Supralaryngeal articulatory signatures of three-way contrastive labial stops in Korean

Abstract

This study investigates how the three-way contrastive bilabial stops (/p⁎,p h,p/, called fortis, aspirated and lenis, respectively) in word-medial position in Korean are distinct kinematically at the supralaryngeal articulatory level. Results of a magnetometer experiment with seven speakers of Seoul Korean showed that the three-way contrastive stops in VCV sequences (V=/i/ or /a/) are indeed manifested at the supralaryngeal level—not only in consonantal articulation, but also in vocalic articulation of their adjacent vowels. Several specific points have emerged. First, stops were three-way distinct in constriction degree and constriction duration (/p*/>/p h/>/p/). Second, their contrast was also evident in temporal dimensions of the vocalic tongue movement with a three-way distinct pattern (/p*/>/p h/>/p/), and of the lip opening movement with a two-way distinction (/p*,p h/>/p/). Third, consonantal strength was further reflected in V-to-V coarticulation, such that longer constriction triggered more reduction of V-to-V coarticulation. However, there was a case (for /i/ in carryover direction) in which coarticulatory reduction was still observed even when the duration was factored in, showing duration-independent V-to-V coarticulatory resistance associated with the fortis and aspirated stops. Fourth, stable coordination was observed between the lip constriction and the vocalic tongue movement which is in line with previous findings in Japanese and English, suggesting cross-linguistic similarities in consonant–vowel gestural coordination regardless of the rhythmic structure of a given language.