• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.3
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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.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.17-24
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• 2024

The Korean three-way stop contrast (lenis, aspirated, fortis) is currently undergoing a sound change, such that the primary cue distinguishing lenis and aspirated stops is shifting from voice onset time (VOT) to F0. Despite recent discussions of this shift, research on voice quality, traditionally considered an additional cue signaling the contrast, remains sparse. This study investigated the extent to which the associated voice quality [as reflected in the acoustic measurements of H1^*-H2^*, H1^*- A1^*, and cepstral peak prominence (CPP)] contributes to the three-way stop contrast, and how the realization is conditioned by prominence- vs. boundary-induced prosodic strengthening amid the ongoing sound change. Results for 12 native Korean speakers indicate that there was a substantial distinction in voice quality among the three stop categories with the breathiness of the vowel being the greatest after the lenis, intermediate after the aspirated, and least after the fortis stops, indicating the role of voice quality in the maintenance of the three-way stop contrast. Furthermore, prosodic strengthening has different effects on the contrast and contributes to the enhancement of the phonological contrast contingent on whether it is induced by prominence or boundary.

• MALSORI
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• no.53
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• pp.17-35
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• 2005

A New Method of Extracting the Filter Characteristics of the Nasal Cavity Using Homorganic Nasal-Stop Sequences: A Preliminary R eportHansang ParkThis study provides a new method of extracting the filter characteristics of the nasal cavity. Korean lenis stops are realized as voiced in the homorganic nasal-lenis stop sequences between vowels. Since the only difference between the two members of the homorganic nasal- lenis stop sequences, such as [mb], [nd], and [ g], is whether the passage to the nasal cavity is open or not, the subtraction of the LPC spectrum of the voiced stop from that of the preceding nasal leads to the filter characteristics of the nasal cavity of an individual speaker regardless of place of articulation. The results suggest that various attempts should be made to extract a robust filter characteristics of the nasal cavity by giving variation to LPC coefficients and by paying particular attention to speech samples. This study is significant in that it provides a preliminary report about a new method of extracting the filter characteristics of the nasal cavity.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.57-63
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• 2009

The two specific research questions pursued in this paper are: (i) how Korean speakers perceive Hindi stops in terms of the three laryngeal categories of Korean stops; (ii) how well Korean speakers do with an ABX perception test that utilizes a total of 52 Hindi minimal pairs where all sounds are identical except for the laryngeal features of a stop in each word. A total of 45 university students participated in this experiment. The results showed that (i) Koreans tended to perceive Hindi voiceless unaspirated stops as Korean fortis ones, voiceless aspirated stops as aspirated ones, voiced stops as lenis ones, and breathy stops as aspirated ones, and (ii) Koreans had difficulty in distinguishing between voiceless aspirated and breathy stops in Hindi.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.33-43
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• 2011

The present study investigates supralaryngeal articulatory characteristics of denti-alveolar (coronal) stops /t, $t^h$, $t^*$/ and /n/ in /aCa/ context in Seoul Korean. An Electromagnetic Articulograph (EMA, Carstens) was used to explore kinematics of the consonants by examining the kinematic data of the tongue tip (the primary articulator for the coronal consonants), along with some additional supplementary position data of the tongue body, the tongue dorsum and the jaw. The results showed that the constriction duration was the most robust articulatory correlates of the three-way stop contrast with a pattern of /t/$t^h$/$t^*$/. The contrast was further reinforced by the tongue body position (higher for /$t^h$, $t^*$/) and the tongue tip opening displacement (less displaced for /$t^h$, $t^*$/). The articulation of /n/ was quite similar to that of the lenis /t/ in terms of the constriction duration, and it was different from the oral stops in that it was produced with larger tongue tip displacement and lower jaw position than the oral stops, indicating its weak articulatory nature. The results are also discussed in comparison with those of bilabial stops with implications that the three-way contrast may be kinematically expressed differently depending on the physiological constraints imposed on the primary articulator (the tongue tip versus the lips). The present study, therefore, provides new articulatory (kinematic) data of denti-alveolar consonants in Korean, and demonstrates that the three-way stops, that have been known to differ primarily in their laryngeal settings, are indeed produced with kinematic distinctions at the supralaryngeal level.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.11-17
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• 2022

This study investigates closure durations of Korean stops in terms of laryngeal contrasts, places of articulation, and three positions within words. Twenty-two Korean speakers produced the nonsense words containing Korean stops found in word-initial and word-final positions and between vowels. The statistical results showed that the closure durations differed significantly by laryngeal contrast and place of articulation. In addition, the differences by position within words were marginally significant. The closure durations were in the order of lenis < aspirated < fortis stops by laryngeal contrast, velar < alveolar < bilabial stops by place of articulation, and word-final < word-initial < between vowels by positions within words. The laryngeal contrasts were neutralized in word-final position as per coda neutralization in Korean phonology. This study shows that closure durations should be considered a valuable phonetic cue to identify stops on par with voice onset time and f0.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.165-165
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• 2000

In the phoneme level, English stop sounds are classified with the feature of 'voicing': voiceless and voiced (p/b, t/d, k/g). But when realized, a voiceless stop is not alwats the same sound. For example, the two 'p' sounds in 'people' are different. The former is pronounced with much aspiration, while the latter without it. This allophonic differnece between [$P^h$] and [p] out of an English phoneme /p/ can be well explained to Koreans because in Korean these two sounds exist as two different phonemes {/ㅍ/ and /ㅃ/ respectively). But difficulties lie in teaching the English voiced stop sounds (/b, d, g/) to Koreans because in Korean voiced stops do not exist as phonemes but as allophones of lenis sounds (/ㅂ, ㄷ, ㄱ/). For example, the narrow transcription of '바보' (a fool) is [baboo]. In the word initial position, Korean lenis stops are pronounced voiceless and even with a slight aspiration while in the inrervocalic environments they become voiced, That is in Korean voiced stops do not occur independently and neither they have their own letters. To explain all these more effectively to Koreans, it is very helpful to use Korean Phenetic Alphabet (KPA) which is devised by Dr. LEE Hyunbok (a professor of phonetics at Seoul National Univ. and chairman of Phonetic Society of Koera.)(omitted)

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.47-52
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• 2014

This study investigated how the degree of attention modulates English learners' perception of Korean stop contrasts. The contributions of VOT and F0 in perceiving Korean stops were examined while availability of attentional resources was manipulated using a dual-task paradigm. Results demonstrated the attentional modulation in the use of VOT, but not in F0: under less attention, the contribution of VOT to the perception of aspirated stops decreased, whereas that of lenis stops increased, which suggests more native-like performance. This implies that the role of attention in perceiving non-native contrasts might differ depending on how equivalent the acoustic and perceptual cues are between L1 and target L2 contrasts.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.49-61
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• 2016

The present study investigates the perception of Korean phonation types by native speakers of Aymara. Perception tests were conducted on two sets of Korean speech materials to determine correspondence between Korean and Aymara 3-way contrasts and to find out which of the consonantal and vocalic part of the syllable is more influential in the perception of Korean phonation types. A set of manipulated stimuli, as well as a set of 12 spontaneous words, were prepared for the tests. The first syllable of the 12 Korean bisyllabic words of 3 series of phonation types(Lenis, Aspirated, and Fortis) in 4 places of articulation were split into consonantal and vocalic parts. And then the two parts were combined to form 9 tokens of CV sequences respectively for each place of articulation. Native speakers of Aymara were forced to match Korean stimuli with one of the 15 Aymara words which represent 3 series of consonant types(plain, aspirated, and ejective) in 5 places of articulation(bilabial, alveolar, palatal, velar, and uvular). Results showed that the consonantal part is more influential than the vocalic part to the Aymara subjects' perception of Korean phonation types when the consonantal part is Aspirated in its phonation type, but the vocalic part is more influential than the consonantal part when the consonantal part is Lenis or Fortis in its phonation type. Response analysis showed that Aymara subjects tend to match Korean stops to Aymara ones in such a way that Lenis corresponds to aspirated, Aspirated to aspirated, and Fortis to plain.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.137-143
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• 2013

Recent investigation of acoustic correlates of Korean stop manner contrasts has reported a diachronic transition in Korean stops: young Seoul speakers are relatively more dependent on the F0 characteristics of the stops than on the VOT characteristics in aspirated and lenis stop distinction. This finding has been examined against tonal dialects of Korean and the results suggested that the speakers of tonal dialects are not sharing the transition. These results also suggested that F0 function for segmental stop classification interferes with the function for lexical tone classification in their tonal speech. The current study investigated these findings in terms of perception. Perceptual behavior of Seoul and Busan speakers of Korean was examined in a comparative manner through the measurement of perceptual cue weight of F0 and VOT in particular. The results from regression and correlation analyses revealed that Busan speakers are closer to older Seoul speakers than to younger Seoul speakers in that the cue weight for VOT and F0 were comparable in the aspirated-lenis stop distinction. This result was in contrast to the perceptual behavior of younger Seoul speakers who showed clear dominance of F0 over VOT for the same distinction. These findings provided perceptual evidence of the dual function of F0 for segmental and lexical distinctions in tonal dialects of Korean.