• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.29-35
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• 2011

This paper examines several articulatory properties of /k/, known as a trigger of place assimilation as well as the object of post-obstruent tensing (/tk/), in comparison to non-assimilating controls (/kk/ and /kt/). Using EMMA, tongue body articulation in the place assimilation context robustly shows greater spatio-temporal articulation and lower jaw position. Results showed several characteristics. Firstly, constriction duration of the tongue body gesture in C2 of the assimilation context (/tk/) was longer than non-assimilating controls (/kk/ and /kt/). Secondly, constriction maxima also demonstrated greater constriction in the /tk/ sequences than in the control /kk/, but similar values with the control /kt/. In particular, results showed a significant relationship between the two variables - the longer the constriction duration, the greater the constriction degree. Lastly, jaw height was lower for the assimilating context /tk/, intermediate for the control /kk/, and higher for the control /kt/. Results suggest that speakers have lexical knowledge of place assimilation, producing a greater tongue body gesture in the spatio-temporal domains with lower jaw height as an indication of anticipating reduction of C1 in /tk/ sequences.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제12권3호
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• pp.15-23
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• 2020

This study examines the duration of Korean lax and tense stops in the prosodic word-medial position, their interactions with nearby segments, and the phonological implications of these interactions. It first examines the lengthening of consonants at the function of the short lax stop. Experiment 1 shows that the sonorant C1 is significantly longer before a short lax stop C2 than before a long tense stop. Experiment 2 shows that the short lax stop C1 cancels the contrast between the lax and tense obstruent at C2, making them appear as long tense obstruents (Post-Stop Tensing Rule). We suggest that such lengthening phenomena occur in Korean to robustly preserve the contrastive length difference between C and CC. Second, this study examines the vowel shortening, known as Closed-Syllable Vowel Shortening, before a long tense stop or before the consonant sequence. Experiment 3 suggests that it be interpreted as temporal adjustment to make the interval from the onset of a vowel to the onset of the following vowel of near-equal length. Conclusively, we suggest that Korean speech be planned and controlled with two specific intervals. One is the duration of contrastive consonant intervals between vowels, and the other is the duration from the onset of a vowel to the onset of the following vowel.