음성음운형태론연구 19집 2호 Kang, Hijo

Kang, Hijo. 2013. Phonetic grounding of position and height asymmetries in

hiatus resolution: An acoustic analysis of Korean VV sequences. Studies in

Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology 19.2. 217-232. 

This paper deals with two typological patterns in hiatus resolution, position and height asymmetries, from the

perspective of phonetics and phonology interface. In languages where hiatus is

disfavored in the output, the weakening of a vowel is more likely to take place in V1

and high vowels than V2 and non-high vowels, respectively. Assuming that these

typological asymmetries are rooted in the acoustic and auditory mechanisms of

human speech (Ohala 1993), I conducted an acoustic analysis of Korean VV

sequences, which were recorded by six Korean speakers in two different speech rates.

The results showed that the steady state of V1 is shorter than that of V2 in CV1V2

words but not in CVCV words. High vowels turned out to have shorter steady states

than non-high vowels and the proportional difference increased in fast speech. These

results suggest that the typological patterns are not only morphologically motivated

(e.g., Casali 1996) but phonetically grounded. (Seoul National University)