L1 Interference in Koreans' Perception of Released Word-final Stops in English

Abstract

This study investigated L1 interference in the perception of released word-final stops in English by performing perception experiments on Korean and English listeners. Stimuli with conflicting cues were used in experiments in which the ‘long CV’ and the ‘short vowel CV’ were rejoined with six silent closure duration intervals and two release bursts of [g] and two release bursts of [k]. The perception results show that Korean listeners perceived significantly more [k] compared to English listeners when ‘k’ release was attached to a ‘long CV.’ We suggest that this is due to different phonological systems in Korean and English. In Korean, a released stop occurs only in the onset position in which the VOT and the stop closure duration are important acoustic cues for the identity of a stop. Thus, the English coda [k] with voiceless release burst could be perceived as an onset with long VOT, namely [k], by Korean listeners. In contrast, English listeners mostly perceived a voiced stop due to the long preceding vowel (cf. Raphael, 1972). With the stimuli of ‘short CV’ with ‘g’ release, Korean listeners perceived significantly more [g] than NE listeners did. English coda [g] with a voiced release may be perceived as an onset [g] with a short VOT by Korean listeners. In contrast, English listeners perceived a voiceless stop [k] due to the preceding short vowel. This paper also showed that Korean listeners would perceive finer distinctions than two levels of release, ‘g’ release and ‘k’ release.