Phonetics and Speech Sciences (말소리와 음성과학)

Korean Society of Speech Sciences (한국음성학회)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

Lengthening and shortening processes in Korean

  • Kang, Hyunsook (Department of English Language and Culture, Hanyang University) ;
  • Kim, Tae-kyung (Center for Integrated General Education, Hanyang University)
  • Received : 2020.07.29
  • Accepted : 2020.09.16
  • Published : 2020.09.30
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

This study examines the duration of Korean lax and tense stops in the prosodic word-medial position, their interactions with nearby segments, and the phonological implications of these interactions. It first examines the lengthening of consonants at the function of the short lax stop. Experiment 1 shows that the sonorant C1 is significantly longer before a short lax stop C2 than before a long tense stop. Experiment 2 shows that the short lax stop C1 cancels the contrast between the lax and tense obstruent at C2, making them appear as long tense obstruents (Post-Stop Tensing Rule). We suggest that such lengthening phenomena occur in Korean to robustly preserve the contrastive length difference between C and CC. Second, this study examines the vowel shortening, known as Closed-Syllable Vowel Shortening, before a long tense stop or before the consonant sequence. Experiment 3 suggests that it be interpreted as temporal adjustment to make the interval from the onset of a vowel to the onset of the following vowel of near-equal length. Conclusively, we suggest that Korean speech be planned and controlled with two specific intervals. One is the duration of contrastive consonant intervals between vowels, and the other is the duration from the onset of a vowel to the onset of the following vowel.

Keywords

References

  1. Abercrombie, D. (1967). Elements of general phonetics. Chicago, IL: Aldine.
  2. Bolinger, D. (1965). Forms of English: Accent, morpheme, order. Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press.
  3. Cho, Y. (1990). The parameters of consonantal assimilation (Doctoral dissertation). Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
  4. Choi, S., & Jun, J. (1998). Are Korean fortis and aspirated consonants geminates? Linguistic Research, 34(3), 521-546.
  5. Delattre, P. (1966). A comparison of syllable length conditioning among languages. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 4(3), 183-198. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral.1966.4.1-4.183
  6. Diehl, R., Kluender, K., Walsh, M., & Parker, E. (1991). Auditory enhancement in speech perception and phonology. In R. Hoffman & D. Palermo (eds.), Cognition and the symbolic processes: Applied and ecological perspectives (pp. 59-76). Hillsdale, JM: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  7. Ham, W. (2001). Phonetic and phonological aspects of geminate timing. New York, NY: Routledge.
  8. Han, J. (1996). The Phonetics and phonology of "tense" and "plain" consonants in Korean (Doctoral dissertation). Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
  9. Han, M. (1992). The timing control of geminate and single stop consonants in Japanese: A challenge for nonnative speakers. Phonetica, 49(2), 102-127. https://doi.org/10.1159/000261906
  10. Idemaru, K., & Guion, S. (2008). Acoustic covariants of length contrast in Japanese stops. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 38(2), 167-186. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025100308003459
  11. Jun, S. (1993). The phonetics and phonology of Korean prosody (Doctoral dissertation). Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
  12. Jun, S. (1995). Asymmetrical prosodic effects on the laryngeal gesture in Korean. In B. Connell (Ed.), Papers in laboratory phonology 4 (pp. 235-253). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  13. Kim, C. (1970). A theory of aspiration. Phonetica, 21(2), 107-116. https://doi.org/10.1159/000259293
  14. Kim-Renaud, Y. (1974). Korean consonantal phonology (Doctoral dissertation). University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI.
  15. Kim, M. (2000). Segmental and tonal interactions in English and Korean: A phonetic and phonological study (Doctoral dissertation). The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
  16. Kim, T. (2014). A phonetic study on two successive stop consonants with the same place in Korean. Journal of Language Sciences, 21(3), 45-64. https://doi.org/10.14384/kals.2014.21.3.045
  17. Lisker, L. (1957). Closure duration and the intervocalic voiced-voiceless distinction in English. Language, 33(1), 42-49. https://doi.org/10.2307/410949
  18. Low, L., Grabe, E., & Nolan, F. (2000). Quantitative characterizations of speech rhythm: Syllable-timing in Singapore English. Language and Speech, 43(4), 377-401. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309000430040301
  19. Maddieson, I. (1985). Phonetic cues to syllabification. In V. Fromkin (ed.), Phonetic linguistics: Essays in honor of Peter Ladefoged (pp. 203-221). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
  20. Oh, J. (2015). A study on isochronism in the rhythm of the Korean language. Korean Linguistics, 68, 95-115.
  21. Oh, M., & Johnson, K. (1997). A phonetic study of Korean intervocalic laryngeal consonants. Speech Sciences, 1(1), 83-101.
  22. Pike, K. (1945). The Intonation of American English. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
  23. Ramus, F., Nespor, M., & Mehler, J. (1999). Correlates of linguistic rhythm in the speech signal. Cognition, 73(3), 265-292. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-0277(99)00058-X
  24. Sohn, H. (1987). Underspecification in Korean phonology (Doctoral dissertation). University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, Urbana.
  25. Steriade, D. (1999). Alternatives to syllable-based accounts of consonantal phonotactics. Proceedings of LP' 98 (pp. 205-245). Columbus, OH.
  26. Silva, D. (1992). The phonetics and phonology of stop lenition in Korean (Doctoral dissertation). Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.