Feature Articles: Phonetic and Phonological Variation and Change in Modern Korean
A Sociophonetic Study of the Ternary Laryngeal Contrast in Yanbian Korean
2017 Volume 21 Issue 2 Pages 80-105
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2017 Volume 21 Issue 2 Pages 80-105
This paper investigates the three-way laryngeal contrast for stop consonants in Yanbian Korean. Data from 61 speakers (DoB 1935–1992) finds three correlates (VOT, F0, H1-H2) which are dependent on laryngeal type, place of articulation, tone, gender, age, and sub-dialect. Several innovations are found. First, VOT has significantly shortened and tense and lax have merged over apparent time. Second, at vowel onset the F0 associated with tense has decreased relative to aspirated. Third, for H1-H2 aspirated has become more breathy than lax. For all three innovations (young) females are the leaders.
