ISCA Archive Interspeech 2016
ISCA Archive Interspeech 2016

F0 Development in Acquiring Korean Stop Distinction

Gayeon Son

A number of studies have investigated the role of Voice Onset Time (VOT) on acquisition of stop voicing contrast. Korean stop contrasts (lenis, fortis, and aspirated), however, cannot be differentiated only by VOT since they are all pulmonic egressive voiceless stops. For this three-way distinction, another acoustic parameter, fundamental frequency (F0), critically operates. The present study explores how F0 is perceptually acquired and phonetically operates for Korean stop contrast over age. In order to reveal the relationship between F0 developmental patterns and age, a quantitative acoustic model dealt with word-initial stop productions by 58 Korean young children aged 20 months to 47 months. The results showed that phonetic accuracy depends on the perceptual thresholds in F0, and the significant phonetic differentiation with F0 between lenis and aspirated stops was significantly related to age. These findings suggest that acquisition of F0 plays a crucial role in the formation of phonemic categories for lenis and aspirated stops and this process significantly affects articulatory distinction.