The study aimed to compare between korean and chinese fortis phonetically and phonologically, and examine the aspects of chinese learners' pronunciation of korean fortis. It also aimed to investigate the environment and types of errors in tenseness an...
The study aimed to compare between korean and chinese fortis phonetically and phonologically, and examine the aspects of chinese learners' pronunciation of korean fortis. It also aimed to investigate the environment and types of errors in tenseness and its realization aspects for chinese learners.
Using PRAAT, we made an acoustic measurement of the initial and intervocalic values of the korean fortis /ㅃ, ㄸ, ㄲ, ㅉ, ㅆ/(Voice Onset Time, Closure Duration Time, Pitch value of the following vowel, Friction section) produced by korean native speakers, and the chinese fortis /b, p, d, t, g, k, z, c, zh, ch, j, q, s, sh, x/ produced by chinese speakers, and we compared and analyzed both of them. Then, we found out the acoustic phonetic similarities and differences between them.
Moreover, inorder to check whether Chinese speakers manage to learn korean fortis easily, if it has similarity with the Chinese pronunciation, we conducted a reading test including 150 chinese learners from all korean language levels(basic, intermediate, and advanced). Through this experiment we examined the aspects of their pronunciation of korean fortis. indeed, the results showed 30.5% of error rates. If we examine it according to proficiency level from basic to advanced, we notice that the number of errors definitely decreased as the proficiency improved. From basic to intermediate the number of errors decreased as well. However, from intermediate to advanced level, the number of errors decreased but not as much as the basic one and this is due to fossilization factor. The examination produced three types of errors: the error of pronouncing the fortis as a lenis(type 1), the error of pronouncing the fortis as an aspirated(type 2), and the error of pronouncing the fortis as an affricate aspirated(type 3). The Error(Type 1), compared to(Type 3) appeared to be 25 times more occurring, which means that this error is very serious. The Chinese participants were divided to conduct the experiment. The result showed that the error from basic to advanced level definitely decreased as their language proficiency improved. From basic to intermediate level the number of error decreased while from intermediate to advanced there was not much decrease because of fossilization factor.
Furthermore, in order to examine the aspects of Korean tenseness pronunciation of Chinese learners, a reading test of Korean tenseness was conducted. It included 30 chinese learners(basic, intermediate, and advanced levels). Through the aspects of tenseness pronunciation, tenseness could be identified by the difficult environment and error type. Error rate was examined based on 6 types of tenseness environment indicated in the Korean standard pronunciation. Errors are classified into 4 type: the first one is error in pronouncing it as it's written. The second one is error in eliminating final consonant in preceding syllable and pronouncing lenis as lax consonant. The third one is error in pronouncing consonant connected behind as aspirated. The fourth one is error in unability to pronounce tenseness in low environment.
Results examination generally showed that Chinese learners in basic level have highest error rates. Chinese learners in intermediate and advanced levels appeared to have similar error rates which are somehow low though the number of errors was not small. Furthermore, the environment that learners in all levels found it hard was the tenseness that comes behind final consonant. Error rates in all environment showed highest rates in basic level, and as it goes up to intermediate level error rates appeared with horizontal line, which could be understood by that existence of fossilization in intermediate level.