Effect of Age on the Voice Onset Time of Korean Stops in VCV contexts

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of the age of Korean speakers, place of articulation, and phonation types on voice onset time (VOT) of stops. Twenty-five preschoolers, 25 schoolers, and 25 adults who had no history of speech and language impairment produced plosives in /VCV/ words in isolation. A three-way (3✕3✕3) mixed design was used with the age of speakers (preschoolers, schoolers, adults) as a between-subject factor, the place of articulation (bilabials, alveolars, velars) and phonation types (plain, tense, aspirated consonants) as a within-subject factor. The dependent measure was the VOT values. Results revealed that three main effects were statistically significant. Preschoolers exhibited longer VOTs than adults (p<.05). There were significant differences in VOTs among the place of articulation, showing that speakers had the longest VOTs for velars (velars > alvelars > bilabials) (all p<.05). In addition, the VOTs for aspirated consonants were longer than those for plain and tense consonants, and the differences were significant among three phonation types (aspirated > tense > plain) (all p<.05). The current results suggested that VOTs would be linked to age and development, and schoolers over the age of 11 years had achieved adult-like VOTs. Moreover, the place of articulation and phonation types in Korean stops showed marked factors in normal speakers' VOT patterns.

Voice Onset Time in Healthy Young and Old Adults

“…, 그들의 VOT 변이성은 커져 노화에 따른 조음능력의 저하가 나타난다 (Morris & Brown, 1994;Petrosino, Colcord, Kurcz, & Yonker, 1993;Torre & Barlow, 2009). 한국 어를 대상으로 한 국내의 선행 연구 (Lee & Lee, 2015;Park & Lee, 2016)에서도 발성유형과 조음위치에 따른 VOT를 일반 아동과 정 상 성인 집단에서 살펴봄으로써 한국어 사용 아동 및 성인의 조음 발달적 특성에 대해 밝힌 바 있으며, 장년층과 청년층의 비교 (Park, 2006;Kang & Guion, 2008), 파킨슨 환자군과 정상 노년층의 비교 를 위해 VOT 측정을 진행한 연구 (Kang, Park, & Seong, 2009)가 있었다. 그러나 정상적인 노화 과정에서의 조음능력 변화와 변이성 을 살피기 위한 국내 연구는 극히 드문 실정이다 (Yoo & Kim, 2015).…”