Phonetic aspects of the vowels /o/ and /u/ in Seoul Korean
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This study investigated the phonetic aspects of the the vowels /o/ and /u/ in Seoul Korean, examining how positional (word-initial vs. word-final), morphological (content vs. function morphemes), and sociolinguistic (gender and age) factors affect the productions of the two vowels. Using an experimental design that compared vowel realizations within matched word positions, the results revealed that overlapping patterns occur more frequently in function morphemes than in content morphemes, particularly along the vowel height dimension (F1). When morphological category was held constant, word-initial positions provided more favorable conditions for vowel convergence than word-final ones. Age-related patterns also emerged, such that the change began with speakers born in the 1950s. Younger speakers exhibited greater acoustic overlap between /o/ and /u/, with female speakers showing consistent /o/-raising, while male speakers displayed more variable and less systematic patterns. Regarding the morphological factor, the merger was most evident in word-final function morphemes, likely due to their high frequency, low semantic weight, and prosodic environments favoring phonetic reduction. Furthermore, results from the Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) reliably captured these production realizations, reflecting the observed patterns of vowel convergence across social and linguistic factors. The findings of this study highlight the complex interplay between linguistic structure and sociolinguistic factors in shaping the overlapping patterns observed in the two vowels.
Abstract
This study investigated the phonetic aspects of the the vowels /o/ and /u/ in Seoul Korean, examining how positional (word-initial vs. word-final), morphological (content vs. function morphemes), and sociolinguistic (gender and age) factors affect the productions of the two vowels. Using an experimental design that compared vowel realizations within matched word positions, the results revealed that overlapping patterns occur more frequently in function morphemes than in content morphemes, particularly along the vowel height dimension (F1). When morphological category was held constant, word-initial positions provided more favorable conditions for vowel convergence than word-final ones. Age-related patterns also emerged, such that the change began with speakers born in the 1950s. Younger speakers exhibited greater acoustic overlap between /o/ and /u/, with female speakers showing consistent /o/-raising, while male speakers displayed more variable and less systematic patterns. Regarding the morphological factor, the merger was most evident in word-final function morphemes, likely due to their high frequency, low semantic weight, and prosodic environments favoring phonetic reduction. Furthermore, results from the Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) reliably captured these production realizations, reflecting the observed patterns of vowel convergence across social and linguistic factors. The findings of this study highlight the complex interplay between linguistic structure and sociolinguistic factors in shaping the overlapping patterns observed in the two vowels.