A Study on Frequency Characteristics of Korean Phonemes

Abstract

A Study on Frequency Characteristics of Korean Phonemes Joo-Hyun Lee, Hyun-Sook Jang and Han-Jin Chung 1 Speech Pathology & Audiology, Groduade School, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea 2 Division of Speech Pathology & Audiology, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea The frequency characteristics of Korean phonemes were identified to predict a patient’s speech recognition ability based on hearing configuration and to be usefully applied in a hearing-aid fitting process and in auditory training. 20 Koreans (10 males;10 females) produced seven Korean monophthongal vowels (/a/, /i/, /u/, /o/, / /, / /, /ε/) in context situations and 18 consonants (/k/, /k’/, /k/, /t/, /t’/, /t/, /p/, /p’/, /p/, /s/, /s’/, /ts/, /ts’/, /ts/, /n/, /m/, /l/, /h/) in nonsense mono-syllabic words (CV) and disyllabic words which were a total of 252 words. Data was collected by using Computerized Speech Lab (CSL 4300B)and analyzed by using Praat 4.3.14. The results revealed that eight vowels had different F1, F2, and F3 values. Formants of each vowel had significantly higher frequency values in females than in males. Some consonants such as stops, affricative, and fricative showed significant differences in frequency according to the vowels that followed. Unlike other consonants, nasal and liquid were not significantly affected by vowels that followed. The peak frequencies of consonants followed by vowels appeared as follows:600-3,500 Hz for /k/, /k’/, /k/ of stops, 4,000 Hz or above for /t/, /t’/, /t/ and 1,000-2,500 Hz for /p/, /p’/, /p/. With the frequency of fricative [s], [s’] were 4,000-6,000 Hz and affricative /ts/, /ts’/, /ts/ were 3,500-5,000 Hz, their frequencies appearing to be higher than stops. Liquid and nasal showed lower than 500 Hz of frequency value. These findings suggest that the frequency band of the Korean phoneme can be usefully applied for evaluation and rehabilitation suitable for Koreans.