• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.29
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• pp.391-411
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• 2012

Request expressions can be defined as expressions that demand or ask the other person to do certain movements. There are direct request expressions that ask the other person to do certain movements directly and indirect request expressions that ask the other person to do certain movements by describing the speaker's condition. The study analyzed gender and hierarchy of speakers and listeners who used 'tekure' and 'tekudasai' in dialog examples of the Meiji Period and the Taisho Period. In those periods, the modern Tokyo dialect was formed and established. "Toseishoseikatagi"in Meiji 10s,"Ukigumo""Natsukodachi""Tajotakon"in Meiji 20s,"Hakai""Botchan"in Meiji 30s,"Huton""Inakakyoshi" in Meiji 40s and "Aruonna"in the Taisho Period were analyzed for the study. 'kure' was used more by male speakers than female speakers. Examples by female speakers were shown on the novels after Meji 30s. In case of male speakers, they often used it to listeners with an equitable relationship at "Toseishoseikatagi"in Meiji 10s but they often used it to younger listeners at "Hakai"in Meiji 30s. 'okure' was used more by female speakers than male speakers. Listeners were varied from older ones to younger ones. In case of female speakers, 'okure' was used more often at "Aruonna"in the Taisho Period than the other novels. In case of male speakers, 'okure' was used only at "Ukigumo""Natsukodachi"and "Hakai". 'Okurenasai' was used outstandingly by female speakers on the form of 'okun_'. In case of 'kudasai', female speakers used it more than male speakers at "Toseishoseikatagi" and "Aruonna"but male speakers used it more than female speakers at "Tajotakon"and "Hakai". Listeners were varied from older ones to younger ones. 'o~kudasai' was not shown until Meiji 20s but shown after Meiji 30s among the analyzed novels. According to gender, it was used a little bit more often by female speakers than male speakers. According to hierarchy, listeners were usually older than speakers. 'o~nasatekudasai' was used more often by male speakers than female speakers. Listeners were also usually older than speakers.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.69-81
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• 2004

The purpose of this experimental study was to investigate characteristics of Korean vowels uttered by Japanese speakers. Eight Korean Vowels were uttered three times by ten male Korean and Japanese, female Korean and Japanese, respectively. Formant Frequencies were measured from sound spectrograms made by the Pitch Works. Results showed that female Japanese speakers uttered Korean vowels more similar to those uttered by Korean native speakers than did male Japanese speakers.. In particular, male Japanese speakers have articulatory problems pronouncing the back vowels(/ㅓ/, /ㅡ/, /ㅜ/). It appears that the width of male speakers' articulatory movements is comparatively narrower than those of female speakers.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.7-16
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• 2005

The purpose, this experimental study was to identify pronunciation difficulties between male and female Korean speakers in their articulation of English vowels. Ten English mono-syllabic words were spoken six times by six male and six female college students. Formant frequencies were measured from sound spectrograms made by Pitch Works. Results show that Korean female speakers uttered English vowels more similar to those uttered by English native speakers than did Korean male speakers. While Korean male speakers could not readily distinguish between /i/ and /I/, /u/ and /v/, and /$\epsilon$/ and /ae/, respectively, Korean female speakers had difficulty only with /$\epsilon$/ and /ae/. The tentative results suggests that on the whole Korean speakers have difficulty in discriminating tense vowels from lax vowels, and they also have articulatory problems pronouncing low and back vowels such as /ae/. /a/ and /c/.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.31
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• pp.371-394
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• 2013

This study aims to know word forms and usages according to personal relationships of 'Kureru Kudasaru' by analyzing dialogues of female speakers. Novels of the Meiji period when there were attempts of a language revolution were mainly used for this study as well as novels of the Edo Period and the Taisho Period. Firstly, the number of examples according to gender differences in the novels was as follows. In case of 'Kureru', female speakers showed a high usage rate in the novels of the Edo period. 'Kureru' was mostly connected with female languages such as 'Naharu', 'Namasu', 'Nansu'. These expressions were not used in the novels of the Meiji Period and the Taisho Period. Although 'Okureru' and 'Okurenasaru' were used in the novels of the Meiji Period, the number of examples of 'Kureru' by female speakers was decreased in the novels of the Meiji Period and the Taisho Period. 'Kudasaru' was predominantly used by female speakers. Especially, female speakers used clearly to show vertical relationships in the novels of the Edo Period and"Doseishoseikatagi"of Meiji 10s. After"Ukigumo", the usage rate of female speakers was decreased but the usage rate of male speakers was increased. Gender differences became gradually smaller. Female speakers in the novels were increased from geisha and relatives such as wife, sister, mother and children to young women, teacher and student. Aspects of benefactive verbs' usages could be summarized as follows. Female speakers at licensed quarters used clearer and more typical expressions according to vertical relationships and gender differences in the novels of The Edo Period than the novels of The Meiji Period and the Taisho Period. In the novels of the Meiji Period, female speakers in a sophisticated social group used benefactive verbs to show strong respect and concern for the other person. In the novels of the Taisho Period, female speakers used benefactive verbs to show respect and concern for the other person according to their areas of outside activities. In the novels of the Meiji Period, female speakers used 'Okureru' when the other person was younger than them and was socially and psychologically close to them. Also, 'O~Nasaru' which was one of respect expressions was used by female speakers. Female speakers used it to older people in the Edo period but they also used it to younger people in the Meiji Period. Examples were not shown in the novels of the Taisho Period. Usages of 'Kureru' 'Kudasaru' according to vertical relationships were as follows. If 'a giver' was an older person, 'Kureru' with respect expressions 'Nasaru' 'Nansu' 'Namasu' was used more than 'Kudasaru' in the novels of the Edo Period. However, many examples of 'Kudasaru' were shown on the novels of the Meiji Period and the Taisho period. In the novels of the Meiji Period, 'Okureru' and 'Okurenasaru' which were expressions included in 'Kureru' were shown. Female speakers used them to older people who were socially and psychologically close to them like family. There were not many examples of 'a giver' and 'a receiver' around the same age. However, 'Kureru' and 'Okureru' were used in a younger group and 'Kudasaru' was used in an older group in the novels of the Meiji Period. If 'a giver' was an younger person, 'Kureru' was mainly used in the novels of the Edo period and "Doseishoseikatagi"in Meiji 10s. However, 'Kudasaru' was used many times in the novels of the latter Meiji Period and the Taisho Period.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2017

Previous studies have reported on the overlapping of $F_1$ and $F_2$ distribution for the vowels /o/ and /u/ produced by young Korean speakers of the Seoul dialect. It has been suggested that the overlapping of /o/ and /u/ occurs due to sound change. However, few studies have examined whether speech rate influences the overlapping of /o/ and /u/. On the other hand, previous studies have reported that the overlapping of /o/ and /u/ in syllable produced by male speakers is smaller than by female speakers. Few reports have investigated on the overlapping of the two vowels in read speech produced by male speakers. In the current study, we examined whether speech rates affect overlapping of /o/ and /u/ in read speech by male and female speakers. Read speech produced by twelve young adult native speakers of Seoul dialect were recorded in three speech rates. For female speakers, discriminant analysis showed that the discriminant rate became lower as the speech rate increases from slow to fast. Thus, this indicates that speech rate is one of the factors affecting the overlapping of /o/ and /u/. For male speakers, on the other hand, the discriminant rate was not correlated with speech rate, but the overlapping was larger than that of female speakers in read speech. Moreover, read speech by male speakers was less clear than by female speakers. This indicates that the overlapping may be related to unclear speech by sociolinguistic reasons for male speakers.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.29-35
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to measure the first two vowel formants of the forty male and female speakers (twenty young vs. old male speakers and twenty young vs. old female speakers) from the Buckeye Corpus of Conversational Speech and to examine the vowel formant changes across two generations (younger vs. older). The results indicated that the vowel space of the younger generation (in their thirties or less) shifted to the lower left position compared to those of the older generation (in their forties or more) in both male and female speakers. When the results were compared to those of Peterson & Barney (1952), it appears that differences can be found in the size of the vowel spaces through time.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.131-138
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• 2015

The aim of this work is to compare the vowel formants of the ten adult female speakers in their twenties and thirties from the Seoul corpus[7] with those of corresponding Korean male speakers from the same corpus and of American female speakers from the Buckeye corpus[4]. In addition, various linguistic factors that are expected affect the formant frequencies were examined to account for the distribution of the vowel formants. Formant frequencies extracted from the Seoul corpus were also compared to those from read speech. The results showed that the formant distribution of the spontaneous speech was very different from that of the read speech, while the comparison between the female and male speakers was similar in both languages. To a greater or lesser degree, the potential linguistic factors influenced the formant frequencies of the vowels.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.195-200
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• 2013

This study investigates formant transition shapes of Korean front vowels produced by native speakers of Seoul Korean. Sixteen speakers (eight male and eight female speakers) produced [pVt] syllables where the vowels were [i, e, ɛ]. F1, F2, and F3 transition shapes were estimated by presenting formant values at 11 points by dividing the vowel duration into 10 different time intervals. The results indicated that the male and female speakers overall demonstrated similar formant transition shapes and measurement points arriving at the maximum and minimum formant values for the three front vowels. As for the vowels [e] and [ɛ], both male and female speakers showed similar formant values across the 11 measurement points and similar measurement points arriving at the maximum and minimum values, indicating that the two Korean vowels have been merged not only in the steady-state formant values, but also in the dynamic transition shapes.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.19-24
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• 2023

This study investigated acoustic (VOT) and articulatory characteristics of Korean velar stops in monosyllabic CV structures to examine how the three-way distinction is realized in the laryngeal and supralaryngeal domains and how the distinction is manifested in male versus female speakers' speech production. EMA data were collected from 22 speakers. In line with previous studies, male speakers preserved the three-way differentiation of velar stops (/k^*/</k/</k^h/) in terms of VOT while female speakers showed only a two-way distinction (/k^*/</k/=/k^h/). As for the kinematic characteristics, a clear three-way distinction was found only in male speakers' peak velocity measure in the C-to-V opening movement (/k^h/</k/</k^*/). For the other kinematic measures (i.e., articulatory closure duration, deceleration duration of the opening movement and the entire opening movement duration), male speakers showed only a two-way distinction between fortis and the other two stops. Female speakers did not show a three-way contrast in any kinematic measure. They showed a two-way distinction between lenis and the other two stops in C-to-V deceleration duration (/k^*/=/k^h/</k/), and a two-way distinction between fortis and lenis stops in the opening movement duration. An overall comparison of VOT and articulatory analyses revealed that the lenis-aspirated kinematic distinction is diminishing, driven by female speakers, in line with the loss of the lenis-aspirated distinction in VOT that could influence supralaryngeal articulation.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.81-90
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• 2013

The purposes of this study are to: (1) Compare the vowel production of English front vowels produced by Korean speakers using regional dialects and; (2) Investigate and compare the effectiveness of pronunciation training for each regional dialect group. To test these objectives, the English front vowels produced by five Youngnam dialect male speakers, five Youngnam dialect female speakers, five Kangwon dialect male speakers, and five Kangwon dialect female speakers were scrutinized. These dialect groups' vowel formants and length of English front vowels were evaluated, and the post-pronunciation training values were compared with those of pre-training values. The results indicate that pronunciation training is more effective for Youngnam dialect speakers, whilst both dialect groups have more success mastering the pronunciation of /${\varepsilon}$/ over /${\ae}$/.