[DOI: 10.17959/sppm.2025.31.3.425]

[본문 파일]

Segmental Effects on F₀ in Korean Word-Initial  Position

Mee-Jin Ahn (Pai Chai University)

Abstract 
This study investigates how Korean word-initial segments influence F₀ perturbation by examining consonant-intrinsic F₀ (CF₀) and vowel-intrinsic F₀ (VF₀). An acoustic analysis of 26 words produced by 15 speakers revealed systematic effects of vowel height, voicing, and laryngeal properties on initial F₀. High vowels showed higher F₀ than low vowels, and voiced segments produced substantially lower F₀ than voiceless obstruents. Notably, lax obstruents patterned with vowels and sonorants rather than with other voiceless consonants, indicating voiced-like behavior in terms of F₀ perturbation. Among voiceless obstruents, a consistent hierarchy emerged— Aspirated > Fricative > Tense > Lax—reflecting strong conditioning by aspiration, frication, and vocal-fold stiffness. Fricatives displayed unexpectedly high F₀ values, exceeding those of tense obstruents, a pattern that diverges from earlier findings. These results suggest a possible shift in the laryngeal implementation of Korean obstruents and highlight the need for further research on how F₀-based phonetic patterns inform the phonological categorization of Korean obstruents. 

Keywords 
Korean, VF , CF , voicing, sonorants, lax, fricatives, tense, aspirated, obstruent