• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.39
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• pp.433-460
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• 2015

This paper was analyzed the politeness and the expression of ending sentence in family conversations in the virtual language of cartoon characters. Younger speakers have a tendency to unite sentence-final particle to the polite form, older speakers have a tendency to unite it to the plain form in the historical genre. But younger speakers and older speakers unite sentence-final particle to the plain form in other fiction genres. Using terms of respect is determined by circumstances and charactonym. Comparing the translation of conversations with the original, there were the different aspects of translated works. When Japanese instructors are used to study Japanese as the instructional media, they give a supplementary explanation to students. 'WA' 'KASIRA' that a female speaker usually uses are used by a male speaker, 'ZO' 'ZE' that a male speaker usually uses are used by a female speaker in the virtual language of cartoons. In the field of the translation, it is translated 'KANA' 'KASIRA' into 'KA?', 'WA' 'ZO' 'ZE' into 'A(EO)?', 'WAYO' 'ZEYO' into AYO(EOYO)'. When we use sentence-final particle in the virtual language of cartoon, we need to supply supplementary explanations and further examinations.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.91-98
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• 2012

The purposes of this paper is to study the characteristics of compared to the speakers voice without depression and speakers with depression, and to propose a objective method for the measurement of the therapeutic effects as well as for diagnostics of depression based on the characteristics. The voice samples obtained from 11 female speakers with depression, aged from 20 to 40, diagnosed as having major depressive disorder by an psychiatrist were compared with those from 12 normal controls with matched sex, age, height, weight, education, smoking, and drinking. The voice samples are taken by a portable digital recorder(TASCAM DR-07, Japan) and analysed using the MDVP(Multi-Dimentional Voice Program) software module from CSL(Computerized Speech Lab, kay elemetrics, co, model 4100). The result of the investigation are as following. First, the average speaking fundamental frequency and loudness range of the speakers with depression group was statistically significantly lower than that of the control group. The pitch range of the control group was rather higher than that of the speakers with depression group, but without statistical significance. Overall speech rates have no statistical difference between two groups. Second, the average speaking fundamental frequency and loudness range have statistically significant negative correlation with Beck Depression Inventory, i. e. more severe depression exhibits lower average speaking fundamental frequency and loudness range. Other vocal parameters such as pitch range and overall speech rate have no statistically meaningful correlations with Beck Depression Inventory.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.2
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• pp.95-108
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• 1997

The purpose of this experimental study was to investigate prosodic characteristics of English as spoken by Koreans. Test materials were four English words, a sentence, and a paragraph. Six female Korean speakers and five native English speakers participated in acoustic and perceptual experiments. Pitch and duration of word syllables were measured from signals and spectrograms made by the Signalize 3.04 software program for Power Mac 7200. In the perceptual experiment, accent position, intonation patterns, rhythm patterns and phrasing were evaluated by the five native English speakers. Preliminary results from this limited study show that prosodic characteristics of Koreans include (1) pitch on the first part of a word and sentence is lower than that of English speakers, but the pitch on the last part is the opposite; (2) word prosody is quite similar to that of an English speaker, but sentence prosody is quite different; (3) the weakest point of sentence prosody spoken by Koreans is in the rhythmic pattern.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.111-117
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate how Chinese learners of Korean produce Korean plain plosives differently in a reading passage and isolated sentences. There are several studies on Korean plosives produced by Chinese speakers, but the study comparing the production of reading passage and isolated sentences are rare. For these purposes, ten Chinese speakers' VOT values of Korean plain plosives were measured using Speech Analyzer. The results show that there is no significant difference between the plain plosive production of a reading passage and that of isolated sentences. In the further studies, the measurement of pitch with VOT is needed.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.15-20
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• 2021

In line with recent attention to the multimodal expression of politeness, the present study examined the association between polite speech and acoustic features through the analysis of vowels produced in casual and polite speech contexts in Korean. Fourteen adult native speakers of Seoul Korean produced the utterances in two social conditions to elicit polite (professor) and casual (friend) speech. Vowel duration and the first (F1) and second formants (F2) of seven sentence- and phrase-initial monophthongs were measured. The results showed that polite speech shares acoustic similarities with vowel production in clear speech: speakers showed greater vowel space expansion in polite than casual speech in an effort to enhance perceptual intelligibility. Especially, female speakers hyperarticulated (front) vowels for polite speech, independent of speech rate. The implications for the acoustic encoding of social stance in polite speech are further discussed.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.139-146
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• 2012

This study was designed to examine comfort levels of pitch and loudness with target matching and their effects on electroglottographic (EGG) and acoustic measures. Twelve speakers, six males and six females, were instructed to produce /a/ sustained vowel for three seconds at a comfortable pitch and loudness level without any instruction and with a target matching procedure of either a certain f0 or SPL separately with visual and auditory feedback. The range of pitch for females and males were presented by progressing up and down randomly at intervals of 5Hz from 150 Hz to 310 Hz (total 33 frequency targets) and from 85 Hz to 190 Hz (total 22 frequency targets), respectively. The loudness levels were 65, 75, 85, 95 dB (total of four intensity targets) for both males and females. Subjective estimations of comfortable levels were obtained using a 10-point equal-appearing interval rating scale following each phonation. The results showed that males and females demonstrated similar trends in loudness levels with greatest comfort at 75 dB, whereas pitch comfort ratings showed a greater variability with females having a wider range with target matching. In the comfort levels of individuals, most male and female speakers rated higher comfort at soft, rather than loud phonations. On the other hand, most male speakers perceived highest comfort levels below the comfort pitch levels they phonated under natural conditions. Higher frequency ranges, however, were perceived to be more comfortable than those of natural condition in most female speakers, although the comfortable pitch levels in spontaneous phonations were within the comfort level ranges determined by targeted phonations. When comparing acoustic (%jitter, %shimmer, SNR) and EGG measures (CQ%) between spontaneous comfortable phonations and targeted phonations produced by the same subject at similar f0 and intensity, no significant differences were observed (p>0.05). Thus, target matching procedures may be considered a compatible and alternative method to reduce the variability of comfortable pitch and loudness levels by eliciting consistent comfortable phonations.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.47-63
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• 2010

This study provides a description of the glottal characteristics of the word-initial low vowels /a, $\ae$/ in terms of a set of acoustic parameters and discusses glottal configuration as their acoustic correlates. Furthermore, it examines the effect of prosodic boundary on the glottal properties of the vowels, seeking an account of the possible role of prosodic structure based on prosodic theory. Acoustic parameters reported to indicate glottal characteristics were obtained from the measurements made directly from the speech spectrum on recordings of Korean and English collected from 45 speakers. They consist of two separate groups of native Korean and native English speakers, each including both male and female speakers. Based on the three acoustic parameters of open quotient (OQ), first-formant bandwidth (B1), and spectral tilt (ST), comparisons were made between the speech of males and females, between the speech of native Korean and native English speakers, and between Korean and English produced by native Korean speakers. Acoustic analysis of the experimental data indicates that some or all glottal parameters play a crucial role in differentiating the speech groups, despite substantial interspeaker variations. Statistical analysis of the Korean data indicates prosodic strengthening with respect to the acoustic parameters B1 and OQ, suggesting acoustic enhancement in terms of the degree of glottal abduction and the glottal closure during a vibratory cycle.

• MALSORI
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• no.57
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• pp.15-30
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• 2006

This paper investigates differences between generations in the vowel system of the Daegu dialect in terms of F1 and F2 of the monophthongs. Three different groups of subjects participated in the present study: 20 female native speakers of the Daegu dialect(10 in their 20's and 10 in their 40's), and 10 female native speakers of the Seoul dialect as a control group. It has been assumed that the Daegu dialect has six vowels. However, younger generation appears to have 7 vowels different from older generation. The result of the present study showed that the Daegu dialect has different vowel systems between generations: for 40's have six vowels and 20's have seven vowels. These differences seems to be attributed to the influence of the Seoul dialect.

• MALSORI
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• v.55
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• pp.61-76
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• 2005

This paper aims to analyze the acoustic effects of vowels produced in a distant-talking environment. The analysis was performed using a statistical method. The influence of gender and speakers on the variation was also examined. The speech data used in this study consist of 500 distant-talking words and 500 normal words of 10 speakers (5 males and 5 females). Acoustic features selected for the analysis were the duration, the formants (Fl and F2), the fundamental frequency and the total energy. The results showed that the duration, F0, F1 and the total energy increased in the distant-talking speech compared to normal speech; female speakers showed higher increase in all features except for the total energy and the fundamental frequency. In addition, speaker differences were observed.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.7-27
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• 2006

This study explored the discrimination of synthesized English vowel pairs by twenty-seven American and Korean, male and female listeners. The average formant values of nine monophthongs produced by ten American English male speakers were employed to synthesize the vowels. Then, subjects were instructed explicitly to respond to AX discrimination tasks in which the standard vowel was followed by another one with the increment or decrement of the original formant values. The highest and lowest formant values of the same vowel quality were collected and compared to examine patterns of vowel discrimination. Results showed that the American and Korean groups discriminated the vowel pairs almost identically and their center formant frequency values of the high and low boundary fell almost exactly on those of the standards. In addition, the acceptable range of the same vowel quality was similar among the language and gender groups. The acceptable thresholds of each vowel formed oval to maintain perceptual contrast from adjacent vowels. The results suggested that nonnative speakers with high English proficiency could match native speakers' performance in discriminating vowel pairs with a shorter inter-stimulus interval. Pedagogical implications of those findings are discussed.