The Phonetic Characteristics of Japanese Affricates Produced by Korean Learners of Japanese: Based on the Auditory and Acoustic Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the voiced-ness of Japanese affricates and long and short vowels following the affricates, influence the length of those affricates produced by Korean learners. 46 words produced by 40 students were judged for the naturalness in terms of their length. The results revealed the voiced affricate [ʥ] preceding a short vowel /o/ and the voiceless affricate [ʨ] preceding a long vowel /oo/ were rated highly unnatural. An acoustic analysis shows the differences between the affricates judged as natural and those as unnatural ascribe to the duration of frication.