• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제7권3호
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• pp.79-88
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• 2015

English vowels are difficult to teach and learn because both teachers and learners cannot show or see shapes of vocal tract inside their own mouth cavities. The aim of this study is to examine what kind of changes occur in production and perception of English vowels by college students before and after lessons in order to provide fundamental materials for teaching students English vowels. Fifteen volunteer female students attending an English phonetics course participated in the lessons for one and half a month period. Formant values of vowels produced and perceived before and after the lessons were obtained using Flying Popcorn and Praat. Results showed that a produced vowel space after the lessons was greater than that before the lessons with no significant difference. Distances between some adjacent corner vowels were too close to be distinguished. Secondly, perceived vowels before and after the lessons were almost the same. Here again, some adjacent vowels were closely spaced. Thirdly, three groups which were divided by the length of the distance between the vowel /i-${\ae}$/ showed similar patterns in their perception and production. Generally the vowel space expanded from [u] to [${\ae}$]. The author concluded that there was no drastic improvement of vowel perception and production within a short period of time. Further studies would be desirable to examine how successful any long-term English vowel lessons would be and which methods should be taken to evaluate students' achievements proposed here.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제8권1호
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• pp.37-44
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• 2016

The goal of the current study is to investigate how the sound change is reflected in production or in perception, and what the effect of lexical frequency is on the loss of sound contrasts. Specifically, the current study examined whether the vowel length contrasts are retained in Korean speakers' productions, and whether Korean listeners can distinguish vowel length minimal pairs in their perception. Two production experiments and two perception experiments investigated this. For production tests, twelve Korean native speakers in their 20s and 40s completed a read-aloud task as well as a map-task. The results showed that, regardless of their age group, all Korean speakers produced vowel length contrasts with a small but significant differences in the read-aloud test. Interestingly, the difference between long and short vowels has disappeared in the map task, indicating that the speech mode affects producing vowel length contrasts. For perception tests, thirty-three Korean listeners completed a discrimination and a forced-choice identification test. The results showed that Korean listeners still have a perceptual sensitivity to distinguish lexical meaning of the vowel length minimal pair. We also found that the identification accuracy was affected by the word frequency, showing a higher identification accuracy in high- and mid- frequency words than low frequency words. Taken together, the current study demonstrated that the speech mode (read-aloud vs. spontaneous) affects the production of the sound undergoing a language change; and word frequency affects the sound change in speech perception.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.1-7
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relations between phonetic differences among Korean learners' production of English front vowels, pronunciation intelligibility and speaking proficiency test score. To do so, thirty Korean university students were asked (1) to read English text book paragraphs and (2) describe a picture. Two English native raters and one Korean rater evaluated Korean subjects' English pronunciation intelligibility and speaking. In addition, subjects' English vowel productions were acoustically analyzed(F0, F1, F2, vowel duration, intensity). The results of the study show that the vowel quality and pitch of the unstressed vowels and lax vowel are related to the pronunciation intelligibility. In addition, the scores of pronunciation intelligibility and speaking are highly related.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.1-13
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• 2019

This study explored the relationship between accurate vowel production and proficiency levels in L2 English produced by Korean EFL adult learners. To this end, nine English vowels /i, ɪ, ɛ, æ, ʌ, ɔ, ɑ, ʊ, u/ were selected and adjacent vowels paired up (e.g., /i/-/ɪ/, /u/-/ʊ/, /ɛ/-/æ/, /ʌ/-/ɔ/, /ɔ/-/ɑ/). The spectral features of the pairs were measured instrumentally, namely F1 (indicating tongue height) and F2 (indicating tongue backness). Meanwhile, the durations as well as spectral features of the tense and lax counterparts in /i/-/ɪ/ and /u/-/ʊ/ were measured, as both temporal and spectral features are important in distinguishing them. The findings of this study confirm that higher-rated speakers were better able to distinguish the contrasts in the front vowel pairs /i/-/ɪ/ and /ɛ/-/æ/ than lower-rated learners, but in the central and back vowel pairs /u/-/ʊ/and /ʌ/-/ɔ/ (though not /ɔ/-/ɑ/), Korean EFL learners generally showed difficulty distinguishing adjacent vowels with spectral cues. On the other hand, the durations of the tense and lax vowels showed that the lower-rated speakers were less able to use the temporal feature to differentiate tense vowels from their lax counterparts, unlike previous studies that found that in general Korean learners depend excessively on the temporal cue to distinguish tense and lax vowels.

• 사상체질의학회지
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• 제19권3호
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• pp.75-88
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• 2007

1. Objectives The purpose of this study was to objectively diagnose American male and female's production of two vowels /a, i/ by Sasang Constitution. 2. Methods It was analyzed the constitutional characteristics of the American adults voices with PSSC-2004. of 134 cases of vowels /a, i/ with a duration of $2.5{\sim}3$ seconds were inputted in PSSC-2004 and analyzed into 40 factors. 3. Results and Conclusions 1) APQ In the male group's production of vowel /a/, the Soyangin's APQ(l), APQ(3) and APQ(4) were significantly high compared with those of Taeumin and Soeumin. 2) Shimmer In the male group's production of vowel /a/, Soeumin's Octave1 Shimmer was significantly low compared with that of Taeumin and Soeumin. In the male group's production of vowel /i/, Soeumin's D-Shimmer was significantly low compared with that of Taeumin and Soeumin. In the female group's production of vowel /a/, the Soyangin's C-Shimmer was significantly high compared with that of Taeumin and Soeumin. 3) Octave In the male group's production of vowel /a/, the Soyangin's Octave3, Octave4, Octave5, Octave6 and Octave1 Ratio were significantly high compared with those of Taeumin and Soeumin. In the male group's production of vowels /a, i/, the Soyangin's Octave4 was significantly high compared with that of Taeumin and Soeumin. 4) Energy In the male group's production of vowel /a/, the Soyangin's Time Domain Total Sum /Time Domain Count, Freq Domain Total Sum /cnt(0), 0k-4k Total Sum, Dev., A(A#, C, E, D#, E, F#) tot E, and A(C,, D#, F#) Dev. were significantly high compared with those of Taeumin and Soeumin. In the male group's production of vowel /i/, the Soyangin's Time Domain Total Sum /Time Domain Count, Freq Domain Total Sum /cnt(0) and 0k-4k Total Sum, Dev. were significantly high compared with those of Taeumin and Soeumin. 5) Peak In the male group's production of vowels /a/ and /i/,, the Soyangin's Peak1 Ratio was significantly low compared with that of Taeumin and Soeumin. In the male group's production of vowels /a/ and /i/,, the Soyangin's Peak10 Ratio, Time Domain Peak Total/Total Energy Sum, Time Domain Peak Dev. and Total/Total Dev. Sum were significantly high compared with those of Taeumin and Soeumin. 6) It is necessary to expand the research of the acoustic analysis of American and Korean to other countries in the diagnosis of the Sasang Constitution by using the voice characteristics.

• 대한음성학회지:말소리
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• 제68권
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• pp.1-15
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• 2008

This study investigated the vowel effect on laryngeal DDK (L-DDK) in terms of rate, regularity, and range. Thirteen normal speakers participated in this experiment. Speakers were asked to repeat the vowels /a, e, i, o, u/ for vocal fold adduction DDK, and /ha, he, hi, ho, hul for vocal fold abduction DDK. Acoustic data was analyzed via Motor Speech Profile. There were 6 parameters: DDKavp and DDKavr for rate of L-DDK, DDKcvp and DDKjit for regulariry of L-DDK, and DDKavi and DDKcvi for range of L-DDK. Results of MANOVA and Fredman analysis showed no significant vowel effect on rate and regularity of L-DDK. MANOVA revealed significant effects of vowels and vocal fold ab/adduction on range of L-DDK. DDK peak intensity (DDKavi) in vowel /i/ production was lower than in vowels /a, e, o, u/. Variation of DDK peak intensity (DDKcvi) was significantly greater for /ha/ than for /a/ production. The implication of these findings on voice and speech pathology is discussed.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제5권2호
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• pp.71-79
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• 2013

This study provided longitudinal examination of the Chinese learners' acquisition of the Korean vowels. Specifically the author examined whether Korean monophthongs are acquired rapidly in early stages of learning (Flege, Munro and Skelton, 1992; Munro and Derwing, 2008) or they develop rather gradually in proportion to the learners' experience (Byee, 2001; Ellis, 2006). This study collected the Korean vowel production by 23 Chinese learners for a year, and then analysed F1 and F2 of each Korean vowel. The results showed that 1) Most of the second language (L2) vowels were rapidly improved during the first six or nine months of Korean learning before reaching the constant stage; and 2) The exact acquisition trajectories varied across the seven vowels. Specifically the vowels which were acquired in the early stage of learning were /i, e, ɨ/ for F1 and /ʌ, e, o, u/ for F2. Thus this study supports the hypothesis of Flege et al. (1992) and Munro and Derwing (2008) except the fact that each vowel showed the different learning route.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제8권3호
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• pp.11-20
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• 2016

It is well known that vowels are shorter before voiceless consonants than voiced ones in English, as in many other languages. Research has shown that the ratio of vowel durations in voiced and voiceless contexts in English is in the range of 0.6~0.8. However, little work has been done as to whether the ratio of vowel durations varies depending on English variety. In the production experiment in this paper, seven speakers from three varieties of English, New Zealand, British, and American English, read 30 pairs of (C)VC monosyllabic words which differ in coda voicing (e.g. beat-bead). Vowel height, phonemic vowel length, and consonant manner were varied as well. As expected, vowel-shortening effects were found in all varieties: vowels were shorter before voiceless than before voiced codas. Overall vowel duration was the longest in American English and the shortest in New Zealand (NZ) English. In particular, vowel duration before voiceless codas is the shortest in New Zealand English, indicating the most radical degree of shortening in this variety. As a result, the ratio of vowel durations in varying voicing contexts is the lowest in NZ English, while American and British English do not show a significant difference each other. In addition, consonant closure duration was examined. Whereas NZ speakers show the shortest vowel duration before a voiceless coda, their voiceless consonants have the longest closure duration, which suggest an inverse relationship between vowel duration and closure duration.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제3권4호
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• pp.23-31
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• 2011

This paper examines the production patterns of the acquisition of coda consonants in monosyllabic words in English-speaking children with cochlear implants. The data come from the transcribed speech of children with cochlear implants. This study poses three questions. First, do children with cochlear implants acquire onset consonants earlier than codas? Second, do children's productions have a bimoraic-sized constraint that maintains binary feet? Third, what patterns emerge from production of coda consonants? The results revealed that children with cochlear implants acquire onset consonants earlier than codas. With regard to the bimoraic-sized constraints, the productions of vowel type (i.e., monomoraic and bimoraic) were more accurate for monomoraic vowels than bimoraic ones for some children with cochlear implants, although accuracy in vowel productions showed high proportion regardless of vowel types. The variations of coda production exhibited individual differences. Some children produced less sonorant consonants with high frequency and others produced more sonorant ones. The results of this study were similar to those pertaining to children with normal hearing. In the process of coda consonant acquisition, the error patterns of prosody-sensitive production may be regarded as articulatory challenges to produce higher-level prosodic structures.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제5권3호
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• pp.31-38
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• 2013

This study investigated the influence of English vowel pronunciation training to English word-initial stop pronunciation. For that purpose, VOT values of English stops produced by twenty Korean English learners(five Youngnam dialect male speakers, five Youngnam dialect female speakers, five Kangwon dialect male speakers, and five Kangwon dialect female speakers) were measured using the Speech Analyzer and their post-training production was compared with their pre-training production. The result shows that post-training VOT values of voiced stops became closer to those of native English speakers in all four groups. Hence, it can be inferred that vowel pronunciation training is effective for correcting pronunciation of voiced vowels by analyzing the change of the quality of following vowels(especially low vowels) and the degree of giving stress.