• Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.171-184
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• 2001

American English vowels and Korean vowels were compared by the plotformant method. For American English vowels, six General American English speakers pronounced English words in the b_t environment. For Korean vowels eight Kyongsang dialect speakers and eight Seoul dialect speakers pronounced Korean words in the environments of k_t, p_t and t_t. The formant plots were obtained by plotting F1/F2 tokens of 13 American English vowels on the F1xF2 plane. In spite of personal variations the 13 vowel spaces of all six American English speakers maintained their relative positions with some overlaps. Clear distinctions were made between i-I, e-$\varepsilon$, u-$\sigma$, and o-c. The domain of c and $\alpha$ overlapped for three American English speakers, but it did not for three other speakers. The 8 Korean vowel spaces of Kyongsang dialect speakers and Seoul dialect speakers were very similar and maintained their relative positions. No distinction was made between e and $\varepsilon$. In contrast with American English e which is a neutral vowel, Korean e was a back vowel. The comparison of 13 American English vowel positions and 8 Korean Vowel positions is expected to shed some light on the errors of English vowel pronunciation of Korean learners.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.326-336
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• 2022

This study aims to examine Korean learners' production of American English vowel focused on feature analysis. Specifically, the present study adopts feature analysis so that vowel production is analyzed in terms of vowel features as well as overall segmental accuracy. To this end, 22 Korean college students participated in a production test which contained 11 English vowels /i, ɪ, eɪ, ɛ, æ, ɑ, oʊ, ɔ, ʊ, u, ʌ/. The results revealed that the degree of difficulty varied depending on features; the Korean participants showed higher accuracy for front/back features than for tongue height features and tense/lax features. In particular, the participants had more difficulty producing back vowels and non-high vowels than front vowels and high vowels with respect to tongue height features and lip rounding features. Among the individual vowels, /eɪ/ showed the highest accuracy in feature analysis. On the other hand, /ɑ, ɔ, ʌ/ showed low accuracy with respect to height features and lip rounding features, and high vowels /i, ʊ, u/ showed low accuracy with respect to tense/lax features. As for the correlation between the vowel features, tongue height features and lip rounding features are significantly correlated. Also, tongue height features and tense/lax features showed a strong correlation. Finally, pedagogical implications for teaching English vowels were further discussed based on the findings of the current study.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.131-141
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to find out the acoustic variation on the pre-and post respiration and oral motor for children with cerebral palsy. Five children with spastic CP at the age of 6 in average were practiced by a caregiver at home each for 25 minutes, in total, 45 times. The sustained of vowel /a/ and vowels /a/, /i/, /u/, /e/, /o/ were recorded on CSL and MDVP and analyzed by acoustic parameters. As a result, the maximum phonation time(MPT) was increased from 2.06 to 6.31 and the formant of vowels(F1, F2, F3) had significant differences in F1(/a, i/), F2(/i.u.o/), and F3(/a/) between the controls and the children with CP in pre-treatment. The total average value of vowels had significant differences between the pre-and post-treatment (p< .05). The energy of vowels had significant differences in the vowels /i, u, e, o/ and the total average value between the pre-and post-treatment(p< .001). The jitter percent, shimmer percent, and noise to harmonic ratio had significant differences between the pre-and post-treatment(p< .05). As the respiration and the oral motor improved MPT, voice quality, and articulation of vowel, and the variation of the formant(F1, F2, F3) showed the changes in the shape of lips, the place and the height of the tongue, the various development of therapy programs and the consistent intervention of treatment is needed for the children with cerebral palsy.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.579-587
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate how Korean learners perceive English vowels and further to test SLM which claims that new L2 vowel categories are more easily acquired than similar L2 vowel categories. Twenty Korean learners participated in English-to-Korean mapping test and English vowel identification test with target vowels /i, ɪ, u, ʊ, ɛ, æ/. The result revealed that Korean participants mapped the English pairs /i/-/ɪ/ and /u/-/ʊ/ onto single Korean vowel /i/ and /u/, respectively. in addition, both of English /ɛ/ and /æ/ were simultaneously mapped onto Korean /e/ and /ɛ/. This indicated that the Korean participants seemed to have perceptual difficulty for the pairs /i-ɪ/, /u-ʊ/, and /ɛ-æ/. The result of the forced-choice identification test showed that the accuracy of /ɪ, ʊ, æ/(ɪ: 81.3%, ʊ: 62.5%, æ: 60.0%) was significantly higher than that of /i, u, ɛ/(i: 28,8%, u: 28.8%, ɛ: 32.4%). Thus, the claim of SLM is confirmed given that /ɪ, ʊ, æ/ are new vowel categories whereas /i, u, ɛ/ are similar vowel categories. Further, the conspicuously low accuracy of the similar L2 vowel categories /i, u, ɛ/ was accounted for by over-generalization whereby the Korean participants excessively replaced L2 similar /i, u, ɛ/ with L2 new /ɪ, ʊ, æ/ as the participants were learning the L2 new vowel categories in the process of acquisition. Based on the findings this study, pedagogical suggestions are provided.

• MALSORI
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• no.67
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• pp.1-16
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• 2008

Stress effects upon Korean vowels were investigated with reference to rhythm. We measured three acoustic correlates (Duration: VOT, Vowel Duration; F0; Intensity) of stress from the seven pairs of stressed vs. unstressed Korean vowels /i, ${\varepsilon}(e)$, a, o, u, i, e/. The results of the experiment revealed that stress gave only inconsistent and weak effects on duration, which supports that Korean is not a stress-timed language as far as strong stress effects on duration are still considered crucial in stress-timing. On the other hand, Korean stressed vowels were most characterized with higher F0 and next with stronger intensity. But speakers generally showed tactics to reversely use F0 and intensity in stressing an utterance rather than proportionately strengthening both of the two acoustic correlates of stress. There was found great inter-speaker variability especially in the variations of duration.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.69-87
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• 2006

This study aims to describe the vowel system of present-day American English and to discuss some of its phonetic variations due to regional differences. Fifteen speakers of American English from various regions of the United States produced the monophthongs of English. The vowel duration and the frequencies of the first and the second formant were measured. The results indicate that the distinction between the vowels [c] and [a] has been merged in most parts of the U.S. except in some speakers from eastern and southeastern parts of the U.S., resulting in the general loss of phonemic distinction between the vowels. The phonemic merger of the two vowels can be interpreted as the result of the relatively small functional load of the [c]-[a] contrast, and the smaller back vowel space in comparison to the front vowel space. The study also shows that the F2 frequencies of the high back vowel [u] were extremely high in most of the speakers from the eastern region of the U.S., resulting in the overall reduction of their acoustic space for high vowels. From the viewpoint of the Adaptive Dispersion Theory proposed by Liljencrants & Lindblom (1972) and Lindblom (1986), the high back vowel [u] appeared to have been fronted in order to satisfy the economy of articulatory gesture to some extent without blurring any contrast between [i] and [u] in the high vowel region.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.55-58
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• 2003

The purpose of this paper was to analyze the effects of nasalization on vowels. Ten males and 7 females produced 5 vowels (/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/) in conditions: normal and nasalized. In this study we compared normal vowels' formant with nasalized vowels' and examined nasal-formant in the nasalized vowels. The results was as follows: First, there was a significant difference between normal vowels and nasalized in terms of F1 and F2. Second, the nasal formants were observed in nasalized vowels more frequently in females than males. Third, N1 appeared to influence F1 of vowels whereas N2 seemed to have an impact on F2 and/or F3.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.47-57
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• 2007

The aim of this study was to investigate the pitch and formant characteristics of vowels produced by monolingual and bilingual children. We collected sustained phonation of single vowels, /a/, /i/, /u/, from children aged 6 through 10 and compared their acoustic characteristics, fo, F1, F2. Results showed a significant difference between the groups in fo and F1 in the sustained phonation /a/, but not in F2. In the sustained phonation /i/, F2 revealed a significant difference but fo and F1 showed no significant difference. The F2 showed a significant difference in the sustained phonation /u/, but fo and F1 revealed no significant difference between the groups. It is needed to study further on the acoustic characteristics of bilingual children so that we can make a proper language intervention strategy for them.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.73-79
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• 2003

There are more than five systems for transcribing English vowels. Because of this diversity, teachers of English and students are confronted with not a little problems with the English vowel symbols used in the English-Korean dictionaries, English text books, books for Phonetics and Phonology. This study was designed to suggest criterions for the phonemic transcription of English vowels on the basis of phonetic properties of the vowels and a system of English vowel transcription based on the criterions in order to minimize the problems with inter-system differences. A speaker (phonetician) of RP English uttered a series of isolated minimal pairs containing the vowels in question. The suggested vowel symbols are as follows: (1) Simple vowels: /i:/ in beat, /I/ bit, /$\varepsilon$/ bet, /${\ae}$ bat, /a:/ father, /Dlla/ bod, /c:/ bawd, /$\upsilon$ put, /u:/ boot /$\Lambda$/ but, and /e/ about /$\varepsilon:ll3:r$/ bird. (2) Diphthongs: /aI/ in bite, /a$\upsilon$/ bout, /cI/ boy, /3$\upsilon$llo$\upsilon$/ boat, /eI/ bait, /eelleer/ air, /uelluer/ poor, /iellier/ beer. Where two symbols are shown corresponding to the vowel in a single word, the first is appropriate for most speakers of British English and the second for most speakers of American English.