Training of the English /r/ and /l/ speech contrasts in Korean listeners

Authors

  • K. Yu Hearing Health Care Res. Unit, Univ. of Western Ontario, London, Ont., Canada
  • D.G. Jamieson Hearing Health Care Res. Unit, Univ. of Western Ontario, London, Ont., Canada

Keywords:

hearing, speech intelligibility, English, speech contrasts, Korean listeners, rhotic flap, alveolar ridge, postvocalically, phonemic contrast, native Korean speakers, perceptual skill

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)

Additional Files

Published

1993-09-01

How to Cite

1.
Yu K, Jamieson D. Training of the English /r/ and /l/ speech contrasts in Korean listeners. Canadian Acoustics [Internet]. 1993 Sep. 1 [cited 2024 Sep. 17];21(3):107-8. Available from: https://jcaa.caa-aca.ca/index.php/jcaa/article/view/797

Issue

Vol. 21 No. 3 (1993)

Section

Proceedings of the Acoustics Week in Canada

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