Phonetic Convergence and Divergence in the Seoul dialect

Abstract

This study examines whether the lexical pitch accent of the Kyungsang dialect and /wɑ/ monophthongization are imitated by Seoul dialect speakers in an auditory naming task. The goal of the study relates to what is imitated in the phonetic signal. To answer this question, the study examines how relative salience between two linguistic features affects phonetic accommodation. Fifty words as produced by a speaker of the Kyungsang dialect served as stimuli for a shadowing task. The first and second formants of disyllabic words containing the diphthong /wɑ/ and the F0 of disyllabic words with the HL tone were acoustically analyzed for phonetic accommodation. Overall, the results suggest that in terms of the diphthong /wɑ/, participants were more likely to converge toward the Kyungsang model talker, producing their vowel as more monothongized. With respect to the lexical pitch accent, participants were less likely to converge to the model talker, producing the target words with the same tone.