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KMID : 1022420200120010033
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Phonetics and Speech Sciences
2020 Volume.12 No. 1 p.33 ~ p.42
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Frequency of grammar items for Korean substitution of /u/ for /o/ in the word-final position
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Yun Eun-Kyeong
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Abstract
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This study identified the substitution of /u/ for /o/ (e.g., py?llo [py?llu]) in Korean based on the speech corpus as a function of grammar items. Korean /o/ and /u/ share the vowel feature [+rounded], but are distinguished in terms of tongue height. However, researchers have reported that the merger of Korean /o/ and /u/ is in progress, making them indistinguishable. Thus, in this study, the frequency of the phonetic manifestation /u/ of the underlying form of /o/ for each grammar item was calculated in The Korean Corpus of Spontaneous Speech (Seoul Corpus 2015) which is a large corpus from a total of 40 speakers from Seoul or Gyeonggi-do. It was then confirmed that linking endings, particles, and adverbs ending with /o/ in the word-final position were substituted for /u/ approximately 50% of the stimuli, whereas, in nominal items, they were replaced at a frequency of less than 5%. The high rates of substitution were the special particle “-do[du]” (59.6%) and the linking ending “-go[gu]” (43.5%) among high-frequency items. Observing Korean pronunciation in real life provides deep insight into its theoretical implications in terms of speech recognition.
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KEYWORD
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Korean vowels, /o/-rising, substitution, frequency of grammatical items, Seoul Corpus 2015, vowel shift
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