Emergence of word prosody in (Seoul) Korean

Authors

  • Angeliki Athanasopoulou University of Delaware, USA Author
  • Irene Vogel University of Delaware, USA Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2016/07/0004/000263

Keywords:

tonogenesis, VOT, pitch accent, Korean

Abstract

It has been argued that Korean has recently developed an F0 distinction word-initially partially replacing the VOT distinction of the three stop categories, lax, aspirated, tense. This change has been characterized as tonogenesis, but since the contrast is not on all syllables, it seems to be more consistent with a pitch accent language than a tone language. We investigate the prosodic patterns of trisyllabic words to assess a) whether the VOT-to-F0 change is only word-initial or if it also occurs in other syllables, b) if there is evidence of word level prominence on one syllable supporting a pitch accent interpretation. The data from 10 Korean speakers yield conflicting evidence for both tonal and pitch accent prosodic systems.

 

References

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Jun, Sun-Ah. 2005. “Korean intonational phonology and prosodic transcription.” In Prosodic Typology: The Phonology of Intonation and Phrasing, by Sun-Ah Jun, 201-229. Oxford University Press.

Kang, Yoonjung. 2014. “Voice Onset Time merger and development of tonal contrast in Seoul Korean stops: a corpus study.” Journal of Phonetics 45: 76-90.

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Thurgood, Graham. 2002. “Vietnamese and tonogenesis: revising the model and the analysis.” Diacronica 19 (2): 333-363.

Vogel, Irene, Angeliki Athanasopoulou, and Nadya Pincus. 2015. “Acoustic properties of prominence in Hungarian and the Functional Load Hypothesis.” In Approaches to Hungarian 14, by Katalin Kiss, Balázs Surányi and Éva Dékány, 267-292. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Wright, Jonathan. 2008. The phonetic contrast of Korean obstruents. Doctoral dissertation: University of Pennsylvania.

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Published

01-01-2016

How to Cite

Emergence of word prosody in (Seoul) Korean. (2016). Linguistic Proceedings Series, 7(1), 29-32. https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2016/07/0004/000263

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