• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.213-221
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• 2010

The number of North Korean refugees entering South Korea is continuously increasing. North Korean speakers show significant differences in vowel and consonant phonetics, length of vowels, and the rhythm and intonation of sentences. The object of this research was to examine the effectiveness of a speech intervention program for North Korean refugees using visual feedback through acoustical analysis for intonation. The subjects were three adults with no speech disabilities who had been in South Korea for less than five years. They had not received any prior treatment for inflection change. The program was set in a discourse situation and used Praat to evaluate intonation and provide visual feedback as demonstrating proper intonation changes through pitch contour. The results after intervention are as follows. First, intonation was significantly improved according to a 5-point subjective evaluation scale. Second, the pitch contour was similar to the contour of standard South Korean pronunciation. The subjects were very satisfied with this initial treatment and showed a high level of motivation. In subsequent study, the development of intervention and the comparison of interventions will be needed as well.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.7-23
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• 2024

Previous studies have highlighted the linguistic divergence between North and South Korean varieties. Although acoustic differences between North and South Korean in vowel production have been prominently observed, the vowel production in the standard varieties of Pyongyang North Korean (NK) and Seoul South Korean (SK) has had limited investigation. This study aims to explore the phonetic differences in vowel production between NK and SK speakers across two speech styles: careful and conversational speech. We analyzed a total of 13,370 vowels from each of 22 younger NK and SK speakers (16 females and 6 males in each group). Our findings reveal significant differences in the production of the vowels [æ], [ʌ], and [o] between the two varieties. Specifically, NK speakers maintained a distinction in height between the [e]-[æ] pair, a contrast that was not observed among SK speakers. Additionally, in NK, the [ʌ]-[o] pair showed considerable overlap (vowel merger) in both height and backness dimensions. These results shed light on the phonetic divergence between NK and SK varieties, offering insights into the acoustic features of NK vowel production. In further study, this understanding is crucial for supporting adaptation of NK refugees from the perspective of second dialect acquisition in South Korea.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.23-31
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• 2019

The present study examines whether pitch range variation in North Kyunsang Korean shows a categorical or continuous function. Specifically, the study is focused on the data imitated by adults and children in the North Kyungsang region. To investigate pitch range variation, the log-produced f0 intervals were measured and statistically analyzed. The results of the study are as follows. First, both the adults' and children's imitations were more categorical than continuous, especially for the HL-LH patterns. For the other pitch accent patterns, such as HH-HL and HH-LH, the curves were continuous or flat for most of the speakers. Second, the children's imitations were poorer than those of the adults. That is, the children's imitative responses were shown as more continuous or flat curves than categorical. For the children, the HL-LH pattern showed a categorical function at the midpoint of the curves, though the shifts were not as distinctive as the adults' data. This implies that the imitative responses of children follow the perceptual and productive trace of adults' speech behavior.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.107-116
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• 2015

The present experiment investigated the effect of word length on the length of f0 intervals for North Kyungsang children. In order to find out the lengths of the f0 intervals, the f0 values at the midpoints of vowels in words were measured. F0 estimates were computed as intervals consistent with the logarithmic scale corresponding to the number of syllables in the words. The results indicated that the mean f0 intervals in words of different lengths showed a significant difference for the HH in HH vs. HHL and the LH in LH vs. LLH for North Kyungsang children. Adult speakers from the North Kyungsang region significantly differed only within the HH in HH vs. HHL. Adult speakers made a noticeable contribution in this characteristic from the children. The result of the adult study was presented to confirm whether the children used a North Kyungsang dialect. With respect to individual speaker differences, the North Kyungsang children showed more or less consistent patterns in quantile-quantile plots for the HH vs. HHL, but for the HL vs. LHL and LH vs. LLH, there were more variations than for the HH vs. HHL. The individual speakers' variation was the largest for the HL vs. LHL and the smallest for HH vs. HHL. Considering these results, the effect of word length on f0 intervals tended to show pitch accent-type-specific characteristics in the process of prosodic acquisition.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2018

Categorical production in language processing helps speakers to produce phonemic contrasts. This categorization and production is utilized for the production-based and imitation-based approach in the present study. Contrastive signals in speakers' speech reflect the shapes of boundaries with categorical characteristics. Signals that provide information about lexical pitch accent contrasts can introduce categorical distinctions for productive and cognitive selection. This experiment was conducted with nine North Kyungsang speakers for a production task and nine North Kyungsang speakers for an imitation task. The first finding of the present study is the rigidity of categorical production, which controls the boundaries of lexical pitch accent contrasts. The categorization of North Kyungsang speakers' production allows them to classify minimal pitch accent contrasts. The categorical production in imitation appeared in two clusters, representing two meaningful contrasts. The second finding of the present study is that there are individual differences in speakers' production and imitation responses. The distinctive performances of individual speakers showed a variety of curves. For the HL-LH patterns, the categorical production tended to be highly distinctive as compared to the other pitch accent patterns (HH-HL and HH-LH), showing that there are more continuous curves than categorical curves. Finally, the present study shows that, for North Kyungsang speakers, imitative production is the core type of categorical production for determining the existence of the lexical pitch accent system. However, several questions remain for defining that categorical production, which leads to ideas for future research.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.7-21
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• 2004

The present study aims to investigate domain-initial strengthening phenomenon, which refers to strengthening of articulatory gestures at the initial positions of prosodic domains. More specifically, this paper presents the result of an experimental study of initial syllables with onset consonants (initial-syllable vowels henceforth) of various prosodic domains in English and Hamkyeong Korean, a pitch accent dialect spoken in the northern part of North Korea. The durations of initial-syllable vowels are compared to those of second vowels in real-word tokens for both languages, controlling both stress and segmental environment. Hamkyeong Korean, like English, tuned out to strengthen the domain-initial consonants. With regard to vowel durations, no significant prosodic effect was found in English. On the other hand, Hamkyeong Korean showed significant differences between the durations of initial and non-initial vowels in the higher prosodic domains. The theoretical implications of the findings are as follows: The potentially universal phenomenon of initial strengthening is shown to be subject to language specific variations in its implementation. More importantly, the distinct phonetics- phonology model (Pierrehumbert & Beckman, 1998; Keating, 1990; Cohn, 1993) is better equipped to account for the facts in the present study.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.11-18
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• 2011

This paper examines the categorical labeling of lexical pitch accent contrasts in North Kyungsang and South Cholla Korean listeners. It focuses specifically on investigating whether the pitch accent perception of adults and children has a dialect-specific effect. To evaluate the development of perceptual identification, slopes, intercepts, and positions at categorical boundaries were computed using a logistic regression function. The results showed that differences in slopes and intercepts were significant between North Kyungsang child and adult listeners, but the same was not the case for the positions at boundaries. As far as South Cholla child and adult listeners were concerned, there was a significant difference in slopes, but not intercepts and positions at boundaries. In the present study, the comparison of intercepts and slopes at the boundaries indicated developmental differences between North Kyungsang adult and child listeners. This improvement in categorical proportion seems to be a result of developmental changes in categorical perception. For South Cholla adult and child listeners, however, perception of the non-native contrast becomes less categorical.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.43-49
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• 2012

This paper describes the categorical effects of pitch accent contrasts in a mimicry task. It focuses, specifically, on examining how fundamental frequency (f0) variation reflects phonological contrasts from speakers of two distinct varieties of Korean (i.e., North Kyungsang and South Cholla). The results showed that, in a mimicry task using synthetic speech continua, there was a categorical effect in f0 peak timing for North Kyungsang speakers, but the timing of f0 peaks and valleys in the responses of South Cholla speakers was more variable, presenting a gradient or non-categorical effect. Evidence of categorical effects was represented as the shift of f0 peak times along an acoustic continuum for North Kyungsang speakers. The range for the shift of f0 valley times was much narrower, compared to that of f0 peak times. The degree of a shift near the middle of the continuum showed variability across individual mimicry responses. However, the categorical structure in mimicry responses regarding the clustering of f0 peak points was more significant for North Kyungsang speakers than for South Cholla speakers. Additionally, the finding of the current study implies that the location of f0 peak times depends on individuals' imitative (or cognitive) abilities.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.53-65
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• 2014

The current research examines whether pitch contour shapes in North Kyungsang pitch accent contrasts provide a phonetic dimension for phonological discreteness in a mimicry task. Two pitch accent continua resynthesized were created for HH vs. HL and HH vs. LH. To confirm a phonetic dimension for accounting for pitch accent categories in North Kyungsang Korean, the mimicries of speakers of two dialects (i.e., North Kyungsang & South Cholla) were compared. One of the findings showed that, for North Kyungsang speakers, the range of mean f0 peak times was a phonetic dimension undergoing a continuous shift within a stimulus continuum for both HH vs. HL and HH vs. LH. On the other hand, for South Cholla speakers, there were no apparent shifts around categorical boundaries for either HH vs. HL or HH vs. LH. Regarding individual mimicries on f0 peak timing, there are many variations. For HH vs. LH, three North Kyungsang speakers showed a discrete pattern reflecting a shift in phonological categories, but for HH vs. HL, there was no such distinction showing a categorical shift, though there were statistically significant differences for two speakers. Interestingly, one of the North Kyungsang speakers showed a continuous phonetic dimension for both HH vs. HL and HH vs. LH. Lastly, the f0 valley timing did not exhibit a discrete or gradient phonetic dimension for speakers of either dialect. On the basis of these results, what is interesting is that the tonal target such as high tone in North Kyungsang pitch accent categories within the autosegmental-metrical (AM) theory may be realized within individual cognitive systems for representing the interaction of perception and production.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.91-98
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• 2013

This paper investigated Korean prosody as it relates to graded internal structure in an identification function. Within Korean prosody, variants regarded as dialectal variations can appear as different prosodic scales, which contain the range of within-category variations. The current experiment was intended to show how the prosodic scale corresponding to the range of within-category differences relates to f0 contours for speakers of two Korean dialects, North Kyungsang and South Cholla. In an identification task, participants responded by selecting an item from two answer choices. The probability of choosing the correct response from the two choices was computed by a logistic regression analysis using intercepts and slopes. That is, the correct response between two choices was used to show a linear line with an s-shape presentation. In this paper, to investigate the graded internal structure of labeling, 25%, 50%, and 75% of predicted probability were assessed. Listeners from North Kyungsang showed progressive variations, whereas listeners from South Cholla revealed random patterns in the internal structure of the identification function. In this paper, the results were plotted using scatterplot graphs, applying the range of within-category variation and predicted probability obtained from the logistic regression analyses. The scatterplot graphs showed the different degree of the responses for f0 scales (i.e., variations within categories). The results demonstrate that the gradient structures of native pitch accent users become more progressive in response to f0 scales.