複合核音의 表記 : 高母音을 中心으로 = Notation of Complex Nuclei for Korean Students

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Effective foreign language teaching requires a knowledge of the phonemes in the foreign language as well as those in the native language and problems in the teaching of pronunciation of a foreign language arises from differences between the two phonemic systems. Learning to pronounce a new language is, therefore, a problem of replacement of one system by another system of phonemes.
There is considerable disagreement over the number of units which must be established as phonemes in the English vowel system and more difference of opinion concerning the structural interpretation of these units. In reading technical articles about the vowel system of English, we come across roughly three different types of notations stemming from the difference of the structural interpretation. The main point of difference among these three notations is in their treatment of complex syllabic nuclei. In Notation 1 some of them are transcribed as "long" vowels (/i:/, /u:/), while in Notation 2 they are transcribed as unit phonemes (/i/, /u/) and in Notation 3 they are written each with two symbols to imply that they are composed of two phonemes (/iy/, /uw/), that is, of a basic vowel and a following glide. These systems agree in regarding the "diphthongs," in bite, bout, and boy, as being made up of two phonemes, although they differ in the symbols they use for the glides (/i/ as against /y/, and /u/ as against /uw/), just as they disagree on the choice of symbols for some of the other vowels (/I/, /ε/, /U/ as against /i/, /e/, and /u/, respectively).
Korean vowels are generally pure in that they are relatively free from any change in the position of the vocal organs during articulation, and do not tend to glide into diphthongs as do some English vowels. This difference, coupled with the absence of certain complex nuclei in Korean, presents a serious learning problem for the Korean students of English. The phonemically simple nuclei in Korean and English may be said to be similar in that both sets are phonetically short and lax. The main, and pedagogically most important, difference is in the complex nuclei. English /iy/ and /uw/ are higher than the corresponding Korean vowels. For this reason, English /iy, uw/ tend to be identified by speakers of Korean with their /i:, u:/. This problem is made worse by the traditional use of Daniel Jones's system of notation.
It is clear that phonemic transcription is a useful tool for the teacher of English, whose spelling departs markedly from a principle of consistency, but it is useful only when he derives direction and discretion from an understanding of the basic principle in the practical matter of pronunciation. This paper tries to deal with certain principles underlying the teaching of pronunciation of English with special emphasis on the high vowels and their notations.