• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2023

This study investigated the influences of probabilistic accessibility of the word being produced - as determined by its usage frequency and neighborhood density - on native and high-proficiency L2 speakers' realization of six English monophthong vowels. The native group hyperarticulated the vowels over an expanded acoustic space when the vowel occurred in words with low frequency and high density, supporting the claim that vowel forms are modified in accordance with the probabilistic accessibility of words. However, temporal expansion occurred in words with greater accessibility (i.e., with high frequency and low density) as an effect of low phonotactic probability in low-density words, particularly in attended speech. This suggests that temporal modification in the opposite direction may be part of the phonetic characteristics that are enhanced in communicatively driven focus realization. Conversely, none of these spectral and temporal patterns were found in the L2 group, thereby indicating that even the high-proficiency L2 speakers may not have developed experience-based sensitivity to the modulation of sub-categorical phonetic details indexed with word-level probabilistic information. The results are discussed with respect to how phonological representations are shaped in a word-specific manner for the sake of communicatively driven lexical intelligibility, and what factors may contribute to the lack of native-like sensitivity in L2 speech.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.19-33
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• 2019

This paper examines the perception of Korean phonemes by Egyptian learners of Korean and presents the learnability gradient of Korean consonants and vowels through High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT). 50 Egyptian learners of Korean (27 low proficiency learners and 23 high proficiency learners) participated in 10 sessions of HVPT for Korean vowels, word initial and final consonants. Participants were tested on their identification ability of Korean vowels, word initial consonants, and syllable codas before and after the training. The results showed that both low and high proficiency groups did benefit from the training. Low proficiency learners showed a higher improvement rate than high proficiency learners. Based on the HVPT results, a learnability gradient was established to give insights into priorities in teaching Korean sounds to Egyptian learners.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.47-63
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• 2010

This study provides a description of the glottal characteristics of the word-initial low vowels /a, $\ae$/ in terms of a set of acoustic parameters and discusses glottal configuration as their acoustic correlates. Furthermore, it examines the effect of prosodic boundary on the glottal properties of the vowels, seeking an account of the possible role of prosodic structure based on prosodic theory. Acoustic parameters reported to indicate glottal characteristics were obtained from the measurements made directly from the speech spectrum on recordings of Korean and English collected from 45 speakers. They consist of two separate groups of native Korean and native English speakers, each including both male and female speakers. Based on the three acoustic parameters of open quotient (OQ), first-formant bandwidth (B1), and spectral tilt (ST), comparisons were made between the speech of males and females, between the speech of native Korean and native English speakers, and between Korean and English produced by native Korean speakers. Acoustic analysis of the experimental data indicates that some or all glottal parameters play a crucial role in differentiating the speech groups, despite substantial interspeaker variations. Statistical analysis of the Korean data indicates prosodic strengthening with respect to the acoustic parameters B1 and OQ, suggesting acoustic enhancement in terms of the degree of glottal abduction and the glottal closure during a vibratory cycle.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.85-92
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• 2015

This study aimed to establish characteristics related to voice and speech through the natural base frequency analysis of esophagus vocalization. In the study, 8 subjects were selected for esophagus vocals, and 10 other subjects were selected for a control group. MDVP(Multi-dimensional Voice Program, Model 4800, USA, 2001), Multi Speech(Model 3700, Kaypantax, USA, 2008) were used as experiment equipment. The speech samples selected for evaluation were vowels and sentences (both declarative and interrogative). For acoustic analysis, the intonation form of fo, jitter, energy, shimmer, HNR, and intonation patterns of the speech sample were measured. The results were as follows: First, the natural intrinsic frequency of extended vowels in the esophagus vocal group was lower than the frequency in the normal vocal group. In particular, the intrinsic frequency difference for high vowel /i/ was much greater than the frequency difference for low vowel /a/. Second, the jitter values of the esophagus vocal group were higher than the control group. In particular, there was a large difference between the jitter values for /a/ and /i/, with the jitter values being highest for /i/. Third, there was no significant difference in vocal strength between the esophagus vocal patient group and the control group. Fourth, the shimmer values of the voices in the esophagus vocal group were higher than shimmer values in the control group. In particular, there was a large difference in shimmer values for low vowel /a/. Fifth, the HNR values of the esophagus vocal group were showed significantly lower than the control group. In particular, the largest difference in HNR values between the two groups was for high vowel /i/. Sixth, the pitch contours of interrogative and declarative sentences of the esophagus vocal patient group showed a different form or only had with small differences compared to the pitch contours of the normal vocal group, thus presenting an inconsistent pattern.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.155-168
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• 2002

The intervocalic Korean liquid sound has been recognized as a flap in the studies of the Korean language. But there has been very little experimental data corroborating it. The electropalatographic (EPG) experiment was conducted to test this. The subjects were one Korean speaker and one native English speaker who had a pseudopalate and did the EPG experiment at the UCLA phonetics laboratory. The spectrographic evidence of the flaps in both the English t-flap and the Korean liquid flap was also sought. The English and Korean flaps were between mid/low back vowels so that the vowels themselves would not affect palatal contacts of the tongue. The results confirmed that the Korean liquid is realized as a flap in intervocallical position with many similar properties to English flap in both EPG and spectrographic data. The Korean initial liquid sound in borrowed words such as 'rotary' and 'radio' was also a flap. But the Korean liquid in the word-final and geminate positions was a lateral as in words 'dol ' (stone), 'dollo' (with stone), 'nal' (day) and 'nallara' (carry). The intuitive theory of the Korean liquid flap was proved by the EPG and spectrographic data.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.43-50
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• 2001

This paper deals with voice similarities between sisters who are supposed to have common physiological characteristics from a single biological mother. Nine pairs of sisters who are believed to have similar voices participated in this experiment. The speech samples obtained from one pair of sisters were eliminated in the analysis because their perceptual score was relatively low. The words were measured in both isolation and context, and the subjects were asked to read the text five times with about three seconds of interval between readings. Recordings were made at natural speed in a quiet room. The data were analyzed in pitch and formant frequencies using CSL (Computerized Speech Lab) and PCQuirer. It was found that data of the initial vowels are much more similar and homogeneous than those of vowels in other positions. The acoustic data showed that voice similarities are strikingly high in both pitch and formant frequencies. It is assumed that statistical data obtained from this experiment can be used as a guideline for modelling speaker identification and speaker verification.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.63-69
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• 2016

Twenty five English native speakers with two different L2 experienced groups and nineteen native Koreans heard both Korean word-initial nasals (/m/ and /n/) in three vowel contexts (low, mid, and high) produced by a native Korean speaker. The experiment examined the hypothesis that Korean nasals are more likely to be judged or perceived correctly by the L2-experienced English learners of Korean than the unexperienced counterparts. The result showed that L2 experienced group was more sensitive to effects of vowel height in judging the Korean nasals in which the perception of nasals before the high vowels was more subject to it. In addition, place of nasal articulation causes asymmetry relations - bilabial nasal /m/ is more likely to be perceived as plosives rather than alveolar nasal /n/. The study found that the L2 experience has a somewhat limited role in perceiving the nasals correctly in the word-initial position, especially before the high vowels, in that even the L2 experienced English subjects have difficulty in identifying the Korean nasals correctly in this environment. Nevertheless, low L2 proficiency might be accounted for the difficulty in the bilabial nasal identification observed by the L2 experienced group.

• 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)

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2015.05a
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• pp.47-50
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• 2015

Speech Signals consist of signals of consonants and vowels, but the lasting time of vowels is much longer than that of consonants. It can be assumed that the correlations between signal blocks in speech signal is very high. Each speech signal is divided into blocks which have 128 speech data. FFT is applied to each block. Low frequency areas of the results of FFT is taken and Covariance matrix between blocks in a speech signal is extracted and finally eigenvalues of those matrix are obtained. It is studied that what the distribution of eigenvalues of various speech files is. The differences between speech signals and noise signals from cars are also studied.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.517-523
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• 2000

Nasopharyngeal closure is a sphincter mechanism between the activities of the soft palate, lateral pharyngeal wall and the posterior pharyngeal wall, which divides the oral cavity and the nasal cavity. It participates in physiological activities such as swallowing, breathing and pronunciation. In case of an error in this mechanism, it is called a nasopharyngeal incompetence. The causes of this error are defects in (1) length, function, posture of the soft palate (2) depth and width of the nasopharynx, (3) activity of the posterior and lateral pharyngeal wall. The purpose of this study is to analyze the nasopharynx of cleft palate patients using lateral cephalograms and at the same time, evaluate the degree of hypernasality of each vowels to find its relationship with nasopharyngeal incompetence. The following results were obtained: 1. The length of the soft palate was markedly short than normal. 2. The adequate ratio was smaller than the normal value. 3. As the adequate ratio decreased, when articulating vowels, anatomic mVPI increased. 4. When articulating each vowels, anatomic VPI was in proportion with the degree of hypernasality. 5. The degree of hypernasality was greater in high vowels(/i/, /u/) than low vowel(/a/). From the above results, it can be concluded that in cleft palate patients, lateral cephalograms can be used effectively in diagnosing and evaluating nasopharyngeal incompetence. The anatomic structure of the nasopharynx has close relation to the degree of hypernasality.