Gender and Age Differences on the Acoustic Analysis of Stops in Jeju Korean

Abstract

The study explores the acoustic properties of stops produced by Korean speakers of Jeju and examines how they differ by comparing VOT, F0, and H1-H2 in terms of speaker gender and age. The findings indicated that as for the VOT, the lax stops increase while the aspirated stops decrease as speakers get younger. In particular, a significant change in the aspirated stops was observed for the middle-aged female speakers. For the F0, the middle-aged adult groups showed a significant difference between the lax and the aspirated stops than in any other groups, especially for the female speakers. This implies that middle-aged female speakers complement VOT with F0 when discriminating the lax from the aspirated stops. The unique acoustic characteristics that appear for the middle-aged female speakers can be explained as a temporary phenomenon, not a diachronic change. In addition to VOT and F0, it is worth noting that H1-H2 could be employed as an acoustic cue for the classification of stops. The current study suggests that the acoustic properties observed in Jeju Korean should be interpreted through sociophonetic perspectives, and in particular, the acoustic changes in the aspirated stops are worthy of notice.