This study investigated how Korean toddlers’ perception of stop categories develops in the acoustic dimensions of VOT and F0. To examine the developmental trajectory of VOT and F0 in toddlers’ perceptual space, a perceptual identification test with natural and synthesized sound stimuli was conducted with 58 Korean monolingual children (aged 2–4 years). The results revealed that toddlers’ perceptual mapping functions on VOT mainly in the high-pitch environment, resulting in more successful perceptual accuracy in fortis or aspirated stops than in lenis stops. F0 development is correlated with the perceptual distinction of lenis from aspirated stops, but no consistent categorical perception for F0 was found before four years of age. The findings suggest that multi-parametric control in perceptual development guides an acquisition ordering of Korean stop phonemes and that tonal development is significantly related to the acquisition of Korean phonemic contrasts.

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A number of studies have investigated the role of Voice Onset Time (VOT) on acquisition of stop voicing contrast. Korean stop contrasts (lax, tense, and aspirated), however, cannot be differentiated only by VOT since they are all pulmonic egressive voiceless stops. For this three-way distinction, another acoustic parameter, f0, critically operates. The present study explores how f0 is perceptually acquired and phonetically operates for Korean stop contrast over age. In order to reveal the relationship between f0 developmental patterns and age, a quantitative acoustic model dealt with word-initial stop productions by 60 Korean young children aged 20 months to 47 months. The results showed that f0 perceptual acquisition patterns are closely related to children’s articulatory distinction especially between lax and aspirated stops. In the case of aspirated stops, phonetic accuracy depends on the perceptual thresholds in f0, and the significant phonetic differentiation between lax and aspirated stops was found at age over 32 months. However, f0 of tense stops is not significantly distinguished from the other two stop categories in production. These findings suggest that acquisition of f0 plays a crucial role in the formation of phonemic categories for lax and aspirated stops and this process significantly affects articulatory distinction.

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