Speaker-specific Patterns of Phonetic Covariation in Korean Word-medial Stops and the Role of Phonological and Morphological Contexts
Chloe D. Kwon
Individual speaker differences in speech have often been regarded as random, but growing evidence suggests that variation across speakers follows systematic patterns. Yet, it remains an open question whether such structured variation is universal across languages, spans multiple phonetic dimensions, and remains consistent across contexts. Korean word-medial stops provide a compelling test case, as these stops are subject to extensive contextual variability. This study examines patterns in individual speaker variation by analyzing the phonetic distributions and covariation patterns between word-medial stops in Seoul Korean in varying phonological and morphological contexts. The results show that while individual differences arise in phonetic realization of these stops, speakers maintain structured covariation that allows stop categories to remain distinct despite variability, providing further support for the phonetic uniformity account.