Effects of the loss of long vowels on the moraic features of
English loanwords in North Kyungsang Korean
Hwang, Young (Jeonju University, Assistant Professor)
Abstract
In North Kyungsang (NK) English loanwords, word-initial heavy syllables (CVV or
CVC) have a special salience (a stronger bimoraicity), attracting high tone over other
heavy syllables. This special salience is derived from the phonological characteristics
of long vowels (Hwang 2020a). However, recent studies such as Kim (2018) report
that long vowels have been lost in the production of younger NK speakers. Since the
special salience of word-initial heavy syllables is closely related to long vowels
(Hwang 2020a), the loss of long vowels may weaken the strong bimoraicity not only
from word-initial syllables that traditionally had a long vowel but also from word-
initial closed syllables. Thus, this study investigates the question of whether the loss
of long vowels affects the moraic character of NK English loanwords, focusing on
English loanwords with a closed initial syllable. A production task was conducted
with two age groups (younger and older), and the results show that the loss of long
vowels weakens the special salience of word-initial heavy syllables. That is, English
loanwords with a closed initial syllable are losing their unique tone patterns (double
high accent) in the production of younger speakers and yielding high tone to another
syllable.
Keywords
North Kyungsang Korean, intergenerational tone change, loss of vowel length
distinction, English loanwords, coda moraicity