Phonetics and Speech Sciences (말소리와 음성과학)

Korean Society of Speech Sciences (한국음성학회)
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Investigating vowel differences in North and South Korea: Phonetic analysis of younger speakers in read and conversational speech

  • Jungah Lee (Linguistics Convergence Institute, Chosun University) ;
  • Kaori Idemaru (East Asian Languages and Literature, University of Oregon)
  • Received : 2024.08.09
  • Accepted : 2024.09.10
  • Published : 2024.09.30
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Abstract

Previous studies have highlighted the linguistic divergence between North and South Korean varieties. Although acoustic differences between North and South Korean in vowel production have been prominently observed, the vowel production in the standard varieties of Pyongyang North Korean (NK) and Seoul South Korean (SK) has had limited investigation. This study aims to explore the phonetic differences in vowel production between NK and SK speakers across two speech styles: careful and conversational speech. We analyzed a total of 13,370 vowels from each of 22 younger NK and SK speakers (16 females and 6 males in each group). Our findings reveal significant differences in the production of the vowels [æ], [ʌ], and [o] between the two varieties. Specifically, NK speakers maintained a distinction in height between the [e]-[æ] pair, a contrast that was not observed among SK speakers. Additionally, in NK, the [ʌ]-[o] pair showed considerable overlap (vowel merger) in both height and backness dimensions. These results shed light on the phonetic divergence between NK and SK varieties, offering insights into the acoustic features of NK vowel production. In further study, this understanding is crucial for supporting adaptation of NK refugees from the perspective of second dialect acquisition in South Korea.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

We sincerely appreciate the NK and SK speakers for providing valuable data for this study. Their contributions have been essential to our research. We also extend our heartfelt thanks to the reviewers for their insightful feedback and helpful advice, which greatly improved this work.

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