• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제6권4호
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• pp.17-26
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• 2014

The present study examined epenthetic vowels produced by Korean learners of English in read sentences, in terms of acoustic measures and extra-phonological factors. The results demonstrated three main findings. First, epenthetic vowels had relatively high F1 values and a wide range of F2 values. Most of the epenthetic vowels were inserted near Korean high central vowels, but some vowels were inserted near front vowels due to co-articulation with surrounding vowels. Second, vowel epenthesis was affected by the context. The results showed that the epenthesis was frequently seen with word junctions between obstruents (e.g., stops-fricatives). Third, Korean learners were not affected by English background and were very weakly affected by orthography. English experience, which is one of the extra-phonological factors, was not related to epenthesis production. However, orthography, the other extra-phonological factor, very weakly affected the amount of epenthesis production. Nine percent of all epenthesis production was affected by the English past-tense suffix '-ed'; approximately 70% of the participants were affected by this suffix. The findings of the present study contributed to understanding vowel epenthesis. First, the study revealed that the epenthetic vowels produced by Korean learners of English were close to the high central vowel, supporting previous studies that the epenthetic vowel is quite close to the shortest vowel. Second, the study examined the various phonetic environments of epenthetic vowels, revealing that vowel epenthesis occurred more frequently in a certain phonetic circumstance.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제4권4호
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• pp.3-17
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• 2012

This study examines Korean speakers' production of English consonant clusters, focusing on vowel insertion. An acoustic analysis along with a statistical test was carried out to see what factors are involved in this production. The following factors were considered in the present study: phonetic properties, L1 transfer, and cluster types. Specifically, liquid types were considered to see if they cause any difference depending on C+/l/ or C+/r/ clusters in the onset in terms of vowel insertion patterns. That is, it was examined which Korean speakers produce better, C+/l/ or C+/r/ clusters. Interestingly, the result of the present experiment shows that the correct answer percent was higher in the C+/r/ onset clusters than C+/l/ onset clusters unlike Eckman's (1977) Marked Differential Hypothesis. In other words, the occurrence of the vowel insertion in C+/l/ clusters is higher than C+/r/ onset clusters. This may be attributed to L1 transfer. Furthermore, in the present study, three patterns of vowel insertion in the C+/l/ clusters were identified by implementing an acoustic analysis based on vowel duration and formant: a) vowel insertion with gemination, b) phonological epenthesis, and c) phonetic intrusion. However, phonetic intrusion mainly occurred in the C+/r/ clusters. Data were collected from 54 Korean speakers to see what factors are involved in vowel insertion patterns in the production of English consonant clusters. This study provides evidence for L1 transfer, the duration effect of /l/ in a different context, and three kinds of vowel insertion patterns in conjunction with gestural coordination by age groups.