Year: 1993
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Native speakers of Korean have particular difficulty with the distinction between English /r/ and /l/ contrasts (e.g., Borden, Gerber & Milsark, 1983). While English has two separate labels for the sounds we call /r/ and /l/, the Korean language groups both such sounds into a single category. The Korean /r/ tends only to occur intervocalically and it occurs in the form of a rhotic flap which is articulated with the tip of the tongue making a quick flipping contact against the alveolar ridge (Pyun, 1987). The Korean /l/ sound occurs only postvocalically, and only in a `light' form (Borden, et al., 1983). Korean orthography does not distinguish these sounds (i.e., these sounds do not constitute a phonemic contrast; Borden, et al., 1983). The Korean listener may therefore be unable to hear the difference between the English /r/ and /l/ sounds. In the present study we sought (1) to measure the abilities of young, adult, native Korean speakers to discriminate between the English /r/ and /l/ speech contrasts; and (2) to evaluate the possibilities that these listeners could be taught this perceptual skill using procedures similar to those used by Logan, Lively and Pisoni (1991)
Source: Canadian acoustics
Authors: Karen Yu, Donald G. Jamieson
Institution: Western University
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W1601183034