• 대한음성학회지:말소리
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• 제33_34호
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• pp.1-10
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• 1997

Korean stop consonants are well known for their tripple distinction. In word initial position lax, tense and aspirated consonants are all voiceless. They are differentiated by the degree of tension, aspiration and VOT(voice onset time). But in intervocalic position, lax consonants become voiced. In this study I compare the acoustic features of Korean intervocalic lax and tense stops. The closure duration of lax stops is shorter than that of tense consonants. The preceding vowel length is longer in tan than that in tense consonants. I modify the above acoustic characteristics by an experimental methods. For example, I shorten the closure duration of intervocalic tense stops by 5 steps. r also do auditory tests which will show us listener's reaction on the above examples. And do the same job with the preceding vowels. According to the auditory test, the closure duration does an important role in differentiating Korean intervocalic lax and tense stops. But the preceding vowel length has almost nothing to do with the distinction between lax and tense stops. So I conclude that acoustic features also have hierarchy. Some features have categorical characteristics and others don't.

• 음성과학
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• 제6권
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• pp.103-117
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• 1999

This paper suggests that the onset-coda asymmetry found in languages like Korean and others should be dealt with in terms of one acoustic feature rather than other articulatory features, claiming that the acoustic feature involved here is [noise], i.e., 'aperiodic waveform energy'. It determines the structural well-formedness of the languages in question whether a coda ends in [noise] or not, regardless of the intensity, the frequency, and the time duration of the [noise]. Fricatives, affricates, aspirated stops, tense stops, and released stops are all disallowed in the coda position due to the acoustic feature [noise] they, commonly end with if they were, posited in the coda. The proposal implies that the three seemingly separate prohibitions of consonants in the coda position -- i) no fricatives/affricates, ii) no aspirated/tense stops, and iii) no released stops -- are directly correlated with each other. Incorporation of the one acoustic feature [noise] in the feature theory enables us to see that the aspects of onset-coda asymmetry are derived from one single source: ban, of [noise] in the coda.

• 음성과학
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• 제3권
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• pp.109-117
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• 1998

This paper tests whether the VOT (Voice Onset Time) contributes to the perception of tense and plain stops in Korean in the initial position. Previous studies have yielded opposite results regarding the role of the VOT in the distinction of these two stop categories. One the one hand, Lisker and Abramson (1964), Kim (1965), and Han and Weitzman (1970) suggest that the Korean plain and tense stops exhibit overlapping values of VOT and thus that, unlike many other languages, the VOT fails to serve as a cue to separate these stop categories. On the other hand, Silva (1991, 1992), and Lee (1991, 1994) use similar methods, but find that the VOT serve as the cue. In this study, the differences in the acoustic measurement with respect to the VOT of Korean plain and tense stops in initial prevocalic position will be tested preceptually, in seeking to determine whether these acoustic differences are used by listeners to distinguish these two stop types.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제7권2호
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• pp.139-145
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• 2015

Researchers have claimed that Korean younger speakers tend to less clearly differentiate aspirated and lax stops with VOT values while older speakers clearly differentiate these two stops with VOT values. To explain this phenomena, the current study consider both an aging effect and a general sound shift. For this study, VOT values and F0 of Korean stops produced by eight male speakers(years of birth were 1942 ~ 1952) analyzed using Praat. Their productions were compared with the values of participants whose year of birth were 1943 ~ 1952) in Silva(2006)'s research. Silva's research was conducted in 2004 using the same methods. The result shows that 2014's VOT gap between aspirated and lax stops and less F0 gap between aspirated and lax stops than those of 2004. When the F0 values related to physical conditions of the larynx is considered, it could be analyzed as the following: to distinguish the three-way phonation type clearly, older speakers depend on the VOT value more instead of F0 which they have difficulty to control.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제2권4호
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• pp.29-37
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• 2010

Previous studies have investigated a between-category relationship of multiple acoustic cues for a laryngeal contrast by examining the distributions of VOT, f0 and H1-H2. The current study examined within-category correlations between cues comprising stops by Korean- and English-speaking adults and children to understand how children master the internal structure of stop phonation types in two languages. Word-initial stops were collected from about 70 children and 15 adults speaking English and Korean, and were analyzed in terms of VOT, f0 and H1-H2 to compute correlation coefficients. Findings in adults' productions included a gender-differentiated cue-correlation pattern associated with H1-H2 in Korean tense stops and a trading relationship between f0 and VOT in Korean lax and aspirated stops and English voiced and voiceless stops. Children did not necessarily have adult-like cue-correlation patterns even in early-acquired categories, suggesting that the mastery of intra-category structure of phonation type might occur later than inter-category structure.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제5권4호
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• pp.185-193
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• 2013

This study investigates dialectal differences in the acoustic properties of Korean lenis, aspirated, and tense stops Seoul Korean (standard Korean) and Yanbian Korean (spoken in the largest Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China). This production study the main acoustic cues that each dialect uses to mark the laryngeal distinction between the three types of Korean stops. Measurements included VOT, and the initial F0 of the following vowel. Data collected from 10 young Seoul Korean speakers, 10 young Yanbian Korean speakers, and 6 older Yanbian speakers. two key findings: First, aspirated and lenis stops are mainly differentiated by F0 in Seoul Korean, and by $H1^*-H2^*$ in Yanbian Korean. Second, there is no VOT merger between lenis and aspirated stops in Yanbian Korean, whereas there is in Seoul Korean. These results are discussed in terms of the phenomenon of VOT shift and the function of F0t is argued that the function of F0 to substitute for VOT difference as a primary cue for the coding of laryngeal contrast can be predicted by the pitch accent system of the language involved.

• 음성과학
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• 제5권2호
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• pp.17-26
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• 1999

It has been claimed that Korean mid-vocalic voiceless unaspirated lax stops are phonetically realized with voicing throughout the oral closure phase. Acoustic measurements were undertaken to examine the claim with four Korean native speakers using /$V_1CV_2$/ words where the vowel ($V_1\;=\;V_2$) was /i, a, u/ and the C was voiceless unaspirated lax stops /p, t, k/. Findings: (1) During mid-vocalic stops /k/ and /p/ the vowel /u/ was accompanied generally by a significant increase in voice cessation time as percentage of the oral closure interval (PCT) than the vowel /a/, regardless of subjects, whereas in mid-vocalic alveolar stop /t/ the effects of vowels on PCT were subject-dependent, (2) The effects of vowels on PCT were significantly greater in mid-vocalic /k/ than /p/, regardless of subjects, (3) The mean PCT, averaged across six tokens, ranged from 17% to100%, giving overall mean 61% in which the standard deviation was ${\pm}30$, and (4) Overall % of the total of mid-vocalic unaspirated lax stops were produced with a substantial period of devocing and voicing lag. Considering these results, it is difficult to agree with the existing claims that Korean voiceless unaspirated lax stops are phonetically realized with voicing throughout the oral closure phase. Other phonetic variables, including the durations of pre/post-stop vowels, voice onset time, voice cessation time, and the duration of oral closure, were measured.

• 음성과학
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• 제15권4호
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• pp.7-18
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• 2008

The purpose of the present study is to test whether VOT values of the Korean plain stops in intervocalic position are encoded differently by individual speakers. In Scobbie (2006), the VOT values to the /p/-/b/ voicing contrast in Shetland Isles English were found to demonstrate a high degree of inter-speaker variation. More importantly such variation was not arbitrary: first, there was an inverse relationship between the amount of prevoicing for /b/ and the duration of aspiration for /p/. Second, the inter-speaker variation was shown to be similar between the subjects and their parents. These results suggest that the phonetic targets for VOT are specified in fine detail by speakers. The present study further explores this issue in terms of testing 1) whether the likelihood and the amount of voicing for the intervocalic plain stops in Korean show inter-speaker variation; 2) whether the likelihood and the exact amount of voicing for the intervocalic plain stops in Korean are closely related to the amount of aspiration for the Korean intervocalic aspirated stops. The results of the study suggest that the voicing of intervocalic plain stops in Korean varied according to the individual speakers, but it did not seem to be directly interrelated with the amount of aspiration of the aspirated stop sin the same phonological position.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제13권3호
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• pp.39-51
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• 2021

본고에서는 2020년에 수집된 자유 발화 자료를 바탕으로 어두 폐쇄음 평음, 격음, 경음의 발화가 어떻게 달라지고 있는지 그리고 지각은 어떻게 이루어지고 있는지에 대해 자세히 살펴보았다. 기존 연구의 통제된 실험에서와 다르게, 자유 발화에서는 30대 남성까지도 VOT(voice onset time)에 의해 평음과 격음의 변별이 이루어지지 않았다. 지각실험은 언어 변화의 주도 계층인 젊은 여성 세대를 대상으로 하였다. 그 결과 어두 폐쇄음의 지각에서 F0이 평음과 나머지 둘을 변별하는 역할을 하였고, 그 다음 VOT가 격음과 경음을 변별하는 역할을 하였다. 특히 F0이 낮을 때에는 VOT의 길이가 짧든 길든 간에 항상 평음으로 지각되었다는 점은 평음의 지각에서 F0이 절대적인 역할을 한다는 것을 보여주었다. 그러나 어떤 F0의 경우에는 VOT에 따라 평음과 격음이 변별되기도 하였는데, 이는 20대 여성의 발화와 지각 체계가 일치하지 않기 때문이다. 음 변화의 관점에서 발화와 지각 체계가 일치하지 않는다는 것은 음 변화가 진행 중이라는 것을 의미하는데, 특히 20대 여성에서처럼 발화의 변화가 지각의 변화에 앞서는 경우는 음 변화가 후반 단계에 있을 때이다. 이처럼 언어 변화를 주도하는 계층에서 여전히 지각에서 이전의 체계를 유지하고 있는 이유는 그들의 부모 세대의 발화에서 VOT에 의한 평음과 격음의 변별이 이루어졌기 때문이며 이를 습득한 것이라고 볼 수 있다. 즉 다른 집단과의 소통을 위해 여전히 VOT를 지각에 사용하고 있는 것이다.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.33-40
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• 2017

This study aimed to examine how Korean-English bilinguals make use of VOT and F0 cues in perception and production of Korean (lenis vs. aspirated) and English (voiced vs. voiceless) stops. It was explored whether bilinguals with extensive experience living in the U.S. exhibit native-like or interactive patterns in the cue use for both languages. Participants produced monosyllabic word-initial stops within a carrier sentence in each language, and performed forced-choice identification tasks with synthesized stimuli varying in 7 VOT steps and 7 F0 steps with base tokens of /$t^han$/ for Korean and /$t{\ae}n$/ for English. Listeners were required to select either /tan/ or /$t^han$/ for Korean and either /$d{\ae}n$/ or /$t{\ae}n$/ for English. The results from binary logistic regression analyses for each listener indicated that all bilinguals placed greater weight on F0 than VOT when distinguishing between the Korean lenis and aspirated stops, and greater weight on VOT than F0 in distinguishing between the English voiced and voiceless stops. In terms of production, all participants showed remarkably overlapping ranges in the VOT dimension and separating ranges in the F0 dimension for the stop contrast of Korean, while forming overlapping ranges in the F0 dimension and separating ranges in the VOT dimension for the stop contrast of English. These results indicate that the bilinguals with extensive exposure to L2 manage the stop systems of the two languages independently, both in perception and production, employing the opposite cue use for stops in the two languages. It was also found that the absolute beta-coefficient values of the perceptual cues for Korean stops were generally smaller than those for English and those reported in a previous study as for later bilinguals, which may have resulted from Korean not being their dominant language.