• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제8권4호
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• pp.39-47
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• 2016

While acoustic studies in the past decade documented a raised /o/ by showing their lowered first formants (F1) almost overlapped with those of high back vowel /u/, no consensus has been made in terms of how this /o/-raising affects the vowels as a system in Seoul Korean. The current study aimed to investigate the age- and gender-related differences of the relative distance among the vowels to better understand the influence of this on-going sound change on the vowel system. We measured the static and dynamic spectral characteristics (F1 and F2) of the seven Korean monophthong vowels /e a ʌ o u ɨ i/ in the spontaneous speech of Seoul Corpus, and depicted the patterns of 30 individual speakers (10 speakers in each group of teens, 20s and 40s) as a function of age and gender. The static spectral examination showed low F1 values of /o/ in the spontaneous speech corpus confirming the vowel /o/ raising, and also revealed greater F2 values of /u, ɨ/ suggesting their anterior articulations. The tendencies were stronger when the speakers were younger and female. The spectral trajectories further showed that the F1 and F2 between /o/ and /u/ were differentiated throughout the vowel mid-point although the trajectories gradually merged near the vowel mid point in the older male speakers' productions. The acoustic evidence of contrast among /o, u, ɨ/ supports that the raised /o/ is not indicative of a merger with /u/ but rather implying a chain-like vowel shift in the Seoul Korean.

• 음성과학
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• 제13권3호
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• pp.67-82
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• 2006

The purpose of this experimental study is to investigate formant characteristics of Korean monophthongs spoken by Japanese learners and to compare the characteristics of vowels produced by the Japanese learners with those of the Korean native speakers. The data consisted of three categories: eight vowels in isolation, words including eight vowels in carrier sentences, and words including eight vowels in natural sentences. In this study, formant frequencies of the vowels were measured by Wave Surfer. It was assumed that the formant frequencies of the Korean vowels produced by the Japanese learners could be different from those of the Korean native speakers due to the influence of their own Japanese vowels. Results of this study showed that the Japanese learners had the difficulties to distinguish between the pairs /-/and /ㅜ/, /ㅓ/and /ㅗ/, and /ㅏ/and /ㅔ/. In Japanese vowels, F2 frequency value of /ㅜ/ was similar to that of the Korean /-/. It means that when the Japanese leaners produced Korean /ㅜ/, they might neutralize /-/ and /ㅜ/. Besides, there were not /ㅓ/and /ㅐ/ in Japanese vowels. Therefore, they tended to pronounce /ㅓ/ similar to /ㅗ/ which has the most similar formant frequency value with that of /ㅓ/, and /ㅐ/ was pronounced similar to /ㅔ/ for the same reason.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.65-74
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate age-specific features of 2;1- to 4;1-year -olds' production of monophthongs and diphthongs through both auditory perceptual analysis and acoustic analysis. Test material included {vowel+'da'} consisting of 7 monophthongs and 10 diphthongs and meaningful words beginning with vowels. The percentage of correct vowels was used for perceptual analysis and Praat(5.2.12) was used for acoustic analysis, analyzing variables related to monophthongs and diphthongs. The results of this study are as follows: First, perceptual analysis showed that children from an age group of 2;1 to 2;8 years showed significant difference in the accuracy level of both monophthongs and diphthongs as compared to those aged 2;9 to 3;4 years and those aged 3;5 to 4;1 years. Second, the results of acoustic analysis provided that formant (F1 and F2) of monophthong, in general, tended to decrease as age increased. In terms of F2 differentiation slope and regression slope, which were diphthong-related variables, the age group of 3;5 to 4;1 years showed a large general slope change.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제5권3호
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• pp.39-46
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• 2013

This study examined the perception of two Korean vowels using F1/F2 manipulated synthetic vowels. Previous studies indicated that there is an overlap between the acoustic spaces of Korean /o/ and /u/ in terms of the first two formants. A continuum of eleven synthetic vowels were used as stimuli. The experiment consisted of three tasks: an /o/ identification task (Yes-no), an /u/ identification task (Yes-no), and a forced choice identification task (/o/-/u/). ROC(Receiver Operating Characteristic) analysis and logistic regression were performed to calculate the boundary criterion of the two vowels along the stimulus continuum, and to predict the perceptual judgment on F1 and F2. The result indicated that the location between stimulus no.5 (F1 = 342Hz, F2 = 691Hz) and no.6 (F1 = 336Hz, F2 = 700Hz) was estimated as a perceptual boundary region between /o/ and /u/, while stimulus no.0 (F1=405Hz, F2=666Hz) and no.10 (F1=321Hz, F2=743Hz) were at opposite ends of the continuum. The influence of F2 was predominant over F1 on the perception of the vowel categories.

• 한국어교육
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• 제29권2호
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• pp.155-180
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to acoustically analyze eight Korean monophthongs produced by 29 Taiwanese learners of Korean and 20 native speakers of Korean, and to compare their pronunciations in experimental phonetics. Using the first formants(F1) and the second formants(F2) of Korean monophthongs, we can estimate the tongue positions of vowels produced by participants. In order to compare them directly, we had to normalize participants' F1 and F2. The result shows that almost all vowels of the Taiwanese learners are significantly different from those of Korean native speakers in their F1 and F2 values without the /ㅏ/ vowel. In particular, when pronouncing Korean monophthongs, the Korean learners of Taiwan had a narrow area of the place of articulation compared to the Korean native speakers except for back vowels. Finally, it shows that the Korean learners in Taiwan had a narrower range of articulation and articulated the vowels towards the back a little comparing to the Korean native speakers.

• 대한통합의학회지
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• 제7권4호
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• pp.89-104
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• 2019

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of korean vowels by acoustically analyzing whether children produce Korean vowels differently according to their age and gender between ages 4 and 6. Methods : A total of 104 children aged 4~6 years (56 males and 48 females) participated in this study. The participants were classified as either 4, 5, or 6 years old. Vowel speech data was obtained by asking the subjects to pronounce meaningful words in which the vowel in question was located in the first syllable. Speech analysis was performed using the Multi-speech 3700 program. Results : Age, gender, and vowel being pronounced all had significant effects on intensity. There was significant decrease with increasing age, and the intensity was significantly higher in male children than female children. Neither age, gender, nor the vowel being produced affected the fundamental frequency. The fundamental frequency produced did not differ by age or gender. The first and second formants had considerable effect on age and vowels, significantly decreased with age, and did not have a gender difference. Conclusion : The results of this study showed that children aged 4~6 have similar anatomical structures, but that maturity of speech motor skills required to pronounce vowels was correlated with age. The results of this study can be used to evaluate children's speech and develop speech therapy programs.

• 한국콘텐츠학회논문지
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• 제10권6호
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• pp.373-377
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• 2010

영어의 경우는 모음포만트 분석이 질적이나 양적으로 이미 오래전부터 많이 이루어져 왔다. 그러나 한국어 모음이 음향음성학적으로는 제대로 분석되지 않고 있는 실정이다. 본 연구의 목적은 한국어 모음에 대한 음향음성학적 측면에서 정량적으로 충분한 자료 확보를 위한 과정의 일환으로 정상 남자 20대와 30대를 대상으로 한국어 모음의 음향학적 측면에서 정량적 자료를 얻고자 하였다. 한국어 표준어를 산출하는 20~30대의 남자 총 31명을 대상으로 기본 5 모음 인 /아, 에(애), 이, 오, 우/를 3회 반복산출한 것을 Cool edit에 녹음하여 MATLAB음향분석 프로그램을 이용하여 모음의 F1, F2, F3, F4를 구하였다. F1과 F2 모두에서 본 연구의 모음 포만트가 선행연구보다 전반적으로 낮은 경향을 보였으나 전체적인 패턴은 매우 유사하였다. 연령별, 어음재료에 따른 한국어 모음 자료들에 대한 연구가 더 요구될 것으로 사료된다.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제6권1호
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• pp.31-38
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• 2014

The current study presents an instrumental phonetic analysis of Korean monophthong vowels in the early twentieth century Seoul Korean, based on audio recordings of elementary school textbooks Botonghakgyo Joseoneodokbon (Korean Reading Textbook for Elementary School). The data examined in this study were a list of the Korean mono syllables (Banjeol), and a short passage, recorded by one 41-year-old male speaker in 1935, as well as a short passage recorded by one 11-year-old male speaker in 1935. The Korean monophthongs were examined in terms of acoustic analysis of the vowel formants (F1, F2) and compared to those recorded by 18 male speakers of Seoul Korean in 2013. The results show that in 1935, 1) /e/ and /ɛ/ were clearly separated in the vowel space; 2) /o/ and /u/ were also clearly separated without any overlapping values; 3) some tokens of /y/ and /ø/ were produced as monophthongs, not as diphthongs. Based on the results, we can observe the historical change of the Korean vowels over 80-90 years such as 1) /e/ and /ɛ/ have been merged; and 2) /o/ has been raised and overlapped with /u/.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.1-7
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• 2023

This study investigated the influences of probabilistic accessibility of the word being produced - as determined by its usage frequency and neighborhood density - on native and high-proficiency L2 speakers' realization of six English monophthong vowels. The native group hyperarticulated the vowels over an expanded acoustic space when the vowel occurred in words with low frequency and high density, supporting the claim that vowel forms are modified in accordance with the probabilistic accessibility of words. However, temporal expansion occurred in words with greater accessibility (i.e., with high frequency and low density) as an effect of low phonotactic probability in low-density words, particularly in attended speech. This suggests that temporal modification in the opposite direction may be part of the phonetic characteristics that are enhanced in communicatively driven focus realization. Conversely, none of these spectral and temporal patterns were found in the L2 group, thereby indicating that even the high-proficiency L2 speakers may not have developed experience-based sensitivity to the modulation of sub-categorical phonetic details indexed with word-level probabilistic information. The results are discussed with respect to how phonological representations are shaped in a word-specific manner for the sake of communicatively driven lexical intelligibility, and what factors may contribute to the lack of native-like sensitivity in L2 speech.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.73-80
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• 2013

Formant is one of the essential vocal features for research of voice production, recognition and synthesis. Numerous studies were established on foreign languages including English vowels. However, studies related to Korean were done with a limited number of voice data. In this study, we compare four formants according to age and gender using a large number of Korean monophthongs. A total of 2614 Korean speakers participated in our experiments. We summarize statistical results by mean and standard deviation for each formant of five monophthongs. The results show a notable difference in each age and gender group. A quantitative study based on a large dataset is suggested for future studies on Korean speech sounds.