Fortifying cuteness

Abstract

The term aegyo refers to a cute style of speech in Korean with numerous reported phonetic correlates. One of these is obstruent fortition (OF). The present study examines the gender and age effects of OF across 21 romantic couples and across eight mock situations (date, workplace, family, comfort, date-planning, request, expression of love). Results revealed a significant interaction between performance of aegyo and age, such that younger participants exhibited higher rates of OF when performing aegyo than when not performing aegyo, whereas older participants did not. Results also revealed a gender effect such that women employed more OF than men, and a situation effect such that OF was more likely to occur in romantic situations, suggesting its indexicality of romantic intimacy.