• Speech Sciences
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.7-18
• /
• 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.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.39-44
• /
• 2018

This study aimed to examine whether preconsonantal vowel shortening, which occurs in many languages, exists in Chinese. To this end, we compared 15 pairs of Chinese bi-syllabic words with intervocalic unaspirated/aspirated stops. The results revealed that (1) the effect of the feature aspiration of the following stop on the preceding vowel (V1) was neither significant nor consistent though V1 tends to be a little longer before an unaspirated stop; (2) the following unaspirated stop closure (C) was similar to or longer than its aspirated cognate; (3) the durational sum of V1 and C was longer when the stop is unaspirated, and V1 and C had no compensatory relationship; (4) Voice Onset Time (VOT) was significantly longer when the stop is aspirated than unaspirated; (5) the vowel (V2) following VOT was significantly longer when the stop is unaspirated, so the differentials in VOT were partially compensated; (6) despite the partial compensation, the sum of VOT and V2 was longer when the stop is aspirated; (7) words with an intervocalic aspirated stop were longer than those with its unaspirated cognate. It is concluded that while VOT is the most important factor for deciding the timing structure of Chinese words with intervocalic stops, closure duration is crucial for Korean and many other languages.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.121-130
• /
• 2014

This study investigates the acoustic property of aspiration realized in English voiceless stops of /Cr/ and /sCr/ clusters. VOT is measured from stops in these clusters produced by two groups; one from native speakers of English and the other from Korean native speakers. Aspiration of stops in different types of clusters is compared to various phonological factors such as location of stress, syllable type, and position in word. Pursuing the idea that phonetic realization is correlated with phonological representation, attempts are made to account for the gradient nature of aspiration of stops on the basis of syllable structure at the phonetic level, which may vary in the wake of resyllabification. Voiceless stops in /Cr/ and /sCr/ clusters are further compared to results obtained in the previous study on /sC/ cluster. Variations in aspiration are also characterized in terms of segmental precedence relation of stops in the clusters, namely, post-[s], pre-[r], or both.

• Speech Sciences
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.201-209
• /
• 2005

This study was investigated developmental temporal features in Putonghua-speaking children. The total of 212 children between the ages 2;6 and 6;5 participated in Shanghai. Speech materials were constructed according to aspiration feature in stop sounds of Putonghua. Six words were selected in this study. A voice onset time was measured. Non-parametric procedures were employed for all the analyses. The VOT value across bilabial, alveolar, and velar stops was significantly differed between aspirated and unaspirated stops for each age group. Effect of age is. significant for unaspirated stops. It is clear that each of Putonghua stops showed decreasing mean and standard deviation. The overshoot phenomenon of VOT was apparent from the age of 2;6-2;11 to 4;6-4;11. There was high variability in the production of lag time for aspirated stops.

• MALSORI
• /
• no.15_18
• /
• pp.19-34
• /
• 1989

There is general agreement that voice onset time (VOT) is functionally related with the glottal opening at the moment of the oral release of a stop. However, systematic investigations of tempo 8n4 the place of articulation as affecting the glottal opening and VOT have relatively neglected. Various instrumental techniques were used to verify the claim with BrEng and korean speakers, under controlled experimental conditions, tempo being one of them. It was found that voiceless aspiration (i.e. VOT) is not simply a function of the glottal area at the moment of the oral release of a stop as it is normally defined in the existing literature. Within a given place of articulation and across temper VOT was generally insignificantly related to the glottal area. It is inferred that the glottal adduction onset time for the following vowel is actively control led by the speaker to meet aerodynamic requirements in relation to class (i.e. aspirated and unaspirated) and tempo. Some possible underlying physiological mechanisms for various phonetic aspects of intervocalic stops, associated with the glottal area and VOT, were discussed.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
• /
• 1996.10a
• /
• pp.274-274
• /
• 1996

This presents the preliminary results from work in progress of a paired study of the acquisition of voiceless stops by Spanish speakers learning English, and American English speakers learning Spanish. For this study the hypothesis was that the American speakers would have no difficulty suppressing the aspiration in Spanish unaspirated stops; the Spanish speakers would have difficulty acquiring the aspiration necessary for English voiceless stops, according to Eckman's Markedness Differential Hypothesis. The null hypothesis was proved. All subjects were given the same set of disyllabic real words of English and Spanish in carrier phrases. The tokens analyzed in this report are limited to word-initial voiceless stops, followed by a low back vowel in stressed syllables. Tokens were randomized and then arranged in a list with the words appearing three separate times. Aspiration was measured from the burst to the onset of voicing(VOT). Both the first language (Ll) tokens and second language (L2) tokens were compared for each speaker and between the two groups of language speakers. Results indicate that the Spanish speakers, as a group, were able to reach the accepted target language VOT of English, but English speakers were not able to reach the accepted range for Spanish, in spite of statistically significant changes of p<.OOl by speakers in both groups of learners. A closer analysis of the speech samples revealed wide variability within the speech of native speakers of English. Not only is variability in English due to the wide range of VOT (120 msecs. for English labials, for example) but individual speakers showed different patterns. These results are revealing for the demands requied in experimental designs and the number of speakers and tokens requied for an adequate description of different languages. In addition, a simple report of means will not distinguish the speakers and the respective language learning situation; measurements must also include the RANGE of acceptability of VOT for phonetic segments. This has immediate consequences for the learning and teaching of foreign languages involving aspirated stops. In addition, the labelling of spoken language in speech technology is shown to be inadequate without a fuller mathematical description.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
• /
• v.27
• /
• pp.497-523
• /
• 2012

Characteristics of the Listening and Pronunciation of Korean Obstruents of Chinese Learners -Based on the Phonetic Experiments Using Kalvin and Praat- This study aims at investigating the characteristics of confrontation in three ways, lax/ fortis/ aspirated consonants, in Korean obstruents through experimental phonetic analysis for the Chinese Korean language learners. On one hand, as a result of comparing Korean and Chinese obstruent systems, there is no big difference regarding the articulatory location. On the other hand, in regards to the articulatory method there is a difference. In a Korean obstruent system, the confrontation presented in three ways by the strength of aspiration. On the contrary, the Chinese obstruent system showed confrontation in two ways by the existence of aspiration. To examine the difficulty of the learners caused by the above-mentioned reason objectively, this paper studied the relationship between input and output of sound through the experimental phonetic analysis such as Kalvin and Praat. To research the input of sound, the listening ability of the learners was examined by 'Choosing Consonant' among the Menu of Kalvin. As a result of that experiment, many errors were shown. They recognized the fortis as lax in the area of affricates and plosives. In the area of fricatives, they recognized affricatives as fricatives. To investigate the output of sound, the section of aspiration and the section of friction of a plosive, an affricate and a fricative in Praat, were expressed numerically. The learners' VOT of lax and affricate represented that lax was pronounced close to the fortis, and the VOT of fricatives was not shown the section of aspiration and friction clearly, and also the result showed that they pronounced a fricative like affricative-aspirated one. The result shows that the learners' pronunciation is related to the listening ability. The consequence is caused by the characteristics of the difference between Korean obstruents and Chinese ones. If the training pronunciation is conducted based on above result, it would be a better methodology in teaching Korean.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.47-52
• /
• 2009

The speech of Sino-Korean has been evolved from geopolitical cause since 1945. The aim of this study is to collect Yanji dialectal speech and to compare with South Korean dialectal speech. Twenty Yanbian university students participated as informants. Acoustic speech informations are analyzed using the Multi-Speech Windows Vista version. Dialectal speech characteristics of Yanji sino-Korean showed posterior vowel /${\alpha}$/, neutralization of mid-vowel /o/ between /o/ and /Ɔ/. Lenis stop sound showed the tendency of glottalization based on VOT value. Sibilant sound contains aspiration following constriction and lateral /l/ realized the approximant /r/.

• MALSORI
• /
• no.33_34
• /
• pp.11-22
• /
• 1997

The degrees of aspiration in Korean [ㅅ] and [ㅆ] were measured in terms of VOT. The measurements were compared to the aspiration in Korean stops and affricates. It was shown that [ㅅ] should be classified as an 'aspirated' sound with Korean aspirated stops and affricates [$p^h, {\;}t^h, {\;}k^h, {\;}t{\int}$], contrary to the traditional classification of the sound as unaspirated. [ㅆ] was confirmed to be in the same group as other Korean 'tense' sounds. It was pointed out that there was a gap in the typology of Korean consonants. The gap was created by the lack of the unaspirated counterpart of [ㅅ]. It was suggested that an extinct Korean sound [$\triangle$] be considered as a possible candidate for the gap. Also a perception test was suggested for the further acoustical analysis of Korean [ㅅ] and [ㅆ].

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.47-58
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this paper is to find out how Korean speakers' speech production in English word boundaries differs from English speakers' and to account for what bring about such differences. Seeing two consecutive words as one single cluster, the English speakers generally pronounce them naturally by linking a word-final consonant of the first word with a word-initial vowel of the second word, while this is not the case with most of the Korean speakers; they read the two consecutive words individually. In consequence, phonological processes such as resyllabification and aspiration can be found in the English speakers' word-boundary production, while glottalization, and unreleased stops are rather common phonological process seen in the Korean speakers' word-boundary production. This may be accounted for by Korean speakers' L1 interference, depending on English proficiency.