Acoustic Analysis of Lax, Aspirated and Tense Consonants in Seoul Korean: Concerning Patterns of F0, Intensity and Formants in the Consonants Preceding/Following Vowels

Abstract

This study examines the patterns of F0, intensity and formants in the Seoul Korean vowels preceding and following lax, aspirated, and tense consonants (/ta/, /t^ha/, /t'a/, /tsa/, /ts^ha/, /ts'a/, /sa/, /s'a/, /ata/, /at^ha/, /at'a/, /atsa/, /ats^ha/, /ats'a/, /asa/, /as'a/). The results of acoustic analysis found that the patterns of F0 and F1 in the following vowels differ among lax, aspirated, and tense consonants in both the initial and the intervocalic positions. The differences between patterns are more apparent in the initial than in the intervocalic. However, it is reasonable to believe that the patterns of F0 have no influence on consonant judgment because the angles of inclinations were subtle. On the other hand, F1 of the tense consonants differ from those in the other consonants as they rise in the first half of the following vowels. This, therefore, suggests that the patterns of F1 can influence the perception judgments of the consonants examined in this study.