Local relationship in consonant insertion

Abstract

When a consonant is inserted in the Korean total reduplication, the choice of a consonant is not randomly made. Among other factors that may affect the choice of a consonant, this paper focuses on the local relationship in the consonant insertion, and argues that the choice of a consonant refers to context; that is, a consonant is chosen by some contextual requirements. The epenthetic behavior makes reference to a preceding consonant, as well as a following vowel, in a reduplicative form of VCVC-CVCVC, in which C indicates an inserted consonant. The local relationship in the process of consonant insertion is viewed with general wellformedness conditions in the language, e.g. sub-syllabic constituency and syllable contact. Sub-syllabic constituency requires that an inserted consonant refer to the existing following vowel. Syllable contact laws play a crucial role in determining an inserted consonant following an existing consonant on the border of syllables.