The goals of the present study were (3) to collect and analyze sets of fundamental frequency (F0) and formant frequency (F1, F2, F3) data of Korean diphthongs from ten linguistically homogeneous speakers of Korean males, and (2) to make a comparative study of Korean monophthongs and diphthongs. Various definitions, kinds, and previous studies of diphthongs were examined in the introduction. Procedures for screening subjects to form a linguistically homogeneous group, time point selection and formant determination were explained in the following section. The principal findings were as follows: 1. Much variation was observed in the ongliding part of diphthongs. 2. F2 values of (j) group descended while those of [w] group ascended, 3. The average duration of diphthongs were about 110 msec, and there was not much variation between speakers and diphthongs. 4. In a comparative study of monophthongs and diphthongs, Fl and F2 values of the same offgliding part at the third time point almost converged. 5. The gliding of diphthongs was very short beginning from the h-noise. Perceptual studies using speech synthesis are desirable to find major parameters for diphthongs. The results of the present study wi11 be useful in the area of automated speech recognition and computer synthesis of speech.

This paper deals with the nature and function of intensification in Korean in a wider scope of context which was not paid proper attention. Unobserved new areas of intensification are paid more attention like sound split of polysemy e.g. [s'eda], [kyongk'i] by n of intensification and north Korean application of intensification on [wonsu] and intensification of borrowed English. The recent phenomenon of 'gwua' intensification is experimented on two groups of people, young students and old people beyond 65 years old by means of sociolinguistic analysis. The result shows that its intensification is a form of student violent power and a mark of extreme solidarity among activist students. In conclusion, the nature of so called saisiot[t] e.g. intensification is voiceless tensed pause and its functions are the polarization of the original meaning of the word, sound split of polysemy and attachment of social values by intensification.

Korean phonology has not recognised metrical foot as a phonological unit to account for certain phonological processes. This paper, however, suggests that an optional h-deletion process in Korean should require the notion of metrical foot as an independent phonological domain. The previous analyses rely on the notion of speech speed to explain optional h-deletion : i. e. an intervocalic h is deleted in fast speech, but in slow speech it remains. This paper claims that the notion of speech speed should be reinterpreted in terms of metrical foot : i.e. foot-internal t is deleted, but foot-initial h remains. Such analysis provides evidence that metrical foot constitutes a phonological unit in Korean phonology. With the notion of metrical foot, it enables us to achieve more detailed and accurate analysis of the optional h-deletion process in Korean.

This paper aims to explore the rhythmic phenomena of standard Korean by an experimental phonetic method. A total of 16 informants taking part in this experiment were divided into four groups : old males(OM) and old females(OF) in their fifties and young males(YM) and young females(YF) in their twenties. The informants were asked to read speech data consisting of two rhythmic units, each of which began with a stressed syllable with a long wowel. Starting with the frame / 'ma:1 'ma:nta /, the first rhythmic unit was expanded up to five syllables in all while keeping the second rhythmic unit constant with a view to investigate the pattern of increase in the interstress time interval. The results of this study are as follows: 1. There is a considerable difference between yen and old generations with respect to the duration of interstress interval . The young generation tends to speak faster than the old generation. This observation is supported by difference in the interstress intervals as exhibited by OM(389.66), OF(473), YM(275.55), YF(285.83) in the test frame '말 많다' ['ma:1 'ma:nta]. 2. Young and old generations showed a different tendency in the increase rate of duration between mono-syllables and polysyllables. In other words, the rhythm of young generation shows the tendency of syllable-timed language whereas that of old generation clearly leans towards the stressed-timed language.

Not all linguistic units are of equal importance in the functioning of language. The present study aims to examine He functional load of phonemes in standard Korean, To achieve this goal, B analysed continuous texts selected from the textbooks of elementary school on a personal computer. The total number of syllables studied in this thesis is 101,637. The characteristics of the Korean syllable structures are as follows. 1) In a syllable head, /n/ occurs most frequently. 2) The frequencies of syllables with an onset are much higher than those with no onset ( 85% : 15% ), 3) In a syllable head, obstruents are preferred because their consonantal strength are great, (57%) 4) In a syllable nucleus, /a/ occurs most frequently. 5) The rate of occurrence of the monophthongs is 90.2%, and that of the diphthongs is 9.8%. Especially the three basic vowels(/i,a,u/) occur at the rate of 46.6%. 6) In a syllable coda, /n/ occurs most frequently. 7) The open syllables are favored (open syllable 68.7%, closed syllable 31.3%).