South Korea 5

Listen to South Korea 5, a 20-year-old woman from Gwanganli, Haeundae, Busan, South Korea. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 20

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 16/01/1992

PLACE OF BIRTH: Gwanganli (in Busan City), South Korea

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Korean

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: undergraduate student

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

She was born and raised in Gwanganli, Haeundae, Busan, South Korea. She moved to Seoul, South Korea, when she was 20 years old and went to university there. This semester (fall 2012) is her first time in America.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

She learned English from Korean teachers in South Korea.

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: Amanda Arbues

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/11/2012

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY):

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I was born in Gwanganli, South Korea. But I … my family moved from Haeundae … Haeundae in … at the time of IMF. And then, and then we, uh, we started to live with my grandparent … grandparents there. Uh, and, uh, when I became to 20, uh, I, I go to the Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul. So, uh, currently I have lived with my other sister in Seoul. And also I went to the private, private institution for studying English. In Korea, uh, I when I have, when I had free time, then I hung out with my boyfriend a lot. We spent a lot of time together, but [laugh] I essentially broke up with him. And, umm, these days I like to go to yoga class. Umm, this is my first time to being in USA. At first I was very embarrassed that, hmm, people say hello each other even though they are acquaintance each other. So, I was scared to, mmm, talk to other people with, that I don’t know, but now I get used to it and I’m very happy to know you people.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Amanda Arbues

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/11/2012

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY:  N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY):  N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

 

CHARACTERISTICS

1.    Mouth and Resonance Placement: In the South Korean dialect, the jaw is slightly opened and there is a very small space compared to General American. Also, there is usually less lip rounding than in General American. Resonance is placed more forward and nasalized. The tongue is very quick and light.

2.    Quick and Short Sounds: When you are not emphasizing a word, the sounds are quick and short. Use certain diacritics to help shorten words, like the “no audible release” diacritic [n̚] and the “nasal release” diacritic [dⁿ].

3.    Elision: In South Korean, not every sound is important, so sounds may be shortened, abbreviated, or “smushed” together. For example, the phrase “I don’t know” may sound like [ɑʔ̚d̪ono].

4.    Aspiration: Plosive consonants receive aspiration. More specifically, [pʰ], [bʰ], and [tʰ]. The exception to the rule is when a plosive consonant is the last sound of a word. Then the plosive consonant is either devoiced (if it is voiced) or shortened with the no audible release diacritic.

5.    Devoicing Final Voiced Consonants: If a final consonant is voiced, devoice it. Most commonly you change [d] to [t] and [ð] to [θ]. However, there are exceptions to the rule. For instant change, [z] is changed to [dʒ].

6.    Glottal Attacks: Because of the frequent use of glottal attacks in Korean, in the Korean dialect you will occasionally insert a glottal attack in the middle of a two-syllable word. The glottal will have a “no audible release” diacritic. For example, “happy” is pronounced as [hɛʔ̚pĩː].

7.    Emphasis and Pitch Variation: In South Korean, the emphasis and pitch varies depends on the person, word, or sentence. However, there are three popular emphasis and pitch variation options. The first option is to vary your pitch using the “high rising contour macron acute” symbol [ē] on the last sound (or couple of sounds) of any word. This symbol causes the pitch to plateau for a second or two, and then it rises to a higher pitch. This is common on words ending in vowels and words ending in “ing.” For words ending in “ing,” the plateau is on the [ɪ], or in South Korean, the [i] sound and then rises in pitch on the [ŋ]. This is demonstrated on Paul Meier’s Website under “tone and word accents.” The second option is emphasizing the first syllable of a two-syllable word that is separated by a glottal attack. In the word “happy,” the first part [hɛʔ̚] is emphasized and the second syllable uses the “high rising contour macron acute” symbol. Therefore, the second symbol would be [pī]. The third option is to stress a syllable that is not normally stressed in General American. For example, you can stress the second syllable in the word “lunatic” instead of the first syllable, as most commonly done in General American: [ˌluːˈnɑˌtɪk].

8. Rhotic and non-rhotic Dialect (depending on the speaker): Because of the heavy influence of American culture on South Korea (or when a South Korean learns English from an American teacher), when a vowel is followed by an /r/, most of the time the vowel has r-coloring. However, occasionally the final /r/ in a word is dropped, depending on the person or word.  For example, the word “for” may be pronounced [fɔː].

 

SUBSTITUTIONS

1. [θ] to [θ̪]. Use only when a word begins with the [θ] sound. (Examples: thanks, thistle, thought)
2. [θ]  to [θ̚]. Use only on the last sound of a word. (Examples: hath, bath, math)
3. [d] to [d̪]. Use only when a word begins with the [d] sound. (Examples: don’t, dog, doubt)
4. [d] to [t]. Use only on the last sound of a word. (Examples: end, friend, lend)
5. [z] to [dʒ]. Use only when a word begins with the [z] sound. Use [s] when a word ends with the [z] sound. (Examples: zoo, was, zebra, because)
6.[æp] to [ɛp]. (Examples: apple, trap, happy, lap)
7.[i] to [ĩː]. (Examples: sappy, happy, sea, leave)
8.[ɪ] to [i]. (Examples: livid, kid, lip, whip)
9. [ɪə̆ɹ] to [ĩːə̆ɾ]. Use only if the next sound is a vowel. Otherwise use #9. (Examples: mirror, nearer, meter)
10. [ɪə̆ɹ] to [ĩːə̆ɹ]. (Examples: near, fear, deer)
11.  [l] to [ɹ]. Use occasionally for strong dialect, but do not over use. (Examples: normally, official, confidential)
12. [ɹ] to [ɾ]. Use only when the sound before and after the /r/ is a vowel sound. (Examples: Sarah, fitter, matter, batter)
13. [ɔə̆ɹ] to [ɜɹ]. (Examples: born, foreign, mourn)
14. [ʊ] to [uː]. (Examples: foot, book, shook)
15. [æʊ̆] to [æŭː]. (Examples: mouth, loud, proud)
16.  [ə] to [ɑ] for words with the letter /a/. Use only when emphasizing that sound. (Examples: lunatic)
17. [ə] to [ɔ] for words with the letter /o/. Use only when emphasizing that sound. (Examples: for)

COMMENTARY BY: Amanda Arbues

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 06/12/2012

The archive provides:

• Recordings of accent/dialect speakers from the region you select.
• Text of the speakers’ biographical details.
• Scholarly commentary and analysis in some cases.
• In most cases, an orthographic transcription of the speakers’ unscripted speech.  In a small number of cases, you will also find a narrow phonetic transcription of the sample (see Phonetic Transcriptions for a complete list).  The recordings average four minutes in length and feature both the reading of one of two standard passages, and some unscripted speech. The two passages are Comma Gets a Cure (currently our standard passage) and The Rainbow Passage (used in our earliest recordings).

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