The phonetics and phonology of vowel length variation in Korean reduplicated ideophones

Kim, Hyung-Soo. 2008. The phonetics and phonology of vowel length variation in Korean reduplicated ideophones. Studies in Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology 14.2. 39-60. Reduplicated ideophones in Korean present interesting problems in phonetics and phonology of vowel length variation. The vowel in the first syllable is short in the partially reduplicated type, e.g. sa ̆lɨlɨ ‘gently’, but long in the fully reduplicated type, e.g. sa ̄lsal. The long vowel in the corresponding ideophone of the latter type, on the other hand, often appears as short after laryngealized obstruents, e.g. s’a ̆ls’al. In this paper three attempts are made to explain this length variation. The first of these is phonetically based, on the hypothesis that laryngeal onsets influence the duration of the following vowel, while the remaining analyses are based on two independent phonological theories, one making use of the feature [long] for tense and aspirated consonants and the Obligatory Contour Principle and the other the concepts of strength fluxion and the Inertial Development Principle. Although some questions are left for future studies, analyzing this and related problems illuminates many of the skills required of a typical phonetic/phonological analysis: sorting out the data and interpreting its relevance, establishing viable hypotheses using one’s phonetic and phonological knowledge, and integrating them for a plausible explanation. (Jeonju University)