한국어 비음의 탈비음화에 대한 연구

A Perception Study on Korean Denasalization

This study aims to examine the linguistic characteristics of Korean denasalization. The nasals of Korean language are known to have less nasality. This paper presents a brief review of the characteristics of nasals in other languages undergoing denasalization as well as the causes of such denasalization. And this study conducted an identification and discrimination (AX) test that evaluated Korean language learners’ perception of Korean nasals. As results, it is worth noting that the denasalization of Korean nasals occurred more in close vowels than open vowels and more in /n/ than /m/. The AX results showed that Koran nasals were phonetically different from those in English. It should be mentioned that speakers of Chinese language without voiced-voiceless contrast did not sensitively respond to the denasalization of Korean nasals, which is unlike speakers with non-English languages with voiced-voiceless contrast. One might infer from the results summarized above that the voiced-voiceless distinctive features existing within the phonemic system of a language play an crucial role in the perception of denasalization.