Intensity Characteristics of Korean Obstruents

한국어 장애음의 강도 특성

This study investigates differences in intensity across the three different Korean obstruent types in terms of the RMS amplitude of both the entire section and the first 512 samples of the immediately following vowel in two positions. The results showed that for the utterance initial position the RMS amplitude of both the entire section and the first 512 samples of the vowel was greatest for fortis obstruents, intermediate for aspirated ones, and weakest for lenis ones, with a significant difference between each pair of them. For the intervocalic position, in contrast, the intensity of the entire vowel was greatest for fortis obstruents, intermediate for lenis ones, and weakest for aspirated ones, with no significant difference between the last two groups, whereas the intensity of the first 512 samples of the vowel was greatest for fortis obstruents, intermediate for lenis ones, and weakest for aspirated ones, with a significant difference between each pair of the three groups. This means that the intensity of the earlier part of the vowel functions as a discriminator of Korean obstruents. The positional difference is due to the different behavior of the lenis obstruents in the intervocalic position, such that the intensity build-up is already on its way with voice lead.