended to have a greater average daily weight gain over the 7-d period (245 and 228 g/day, respectively; p<0.08). The results suggest piglet growth was improved by about 8% in response to the regular, timed broadcast of sow suckling grunts in the lactation shed. The independent contributions of milk and creep feed to the improved growth remain to be determined.