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A study on diphthong and low vowel pronunciation lengths of Chungnam and Gyungnam collegians

Park, Heesuk

( Namseoul University)

1.0 Introduction

This study was done to investigate the vowel lengths of English diphthongs and low vowels. The English diphthongs and low vowels are difficult for Koreans to pronounce, and they tend to show a foreign accent in their pronunciation. In pronouncing the English diphthongs, the tongue moves from one position to another. The two articulations of a diphthong can be described as the nucleus plus a glide. However, most Koreans don’t understand this phenomenon and pronounce diphthongs like two separate monophthongs. In this study I devised an experiment to analyze diphthong data of native-English-speaking Americans and college students of Chungnam and Gyungnam provinces. This was done to find the differences of English diphthong and low vowel lengths among the three groups of English speakers.

This study also investigated the same data between English major students and other tudents. English major students are generally interested in English and also have been systematically taught English subjects. As a result, English major students of Chungnam and Gyungnam provinces would not be so much affected as other students by the dialects of their provinces.

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2. The Comparison of English pronunciation 2.1. The Pronunciation of English diphthong and low vowels of natives

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2.2. The Pronunciation of English diphthong and low vowels of Korean collegians of Chungnam province

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2.3. The Pronunciation of English diphthong and low vowels of Korean collegians of Gyungnam province

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3. The Comparison of English vowel lengths table 1. Comparison of English vowel length between natives and Korean collegians of

Chungnam, Gyungnam provinces. mean

Chungnam province Gyungnam province vowelNative English majorother dept.English majorother dept.

fly 292.48 356.70 250.48 340.16 257.24 joy 319.26 329.24 284.56 400.48 304.44 out 223.08 258.48 249.80 275.68 236.78 pay 286.30 289.00 261.76 312.78 242.50 coat 178.26 223.92 168.92 219.88 187.58 pack 208.70 170.84 159.70 184.36 159.24 thought 231.34 188.60 171.48 222.62 154.74 father 206.44 140.14 128.22 169.44 114.38

Unit: ms

table2. Effects of position on vowel length sentence initial position

Chungnam province Gyungnam province vowelNative English majorother dept.English majorother dept.

fly 159.22 199.28 166.00 215.92 187.44 joy 205.12 218.30 234.04 245.44 248.50 out 150.46 177.08 177.82 172.50 161.20 pay 147.32 148.06 187.58 181.26 147.60 coat 123.92 137.20 113.52 132.86 133.24 pack 128.58 89.76 90.22 102.40 89.42 thought 180.80 168.76 139.80 153.12 143.60 father 141.12 130.86 118.38 141.20 113.56

Unit: ms

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unit:ms

4. Conclusion Table 1 shows us that the vowel lengths of English diphthongs between the natives and

Korean collegians of Chungnam and Gyungnam provinces were different. Comparing the average length of English diphthongs of Korean collegians with those of American natives, we can see that native English speakers tend to pronounce the English diphthong shorter than Korean collegians do.

By these experiment results, we see a lengthening effect in English major collegians of Chungnam and Gyungnam provinces like American natives. But in the pronunciation of Korean collegians of Chungnam and Gyungnam provinces of other departments, we don't see a lengthening effect of English vowel. By this phenomenon, we may conclude that Korean collegians can learn English rhythm through a proper teaching program regardless of their dialect. References Dennis H. Klatt. 1973. Interaction between two factors that influence vowel duration.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol54, No.5, 1102-1104

D. Kimbrough Oller. 1973. The effect of position in utterance on speech segment duration in English, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 54, 1235 - 1247.

sentence final position Chungnam province Gyungnam province vowel

Native English majorother dept.English majorother dept.fly 228.40 237.48 176.96 266.52 193.30 joy 235.76 268.54 226.98 299.00 238.96 out 211.36 234.32 192.70 213.54 169.36 pay 203.96 248.62 190.78 216.04 167.64 coat 173.14 175.78 136.34 156.72 142.90 pack 187.14 172.16 118.76 173.24 129.72 thought203.18 169.76 139.12 182.50 139.72 father 161.08 140.42 117.62 145.80 120.50

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Flege, J. E. and W. S. Brown, Jr. 1982. Effects of Utterance Position on English Speech Timing. Phonetica 39, 337-357.

Park, HeeSuk. 2003. An experimental study on English vowel lengths as produced by Korean college students in Chungnam and Gyungnam provinces. KASS, Vol.10 No.3, 157-173.

Thomas H. Crystal and Arthur S. House. 1988. The duration of American-English vowels. Journal of Phonetics 16, 263-284