An Articulatory Study of Word-Initial Liquids in Korean Seoul Metropolitan Dialect Using Real-Time MRI

Abstract

This study investigated the articulation of the Korean liquid in initial positions using real-time MRI. Two female participants, both native speakers of Standard Korean, were recorded. Fifteen monosyllabic test words were generated twice. The investigation focused on the place of articulation and the manner of articulation, specifically the direction of tongue tip movement, the duration of tongue tip contact on the anterior palate, the distance between the anterior tongue and the hard palate, and the distance between the tongue root and the pharynx. This study revealed that each speaker exhibited distinct articulation patterns in producing the word-initial Korean liquid. Despite significant between-speaker variation, a common characteristic was that the closure duration of the Korean liquid was not brief. Therefore, the IPA representation of the word-initial Korean liquid is considered to correspond to [l] (voiced alveolar lateral approximant) for Speaker 1 and [ɭ] (voiced postalveolar retroflex lateral approximant) for Speaker 2, rather than [ɾ] or [ɽ]. Unlike English, where “L” and “R” create a contrast, Korean liquid has only a single liquid phoneme. It is hypothesized that the Korean liquid may occupy a larger articulatory and acoustic space, allowing for greater variation. Additionally, consistent tongue body raising motion (palatalization) was observed in both speakers, while there was no clear trend in tongue root fronting. For future studies on the investigation of the Korean liquid, various factors such as word position, age, region, gender, scene, and speech rate should be considered.