An experimental study of Korean rhythm structure on the basis of rhythm metrics

Abstract

This paper investigates the rhythm structure of Korean. Metrics used in this study included %V, ΔC, Varco V, nPVI-V, and rPVI-C, which have been shown to reflect differences in rhythm structure (stress-, syllable-, and mora-timing) across languages. Ten female native Koreans each produced 20 short declarative Korean sentences. The rhythm metric results of Korean were compared to those of English, Spanish, and Japanese using raw data from previous studies [Ramus et al. 1999, Cognition 73, 265-292; White and Mattys, 2007, Journal of Phonetics 35, 501-522; Grenon and White, 2008, BUCLD 32, 155-166]. Results indicate that Korean combines aspects of both syllable timing and mora timing. Korean has a similar ΔC, Varco V, and nPVI-V to syllable-timed languages. Korean has a similar %V and nPVI-V to mora-timed languages. These data show that instead of belonging to one of three distinct rhythm categories, languages may be placed along a rhythm structure continuum. On such a continuum, Korean is placed between syllable-timed and mora-timed languages, and distinct from stress-timed languages.