• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.291-305
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• 2020

Purpose : The duration of speech segments reflects children's speech motor development. The purpose of this study was to determine whether segmental sound and word duration varies by age among preschool children. Methods : A total of 60 children aged 4~5 years participated in this study. Participants took the picture-naming test to produce single-word speech data. The duration of the consonant at the initial position of the word and the final position of the word, the voice onset time of plosive, the duration of the vowel following the initial consonant, and the duration of the word were measured. Results : As age increased, the duration of the initial consonant, the duration of the word, and the voice onset time decreased significantly. The main effects of age, manner of articulation, and place of articulation on the duration of the initial consonant were significant. The duration of consonants in the nasal sound and plosives and the duration of bilabial and alveolar sound differed significantly between groups. The main effects of age and vocal type on voice onset time were significant. The main effect of age on the duration of the consonant in the final position of word and on the duration of the vowel were not statistically significant. Conclusion : The results of this study showed that the duration of segmental sound and the word were associated with speech development between 4 and 5 years old. Accordingly, duration of the segmental sound and the word may serve as an acoustic cue as they reflect speech development and speech motor control maturity.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.145-155
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• 2013

This study investigated the articulatory characteristics of Korean singleton and geminate sonorants in the word-medial position, effects of the duration of the sonorant consonant and the preceding vowel on perception, and the difference between native Korean speakers and foreign learners of Korean in perceiving the singleton and geminate consonant contrast. The Korean sonorant consonants(/m, n, l/) are examined from the VCCV, VCV sequences through speech production and perception experiments. The results suggest that the duration of the sonorant consonant is the most important factor for native Korean speakers to recognize whether sonorants are overlapped, and the duration of preceding vowel and other factors affect the recognition of singleton/geminate consonant contrast if the duration is not obvious. A perception experiment showed Chinese Korean language learners did not clearly distinguish singleton consonants from geminate consonants. The results of this study provide basic data for recognition of singleton/geminate consonant contrast in word-medial of Korean language, and can be utilized for teaching Korean pronunciation as a foreign language.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.19-25
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• 2017

The current study focused on the production of geminate nasal consonants across different word boundary types in Korean as a function of speech style to investigate whether temporal properties are preserved across varying speaking rates. Assimilated geminates in Korean, known as true geminates, are produced with distinctively longer consonant duration compared to singletons. Despite a large body of literature for geminates across different languages, geminates in Korean have been relatively less investigated with respect to the durational patterns in relative terms and temporal variabilities. In this study, singletons, word-internal geminates and word-boundary (fake) geminates produced by ten native Seoul Korean speakers were compared in terms of absolute consonant closure duration, preceding vowel duration, the relative ratios (consonant-to-preceding vowel duration) as well as the temporal variabilities in speech production. The results showed that word-internal geminates were produced with longer consonant duration and greater temporal variabilities than singletons and word-boundary geminates in absolute duration, indicating relatively greater flexibility in timing. However, only word-internal geminates were produced with distinctively longer consonant duration with significantly lower variability in relative duration regardless of speech styles. The results provide some insight into the representation of temporal information in the production of Korean geminate consonants.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.7-17
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• 1998

The purpose of this preliminary study on Korean vowel duration was to find how different syllable types and kinds of plosives influence vowel duration. The vowel duration of the Front Mid and Low vowels (/$\varepsilon$/(에), /e/(어), /${\ae}$/(애), /a/(아)) was found to be longer than that of High and Back vowels (/i/(이), /i/(으), /u/(우), /o/(오)). Compared with single vowels (V), Vowels followed by a consonant (CV) were shortened by 79.3% and vowels between consonants (CVC) were shortened by 38.5%, respectively. These results suggest that the influence of consonants upon Korean vowel duration depend on syllble types and the manner or place of articulation.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.45-50
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• 2018

The vowel/consonant ratio is a well-known cue for the voicing of postvocalic consonants. This study investigates how this ratio changes as a function of speaking rate. Seven speakers of North American English read sentences containing target monosyllabic words that contrasted in coda voicing at three different speaking rates. Duration measures were taken for the voice onset time (VOT) of the onset consonant, the vowel, and the coda. The results show that the durations of the onset VOT and vowel are longer before voiced codas, and that the durations of all segments increase monotonically as speaking rate decreases. Importantly, the vowel/consonant ratio, a primary acoustic cue for coda voicing, was found to pattern asymmetrically for voiced and voiceless codas; it increases for voiced codas but decreases for voiceless codas with the decrease in speaking rate. This finding suggests that there is no stable ratio in the duration of preconsonantal vowels that is maintained in different speaking styles.

• MALSORI
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• no.38
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• pp.99-112
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• 1999

The aim of this paper is to measure the duration of Japanese 'sokuon' [t/k] and 'haneruon' [m/n] produced by Korean and Japanese native speakers. It was shown that in the case of Korean speakers, the duration of geminate of 'sokuon' was 1.5 times longer than that of a single consonant, whereas in the case of Japanese speakers, it was 2 times longer. The difference between Korean and Japanese prosodic structures appears to affect the perception and acquisition of a foreign rhythmic patternm non-existent in the speaker's native tongue. The duration of geminate of [s] was 2 times as long as a single consonant in both Korean and Japanese speakers' production. On the average, the duration of Japanese 'sokuon' [t/k/s] was 1.7 times longer than that of a single consonant in Korean speakers' pronunciation, whereas 2 times longer in Japanese speakers' pronunciation. The production of 'haneruon' by either Korean or Japanese speakers yielded a similar result to 'sokoun': 1) geminates lasted longer than a single consonant; 2) single [m] is longer than single [n]: 3) geminate of [n] is 3 times as long as single [n], whereas geminate of [m] is 2 times as long as single [m].

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.55-58
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• 2006

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of postvocalic consonant cluster (Contrasting nasal-stops consonant with stops) on vowel duration. In particular we focused on the rate of vowel duration in their words. (Experimental I ) and the tendency of unreleased voiceless stops at the end of the words.(Experimental II). The result of experimental I showed that the rate of vowel duration which is preceding single voiceless stops are significantly longer than those preceding nasal-stops counterparts and the percentage of English native speakers was longer than those of Korean leaners of English Experiment II indicated that the tendency of unreleased stop consonants occurred more frequently on single voiceless stops than nasal-stop clusters and Korean learners of English were more frequently produced the unreleased stops than English natives.

• Proceedings of the Acoustical Society of Korea Conference
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• autumn
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• pp.325-328
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• 1999

The aim of this paper is to measure the duration of Japanese 'sokuon' [t/k] and 'haneron' [m/n] pronounced by Korean and Japanese. It is revealed in this study that gemination of the Japanese 'sokuon' in Korean pronunciation lasts 1.5 times longer than a single consonant, whereas it lasts 2 times longer in Japanese pronunciation. The difference between Korean and Japanese seems to show the difficulty of perceiving and learning a foreign rhythmic pattern non-existent in the leaner's language. The gemination of [s] phoneme lasts 2 times as long as a single consonant in both Korean and Japanese pronunciation. On average, the duration of Japanese 'sokuon' [t/k/s] is 1.7 times longer than a single consonant in Korean pronunciation, whereas 2 times longer in Japanese pronunciation. The pronunciation of Japanese 'haneruon' by either Korean or Japanese produces a similar result: 1) gemination lasts longer than a single consonant, 2) the duration of the single [m] is longer than that of the single [n]; 3) gemination of [n] is 3 times as long as a single [n], whereas gemination of [m] is 2 times as long as a single [m].

• Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.127-140
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• 2006

This study examined acoustic characteristics of 900 CV syllables produced by five English native speakers. Those target syllables were produced between the syllable /ba/ twenty times. The syllables were segmented and normalized by the maximum intensity value of each syllable and were divided into consonant or vowel sections by a few visible acoustic criteria. Intensity values were collected at 100 relative time points per syllable. Also, cumulative intensity values and consonant and vowel durations along with the ratio of a consonant to each syllable were measured using Praat scripts. Results showed as follows: Firstly, the consonantal section amounted to a quarter of the syllable in terms of both the cumulative intensity and duration. Secondly, the consonantal ratio by the cumulative intensity was similar to that by the duration. Finally, the sum of the cumulative intensity values in each syllable partially coincided with the consonant order by the current sonority scale. Further studies would be desirable on more reliable acoustical measurements and sophisticated perceptual experiments on the English syllables.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.143-153
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• 2002

This study was designed to determine (1) the effects of the following stop consonant on the vowel length in isolated bi-syllabic words, (2) the mechanism which renders vowels longer in duration before lax stops than tense stops, (3) where the aspiratory interval is included, in the vowel portion or the preceding consonantal portion and (4) the influence of the preceding consonants upon the duration of the following vowel. Measurements were made of five timing variables on acoustic signals as three native Korean speakers uttered isolated bi-syllabic /VCV/ words in which the vowel was identical, /$\alpha$/, and the C slot was filled with bilabial stops. Findings: (1) the vowel length before the lax stops was significantly longer than before the tense stops, while the difference in the vowel duration between the tense stops was insignificant or negligible, (2) the vowel length varied as a function of the articulatory force of the following consonants, regardless of the phonological unit of syllable, (3) The aspiratory interval is interpreted as a portion of the preceding consonant and (4) The effects of the preceding consonants on the final vowel length were not rule-governed.