• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.69-76
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• 2017

The current study investigated the productions of /ɨ/ and /${\Lambda}$/ in Kyungsang Korean, which is known for undergoing a dispersion for the younger generation. Specifically, to identify the nature of /ɨ/ and /${\Lambda}$/ in Kyungsang Korean, this study examined the linguistic and social factors affecting directions and degrees of the /ɨ/-/${\Lambda}$/ dispersion. Sixteen young speakers of Kyungsang Korean repeated 112 (near) minimal pairs containing the two target vowels. The formant values of each production as well as the Euclidean distance between the two vowels were analyzed for four manipulated factors: gender (male vs. female), the existence of carrier phrases (words in isolation vs. words with a carrier phrase), the lexical status of stimulus words (real-word pairs vs. nonsense-word pairs), and the vowel position within a word (word-initial positions vs. word-final positions). The results indicated that the female speakers produced the two target vowels more distinctively than the male speakers, and so did when the words were produced in isolation. The results also revealed that the Euclidean distances were greater for the real-word pairs and in word-initial positions. Overall, the results suggested that the Kyungsang Korean speakers in their 20s could distinctively produce the two vowels /ɨ/ and /${\Lambda}$/, but this vowel dispersion is not a completed process, but an ongoing one.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.51-60
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• 2010

This study is to examine how Korean speakers realize English stress on the homographic words. Experiments were performed by Korean speakers three times, before stress instruction, immediately after instruction, and six weeks after instruction. First, duration, fundamental frequency, and intensity of the vowel in a stressed syllable of three homographic words produced by Korean speakers were compared with those of native speakers of English. The result shows that when the words were used as nouns, before instruction Korean speakers had shorter duration and lower fundamental frequency in the stressed vowel than the native speakers, which indicates that Korean speakers did not assign the primary stress on the first syllable of the nouns. After instruction, the values of duration and fundamental frequency were increased and the differences between two groups were decreased. Next, the values of these stress features measured three times were analyzed in order to find out how they changed through instruction. The analysis shows that after instruction the values of three features were increased compared to the ones before instruction, and that the biggest change was in duration of the vowel and the next was fundamental frequency. Six weeks after instruction, the values of duration and intensity were decreased than those immediately after instruction. This means that instruction is helpful for Korean speakers to assign the stress for the English homographic words, and that instruction and practice are needed repeatedly.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.3-10
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• 2014

This study investigated whether Korean vowels, /ɨ/ and /u/, are distinctively perceived after a labial consonant given the fact that native and Sino-Korean nouns showed only vowel /u/ after a labial consonant while this pattern was massively broken by the recent introduction of loanwords. For this purpose, a perception experiment was conducted with $V_1C_1V_2$ sequences in which different vowels /a, i, u/ and consonants /p, t, k/ occurred in $V_1$ and $C_1$ before the target $V_2$, /ɨ/ and /u/. The data was produced by six speakers each from two different age groups, Age20 and Age40/50 in the read speech style. The results showed that consonant /p/ attracted significantly more responses of /u/ from /VCɨ/ sequences and significantly less responses of /u/ from /VCu/ sequence than the other consonants did in both age groups. Furthermore, Age20 group showed significantly less percentage of /u/ responses than Age40 group when the preceding consonant was /p/ regardless of the target vowel. We suggest therefore that unlike the traditional belief of labial assimilation, there is neutralization after a labial consonant in which vowels /ɨ/ and /u/ are often realized as any sound between two vowels, /ɨ/ and /u/. That is, this vowel change is not categorial but it rather produces an ambiguous stimulus which attracts different responses from different listeners. Ambiguous stimulus was produced due to coarticulatory efforts in speech production and perceptual compensation. We also argue that there is generational difference such that Age40/50 group speakers showed stronger tendency to produce /u/ after a labial consonant regardless of whether the target vowel was /ɨ/ or /u/.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.162-172
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• 2004

This study investigates the following three things through a production experiment and acoustic analysis: 1) relationship between speech rate and the segment duration in Korean, 2) relationship between speech rate and spectral characteristics of vowels, i. e. undershoot, and 3) correlation between the vowel duration and undershoot. The results showed that the faster the speech rate nab, the shorter the duration of syllables and segments was. A few speakers were affected by speech rate in the durational ratios between closure and aspiration in a stop and between Towel and consonant in a syllable. Closure duration and vowel duration were more affected compared to aspiration and consonant duration, respectively. Speakers showed some differences in the extent to which speech rate affected vowel undershoot, implying that speakers used different production mechanisms for spectral characteristics of vowels: Some speakers speeded up movement of articulatory organs according to speech rate increase while some kept it constant regardless of speech rate change.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.97-100
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• 2005

The aim of the present study is to compare the vowel formants between generations in Daegu dialect. 20 Daegu dialect speakers were participated in this study; 10 were in their 40's, the other 10were in their 20's. As a result, the distance of /ㅣ/ and /ㅐ/, and, /ㅡ/ and /ㅓ/ in 20's is further than 40's, while the distance of /ㅗ/ and in 20's is closer than 40's. It seems reasonable to conclude that vowels in Daegu dialect change to have their own stable space, but /ㅗ/ and /ㅜ/ does not.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.91-99
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• 2018

Korean stops are currently undergoing a tonogenetic sound change, as found in the Seoul dialect in which a merged VOT of aspirated and lax stops induces F0 to be the primary cue for distinguishing the two stops and the lax stops have lower F0 than the aspirated stops. In tonal languages, low tone is produced with a breathy voice. This study investigated whether there are changes in voice quality with respect to the tonogenetic sound change of Korean stops. Two age groups speaking the Seoul dialect participated in this study: five females and six males born in the 1940s and 1950s and nine females and eight males born in the 1980s and 1990s. This study replicated previous findings of VOT and F0 and further examined H1-H2, H1-A1, and H1-A2 to see how they correlate with the sound change. In the older and younger generations, H1-H2, H1-A1, and H1-A2 were significantly lower after the tense stops than after the aspirated and lax stops, but they were not significantly different after the aspirated and lax stops. However, the younger females exhibited some different results for H1-H2 and H1-A2 than the older generation. In the younger females, the H1-H2 mean was higher after the aspirated stops than it was after the lax stops at the vowel onset, and the H1-H2 difference increased at the vowel midpoint. Although there was an inter-speaker variation in the results of H1-H2 and H1-A1, analyses of individual speakers showed that the H1-H2 and H1-A1 were higher after the lax stops than after the aspirated stops in the younger female speakers. These results indicate that lax stops tend to be breathier than aspirated stops in the younger female speakers. They also indicate that changes in voice quality are on Korean stops with tonal sound change, but are still developing.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.1503-1512
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• 1988

As the basic analysis to solve the within-and cross-speaker variability in phoneme based speech recognition, changes in pitch and formant frequencies of 8 Korean vowels with age and sex of speaker has been investigated by analyzing a large number fo samples. Conclusions obtained are as follows: 1) Changes in pitch frequency with age and sex of speaker for children are hard to distinguish and the difference of before and after the voice change is analyzed approximately 0.2 oct. for female an 0.9 oct. for male. 2) While most of the formants of vowel considerably change with the age of speaker, the change becomes smaller as the age becomes older. 3) While there is an indirect correlation between pitch and formant with change in age, it is hard to see a direct correlation. 4) When the objects of the recognition experiment by pitch and formants are various speakers in each age and sex, pitch also works as an efficient recognition parameter.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.33-41
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• 2013

This is a follow-up study on Han and Kang (2013) which argued that the Euclidean distances between /o/ and /u/ in Seoul Korean decreased in the first syllable position as speakers were among younger female speakers but not for male speakers, whereas in the second syllable position both gender groups showed a cross-generational decreasing effect of the Euclidean distance between /o/ and /u/. This study normalized the same data in Han and Kang (2013) which measured 12 speakers (six males and six females) for each Age group and investigated the spectral changes vowels /o/ and /u/ between age and gender, using the log-mean normalized statistical results. This study also examined overlap fraction values generated in SOAM 2D ($F1{\times}F2$) (cf. Wassink, 2006), which may also indicate the proximity of two vowels in question. The results showed that /o/ and /u/ vowels were making closer with /o/ raising for female speakers in $V_1$ and $V_2$ positions but only in the $V_2$ position for male speakers. That is, females led the upward movement of peripheral /o/ vowel, just like the raising of 'e' and 'o' in New York City (Labov, 1991). The results also showed that younger speakers used a rather narrow vowel space for the vowels. This also contributed to the proximity of the vowels /o/ and /u/, resulting in rather large overlap fraction values for younger speakers between these two vowels.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.14-22
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• 2003

In this study, we examined the acoustic characteristics of Korean vowels through a production test under three conditions of speaking rates (slow, normal, fast). The effects of a change in speaking .ate on vowel duration were found to be very strong. The faster speaking rate was, the shorter the total duration of vowels was. But the duration ratio of two components of diphthong was not changed significantly according to changes in speaking rate. But unlike the temporal aspects, the formant value of vowels at their steady-state and change ratio of formant of semivowels were not affected strongly by the change in speaking rate.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.11-16
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• 1998

Background and Objectives : Electrolarynx has been used as one of the methods of rehabilitation for the laryngectomees. Previous electrolarynx could not alter frequency and intensity simultaneously. This institute developed an electrolarynx named "Evada" using FSR(force sensing resistor) sensor, which can control the frequency(and/or intensity) simultaneously. This study was performed for the normal control and laryngectomees with three types of electrolarynx (Evada, Servox-inton, Nu-vois) to reveal functional characteristics of Evada Materials and Methods : five laryngectomees and five normal adults were made to express there sentences(discriptive sentence, "You stay here" ; question sentence, "You stay here？" ; exclamation sentence, "You!! stay here!"), using three types of electrolarynx. Frequency change and intensity change from first and last vowel was calculated in three sentences and analyzed statistically by paired T-test. Results : The frequency change in the question sentence and exclamation sentence was more prominent in Evada than in Servox-inton and Nu-vois. The intensity change in the question sentence and exclamation sentence was also more prominent in Evada than in Servox-inton and Nu-vois. Conclusions : Evada could control frequency and intensity simultaneously and control degree of frequency(and/or intensity) according to the pressing force into the button. Evada could adjust continuously frequency and intensity during conversation. So, Evada is better in producing intonation and contrastive stress than Nu-vois and Servox-inton.