Old vs. Young Koreans' Vowel Insertion after Word-final English and French Postvocalic Plosives: a Sociolinguistic Account

In a recent data survey, the comparison of the 2011 data to the early 1990s data for English and French loans in Korean adaptation has revealed that the overall frequency of final vowel insertion and that of variable insertion and/or no vowel insertion after the word-final postvocalic plosives [b d g p t k] are significantly decreased and increased, respectively, no matter whether the plosives are English or French (Figure 1). In order to explore whether there is a generational difference in vowel insertion in Korean adaptation of the L2 plosives in relation to the data survey, we conducted a perception experiment on old and young Koreans' vowel insertion. Under the assumption that the 1990s data presumably includes loanwords from speakers born mainly between 1930 and 1960, while the 2011 database presumably includes loanwords from speakers born up to about 20 years later, 40 Koreans who were born before 1960 and another 40 Koreans who were born after 1989 were recruited in the experiment with 20 male and 20 female subjects in each group. The average age of the old group is 59.6 years old and that of the young group 21.9 years old. The results of our experiment have shown that it is after the word-final English and French postvocalic [b d g p t k] that the young and old Korean groups are different in vowel insertion, regardless of whether the plosives are released or unreleased. Statistical results revealed that when the plosives are released (Figure 2a), the young and old groups have a significant difference in vowel insertion after English and French word-final released plosives [t = 2.267, p = 0.023]. That is, young group has no difference in vowel insertion after the plosives, while old group has significantly more vowel insertion after French released plosives than after English counterparts. When the plosives are unreleased (Figure 2b), there is also a significant difference in vowel insertion after the plosives between young and old groups [t =-2.329, p = 0.020]. This means that young group has no difference in vowel insertion after English and French unreleased plosives, whereas old group has a significant difference in vowel insertion after them with more vowel insertion after English unreleased plosives than French counterparts. From the results, we propose that the generational difference in vowel insertion after the non-native plosives is explained by a solicolinguistic account that language contact differences over time …