• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.139-151
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• 2005

Previous studies have shown that Korean students have difficulty identifying some English consonants which are not in the Korean sound inventory. The aim of this study was to examine the accuracy rate of English consonants correctly identified by 130 college students in order to find out which English consonants were difficult for the students to perceive. The subject's task was to identify one of the minimal pairs played in a quiet laboratory classroom. 100 minimal pairs consisted of syllables with various onsets or codas: stops, fricatives, affricates, liquids and nasals. Results were as follows: First, the average score of the English major group was significantly higher than that of the non-English major group. Second, there was a similar distribution in the rank order of minimal pairs sorted by the accuracy rate between the two groups. Third, the accuracy rate systematically decreased as each score range decreased. Fourth, the students showed higher accuracy in the perception of liquids than that of the stop-fricative contrast. Fifth, the accuracy score in onset position was higher than in coda position. Finally, the students still had problem telling voiced consonants from voiceless ones, especially in coda position. It would be desirable to extend the present research to middle or high school students to fundamentally resolve those listening problems.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.866-878
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• 2014

On Korean websites, people often use several Korean vowels or consonants solely, which is the way to express emotion. This way of expression has scarcely been examined seriously, though it is one of the most popular online slangs. This is an exploratory study that reveals how and how much these expressions are used on social media. Data crawling technique was used as a way to examine the usage of vowels and consonants in ordinary situations. 6 'Facebook pages' popular among Korean users are selected, and about 2.5 million comments are collected from posts in those pages. 10 expressions, including 'ㅋ(K)', 'ㅎ(H)', 'ㅜ(U)', are counted and analyzed from the collected texts of comments. As a result, several patterns of using vowels and consonants are found. Especially, 'ㅋ(K)' is used much more frequently than other vowels or consonants, and used more continually. It is also found that the patterns of using vowels or consonants in writing comments changes as the mood of posts or the characteristics of Facebook pages.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.167-177
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• 2002

Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP) is one of the popular surgical procedure for snoring and sleep apnea syndrome. The main principle of this procedure is to reduce abundant velopharyngeal soft tissues resulting in a shortened soft palate, which may cause some alterations in speech sound. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the change of velopharyngeal function after UPPP in the view of aerodynamics. Thirty three patients who received uvulopalatopharyngoplasty for correcting snoring and sleep apnea were included in this study. The airflow, airflow rate and air pressure during the production of oral and nasal consonants were measured before surgery and 4 week and 8 week after surgery. The oral air flows and pressures for oral and nasal consonants were not changed after surgery. However, oral air pressure for nasal consonants were increased significantly after surgery. The nasal air flows for oral consonants were not changed after surgery, but for nasal consonants were decreased at 8 weeks after surgery. The nasal flow rate for oral and nasal consonants were increased at 8 weeks after surgery. The uvulopalatopharyngoplasty may result in affecting the aerodynamic air streams during speech production.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.30
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• pp.97-124
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• 2013

For a long period, vowel reduction has been accepted as one of the most common pronunciation rules in Russian phonology. However, since the rules have been modified in many ways after the influx of loanwords, [a, e, i, o, u, ${\star}$]-including [e, o]-can now be pronounced in unstressed position, obeying the rule of vowel reduction. Especially in Modern Russian, along with the destruction of the consonant pronunciation norm due to some relatively complex changes it underwent palatalization, consonant pronunciation has been simplified, and as a response to such a phenomenon, the specialization of vowel pronunciation rule is now occurring. In other words, in the interrelation between consonants and vowels, as the pronunciation rules for consonants are simplified and thus the contrast between consonants is weakened, the degree of dependence on pronunciation of segment in the vowel pronunciation rule has been elevated. Therefore, the analysis says that the degree of vowel reduction depends on a vowel's distance from a stressed syllable is not enough; the influence of surrounding phonemes-including consonants-or the formative characteristics of words themselves should also be considered. The introduction of Max-noncorner/UnderLex, a/an Licence constraint that is related to non-declension nouns, and that of IdentC[back] and ShareCV[back], which are faithfulness constraint and share constraint respectively that are related to the nature of consonants stresses that vowel pronunciation rules should not be simply viewed as rules for vowels; The rules should be analyzed with emphasis on their correlation with surrounding phonemes.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.35
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• pp.293-314
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• 2014

This paper aims to contrast phonology of Korean and Thai in terms of language universality. Considering consonants, both languages having 21 typologically most plausible consonants display high universality in the number of consonants. However, Thai shows higher universality in regards to their substance, i.e. it differs from Korean when it comes to the structure of plosives and fricatives. Both Korean and Thai show similarities regarding the plosives due to the fact that both languages possess three contrastive consonants. However, the Thai plosives consist of plain voiced, plain voiceless and aspirated voiceless sounds that have higher universality than the Korean plosives which are plain voiced, plain voiceless and aspirated voiceless. In case of vowels, both Korean with its 10 vowels and Thai with its 9 vowels show lower universality when it comes to the total number of vowels. However, all of those vowels belong to the list of most plausible vowels which makes their universality higher in substance. In respect of syllable structure, Korean with its CVC type shows a moderately complex structure while Thai with its CCVC type has a complex structure. The coda may consist of only one consonant in each language but onset is composed of one consonant in Korean, and two consonants in Thai. The contrastive study of similarities and differences between Korean and Thai in terms of phonology will help not only understand the two languages but also provide useful information for increasing the efficacy of Korean language education for Thai learners of Korean whose number is rapidly increasing.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.124-130
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• 2021

Background and Objectives: The study investigated vowel context effects on the perception of stop consonants in Malayalam. It also probed into the role of vowel context effects in determining the frequency of occurrence of various consonant-vowel (CV) syllables in Malayalam. Subjects and Methods: The study used a cross-sectional pre-experimental post-test only research design on 30 individuals with normal hearing, who were native speakers of Malayalam. The stimuli included three stop consonants, each spoken in three different vowel contexts. The resultant nine syllables were presented in original form and five gating conditions. The consonant recognition in different vowel contexts of the participants was assessed. The frequency of occurrence of the nine target syllables in the spoken corpus of Malayalam was also systematically derived. Results: The consonant recognition score was better in the /u/ vowel context compared with /i/ and /a/ contexts. The frequency of occurrence of the target syllables derived from the spoken corpus of Malayalam showed that the three stop consonants occurred more frequently with the vowel /a/ compared with /u/ and /i/. Conclusions: The findings show a definite vowel context effect on the perception of the Malayalam stop consonants. This context effect observed is different from that in other languages. Stop consonants are perceived better in the context of /u/ compared with the /a/ and /i/ contexts. Furthermore, the vowel context effects do not appear to determine the frequency of occurrence of different CV syllables in Malayalam.

• Korean Journal of Audiology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.124-130
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• 2021

Background and Objectives: The study investigated vowel context effects on the perception of stop consonants in Malayalam. It also probed into the role of vowel context effects in determining the frequency of occurrence of various consonant-vowel (CV) syllables in Malayalam. Subjects and Methods: The study used a cross-sectional pre-experimental post-test only research design on 30 individuals with normal hearing, who were native speakers of Malayalam. The stimuli included three stop consonants, each spoken in three different vowel contexts. The resultant nine syllables were presented in original form and five gating conditions. The consonant recognition in different vowel contexts of the participants was assessed. The frequency of occurrence of the nine target syllables in the spoken corpus of Malayalam was also systematically derived. Results: The consonant recognition score was better in the /u/ vowel context compared with /i/ and /a/ contexts. The frequency of occurrence of the target syllables derived from the spoken corpus of Malayalam showed that the three stop consonants occurred more frequently with the vowel /a/ compared with /u/ and /i/. Conclusions: The findings show a definite vowel context effect on the perception of the Malayalam stop consonants. This context effect observed is different from that in other languages. Stop consonants are perceived better in the context of /u/ compared with the /a/ and /i/ contexts. Furthermore, the vowel context effects do not appear to determine the frequency of occurrence of different CV syllables in Malayalam.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to investigate the difference of vowel duration due to the voicing of word-final consonants in English and its relation to the types of word-final consonants (stops vs. fricatives), (partial) devoicing, and stop releasing. Addtionally, this study attempts to interpret the findings from the functional view that the vowels before voiced consonants are produced with a longer duration in order to enhance the salience of the voicing of word-final consonants. This study conducted a recording experiment with English native speakers, and measured the vowel duration, the degree of (partial) devoicing of word-final voiced consonants and the release of word-final stops. First, the results showed that the ratio of the duration difference was not influenced by the types of word-final consonants. Second, it was revealed that the higher the degree of (partial) devoicing of word-final voiced consonants, the longer vowel duration before word-final voiced consonants, which was compatible with the prediction based on the functional view. Lastly, the ratio of the duration difference was greater when the word-final stops were uttered with the release compared to when uttered without the release, which was not consistent with the functional view. These results suggest that it is not sufficient enough to explain the voicing effect by its function of distinguishing the voicing of word-final consonants.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.65-72
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• 1995

An auditory experiments for the phonetic value of the last consonants when its signal is transmitted through the amplifier from the last to the first, shortly speaking, time reversed waveform, were done for the 14 Korean consonants. Then the last consonant becomes to the first consonant in the time reversed waveform. The listeners who heard the 14 reversed consonants have recorded the phonetic value being heard. We analyzed these results by the method of articulation and the position of articulation. By the results, the phonetic value of the last consonants /n/, /l/ and /m/ is the same as the first consonants. Last consonant /d/ is heard like first consonant /n/. Last consonant /ng/ is heard like first consonant /m/. Last consonants /k/ and /b/ don't have any particular phonetic values. These results were tested by the experiments and were analyzed by the principle of articulation.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.39
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• pp.381-406
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• 2015

Russian nasal consonants / m /, / n / have a feature value not only [+consonant] in common with obstruents, but also [+sonorant] in common with vowels. Nasal / m /(bi-labial) and / n /(dental) have the same place of articulation but different manner of articulation. The feature value of / m / is [+cons, +son, +nas, +ant, -cor, -high, -low, -back, -cont, -del, rel, -strid, +voic], and that of / n / is [+cons, +son, +nas, +ant, +cor, -high, -low, -back, -cont, -del, rel, -strid, + voic]. There is a difference in feature [cor] value of / m / and / n /. In this study it is confirmed that it is a fact that the Russian nasal consonants behave differently from the other consonants in each phonological phenomenon due to their phonological characteristics. The preceding voiced obstruent is changed to an unvoiced one in a process where the last voiceless obstruent in the consonant cluster ' voiced obstruent + nasal /m/ + voiceless obstruent' skips the nasal consonant and spreads its feature value to the preceding voiced obstruent transparently because of the feature [+sonorant] of the nasal consonant. The coronal nasal /n/ participates in a palatalization with the following palatal actively and palatalize preceding plain consonants passively because of markedness hierarchy such as 'Velar > Labial > Coronal'. But the labial nasal /m/ is palatalized with the following velar palatal actively and participates in a palatalization with the following coronal palatal passively. This result helps us confirm the phonological difference of /m/ and /n/ in a palatalization. When the a final consonant is nasal, the unvoicing phenomenon of a final consonant doesn't occur. In such a case as cluster 'obstruent + nasal' the feature value [voiced] of the preceding obstruent doesn't change, but the following nasal can assimilate into the preceding obstruent. When continuing the same nasals / -nn- / in a consonant cluster, the feature value [+cont] of a weak position leads the preceding nasal / n / to be changed into [-cont] / l /. Through the analysis of the frequency of occurrences of consonants in syllabic onsets and codas that should observe the 'Sonority Sequence Principle', the sonority hierarchy of nasal consonants has been confirmed. In a diachronic perspective following nasal / m /, / n / there is a loss of the preceding labial stop and dental stop. But in clusters with the velar stop+nasal, the two-component cluster has been kept phonetically intact.