• Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.105-110
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• 2002

This study compared nasalance in low pressure and high pressure consonants and high and low vowels. The subjects were 8 children with cleft palate ranging from 3 years 6 months to 8 years in age. The measurement were taken in terms of the nasalance scores associated with 20 different word stimuli (high consonants+high vowels, high consonants+low vowels, low consonants+high vowels, and low consonants+low vowels) for subjects. The nasalance scores may be affected by high consonants and vowels types, low vowels and consonants types.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.119-129
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• 2015

This paper investigates the status of the merger between the mid front unrounded vowels ㅔ[e] and ㅐ[${\varepsilon}$] in contemporary Korean. Our analysis is based on a balanced corpus of production and perception data from young subjects from three dialectal areas (Seoul, Daegu and Gwangju). Except for expected gender differences, the production data display no difference in the realization of these vowels, in any of the dialects. The perception data, while mostly in line with the production results, show that Seoul females tend to better discriminate the two vowels in terms of perceived height: vowels with a lower F1 are more likely to be categorized as ㅔ by this group. We then investigate the possible causes of this merger: based on an empirical study of transcribed spoken Korean, we show that the pair of vowels ㅔ/ㅐ has a very low functional load. We argue that this factor, together with the phonetic similarity of the two vowels, may have been responsible for the observed merger.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.193-206
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• 2001

The purpose of this experimental study was to investigate characteristics of English vowels uttered by Korean regional dialect speakers. Ten English mono-syllabic words, and eight Korean mono-syllabic words, were uttered six times by nine female graduate students from three areas: Seoul, Yongnam and Honam. Formant frequencies were measured from sound spectrograms made by the PC Quirer. Results showed that Seoul dialect speakers uttered English vowels more similar to those uttered by English native speakers than did the other dialect speakers. In particular, Yongnam dialect speakers have articulatory problems pronouncing the back vowels(/u/, /$\upsilon$/, /c/), while Honam dialect speakers have problems pronouncing the front vowels(/i/. /I/, /$\varepsilon$/, /$\ae$/). Even though each group has different problems pronouncing English vowels, Korean speakers generally have difficulty in discriminating tense vowels(/i/ and /u/) from the lax vowels(/I/ and /$\upsilon$/). It appears that the width of Korean speakers' articulatory movements is comparatively narrower than those of native English speakers.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.203-211
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• 2020

Given that American English and British English show differences for several vowels and that Korean students have mainly been exposed to American English, this study examined 27 Korean university students' identification of American and British English vowels. The results showed that Korean students' identification accuracy of American English vowels was higher (64.7%) than that of British English (54.7%), thus indicating that Korean students' familiarity with American English affected the students' identification of English vowels. However, vowel variation also affected students' identification of English vowels in that only the American English vowels in the words beat, bat, but, burt, bart, bite were better identified than the corresponding vowels in British English. Among the vowels which exhibit differences between American English and British English, the students' identification accuracy of the American English vowels in burt, bart, bat was significantly higher than that of British English and the error patterns for these vowels were also different. The analysis of vowel error patterns indicated that Korean students had much difficulty with non-rhotic vowels and [a] in bat in British English. Further, the vowels in bot and boat demonstrated a similar [ɑ]-[ɔ]-[ʌ] confusion and also a confusion between rounded vowels in spite of the differences of these vowels between American English and British English. Some pedagogical implications for teaching of English vowels were discussed based on the findings of the present study.

• MALSORI
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• no.56
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• pp.29-47
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• 2005

Investigating and comparing English vowels $/{\varepsilon}/\;and\;/{\ae}/$, and their-supposedly- corresponding vowels in Korean /ㅔ/ and /ㅐ/, this study addresses the following questions: Do Koreans pronounce/ㅔ/ and /ㅐ/ differently? Do they pronounce English $/{\varepsilon}/\;and\;/{\ae}/$ differently? And what is the relationship between the Korean vowels and the English vowels? Is the conventional correspondence (/ㅔ:${\varepsilon}/$, and /ㅐ/:${\ae)/$ appropriate? The results showed that 24 Korean male college students distinguish neither Korean /ㅔ/ and /ㅐ/ nor English $/{\varepsilon}/\;and\;/{\ae}/$, thus suggesting that their inability to distinguish the two vowels in their native tongue has an effect on their production of the English vowels. While not distinguishable within a language, Korean /ㅔ/ and /ㅐ/ still form a separate group from English $/{\varepsilon}/\;and\;/{\ae}/$. But Korean-Produced $/{\varepsilon}/\;and\;/{\ae}/$ are significantly different from American-produced $/{\varepsilon}/\;and\;/{\ae}/:$ Korean-produced $/{\varepsilon}/\;and\;/{\ae}/$ have much lower F1 and F2 than American-produced counterparts. Accordingly it is advised that, in learning English pronunciation, Korean students should be instructed to take the English vowel system as a separate system from Korean one, and thus, not to substitute Korean vowels for English vowels. And students should be provided with specific instructions on the articulatory differences between English vowels and Korean vowels. For example, Cey should be instructed to lower their jaws more for English $/{\varepsilon}/\;and\;/{\ae}/$ than for Korean /ㅔ/ and /ㅐ/.

• 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.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.171-184
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• 2001

American English vowels and Korean vowels were compared by the plotformant method. For American English vowels, six General American English speakers pronounced English words in the b_t environment. For Korean vowels eight Kyongsang dialect speakers and eight Seoul dialect speakers pronounced Korean words in the environments of k_t, p_t and t_t. The formant plots were obtained by plotting F1/F2 tokens of 13 American English vowels on the F1xF2 plane. In spite of personal variations the 13 vowel spaces of all six American English speakers maintained their relative positions with some overlaps. Clear distinctions were made between i-I, e-$\varepsilon$, u-$\sigma$, and o-c. The domain of c and $\alpha$ overlapped for three American English speakers, but it did not for three other speakers. The 8 Korean vowel spaces of Kyongsang dialect speakers and Seoul dialect speakers were very similar and maintained their relative positions. No distinction was made between e and $\varepsilon$. In contrast with American English e which is a neutral vowel, Korean e was a back vowel. The comparison of 13 American English vowel positions and 8 Korean Vowel positions is expected to shed some light on the errors of English vowel pronunciation of Korean learners.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.3
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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.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-23
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• 2018

This paper investigates how adult Mandarin- and English- speaking learners of Korean perceive Korean vowels, with focus on the effect of the first language (L1) and the second language (L2) acoustic relationship, as well as the influence of Korean language experience. For this study, native Mandarin and Canadian English speakers who have learned Korean as a foreign language, as well as a control group of native Korean speakers, participated in two experiments. Experiment 1 was designed to examine acoustic similarities between Korean and English vowels, as well as Korean and Mandarin vowels to predict which Korean vowels are relatively easy, or difficult for L2 learners to perceive. The linear discriminant analysis (Klecka, 1980) based on their L1-L2 acoustic similarity predicted that L2 Mandarin learners would have perceptual difficulty rankings for Korean vowels as follows: (the easiest) /i, a, e/ >> /ɨ, ʌ, o, u/ (most difficult), whereas L2 English learners would have perceptual difficulty rankings for Korean vowels as follows: (the easiest) /i, a, e, ɨ, ʌ/ >> /o, u/ (most difficult). The goal of Experiment 2 was to test how accurately L2 Mandarin and English learners perceive Korean vowels /ɨ, ʌ, o, u/ which are considered to be difficult for L2 learners. The results of a mixed-effects logistic model revealed that English listeners showed higher identification accuracy for Korean vowels than Mandarin listeners, indicating that having a larger L1 vowel inventory than the L2 facilitates L2 vowel perception. However, both groups have the same ranking of Korean vowel perceptual difficulty: ɨ > ʌ > u > o. This finding indicates that adult learners of Korean can perceive the new vowel /ɨ/, which does not exist in their L1, more accurately than the vowel /o/, which is acoustically similar to vowels in their L1, suggesting that L2 learners are more likely to establish additional phonetic categories for new vowels. In terms of the influence of experience with L2, it was found that identification accuracy increases as Korean language experience rises. In other words, the more experienced English and Mandarin learners of Korean are, the more likely they are to have better identification accuracy in Korean vowels than less experienced learners of Korean. Moreover, there is no interaction between L1 background and L2 experience, showing that identification accuracy of Korean vowels is higher as Korean language experience increases regardless of their L1 background. Overall, these findings of the two experiments demonstrated that acoustic similarity between L1 and L2 sounds using the LDA model can partially predict perceptual difficulty in L2 acquisition, indicating that other factors such as perceptual similarity between L1 and L2, the merge of Korean /o/ and /u/ may also influence their Korean vowel perception.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.195-200
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• 2013

This study investigates formant transition shapes of Korean front vowels produced by native speakers of Seoul Korean. Sixteen speakers (eight male and eight female speakers) produced [pVt] syllables where the vowels were [i, e, ɛ]. F1, F2, and F3 transition shapes were estimated by presenting formant values at 11 points by dividing the vowel duration into 10 different time intervals. The results indicated that the male and female speakers overall demonstrated similar formant transition shapes and measurement points arriving at the maximum and minimum formant values for the three front vowels. As for the vowels [e] and [ɛ], both male and female speakers showed similar formant values across the 11 measurement points and similar measurement points arriving at the maximum and minimum values, indicating that the two Korean vowels have been merged not only in the steady-state formant values, but also in the dynamic transition shapes.