The influence of inter-dialect contact on the Korean three-way laryngeal distinction: An acoustic comparison among Seoul, Gyeongsang, and bidialectal speakers

Abstract

This study investigates the acoustic correlates of the Korean three-way laryngeal stop distinction in Gyeongsang-based Seoul bidialectal speakers who were born in the Gyeongsang region but moved to Seoul to pursue higher-level education. The main purpose is to examine whether exposure to Seoul Korean affects bidialectal speakers' cue-weighting strategy to distinguish stops in production. Acoustic data were collected from 8 bidialectal, 5 Gyeongsang speakers (GK), and 11 Seoul speakers (SK). Bidialectal speakers produced stimuli in both Gyeongsang and Seoul dialect. A cue-weighting model of measured data reveals that VOT is less important to distinguish lenis from aspirated stops for SK and for bidialectal speakers' SK compared to GK and bidialectal speakers' GK. In addition, F0 is more important for the lenis-aspirated distinction for bidialectal speakers' SK and for SK compared to GK and bidialectal speakers' GK, showing that bidialectal speakers rely less on VOT and more on F0 to distinguish lenis from aspirated stops compared to GK. Bidialectal speakers' SK reveals that they rely more on VOT and less on F0 compared to SK. These results provide empirical support to previous studies (e.g., Lee & Jongman, 2019) suggesting that a series of changes in GK are due to inter-dialect contact.