Dialect contact and word-specific phonetics: North Koreans in Seoul

Abstract

This study examines the speech of North Korean refugees who currently reside in Seoul. We investigate (a) how the North Korean speakers’ stops are affected by contact with Seoul Korean and (b) whether words only commonly used in the North and words newly acquired in the South are realized differently. The data were collected from 35 Hamkyeoung speakers, balanced for age (born before vs. after 1975) and time since arrival in Seoul (0–3 vs. 3–15 years). Twenty Seoul speakers also participated as a comparison group. Participants produced 78 stop-initial words with two repetitions, evenly divided into North vs. South lists, balanced for laryngeal feature, place of articulation, and the following vowel height across the lists. The results show that in line with previous literature, Hamkyeoung aspirated stops are longer in VOT than Seoul stops and Hamkyeoung lenis stops are shorter in VOT than Seoul stops. We found evidence for contact-induced phonetic drift for aspirated stops, but not for lenis stops—earlier arrivals produce aspirated stops with a shorter VOT than recent arrivals. We found no evidence of word-specific phonetic representation and stops were produced with a comparable VOT value regardless of their Northern vs. Southern origin.