Navigating dialectal boundaries: How speech context and interlocutor shape North Korean refugees’ vowel production

Abstract

This study examines how speakers of Pyongyang North Korean Standard (NK), who have resettled in South Korea, adjust their vowel production across different speech contexts, i.e., read speech, conversation with a fellow NK interlocutor, and conversation with a Seoul South Korean Standard (SK) interlocutor. Results show interlocutor-dependent vowel shifts among NK speakers. Whereas vowel production remained relatively stable in read speech and NK–NK interactions, NK speakers exhibited clear adaptive phonetic modifications during conversations with SK interlocutors. Specifically, they raised their tongue positions for vowels [i], [ɯ], [o], and [u], fronted front vowels ([i], [e], [æ]), and backed back vowels ([ʌ], [o], [u]). These findings suggest that NK speakers strategically adjust their vowel articulation to enhance intelligibility and minimize the perceptual salience of their NK accent, thus highlighting how vowel production is influenced by audience design and determined by social and communicative factors.