/h/ in Korean: aspiration merger and /s/-tensification

Abstract

In this paper, I investigate aspiration merger and /s/-tensification in Korean that occur when segment /h/ is next to obstruents. First, I discuss the claims made by Davis and Cho (2003) for aspiration merger, and argue that one of their claims, namely that the skeletal slot of segment /h/ deletes in word-internal position, cannot be maintained. I show that the data they based their claim on are too limited. Instead, I suggest that when /h/ precedes another consonant, its skeletal slot never deletes, but rather triggers /s/-tensification and etc. In particular, I will argue that tense [S*] is a long segment (cf. geminate) and is derived in /h-s/ sequence as the result of the spreading of the frication of plain /s/ to a preceding skeletal slot previously occupied by /h/. The claim that (prosodic word-internal) intervocalic tense [S*] is a long segment (i.e. geminate) in Korean is based on a perception study on English [s] into Korean that shows that the length of frication significantly affects Koreans’ perception of English [s] into tense [S*] and plain [s] (cf. Kang and Kang 2004).