• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.13-26
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• 2015

Speech production studies have suggested that bilinguals who are L2-dominant are the most likely to suppress the influence of the first language (L1) on the second language (L2). The voice onset times (VOTs) and fundamental frequencies (f0s) of monolingual and bilingual speakers of English and Korean were examined to address the question whether cross language influences occur particularly in L2 predominant bilinguals and to compare their outcomes with those of L2 proficient bilinguals and monolinguals. A total of 28 speakers participated in this experiment and they produced English and Korean stops in the carrier sentence. In English, for voiceless aspirated and unaspirated stops, L2 predominant bilingual speakers produced VOTs that were significantly shorter than those of monolingual English speakers. The outcome was analogous in Korean speech. For aspirated and lax stops, they produced shorter Korean VOTs than monolingual speakers. The results of f0s were slightly different from those of VOTs. In English, L2 predominant bilinguals produced f0s that were not significantly different from those of monolingual English speakers. In Korean, however, they produced f0s that were significantly different from those of monolingual Korean speakers. Taken VOT and f0 into consideration together, the overall results suggest that, although they tend to show a corresponding pattern of monolinguals, L2 predominant bilinguals had cross language phonetic influences between L1 and L2, similar to L2 proficient bilinguals. Between the two acoustic cues, f0 seemed to be a more reliable cue than VOT to examine the influences.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.1-13
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• 2021

This study examined the characteristics of linguistic prosody in terms of cerebral lateralization in three groups of 9 healthy speakers and 14 speakers with a history of stroke (7 with left hemisphere damage (LHD), 7 with right hemisphere damage (RHD)). Specifically, prosodic characteristics related to speech rate, duration, pitch, and intensity were examined in three types of interrogative sentences (wh-questions, yes-no questions, alternative questions) with auditory perceptual evaluation. As a result, the statistically significant key variables showed flaws in production of the linguistic prosody in the speakers with LHD. The statistically significant variables were more insufficiently produced for wh-questions than for yes-no and alternative questions. This trend was particularly noticeable in variables related to pitch and speech rate. This result suggests that when Korean speakers process linguistic prosody, such as that of lexico-semantic and syntactic information in interrogative sentences, the left hemisphere seems to be superior to the right hemisphere.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.65-74
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate age-specific features of 2;1- to 4;1-year -olds' production of monophthongs and diphthongs through both auditory perceptual analysis and acoustic analysis. Test material included {vowel+'da'} consisting of 7 monophthongs and 10 diphthongs and meaningful words beginning with vowels. The percentage of correct vowels was used for perceptual analysis and Praat(5.2.12) was used for acoustic analysis, analyzing variables related to monophthongs and diphthongs. The results of this study are as follows: First, perceptual analysis showed that children from an age group of 2;1 to 2;8 years showed significant difference in the accuracy level of both monophthongs and diphthongs as compared to those aged 2;9 to 3;4 years and those aged 3;5 to 4;1 years. Second, the results of acoustic analysis provided that formant (F1 and F2) of monophthong, in general, tended to decrease as age increased. In terms of F2 differentiation slope and regression slope, which were diphthong-related variables, the age group of 3;5 to 4;1 years showed a large general slope change.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.57-64
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• 2018

The purpose of the present study was to explore the radiological and acoustic characteristics of "Arae-a" (/${\cdot}$/) articulation in two male Jeju language speakers, focusing on selected measures in radiological images derived from computed tomography scans, as well as the first and the second formant measures in selected vowels. An elderly male speaker (a 78-year-old) and a young male speaker (a 34-year-old) participated in the study. During the production of four selected vowels, the shape of the vocal tract was identified, and selected measures were obtained from the elderly participant's computed tomography (CT) scans. For acoustic analysis, the participants were given a list of near-minimal pairs consisting of 112 words and asked to read them aloud. The results indicated that the "Arae-a" (/${\cdot}$/) articulation of the elderly speaker showed unique acoustic and radiological characteristics compared to other similar vowels, thus presenting substantial consistency with the descriptions of the "Hunminjeongeum Haeryebon." In contrast, the F1 and F2 measures of the young male's /${\cdot}$/ articulation were not distinguished from those of /ㅗ/. Current results, in part, support the scientific principles underlying the invention of "Arae-a," which reflects the shape of the vocal tract during production, and the necessity for further research.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.193-206
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• 2002

The aim of this study is to find out how the labiovelar onglide /w/ in English kwV sequences that have minimal pairs with kV sequences is pronounced differently among Korean EFL learners based on acoustic evidence. This study tries to identify /w/ sound in English kwV sequences through spectrograms and to examine the duration ratios of each segment in kwV words to compare the patterns of an English native speaker with those of Korean speakers of English. In spectrographic analyses, the complete deletion of /w/ and partial pronunciation of /w/ dubbed [$k^{w}$] were identified as well as the targetappropriate production of /w/. The general production patterns with respect to the duration ratios in English [kw] sequence words showed that the subjects who produced /w/ had similar ratio patterns that the native speaker had in that the vowel duration ratio in kwV sequences was shorter than that in kV sequences. By contrast, the subjects who deleted [w] had a long ratio of the onset [$k^{h}$] while the speaker with a partial pronunciation of /w/ had a long ratio of the following vowel.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.111-128
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• 2004

In English, a focused word with new information receives a pitch accent. This paper examines how English native speakers and Korean speakers produce and perceive focus in English yes-no questions. The production experiments show that native speakers realize an appropriate intonation of yes-no questions, in which a focused word has a low pitch accent followed by a high phrasal accent and a high boundary tone. However, Korean speakers usually give a high tone to a focused word. In a like manner, the perception experiments show that English native speakers judge a word with a low tone to be focused, while Korean speakers have difficulty in comprehending a focused word realized as a low tone. And it is found that Korean speakers tend to perceive low tones on sentence initial and final focused words better than those on sentence medial focused words, and they often perceive a word with a relatively high fundamental frequency or a sharp rise of fundamental frequency as a focused word. This paper shows that Korean speakers have trouble to produce and perceive an appropriate tonal pattern of a focused yes-no question, and that can cause confusion in a conversation with native speakers.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.23-27
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to find how English vowels /a, e, i, o, u/ affect the production of English labials /p, b, f, v/ by Korean learners of English. Sixty syllables were composed by five vowels and four labials in the syllable types CV, VC, and VCV. The nonsense syllables were produced three times by nine subjects. The major results show that (1) in inter-vocalic position, the subjects had higher scores in producing /v/ composed with /a, e, o/ and /u/, while subjects had lower scores in producing /p/ with /i/ and /o/, (2) in post-vocalic position, the subjects had higher scores in producing /v/ and /f/ with /a, e/, and /o/, while subjects had lower scores in producing /b/ with /e/ and /i/, and (3) in pre-vocalic position, the subjects had higher scores in producing /v/ with /e, o, u/ and /f/ with /u/, while subjects had lower scores in producing /b/ with /e/, /i/ and /u/. The results suggest that on the whole, Korean learners of English have much difficulty in producing /p/ with /i/ in inter-vocalic condition and /b/ with /i, /e/ in pre-vocalic position.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.185-193
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• 2013

This study investigates dialectal differences in the acoustic properties of Korean lenis, aspirated, and tense stops Seoul Korean (standard Korean) and Yanbian Korean (spoken in the largest Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China). This production study the main acoustic cues that each dialect uses to mark the laryngeal distinction between the three types of Korean stops. Measurements included VOT, and the initial F0 of the following vowel. Data collected from 10 young Seoul Korean speakers, 10 young Yanbian Korean speakers, and 6 older Yanbian speakers. two key findings: First, aspirated and lenis stops are mainly differentiated by F0 in Seoul Korean, and by $H1^*-H2^*$ in Yanbian Korean. Second, there is no VOT merger between lenis and aspirated stops in Yanbian Korean, whereas there is in Seoul Korean. These results are discussed in terms of the phenomenon of VOT shift and the function of F0t is argued that the function of F0 to substitute for VOT difference as a primary cue for the coding of laryngeal contrast can be predicted by the pitch accent system of the language involved.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.81-89
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• 2014

Korean English learners tend to have difficulty perceiving and producing English vowels. The purpose of this study is to examine a link between perceived and produced vowel spaces of Korean learners of English. Sixteen Korean male and female participants perceived two sets of English synthetic vowels on a computer monitor and rated their naturalness. The same participants produced English vowels in a carrier sentence with high and low pitch variation in a clear speaking mode. The author compared the perceived and produced vowel spaces in terms of the pitch and gender variables. Results showed that the perceived vowel spaces were not significantly different in either variables. Korean learners perceived the vowels similarly. They did not differentiate the tense-lax vowel pairs nor the low vowels. Secondly, the produced vowel spaces of the male and female groups showed a 25% difference which may have come from their physiological differences in the vocal tract length. Thirdly, the comparison of the perceived and produced vowel spaces revealed that although the vowel space patterns of the Korean male and female learners appeared similar, which may lead to a relative link between perception and production, statistical differences existed in some vowels because of the acoustical properties of the synthetic vowels, which may lead to an independent link. The author concluded that any comparison between the perceived and produced vowel space of nonnative speakers should be made cautiously. Further studies would be desirable to examine how Koreans would perceive different sets of synthetic vowels.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.9-17
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• 2017

The aim of this study is to examine whether Chinese Korean learners (CKL) can correctly produce the aspiration in 'a lenis obstruents /k/, /t/, /p/, /ʧ/+/h/ sound' sequence at the lexical and post-lexical level. For this purpose 4 Korean native speakers (KNS), 10 advanced and 10 intermediate CKL participated in a production test. The material analyzed consisted of 10 Korean sentences in which aspiration can be applied at different prosodic boundaries (syllable, word, accentual phrase). The results showed that for KNS and CKL, the rate of application of aspiration was different according to prosodic boundaries. Aspiration was more frequently applied at the lexical level than at the post-lexical level and it was more frequent at the word boundary than at the accentual phrase boundary. For CKL, pronunciation errors were either non-application of aspiration or coda obstruent omission. In the case of non-application of aspiration, CKL produced the target syllable as an underling form and they did not transform it as a surface form. In the case of coda obstruent ommision, most of the errors were caused by the inherent complexity of phonological process.