Yoonjung Kang

The emergence of phonological adaptation from phonetic adaptation: English loanwords in Korean

This paper provides a detailed diachronic account of the adaptation of the English posterior coronal obstruents /ʃ ʧ ʤ/ in Contemporary Korean. These consonants are variably adapted with a glide (/j/ or /w/), and the distribution of the glides is conditioned by phonetic and phonological characteristics of the English input, as well as native phonotactic restrictions. The diachronic change in the occurrence of /w/ serves as an example of a variable phonetic detail in the input that is faithfully represented in loans in earlier stages, but which is subsequently eliminated in the emerging norm. Given this data, I propose how what, on the surface, may appear to be a ‘phonological’ adaptation can arise through regularisation of what is essentially a ‘phonetic’ adaptation. This study highlights the complexity of loanword adaptation and the importance of examining all of the different factors shaping this process.

Interlanguage Segmental Mapping as Evidence for the Nature of Lexical Representation

The traditional view of phonological representation assumes that lexical representation is economical and free of redundancy and that a phoneme is represented as a combination of contrastive phonetic features. The traditional view, however, is challenged by the recent developments in phonological theories. In Optimality Theory, the distinction between contrastive vs. non-contrastive aspects of pronun- ciation is made not by the lexical representation but by the constraint ranking and the commonly adopted principle of Lexicon Optimization requires lexical representation to be as close to the surface representation as possible. An exemplar model of phonology also assumes that predictable and redundant phonetic properties are also specified in the lexical representation and that each contextual variant of a phoneme forms a separate phonetic category. The current paper reviews recent studies on segmental mapping in interlanguage phonology, examines the nature of the L1 phonological representation that the mapping crucially refers to, and discusses how the interlanguage data bear on the debate on the nature of the lexical representation.

Frequency effects on the vowel length contrast merger in Seoul Korean

Abstract This paper presents an apparent-time study of the vowel length contrast merger in Seoul Korean based on duration measurements of over 370,000 vowels in word-initial syllables in a read-speech corpus. The effects of word frequency on vowel duration and the lexical diffusion of long-vowel shortening are also examined. The findings confirm the observation made in the previous literature that the vowel length contrast is on its way out in the language, and that this sound change is nearing completion. We also find a significant effect of frequency on long-vowel duration: other things being equal, these vowels are shorter in high-frequency words than in low-frequency words. The rate of change does not differ significantly depending on the frequency of words apart from the high-frequency words reaching the endpoint of change and bottoming out in the change earlier than mid- and low-frequency words. The observed frequency effect is compatible with a model in which the frequency effect on duration comes from on-line factors that affect phonetic implementation of speech sounds, along with an across-the-board lenition bias that drives the sound change, not from stored tokens of word-specific variants.

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

Abstract 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.

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 speake...

Cross-language correspondences in the face of change: Phonetic independence versus convergence in two Korean-Mandarin bilingual communities:

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: We investigate the robustness of cross-language phonetic correspondences in two bilingual communities over time, focusing on whether corresponding sounds (e.g. Mandarin /s/ and Korean /s’/) remain coupled in the face of language change, or whether the categories diverge over time in younger, more proficient bilinguals. Design/Methodology/Approach: We quantify the extent of assimilation versus independence of categories across languages by comparing bilinguals’ production of place of articulation and laryngeal contrasts in Mandarin and Korean sibilants. Distinct language-internal changes were expected on each dimension. Data and analysis: 107 speakers varying in age (aged 19–83), gender, and dialect participated in the study. Acoustic measurements (center of gravity of frication, voice onset time) and statistical analyses were performed on a total of ~11,000 tokens. Findings/Conclusions: The extent of cross-language independence differed on the two dimensions. Corresponding segments across the two languages remained tightly coupled in terms of place of articulation, even in the face of change; on the other hand, a language-internal change in the Korean laryngeal contrast left corresponding Mandarin segments unaffected, resulting in divergence of originally corresponding categories. We also found unpredicted changes on each dimension, and these changes progressed concurrently in the two languages. Originality: The study of correspondences in the context of independent sound change provides a unique perspective from which to evaluate the robustness of cross-language interaction, and the parallel analysis of two separate dimensions in two communities adds to the generalizability of results. Significance/Implications: Most changes occurred concurrently in the two languages, suggesting that similar phonetic categories across languages can remain tightly coupled, even in highly proficient bilinguals where phonetic independence is expected. However, one of the primary expected changes (voice onset time merger in Korean) did not affect corresponding segments in Mandarin, indicating that the extent of cross-language independence in phonetic correspondences may differ even within the same population. We discuss potential reasons for the different results.

Vowels of Korean dialects

This study compares the monophthongal vowels /a ɛ e i ʌ ɨ o u/ of two North Korean dialects as spoken by ethnic Koreans in China (24 Phyeongan and 21 Hamkyoung) with the vowels of Seoul Korean (25 younger and 32 older). Younger and older speakers of Seoul Korean are compared to examine the sound change in progress in Seoul. The most striking difference among the dialects is in the realization of /o/ and /ʌ/. In Seoul, /o/ is produced higher than /ʌ/. In Phyeongan, /o/ is lower than /ʌ/, while in Hamkyoung, the two are comparable in height and the main contrast is along F2. Also, /e/-/ɛ/ contrast is lost in Seoul but robust in the Northern dialects. Within Seoul Korean, the back vowel shift observed in recent literature is confirmed (Cho S. 2003, Han J. and Kang H. 2013, and Kang Y. to appear)—/o/ is raised toward /u/ while /ɨ/ is fronted away from /u/ in younger speakers’ speech. In contrast to recent reports of /u/-/ɨ/ and /o/-/ʌ/ merger in homeland North Korean dialects (Kang S. 1996, 1997, Kwak 2003, a...

Diachronic change in perception of Korean sibilants

The laryngeal contrast in the Seoul dialect of Korean is in a state of flux: the increasing importance of f0 (relative to VOT) in both perception and production of the three-way stop contrast in younger (vs. older) Seoul speakers has been well-documented. The current work turns to perception of the Korean sibilant series, comprised of a three-way affricate contrast, (fortis vs. lenis vs. aspirated, parallel to the stop contrast) and a phonologically ambiguous two-way fricative contrast (fortis vs. “nonfortis”). We map younger (mean 33 years old) and older (mean 66) Seoul listeners’ perceptual spaces for the sibilant class using a five-way forced-choice task, with stimuli manipulated to vary independently across multiple acoustic dimensions (consonantal spectral information, vocalic spectral information, frication duration, aspiration duration, and f0). Hierarchical classification tree analyses reveal systematic age-related differences in cue-weighting. While both age groups make use of a combination of sp...