영어 어미 ‘-ge’에서 보이는 마찰음의 무성음화 현상: 파열음의 기음화와 모음의 비음화

Abstract

In English, the pronunciation of the suffix ‘-ge’ is generally allocated between fricative /ʒ/ and affricate /dʒ/. However, sometimes they are devoiced to /ʃ/ and /tʃ/, respectively. So far, this phenomenon has been well known as ‘articulatory reduction’ or ‘lenition’: the devoicing from /z/ to /s/, for example. This paper analyzes the examples containing the suffix ‘-ge’ (e.g. ‘camouflage’, ‘sabotage’, and ‘bricolage’), which show these phonological phenomena frequently. Two of the main parameters are considered as primary causes: ‘plosive aspiration’ and ‘vowel nasalization’ around the adjacent syllable. Praat is used for the measurement of voice onset time and spectrum analysis based on a fast Fourier transformation (FFT) and linear prediction coding (LPC) filter. For the normalization of aspirated plosive prefix sounds, a novel concept of ‘specific impulse’ is proposed and utilized for the assessment of aerodynamic load. It is also explained that the bypass of airflow at the vowels involving nasal consonants enhanced the devoicing. Therefore, we constructed a guideline for the predictive criteria of sound in the suffix containing fricatives, /ʒ/ and /ʃ/.