• MALSORI
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• v.55
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• pp.45-60
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• 2005

The purpose of this paper is to represent values of acoustic cues for Korean oral stops in the multi-dimensional space, and to attempt to find possible relationships among acoustic cues through correlation analyses. The acoustic cues used for differentiation of 3 types of Korean stops are closure duration, voice onset time and fundamental frequency of a vowel after a stop. The values of these cues are plotted in the two and three dimensional space to see what the critical cues are for separation of different types of stops. Correlation coefficient analyses show that multi-variate approach to statistical analysis is legitimate, and that there are statistically significant relationships among acoustic cues but Oey are not strong enough to make the conjecture that there is a possible relationship among the articulatory or laryngeal mechanisms employed by the acoustic cues.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.49-53
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• 1997

Aberrations in VOT measures in apraxia of speech are indicative of speech motor programming impairment. In English, overlaps of VOT between voiceless and voiced plosives have been frequently observed in patients with apraxia of speech. Unlike English, Korean plosives constitute trichotomy in terms of manner of production, that is, voiceless aspirated /p', t', k'/ ; voiceless or voiced, weakly aspirated /p-b, t-k, k-g/ ; or voiceless, heavily aspirated /p, t, k/. In this spectrographic study, VOT measures during Korean plosives produced by a patient with apraxia of speech were compared to those by age- and gender- matching normal subjects. The results indicated that there were partial overlaps between VOT of /b, d, g/ and those of /p, t, k/, implying that the errors were phonetic in nature. In addition, larger VOT variabilities in apraxia of speech compared to the normals were noted.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.3
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• pp.109-117
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• 1998

This paper tests whether the VOT (Voice Onset Time) contributes to the perception of tense and plain stops in Korean in the initial position. Previous studies have yielded opposite results regarding the role of the VOT in the distinction of these two stop categories. One the one hand, Lisker and Abramson (1964), Kim (1965), and Han and Weitzman (1970) suggest that the Korean plain and tense stops exhibit overlapping values of VOT and thus that, unlike many other languages, the VOT fails to serve as a cue to separate these stop categories. On the other hand, Silva (1991, 1992), and Lee (1991, 1994) use similar methods, but find that the VOT serve as the cue. In this study, the differences in the acoustic measurement with respect to the VOT of Korean plain and tense stops in initial prevocalic position will be tested preceptually, in seeking to determine whether these acoustic differences are used by listeners to distinguish these two stop types.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.50-57
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• 1999

A study to get the data of normal stop consonants production as preliminary study for cleft palate patients was performed. Normal Korean native 21 speakers were pronounced $VCV(V=/a/,C=/P/,/{P^1}/,/P^h/,/t/,/{t^1}/,/{t^h}/,/k/,/{k^1}/,/{k^h}/)$ syllables with natural speech rate and intensity. With intrapharyngeal pressure waveforms by pressure sensor in oropharyngeal cavity, amplitude and time duration of intrapharyngeal pressure were analyzed, and with acoustic waveforms and spectrograms, closure duration and VOT were analyzed. As results, the highest amplitude of intrapharyngeal pressure showed in alveolars and heavily aspirated consonants. Velars and unaspirated consonants were higher than bilabials and slightly aspirated ones each, in intrapharyngeal pressure. Bilabilas, alveolars and velars showed similar rise time of intrapharyngeal pressure build-up, but in decay time and total duration time, bilabials were slightly shorter than alveolars and velars, with no statistic significance. In the aspects of tensity, unaspirated consonants showed the longest rise time, heavily aspirated, the second, and slightly aspirated consonants, the shortest, which were also seen in decay time and total duration time. In closure duration, slightly aspirated consonants had the shortest closure duration, and the heavily aspirated ones, the second, and unaspirated consonants showed the longest. In VOT, heavily aspirated consonants showed the longest, slightly aspirated ones, the second and unaspirated ones showed the shortest.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.39-51
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• 2021

Based on spontaneous speech data collected in 2020, this study examined the production and perception of Korean lenis, aspirated, and fortis stops. Unlike the controlled experiments of previous studies, lenis and aspirated stops of males in their 30s were not distinguished by voice onset time (VOT) in spontaneous speech. Perceptual experiments were conducted on young females, the leaders of language change. F0 was found to serve as the primary cue for the perception of lenis stops, and then VOT distinguished the aspirated and fortis stops. The fact that the sounds were always perceived as lenis stops when F0 was low, irrespective of whether VOT was short or long, showed that F0 plays an absolute role in the perception of lenis stops. However, in some cases the aspirated and lenis stops were distinguished only by VOT, which does not happen in production. In terms of sound change, disagreement between production and perception systems occurs when sound change is in progress. In particular, when production change precedes perception change, it indicates that the sound change is in its latter stages. Young females still maintain the previous system in perception because the distinction of lenis and aspirated stops by VOT was valid in their parents' generation. In other words, VOT is still used for perception to communicate with other groups.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.77-86
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• 2022

This study aimed to investigate the voice onset time (VOT) of plosives in the VCV syllables by the place of articulation and phonation type spoken by children with bilateral cochlear implants (CIs) in comparison with children with typical hearing (TH). In all, 15 children with bilateral CIs and 15 children with TH participated in this study, aged between 5 to 10 years. All children produced 9 VCV syllables and their VOT were analyzed by the Praat software. There was no significant difference in mean VOT between children with bilateral CIs and children with TH. However, there was a significant difference in mean VOT by the place of articulation, such that the VOT for velars were longer than those for bilabials and alveolars. Additionally, there was a significant difference in mean VOT by the phonation type, such that the VOT of aspirated consonants were longer than those of lenis and fortis consonants. The results of this study suggest that children with bilateral CIs can distinguish the acoustic properties of plosive consonants and control the speech timing between the structures of the larynx and the oral cavity at a similar level as children with TH.

• 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.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.63-70
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• 2019

This study investigated individual variability of L2 learners' categorical judgments of L2 stops by exploring English learners' perceptual processing of two acoustic cues (voice onset time [VOT] and f0) and working memory capacity as sources of variation. As prior research has reported that English speakers' greater use of the redundant cue f0 was responsible for gradient processing of native stops, we examined whether the same processing characteristics would be observed in L2 learners' perception of Korean stops (/t/-/t^h/). 22 English learners of L2 Korean with a range of L2 proficiency participated in a visual analogue scaling task and demonstrated variable manners of judging the L2 Korean stops: Some were more gradient than others in performing the task. Correlation analysis revealed that L2 learners' categorical responses were modestly related to individuals' utilizations of a primary cue for the stop contrast (VOT for L1 English stops and f0 for L2 Korean stops), and were also related to better working memory capacity. Together, the current experimental evidence demonstrates adult L2 learners' top-down processing of stop consonants where linguistic and cognitive resources are devoted to a process of determining abstract phonemic identity.

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.427-452
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• 2003

Korean is famous for having all voiceless stop sounds. Korean does have voiced stops but they are considered to exist only as the allophones of word initial /p, t, k/. My experiment shows the English word initial stop sounds [b, d, g] and the Korean lax stop series /p, t, k/ in word initial position are similar in the range of voice onset time. If English word initial[b, d, g] sounds are posited as voiced, then Korean word initial /p, t, k/ should be classified as voiced also. Phonetically English /b, d, g/ phonemes and Korean /p, t, k/ phonemes are very similar except the word initial [p, t, k] are devoiced slightly more, but not significant enough to be classified as voiceless than English word initial [b, d, g]. If we posit /b, d, g/ as Korean phonemes, it explains why Korean /p, t, k/ series has the allophones [b, d, g] instead of fortis stops /p', t', k'/ in Korean even though /p', t', k'/ has less positive VOT value than /p, t, k/. If we posit /b, d, g/ as Korean phonemes, then it does not cause spelling or pronunciation confusion either when Koreans learn English or English speakers learn Korean.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.51-67
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• 2006

This study examined the acoustic properties of initial stops in Korean, produced by Korean native speakers and English Korean learners. The productions of Korean native speakers were compared with those of beginners and advanced learners of Korean. Fundamental frequency(F0) and Voice Onset Time(VOT) were measured in condition of one or two syllable words, containing word-initial lenis, fortis, and aspirated stops. English Korean Learners showed that they produced stops with relatively shorter VOT and lower F0, compared with those of Korean native speakers. In case of the manner of articulation, English Korean learners have production difficulties in order of lenis stops, aspirated stops, and fortis stops. In regard to the place of articulation, English Korean learners showed production troubles in order of labial stops, velar stops, and alveolar stops. In the experiment of perception, it is hard for English Korean learners to distinguish stops of lenis and aspirated. Therefore, the results of production experiment were almost consistent with those of the perception experiment. Finally, according to both groups of proficiency, the results demonstrated that the advanced learners produce or perceive Korean stops easier than the beginners.