Korean Fortis Consonants and Post Obstruent Tensifcation: A Cognitive Approach

Korean fortis consonant is not included in the consonantal inventory, but a result of phonetic implementation at the phonetic level, P. With the framework of Cognitive Phonology, a construction of Post Obstruent Tensification is proposed in such a way that rule-ordering is eliminated. This enables us to overcome methodological problems raised in former analyses of fortis under geminate hypothesis, and give a uniform account for three categories of fortis consonants. By assuming extrasyllabicity of verb-stem-final, consonant neutralization of fortis in the coda position is explained by the invisibility at the P-level. and, therefore. modification of Coda Neutralization rule is called for.