Seoul Korean Research Articles

On the role of contrastivity in the development of the /e $$\sim \upvarepsilon /$$ ∼ ε / merger in Korean

This paper seeks to assess the role of functional factors in the development of the /e $$\sim $$ $$\upvarepsilon $$ / unconditioned merger that has taken place in Seoul Korean. We explore several alternative measures of functional load, one measure of phonetic distance evaluated on a perceptual scale, and a simple integrative measure, which combines functional load and phonetic distance into a single ‘contrastivity index.’ Our results show that, while both functional load and perceptual distance hint at the fact that /e $$\sim $$ $$\upvarepsilon $$ / was a weak contrast, this effect is clearest when these two factors are integrated together, especially when functional load is measured as phone-level entropy loss. The proposed metric thus offers a fruitful way of modeling the interaction between functional factors in the development of mergers.

若年層韓国語ソウル方言における/o/と/u/の言語変化の一側面―先行子音種と発話単位の違いが2母音の重なりに与える影響―

若年層韓国語ソウル方言における/o/と/u/の言語変化の一側面―先行子音種と発話単位の違いが2母音の重なりに与える影響―

The emergence, progress, and impact of sound change in progress in Seoul Korean: Implications for mechanisms of tonogenesis

This study examines the origin, progression, and impact of a sound change in Seoul Korean where the primary cue to a stop contrast in phrase-initial position is shifting from VOT to f0. Because it shares similarities with the initial phase of tonogenesis, investigating this “quasi-tonogenetic” sound change provides insight into the nature of the emergence of contrastive f0 in “tonogenetic” sound changes more generally. Using a dataset from a large apparent-time corpus of Seoul Korean, we built mixed-effects regression models of VOT and f0 to examine the time-course of change, focusing on word frequency and vowel height effects. We found that both VOT contrast reduction and f0 contrast enhancement are more advanced in high-frequency words and in stops before non-high vowels, indicating that the change is spreading across words and phonetic contexts in parallel. Furthermore, speakers suppress non-contrastive variation in f0 as f0 emerges as a primary cue. Our findings suggest that one impetus for tonogenetic change is production bias coupled with an adaptive link between the cues. We further discuss the role of Korean intonational phonology on f0 which may help explain why the phonetic precondition leads to change in Seoul Korean but not in other languages.

Dialect contact and word-specific phonetics: North Koreans in Seoul

This study examines the speech of North Korean refugees who currently reside in Seoul. We investigate (a) how the North Korean speakers’ stops are affected by contact with Seoul Korean and (b) whether words only commonly used in the North and words newly acquired in the South are realized differently. The data were collected from 35 Hamkyeoung speakers, balanced for age (born before vs. after 1975) and time since arrival in Seoul (0–3 vs. 3–15 years). Twenty Seoul speakers also participated as a comparison group. Participants produced 78 stop-initial words with two repetitions, evenly divided into North vs. South lists, balanced for laryngeal feature, place of articulation, and the following vowel height across the lists. The results show that in line with previous literature, Hamkyeoung aspirated stops are longer in VOT than Seoul stops and Hamkyeoung lenis stops are shorter in VOT than Seoul stops. We found evidence for contact-induced phonetic drift for aspirated stops, but not for lenis stops—earlier arrivals produce aspirated stops with a shorter VOT than recent arrivals. We found no evidence of word-specific phonetic representation and stops were produced with a comparable VOT value regardless of their Northern vs. Southern origin.

Prosodic asymmetry in phonetic reorganization of Seoul Korean 3-way voiceless stop contrast

In younger generation Seoul Korean speakers, a phonetic reorganization of VOT and f0 in the phrase-initial stop contrast (i.e. aspirated, lenis, fortis) has been well documented. The current study elucidates how this local consonant effect on f0 further interacts with the global tonal patterns of the accentual phrase (AP). We test how the initial 3-way stop contrast is phonetically realized in AP-initial and AP-internal prosodic positions for six younger generation speakers (born 1980-1990). Our results show that the consonant effect on f0 is categorical in AP-initial position, compared to exhibiting a gradient effect in AP-internal position. We confirm an AP-initial VOT merger between aspirated and lenis stops, accompanied by an increased between-consonant f0 difference. In AP-internal position, along with a small but significant f0 difference, we found a near-merger of VOT between lenis and fortis stops, arising from the substantially reduced occurrence of intervocalic lenis voicing. Taken together, our findings provide novel evidence of an intricate interaction between phrase-level prosody and the local phonetic reorganization in the newly emerged phonetic system of Seoul Korean stops. [Work supported by NIH.]

The distribution of the retroflex lateral allophone of the liquid phoneme in Korean

The liquid phoneme in Korean is known to have an optional retroflex allophone in syllable-final positions (Lee 1999). However, there lacks literature evaluating when and how this retroflex allophone is realized. To define the distribution of the retroflex allophone of the liquid phoneme in Korean, this study uses a read speech corpus of Seoul Korean to track the rhotacization of the liquid phoneme in coda positions. Rhotacization of the liquid is detected and measured by the lowering of the third formant. Preliminary results show that the liquid phoneme in coda position is realized as retroflex when preceded by a back vowel, and when followed by another liquid phoneme (gemination). The results suggest that the liquid phoneme is not simply optionally rhotacized in coda positions; instead, the retroflex allophone is realized in contexts defined by the preceding vowel and the following consonant. Future research remains to further examine the articulatory and perceptual aspects of the rhotacization.

Phonetic realizations of the post-consonantal liquid in North and South Korean dialects

This study presents large-scale production data of consonant-liquid sequences in North and South Korean dialects. It is known that in South Korean, the liquid /L/ is not allowed in post-consonantal onset position and is nasalized not only after a nasal (e.g., /kɨmLi/ → [kɨmni] “interest”) but after a stop, involving the nasalization of the stop (e.g., /sʌpLi/ → [sʌmni] “providence”). We investigate whether this holds (i) for Seoul Korean speakers who become familiar with the onset liquid through exposure to English and (ii) for North Korean speakers who retain the onset liquid in their dialect. Thirty five North Korean defectors speaking Northern Hamkyeong dialect and 20 Seoul Korean speakers read 236 Korean words including a nasal-liquid (/mL, nL, ŋL/) or a stop-liquid sequence (/pL, kL/). Acoustic measurements for the sequences include formant frequencies, high/low frequency energy ratios, and presence of closure and release. Results show that the most common pattern is the nasalized output, with speaker and lexical variation. The post-consonantal /L/ was also realized as the lateral [l] or the tap [ɾ], depending on the speaker’s age (old vs. young) and the dialect (north vs. south).

Social and stylistic variation in vowel raising in Seoul Korean

Yi, So Young. 2017. “Social and stylistic variation in vowel raising in Seoul Korean”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 25(3). 165~197. The purpose of this study is to examine extralinguistic factors that influence vowel raising of /o/ in constituent-final -ko and -to in Seoul Korean, focusing mainly on the influence of social variations and stylistic variations on this phenomenon. The Sociolinguistic interview data showed that older speakers used the most raised variant of /o/ in the AP-medial position, which is evidence for age-grading for the following reasons: (i) the linguistic marketplace, which is an important concept in age-grading, supports this idea because older people use the non-standard form of /o/, which is the raised variant, after they leave the workforce, and (ii) the unraised variant does not push out the raised variant, but rather, they co-exist. In addition, stylistic variations related to the formality of the speech setting and the solidarity between interactants affect the vowel, leading to vowel raising (i) in casual speech situation and (ii) in interaction with an addressee with whom the speaker is intimate; these trends are especially salient for younger speakers.

韓国語ソウル方言の平音・激音・濃音の先行母音および後続母音における高さ，強さ，フォルマントの時間的変化

韓国語ソウル方言の平音・激音・濃音の先行母音および後続母音における高さ，強さ，フォルマントの時間的変化

Phonological Trends in Seoul Korean Compound Tensification

This study investigates Seoul Korean compound tensification. Based on the data collected through a survey, it shows that various phonological factors contribute to the overall tensification probability. The tendencies caused by these factors are follows: (i) tensification is more likely with high frequency items; (ii) tensification is more likely when WA ends with an obstruent, followed by a nasal, liquid and a vowel in order; (iii) tensification is less likely when WB contains a laryngeally marked consonant; (iv) tensification is more likely when WB ends with a liquid and WA also begins with a coronal consonant. This study also provides a formal analysis of this phenomenon, using OT constraints. The specific weights of each constraint are evaluated through Maxent Grammar Tool. This weighted set of the constraints was highly successful in predicting the applicability of compound tensification. Thus, the grammar suggested for Seoul Korean compound tensification can be learned from the actual native speakers’ pronunciation data, and also that this learned grammar can capture the various tendencies observed in this phenomenon.

Effects of age, sex, context, and lexicality on hyperarticulation of Korean fricatives

Seoul Korean is known for a rare three-way laryngeal contrast among lenis, fortis, and aspirated voiceless stops, which has recently undergone a change in phonetic implementation: whereas older speakers rely more on voice onset time (VOT) to distinguish lenis and aspirated stops, younger speakers rely more on onset fundamental frequency (f 0) in the following vowel. This production difference is reflected in disparate strategies for enhancing the contrast in clear speech, supporting the view that younger and older speakers represent the three laryngeal categories differently in terms of VOT and f 0 targets (Kang & Guion, 2008). In the current study, we used the clear speech paradigm to test for change in the representation of the two-way contrast between fortis (/s*/) and non-fortis (/s/) fricatives. Native Seoul Korean speakers (n = 32), representing two generations and both sexes, were recorded producing the coronal stops and fricatives in different vowel contexts, item types (real vs. nonce words), and speech registers (plain citation vs. clear). We report acoustic data on how the above factors influence production of the fricative contrast and discuss implications for the phonological categorization of non-fortis /s/ as lenis, aspirated, or a hybrid lenis-aspirated category.

Prosodic focus in Seoul Korean and South Kyungsang Korean

This study employed production and perception experiments in an exploration of whether “purely” prosodic marking of focus is weak and ambiguous in...

K-SPAN: A lexical database of Korean surface phonetic forms and phonological neighborhood density statistics.

This article presents K-SPAN (Korean Surface Phonetics and Neighborhoods), a database of surface phonetic forms and several measures of phonological neighborhood density for 63,836 Korean words. Currently publicly available Korean corpora are limited by the fact that they only provide orthographic representations in Hangeul, which is problematic since phonetic forms in Korean cannot be reliably predicted from orthographic forms. We describe the method used to derive the surface phonetic forms from a publicly available orthographic corpus of Korean, and report on several statistics calculated using this database; namely, segment unigram frequencies, which are compared to previously reported results, along with segment-based and syllable-based neighborhood density statistics for three types of representation: an "orthographic" form, which is a quasi-phonological representation, a "conservative" form, which maintains all known contrasts, and a "modern" form, which represents the pronunciation of contemporary Seoul Korean. These representations are rendered in an ASCII-encoded scheme, which allows users to query the corpus without having to read Korean orthography, and permits the calculation of a wide range of phonological measures.

Prosodic Marking of Narrow Focus in Seoul Korean

This paper explores prosodic marking of narrow (corrective) focus in Seoul Korean. Korean lacks lexical stress and it has a phonologized association between the Accentual Phrase (AP) initial segment and intonation. In the experiment, 4 speakers read sentences including a two-item list which were designed to elicit either an L or H AP-initial tone. The durational variations, the pitch events at prosodic boundaries, and F 0 span in 32 sentences read neutrally and 64 sentences read with one of the items under focus were analyzed. The results show that the focused constituent consistently initiates a new prosodic phrase. In comparison to the neutrally spoken or defocused counterpart, the focused constituent was more likely to be realized as an Intonational Phrase (IP) in some contexts. Bitonal IP boundary tones were more likely to occur under focus than monotonal tones. In addition, in focused constituents, durational expansion particularly at the phrase-edges, expansion in F 0 span, and raising of the phrase-initial pitch were observed. On the other hand, defocused constituents were not phonetically reduced compared to the neutral counterparts. The results imply that the phonetic cues spreading over the focused constituent complement the exaggerated prosodic boundaries.

Ongoing Tonal Change in Seoul Korean: From Tonogenesis and Lexical Diffusion Perspectives

Ongoing Tonal Change in Seoul Korean: From Tonogenesis and Lexical Diffusion Perspectives

서울 방언 단모음의 소리 변화와 음향 단서 연구: 단일지점 포먼트와 궤적 양상

While acoustic studies in the past decade documented a raised /o/ by showing their lowered first formants (F1) almost overlapped with those of high back vowel /u/, no consensus has been made in terms of how this /o/-raising affects the vowels as a system in Seoul Korean. The current study aimed to investigate the age- and gender-related differences of the relative distance among the vowels to better understand the influence of this on-going sound change on the vowel system. We measured the static and dynamic spectral characteristics (F1 and F2) of the seven Korean monophthong vowels /e a ʌ o u ɨ i/ in the spontaneous speech of Seoul Corpus, and depicted the patterns of 30 individual speakers (10 speakers in each group of teens, 20s and 40s) as a function of age and gender. The static spectral examination showed low F1 values of /o/ in the spontaneous speech corpus confirming the vowel /o/ raising, and also revealed greater F2 values of /u, ɨ/ suggesting their anterior articulations. The tendencies were stronger when the speakers were younger and female. The spectral trajectories further showed that the F1 and F2 between /o/ and /u/ were differentiated throughout the vowel mid-point although the trajectories gradually merged near the vowel mid point in the older male speakers' productions. The acoustic evidence of contrast among /o, u, ɨ/ supports that the raised /o/ is not indicative of a merger with /u/ but rather implying a chain-like vowel shift in the Seoul Korean.

Dialect Contact and Linguistic Accommodation

This study investigates standard Seoul Korean speakers’ linguistic accommodation in dialect contact situations. In particular, the study examines how ‘gender’, ‘age’, and ‘length of residency in Gyeongsang’ can affect participants’ accommodation in dialect contact. The study also examines speakers’ motivations for accommodation in dialect contact. In addition, this study investigates correlations of participants’ accommodative acts and attitudes towards both the Gyeongsang dialect and standard Seoul Korean as well as attitudes towards Gyeonsang Province and Seoul. To find this correlation, the present study collected two kinds of data : phonetic data and identity assessment data. Participants carried out three tasks: TEST1, designed for investigating phonological variation, TEST2, designed for exploring lexical pitch accents, and an identity assessment questionnaire.

Consistent sound change between stops and affricates in Seoul Korean within and across individuals: A diachronic investigation.

This study investigated whether sound change that Korean stops currently undergo occurred consistently for affricates at both the group and individual levels. This study compared the duration and F0 properties of Seoul Korean stops to those of the affricates produced by older and younger speakers. Group results showed consistent sound change between the two consonant manner types. In addition, individual examination indicated stability in use of duration and F0 within an individual, and enabled further understanding of the group pattern. The findings provided phonetic evidence to generalize the sound change of the stops to other Korean obstruents.

Perception of English Stress by Korean Speakers: A Comparative Study of the Three Dialect Groups of Seoul Korean, Chonnam Korean, and North Kyungsang Korean

Perception of English Stress by Korean Speakers: A Comparative Study of the Three Dialect Groups of Seoul Korean, Chonnam Korean, and North Kyungsang Korean

Word-specific effects on sound change of the lexical pitch accent in Kyungsang Korean.

This study investigated word-specific effects for the on-going sound change of the lexical pitch accent of Kyungsang Korean, arguably induced by influence from the standard Seoul Korean. This study tested whether Kyungsang speakers produced and perceived words used only in Kyungsang areas differently from the words used both in Seoul and Kyungsang areas. In production and perception experiments, Kyungsang speakers exhibited more conservative patterns for the word used only in the Kyungsang area compared to the other type of words. Implications on the sound change of the lexical pitch accent in Kyungsang Korean were discussed based on an exemplar framework.