VOT in the Surface Distinction of Korean Plain and Tense Stops in Initial Position: A Perception Test

This paper tests whether the VOT (Voice Onset Time) contributes to the perception of tense and plain stops in Korean in the initial position. Previous studies have yielded opposite results regarding the role of the VOT in the distinction of these two stop categories. One the one hand, Lisker and Abramson (1964), Kim (1965), and Han and Weitzman (1970) suggest that the Korean plain and tense stops exhibit overlapping values of VOT and thus that, unlike many other languages, the VOT fails to serve as a cue to separate these stop categories. On the other hand, Silva (1991, 1992), and Lee (1991, 1994) use similar methods, but find that the VOT serve as the cue. In this study, the differences in the acoustic measurement with respect to the VOT of Korean plain and tense stops in initial prevocalic position will be tested preceptually, in seeking to determine whether these acoustic differences are used by listeners to distinguish these two stop types.