F0 Extrema Timing of HL and LH in North Kyungsang Korean: Evidence from a Mimicry Task

Abstract

This paper describes the categorical effects of pitch accent contrasts in a mimicry task. It focuses, specifically, on examining how fundamental frequency (f0) variation reflects phonological contrasts from speakers of two distinct varieties of Korean (i.e., North Kyungsang and South Cholla). The results showed that, in a mimicry task using synthetic speech continua, there was a categorical effect in f0 peak timing for North Kyungsang speakers, but the timing of f0 peaks and valleys in the responses of South Cholla speakers was more variable, presenting a gradient or non-categorical effect. Evidence of categorical effects was represented as the shift of f0 peak times along an acoustic continuum for North Kyungsang speakers. The range for the shift of f0 valley times was much narrower, compared to that of f0 peak times. The degree of a shift near the middle of the continuum showed variability across individual mimicry responses. However, the categorical structure in mimicry responses regarding the clustering of f0 peak points was more significant for North Kyungsang speakers than for South Cholla speakers. Additionally, the finding of the current study implies that the location of f0 peak times depends on individuals' imitative (or cognitive) abilities.

Categorization and production in lexical pitch accent contrasts of North Kyungsang Korean

“…North Kyungsang Korean, a lexical pitch accent dialect, has been assessed in previous works (Kim, 1988;Kim, 1997;Kim, 2012Kim, , 2014; this dialect is primarily spoken in the south-east region of South Korea. Certain pitch forms (e.g., [ka.ka.ka.ka]: HLHL, "is he/she the person?")…”

“…Kim (1988) and Kim (1997) both employed a phonological approach that triggered a theoretic-based analysis. Kim (2012Kim ( , 2014 worked experimentally, focusing on imitation, showing categorical or continuous aspects of the pitch accent contrasts. The development of the pitch accents of the North Kyungsang dialect have been assessed through the imitation method looking at spoken language from children to adults.…”