한·일 양 언어의 모음의 무성화 -지속시간과 모음의 무성화-

Abstract

To find out an interrelationship of vowel devoicing with vowel duration as well as other conditions such as devoiced vowels, before-and-after consonants, and accent, this paper does an phonetic-based experiment by using utterance of native speakers of Korean and Japanese. The experiment shows that vowel duration of closed syllable in syllable-based Korean reduces, while one in mora-based Japanese considerably expands. This result corresponds to the ones of Maddieson (1985), Maekawa (1997), Min (2007). It is also tested that the difference of vowel duration between Korean and Japanese has an effect on the occurrence rate of vowel devoicing. It follows that vowel duration and vowel devoicing are interrelated with each other. In other words, the occurrence rate of vowel devoicing in Korean is 35% in open syllables and 50% in closed syllable, which means that vowel duration is longer in closed syllable than in open syllable. On the other hand, in Japanese the occurrence rate of vowel devoicing is 98% in open syllables and 48% in closed syllable. It seems that the longer the length of vowel is in closed syllable, the less the devoicing happens. This result proves that the difference of the syllable structure in Korean and Japanese is closely related to vowel duration, and the difference of vowel duration has an effect on the devoicing. Devoicing easily happens in a vowel with short duration because the duration becomes shortened in the context of devoicing. Also, a vowel that is uttered in short can be easily devoiced. The hypothesis of this paper is well proved that vowel duration and vowel devoicing are closely related to each other and interact. Also, a further research is required in terms of perception, judgement, and manner of articulation of vowel devoicing of Korean and Japanese.