충남 지역 모음 /ㅓ/의 음성적 실현

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine and compare the phonetic realizations of the short vowel /ㅓ/ and long vowel /ㅓ/ in the Chungnam dialect using Spontaneous speech data. To achieve this, the lengths of the short vowel /ㅓ/ and long vowel /ㅓ/ vowels were measured to determine whether there is any distinction in vowel length in the Chungnam dialect. Additionally, formant values were analyzed to investigate the articulation locations of the short and long vowels and compare their acoustic characteristics. The results show that, for males, there is not only a difference in vowel length but also in the front and back position of the tongue between the short vowel /ㅓ/ and long vowel /ㅓ/. Specifically, when producing the long vowel /ㅓ/, males tend to maintain a more retracted and elevated tongue position compared to the short vowel /ㅓ/ in order to preserve vowel length. In contrast, for females, no statistically significant differences were found in terms of vowel length or tongue position, both front and back, between the short vowel /ㅓ/ and long vowel /ㅓ/. This suggests that the long vowel /ㅓ/ has fully merged into the short vowel /ㅓ/ in female speakers. This study is significant in that it quantifies the phonetic realizations of the short vowel /ㅓ/ and long vowel /ㅓ/ in the Chungnam dialect based on empirical data. However, due to the limited examples of the long vowel, further research using a wider range of vocabulary is expected to provide a deeper understanding of vowel length and its interpretation.