• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제4권3호
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• pp.31-41
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• 2012

Recent studies have shown that the stop system of Korean is undergoing a sound change in terms of the two acoustic parameters, voice onset time (VOT) and fundamental frequency (f0). Because of a VOT merger of a consonantal opposition and onset-f0 interaction, the relative importance of the two parameters has been changing in Korean where f0 is a primary cue and VOT is a secondary cue in distinguishing lax from aspirated stops in speech production as well as perception. In English, however, VOT is a primary cue and f0 is a secondary cue in contrasting voiced and voiceless stops. This study examines how Korean English learners use the two acoustic parameters of L1 in producing L2 English stops and whether the sound change of acoustic parameters in L1 affects L2 speech production. The data were collected from six adult Korean English learners. Results show that Korean English learners use not only VOT but also f0 to contrast L2 voiced and voiceless stops. However, unlike VOT variations among speakers, the magnitude effect of onset consonants on f0 in L2 English was steady and robust, indicating that f0 also plays an important role in contrasting the [voice] contrast in L2 English. The results suggest that the important role of f0 in contrasting lax and aspirated stops in L1 Korean is transferred to the contrast of voiced and voiceless stops in L2 English. The results imply that, for Korean English learners, f0 rather than VOT will play an important perceptual cue in contrasting voiced and voiceless stops in L2 English.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.25-32
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• 2017

Besides their effect on the f0 contour of the following vowel, Korean stops are undergoing a sound change in which a partial or complete consonantal merger on voice onset time (VOT) is taking place between aspirated and lax stops. Many previous studies on sound change have mainly focused on group-normative effects, that is, effects that are representative of the population as a whole. Few systematic quantitative studies of change in adult individuals have been carried out. The current study examines whether the sound change holds for individual speakers. It focuses on inter-speaker and intra-speaker variability on sound change in contemporary Korean. Speech data were collected for thirteen Seoul Korean speakers studying abroad in America. In order to minimize the possible effects of speech production, socio-phonetic factors such as age, gender, dialect, speech rate, and L2 exposure period were controlled when recruiting participants. The results showed that, for nine out of thirteen speakers, the consonantal merger is taking place between the aspirated and lax stop in terms of VOT. There were also intra-speaker variations on the merger in three aspects: First, is the consonantal (VOT) merger between the two stops is in progress or not? Second, are VOTs for aspirated stops getting shorter or not (i.e., the aspirated-shortening process)? Third, are VOTs for lax stops getting longer or not (i.e., the lax-lengthening process)? The results of remarkable inter-speaker and intra-speaker variability indicate a synchronous speech sound change of the stop system in contemporary Korean. Some speakers are early adopters or active propagators of sound change whereas others are not. Further study is necessary to see whether the inter-speaker differences exceed intra-speaker differences in sound change.

• 대한후두음성언어의학회지
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• 제8권2호
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• pp.217-224
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• 1997

The present study was performed to investigate the voice onset time(VOT) of Korean stop consonants as the expanded research of Pyo and Choi(1996) : the intensity, and the air flow rate of Korean stops as the preliminary study f3r the classical singing training. Nine Korean stops(/P, P', $P^{h}$/, /t, t', $t^{h}$/, /k, k', $k^{h}$/) and a vowel /a/ were used as speech materials. CV and VCV syllable patterns were used for VOT measurement, and CV pattern was used for intensity and air flow rate measurement. Five males and five females pronounced the speech tasks with comfortable pitch and intensity : VOT, intensity, and air flow rate were measured. As results, the prevocalic stop consonants showed bilabials, the shortest VOT and velars, the longest one, except the unaspirated stops which showed the shortest was velar /k'/, and the alveolar /t'/ was the longest. Considering the tensity, heavily aspirated stops showed the longest, and the unaspirated, the shortest. Also the intervocalic stops showed similar results with the prevocalic stops, except the slightly aspirated stops which showed alveolar sound was the longest, and the bilabials, which showed the shortest was the slightly aspirated /p/, unlike the prevocalic stops, the unaspirated /p'/ the shortest. All of prevocalic stops showed the highest air flow rate in heavily aspirated stops, the second, thee slightly aspirated ones, and the lowest was the unaspirated stops. And as a whole, bilabials were the highest, and velars, the lowest, except in the heavily aspirated stops, which was the alveolar sound, the lowest. In the dimension of intensity, the unaspirated and bilabials were the highest, and the heavily aspirated and velars were e lowest, except the slightly aspirated stops, which were the bilabials the lowest, and the alveolars the highest.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제14권3호
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• pp.1-9
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• 2022

The current study examined English-speaking adult learners' production and perception of L2 Korean stops (/t/ or /t'/ or /t^h/) to investigate whether the two modalities are linked in utilizing voice onset time (VOT) and fundamental frequency (F0) for the L2 sound distinction and how the learners' L2 proficiency mediates the relationship. Twenty-two English-speaking learners of Korean living in Seoul participated in the word-reading task of producing stop-initial words and the identification task of labelling CV stimuli synthesized to vary VOT and F0. Using logistic mixed-effects regression models, we quantified group- and individual-level weights of the VOT and F0 cues in differentiating the tense-lax, lax-aspirated, and tense-aspirated stops in Korean. The results showed that the learners as a group relied on VOT more than F0 both in production and perception (except the tense-lax pair), reflecting the dominant role of VOT in their L1 stop distinction. Individual-level analyses further revealed that the learners' L2 proficiency was related to their use of F0 in L2 production and their use of VOT in L2 perception. With this effect of L2 proficiency controlled in the partial correlation tests, we found a significant correlation between production and perception in using VOT and F0 for the lax-aspirated stop contrast. However, the same correlation was absent for the other stop pairs. We discuss a contrast-specific role of acoustic cues to address the non-uniform patterns of the production-perception link in the L2 sound learning context.

• 음성과학
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• 제3권
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• pp.38-49
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• 1998

Dysarthrias are a sort of neuromotor disorders because of the weakness of neuromotor controls. They are classified in six types on the basis of Mayo clinic research: flaccid, spastic, ataxic, hypokinetic, hypekinetic and mixed types. Five dysarthria types are investigated in this study. MRI, EMG, neuropathological tests are essential diagnostic processing. Visi-Pitch and Spectrgraphy, CSL are used for assessing dysarthria speech. Maximum phonation time, diadochokinetic rate, Voice Onset Time and substitution rate are the speech evaluation parameters. Maximum phonation time and diadochokinetic rates are the lowest in case of spastic and ataxic dysarthrias. Spastic dysarthria shows the substituted glottalized consonants. However, flaccid, ataxic and hypokinetic dysarthrias show the substituted aspirated consonants. VOT is the longest for hypokinetic dysarthria and the shortest for ataxic dysarthria. Jitter shows higher percentage in comparison with control group. Speech evaluation using experimental phonetic instruments help create on international standardization of speech evaluation for speech disorders.

• 음성과학
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• 제7권2호
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• pp.139-155
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• 2000

The aim of this research is to investigate acoustic characteristics of three different types of Korean Stops-plain, tensed, and aspirated-, and employ these as a base to determine which one(s) can be used as perceptual cues. In this paper, we have examined acoustic characteristics of Korean Stops, especially voice onset time(VOT), closure duration(CD), degree of pitch of following vowels and differences in the intensity of the Stops build-up after the onset of voicing. From the above characteristics, differences can be made between word-initial and word-medial positions. That is to say, in word-initial position, the three Korean Stops are distinguished by VOT and pitch, whereas in word-medial by CD, VOT and pitch. However, the acoustic characteristics do not have the same value as perceptual cues. In both word-initial, and medial positions, the immediately following vowels play the most important role in perceiving Korean Stops. And in case of word'-medial positions,. CD and VOT also play important perceptual roles. In order to have a more fine-grained distinction among Korean Stops, we think future research should be done to investigate which factor(s) of the following vowels is/are the most determinative perceptual cue(s). However, based on our investigation, we may conclude that it is highly plausible that pitch can be one of the most important perceptual cues when distinguishing the three Korean Stops.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제5권4호
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• pp.81-90
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• 2013

This study explored how Korean L2 learners of English utilize multiple acoustic cues (VOT and F0) in perceiving and producing the English alveolar stop with a voicing contrast. Thirty-four 18-year-old high-school students participated in the study. Their English proficiency level was classified as either 'high' (HEP) or 'low' (LEP) according to high-school English level standardization. Thirty different synthesized syllables were presented in audio stimuli by combining a 6-step VOTs and a 5-step F0s. The listeners judged how close the audio stimulus was to /t/ or /d/ in L2 using a visual analogue scale. The L2 /d/ and /t/ productions collected from the 22 learners (12 HEP, 10 LEP) were acoustically analyzed by measuring VOT and F0 at the vowel onset. Results showed that LEP listeners attended to the F0 in the stimuli more sensitively than HEP listeners, suggesting that HEP listeners could inhibit less important acoustic dimensions better than LEP listeners in their L2 perception. The L2 production patterns also exhibited a group-difference between HEP and LEP in that HEP speakers utilized their VOT dimension (primary cue in L2) more effectively than LEP speakers. Taken together, the study showed that the relative cue-weighting strategies in L2 perception and production are closely related to the learner's L2 proficiency level in that more proficient learners had a better control of inhibiting and enhancing the relevant acoustic parameters.

• 음성과학
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• 제1권
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• pp.55-81
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• 1997

In the present paper, V-to-V coarticulation in Korean VCV sequences is discussed, focusing on links between consonantal production and degree of V-to-V coarticulation. Temporal and spatial differences between three types of Korean alveolar stops (lax /t/. aspirated /$t^h$/ and thense /t'/) are examined from VCV sequences involving all possible combinations of three Korean unrounded vowels /a, i,/ based on spectrographic and electrographic data(two male speakers and one female speaker and one female speaker respectively). Closure duration and voice onset time (VOT) were measured from acoustic data. 'Total duration', which is defined as the sum of the closure duration and the VOT, was also calculated in order to see the temporal distance between two vowels in a VCV sequence. Differences in lingual-palatal contact pattern at the maximum contact (MC) point between the three types of stop were observed from EPG data. V-to-V coarticulation was investigated by measuring the offset or onset of the second formant (F2) of the target vowels from spectrograms. Two different dimensions of articulation, temporal and spatial, seem to playa role in determining the degree of V-to-V coarticulation. The degree of V-to-V anticipatory coarticulation is influenced by the spatial characteristics of the intervening consonant while the degree of carryover coarticulation is influenced by the temporal characteristics of the consonant.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제2권3호
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• pp.3-10
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• 2010

The proposal that a sound change is occurring in Korean stops was evidenced in this study through identification experiments on Korean stops. Perceptual weight of acoustic correlates to Korean stop manner contrast [VOT (Voice Onset Time), H1-H2 (amplitude difference between the first and second harmonics), and F0 (Fundamental frequency)] was examined with re-synthesized /$t^ha$/, /ta/, and /$t^*a$/ syllables for younger and older Seoul speakers of Korean. For the identification of the aspirated and lenis stops, F0 cue weight relative to VOT was greater for the younger listeners than the older listeners. For H1-H2 cue weight, the two listener groups were more or less the same. These findings were parallel to the production differences found in the earlier work of the author. Combined with production differences, these perception differences between younger and older generations of Seoul speakers suggested that there are generational differences in the phonetic targets of Korean aspirated and lenis stops and such differences are realized in the perception of the stops.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제2권3호
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• pp.29-36
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• 2010

The purposes of this study are (1) to see if language transfer effect is found in Korean speakers' pronunciation of English stops and to correct them and (2) to investigate the effectiveness of mimicry training and Speech Analyzer training on subjects' pronunciation of English stops. For these purposes, 20 Korean speakers' VOT values of English stops were measured using Speech Analyzer and their post-training production was compared with their pre-training production. The result shows that Korean speakers have no difficulty in correcting pronunciation errors of English voiceless stops and voiced stops and such a result indicates that language transfer effect is not noticed as expected. In addition, the result of pronunciation training shows that the training using Speech Analyzer is more effective than mimicry training.