Allophonic Rules and Determining Factors of Allophones in Korean

한국어의 변이음 규칙과 변이음의 결정 요인들

This paper aims to discuss determining factors of Korean allophones and to formulate and classify Korean allophonic rules systematically. The relationship between allophones and coarticulation, the most. influential factor of allophonic variation, is thoroughly investigated. Other factors -- speech tempo and style, dialect, and social factors such as age, set, class etc. -- are also briefly discussed. Allophonic rules are classified into two groups -- 3) those relevant to coarticulation and 2) those irrelevant to coarticulation. Rules of the first group are further classified into four subgroups according to the directionality of the coarticulation. Each allophonic nile formulation is explained and discussed in detai1. The allophonic rules formulated and classified in this paper are 1) Devoicing of Voiced Consonants, 2) Devoicing of Vowels, 3) Nasal Approach and Lateral Approach, 4) Uvularization, 5) Palatalization, 6) Voicing of Voiceless Lax Consonants, 7) Frication, 8) Labialization, 9) Nasalization, 10) Release Withholding and Release Masking, 11) Glottalization, 12) Flap Rule, 13) Vowel Weakening, and 14) Allophones of /ㅚ, ㅟ, ㅢ/ (which are realized as diphthongs or as monophthongs depending on phonetic contexts).