Acoustic Analysis of English and Japanese Stop Voicing Contrasts Produced by Korean L2 Learners

摘要

The present study examines phonetic characteristics of Korean L2 learners, when they study English and Japanese stop voicing contrasts. VOT was measured for their Korean, English and Japanese utterances, and it was found that VOT can distinguish a three-way contrast of Korean stops, and that Korean L2 learners use their tense, unaspirated stops for voiced stops in English and Japanese, but it was not clearly shown how they use other types of categories for voiceless stops in English and Japanese, though they seem to use a strongly aspirated stop for English voiceless stops. Phonological features /VOICE, ASPIRATED, TENSE/ were proposed to specify the laryngeal characteristics of Korean, English and Japanese.Index terms: Korean L2 learners, VOT, stop voicing, English, Japanese