A study of synchronic acoustic characteristics and perceptual cues in Seoul Korean sound change

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K16747
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Sophia University
• Principal Investigator: IGETA Takako 上智大学, 理工学部, 研究員 (80735994)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 母音 / 言語変化 / 音声生成 / 音声知覚 / フォルマント

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purposes of present study of Seoul Korean of young speakers are to elucidate 1) the acoustic characteristics of /o/ and /u/ in the dialect and 2) perceptual cues to the identification of /o/ and /u/ in the context of sound change in Seoul Korean. Previous studies have reported that, due to sound change, the two vowels overlap in the Seoul dialect. It is also known that speech rate influences vowel space. The present study examines the influence of speech rate on the vowel space. The results confirmed the influence of speech rate in the utterances of female speakers. This study’s perceptual identification results differ from previous studies, however. While previous studies have reported that the predominant perceptual cue among lower formants is the second formant, the present study’s findings indicate that the second formant is not necessarily dominant.

Free Research Field

音声学