A diachronic investigation of the vowels and fricatives in Korean: An acoustic comparison of the Seoul and South Kyungsang dialects

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyunjung Lee ◽  
Allard Jongman
Keyword(s):  
Center Of Gravity ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Clear Distinction ◽  
Formant Frequencies ◽  
Acoustic Study ◽  
Generational Changes ◽  
Regional Dialect ◽  
Acoustic Analyses ◽  
Korean Speakers

Although the segmental properties of Kyungsang Korean have been known to be distinct from those of standard Seoul Korean, the increased influence of Seoul Korean on the regional variety casts doubt on the homogeneity of the dialect. The current study investigated whether the acoustic properties of the vowels and fricatives in Kyungsang Korean are retained by both younger and older generations through a comparison with Seoul Korean. Results of acoustic analyses with 38 female Korean speakers differing in dialect (Kyungsang, Seoul) and age (older, younger) showed that the younger Kyungsang speakers did not maintain the vowel and fricative features unique to their regional dialect, but rather approximate those of standard Seoul Korean. In the acoustic study of vowels, measures of formant frequencies showed that the younger Kyungsang and Seoul speakers share seven vowels, which result from the split of /ʌ/–/ɨ/ in Kyungsang and the merger of /e/–/ε/ in Seoul Korean. In the acoustic study of fricatives, measures of fricative duration and center of gravity showed that while the two-way fricative contrast is less distinct for older Kyungsang speakers, younger speakers clearly distinguish the two fricatives similar to Seoul speakers. As a consequence of these generational changes in Kyungsang Korean, the six vowels and lack of a fricative contrast exhibited by older generations have given way to seven vowels and a clear distinction between fortis and non-fortis fricatives for younger generations. Based on the similarities in segmental properties between younger Kyungsang and Seoul speakers, it appears that the diachronic sound change is underway in South Kyungsang Korean under the influence of Seoul Korean.

scholarly journals A Longitudinal Study of Very Young Children's Vowel Production

2014 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca W. McGowan ◽  
Richard S. McGowan ◽  
Margaret Denny ◽  
Susan Nittrouer
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Vowel Production ◽  
Formant Frequency ◽  
Formant Frequencies ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Speech Data ◽  
Regional Dialect ◽  
Acoustic Analyses ◽  
English Dialect ◽  
Existing Data

Purpose Ecologically realistic, spontaneous, adult-directed, longitudinal speech data of young children were described by acoustic analyses. Method The first 2 formant frequencies of vowels produced by 6 children from different American English dialect regions were analyzed from ages 18 to 48 months. The vowels were from largely conversational contexts and were classified according to dictionary pronunciation. Results Within-subject formant frequency variability remained relatively constant for the span of ages studied. It was often difficult to detect overall decreases in the first 2 formant frequencies between ages 30 and 48 months. A study of the movement of the corner vowels with respect to the vowel centroid showed that the shape of the vowel space remained qualitatively constant from 30 through 48 months. Conclusions The shape of the vowel space is established early in life. Some aspects of regional dialect were observed in some of the subjects at 42 months of age. The present study adds to the existing data on the development of vowel spaces by describing ecologically realistic speech.

scholarly journals An Acoustic Study of Vowels Produced by Alaryngeal Speakers in Taiwan

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 481-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia-Shiou Liao
Keyword(s):  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Euclidean Distance ◽  
Vocal Tract ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Formant Frequency ◽  
Acoustic Study ◽  
Artificial Larynx ◽  
Resonance Frequencies ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Southern Min

PurposeThis study investigated the acoustic properties of 6 Taiwan Southern Min vowels produced by 10 laryngeal speakers (LA), 10 speakers with a pneumatic artificial larynx (PA), and 8 esophageal speakers (ES).MethodEach of the 6 monophthongs of Taiwan Southern Min (/i, e, a, ɔ, u, ə/) was represented by a Taiwan Southern Min character and appeared randomly on a list 3 times (6 Taiwan Southern Min characters × 3 repetitions = 18 tokens). Each Taiwan Southern Min character in this study has the same syllable structure, /V/, and all were read with tone 1 (high and level). Acoustic measurements of the 1st formant, 2nd formant, and 3rd formant were taken for each vowel. Then, vowel space areas (VSAs) enclosed by /i, a, u/ were calculated for each group of speakers. The Euclidean distance between vowels in the pairs /i, a/, /i, u/, and /a, u/ was also calculated and compared across the groups.ResultsPA and ES have higher 1st or 2nd formant values than LA for each vowel. The distance is significantly shorter between vowels in the corner vowel pairs /i, a/ and /i, u/. PA and ES have a significantly smaller VSA compared with LA.ConclusionsIn accordance with previous studies, alaryngeal speakers have higher formant frequency values than LA because they have a shortened vocal tract as a result of their total laryngectomy. Furthermore, the resonance frequencies are inversely related to the length of the vocal tract (on the basis of the assumption of the source filter theory). PA and ES have a smaller VSA and shorter distances between corner vowels compared with LA, which may be related to speech intelligibility. This hypothesis needs further support from future study.

scholarly journals Tracking the New Zealand English NEAR/SQUARE merger using functional principal components analysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Gubian ◽  
J Harrington ◽  
M Stevens ◽  
F Schiel ◽  
Paul Warren
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Principal Components Analysis ◽  
Principal Components ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Formant Frequencies ◽  
Components Analysis ◽  
Functional Principal Components Analysis ◽  
Functional Principal Components

Copyright © 2019 ISCA The focus of the study is the application of functional principal components analysis (FPCA) to a sound change in progress in which the SQUARE and NEAR falling diphthongs are merging in New Zealand English. FPCA approximated the trajectory shapes of the first two formant frequencies (F1/F2) in a large acoustic database of read New Zealand English speech spanning three different age groups and two regions. The derived FPCA parameters showed a greater degree of centralisation and monophthongisation in SQUARE than in NEAR. Compatibly with the evidence of an ongoing sound change in which SQUARE is shifting towards NEAR, these shape differences were more marked for older than for younger/mid-age speakers. There was no effect of region nor of place of articulation of the preceding consonant; there was a trend for the merger to be more advanced in low frequency words. The study underlines the benefits of FPCA for quantifying the many types of sound changes involving subtle shifts in speech dynamics. In particular, multi-dimensional trajectory shape differences can be quantified without the need for vowel targets nor for determining the influence of the parameters - in this case of the first two formant frequencies - independently of each other.

scholarly journals Die ontwikkeling van [ʃ] in Afrikaans

Literator ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel P. Wissing
Keyword(s):  
Sound Change ◽  
Time Span ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Follow Up Study ◽  
Short Time Span ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
Short Time

The development of [ʃ] in Afrikaans. This is a follow-up study on a seemingly recent development of the consonant system of Afrikaans that Wissing, Pienaar and Van Niekerk (2015) reported on. They show that the voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ is produced as the [ʃ], a voiceless postalveolar or alveopalatal fricative when immediately following the rhotic /r/, but as [s] in contexts other than this. To establish whether this phenomenon is characteristic of present-day Afrikaans in contrast to the pronunciation of previous generations, a survey was conducted in which the readings of news bulletins by two groups of radio presenters were analysed regarding their acoustic properties. These groups are representative of two generations of Afrikaans speakers, characterised as Oud [Old] and Jonk [Young]. Apart from the fact that the reading by Oud were recorded one to two decades ago (2000–2006), and those by Jonk during 2017, the average ages of these groups were at the time of recording 29 years for Jonk, and 50 years for Oud. A significant difference between the acoustic properties of the fricative /s/ following /r/ of these two groups was found. More specifically, Jonk, unlike Oud, clearly produced this phoneme as [ʃ]. This shows that notable sound shifts might happen within a relatively short time span. The article is concluded by considering a possible explanation of this recent phenomenon within the realm of theories of internal sound change. 

VOT merger in Heritage Korean in Toronto

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoonjung Kang ◽  
Naomi Nagy
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Sex Difference ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Korean Speakers ◽  
Internal Variation

AbstractKorean has a typologically unusual three-way laryngeal contrast in voiceless stops among aspirated, lenis, and fortis stops. Seoul Korean is undergoing a female-led sound change in which aspirated stops and lenis stops are merging in voice onset time (VOT) and are better distinguished by the F0 (fundamental frequency) of the following vowel than by their VOT, in younger speakers' speech. This paper compares the VOT pattern of Homeland (Seoul) and Heritage (Toronto) Korean speakers and finds that the same change is in progress in both. However, in the heritage variety, younger speakers do not advance the change, unlike their Seoul counterparts. Rather they have leveled off or are perhaps reversing the change, and there is very little sex difference among the younger heritage speakers' patterns. We consider possible accounts of the differences between the Seoul and Toronto patterns, building our understanding of how language-internal variation operates in bilingual speakers, a topic that has received relatively less attention in the variationist literature.

Formant frequencies of RP monophthongs in four age groups of speakers

2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Hawkins ◽  
Jonathan Midgley
Keyword(s):  
Age Groups ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Formant Frequencies ◽  
Citation Form

This study describes the frequencies of the first two formants of monophthongs produced by male RP speakers in four age groups: aged 20–25, 35–40, 50–55, and 65–73 years in 2001. The eleven monophthongs were spoken in /hVd/ contexts by five men in each age group. The eleven words, together with nineteen filler words chosen to distract attention from the purpose of the experiment, were randomized four times and read by each speaker in citation form, for a total of 880 items. F1 and F2 frequencies were measured in Hz and ERB-rate. As expected, in younger compared with older speakers, F1 is higher in /ε/ and especially /æ/, and F2 is higher in /u:/ and /υ/. Other vowels varied in overall dispersion of F1 or F2, but no other differences between age groups were observed. There is evidence that the oldest age group to show change in a vowel's quality has particularly large differences between individuals, so that, collectively, members of that group span much of the quality range from ‘conservative’ (older groups) to ‘progressive’ (younger groups). Such so-called ‘break groups’ have implications for theoretical explanations of sound change.

scholarly journals An acoustic study of Georgian stop consonants

2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chad Vicenik
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Stop Consonants ◽  
Spectral Moment ◽  
Acoustic Features ◽  
Burst Frequency ◽  
Acoustic Measures ◽  
Acoustic Study ◽  
Closure Duration ◽  
Burst Intensity

This study investigates the acoustic properties of ejective, voiced and voiceless aspirated stops in Georgian, a Caucasian language, and seeks to answer two questions: (i) Which acoustic features discriminate the three stop types? and (ii) Do Georgian stops undergo initial strengthening, and if so, is it syntagmatic or paradigmatic strengthening? Five female speakers were recorded reading words embedded in carrier phrases and stories. Acoustic measures include closure duration, voicing during the closure, voicing lag, relative burst intensity, spectral moment of bursts, phonation (H1-H2) and F0. Of these, voicing lag, voicing during the closure, mean burst frequency, H1-H2 and F0 could all be used to discriminate stop type, but stop types did not differ in closure duration or relative burst intensity. Georgian stops did show initial strengthening and showed only syntagmatic enhancement, not paradigmatic enhancement. Stops showed longer closure durations, longer voicing lags, and higher H1-H2 values in higher prosodic positions.

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