Abstract
Korean is thought to be unique in having three kinds of voiceless stops: aspirated /ph th kh/, tense /p* t* k*/, and lax /p t k/. The contrast between tense and lax stops raises two theoretical problems. First, to distinguish them either a new feature [tense] is needed, or the contrast in voicing (or aspiration) must be increased from two to three. Either way there is a large increase in the number of possible stops in the world's languages, but the expansion lacks support beyond Korean. Second, initial aspirated and tense consonants correlate with a high tone, and lax and voiced consonants correlate with a low tone. The correlation cannot be explained in the standard tonogenesis model (voiceless-high and voiced-low). We argue instead that (a) underlyingly "tense" stops are regular voiceless unaspirated stops, and "lax" stops are regular voiced stops, (b) there is no compelling evidence for a new distinctive feature, and (c) the consonant-tone correlation is another case of voiceless-high and voiced-low. We conclude that Korean does not have an unusual phonology, and there is no need to complicate feature theory.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Abramson, Arthur S. and Leigh Lisker (1972) “Voice Timing in Korean stops,” in Proceedings of the 7th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, A. Rigault and R. Charbonneau (eds.), Mouton, The Hague, pp. 439-446.
Ahn, Hyunkee (1999) Post-release Phonatory Processes in English and Korean: Acoustic Correlates and Implications for Korean Phonology, PhD dissertation, University of Texas at Austin.
Ahn, Sang-Cheol (1985) The Interplay of Phonology and Morphology in Korean, PhD dissertation, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Ahn, Sang-Cheol and Gregory K. Iverson (2001) “Post-Obstruent Tensing in Korean Reconsidered,” Harvard Studies in Korean Linguistics IX, 107-116.
Ao, Benjamin X. P. (1992) “The Non-uniqueness Condition and the Segmentation of the Chinese Syllable,” Working Papers in Linguistics 42, Ohio State University, pp. 1-25.
Archangeli, Diana (1988) “Aspects of Underspecification Theory,” Phonology 5, 183-207.
Avery, Peter and William Idsardi (2000) “The Laryngeal Phonology of Korean,” paper presented at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Chicago.
Bao, Zhiming (1990) On the Nature of Tone, PhD dissertation, MIT.
Bao, Zhiming (1999) The Structure of Tone, Oxford University Press, New York.
Baxter, William (1992) A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin.
Cao, Jianfen and Ian Maddieson (1992) “An Exploration of Phonation Types in Wu Dialects of Chinese,” Journal of Phonetics 20.1, 77-92.
Chao, Yuen-Ren (1934). “The Non-uniqueness of Phonemic Solutions of Phonetic Systems,” Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica 4.4, pp. 363-397. Reprinted in Readings in Linguistics I, Martin Joos (ed.), University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1957, pp. 38-54.
Cho, Taehong (1996) Vowel Correlates to Consonant Phonation: An Acoustic-perceptual Study of Korean Obstruents, M.A. thesis, University of Texas at Arlington.
Cho, Taehong, Sun-Ah Jun and Peter Ladefoged (2002) “Acoustic and Aerodynamic Correlates of Korean Stops and Fricatives,” Journal of Phonetics 30.2, 193-228.
Choi, Chun-Tae (1995) Godae gugeo umjeolgujowa yuseong jeohaeumedehan yeongu [A Study of Syllable Structure and Voiced Obstruents in Old Korean], PhD dissertation, Kyemyeong University.
Dart, Sarah N. (1987) “An Aerodynamic Study of Korean Stop Consonants: Measurements and Modeling,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 81.1, 138-147.
Duanmu, San (1992a) “A Featural Analysis of Some Onset-vowel Interactions,” in M. Ratliff and E. Schiller (eds.), Papers from the First Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, Tempe, Program for Southeast Asian Studies, Arizona State University, pp. 141-158.
Duanmu, San (1992b) “An Autosegmental Analysis of Tone in Four Tibetan Languages,” Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 15.1, 65-91.
Duanmu, San (1999) “Metrical Structure and Tone: Evidence from Mandarin and Shanghai,” Journal of East Asian Linguistics 8.1, 1-38.
Duanmu, San (2000) “Tone: An Overview,” in L. L.-S. Cheng and R. Sybesma (eds.), The First Glot International State-of-the-Article Book: The Latest in Linguistics, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 251-286.
Duanmu, San (2002) The Phonology of Standard Chinese (paperback edition), Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Fujimura, Osamu (1971) “Remarks on Stop Consonants: Synthesis Experiments and Acoustic Cues,” in L. L. Hammerich, R. Jakobson, and E. Zwirner (eds.), Form and Substance: Phonetic and Linguistic Papers Presented to Eli Fischer-Jørgenson, Akademisk Forlag, Copenhagen, pp. 221-232.
Gim, Cha-Gyun (1969) “Jeonnam bangeone seongjo [Tone in Jeonnam Korean],” Hangul 144, 142-171.
Gim, Cha-Gyun (1975) “Yeongnam and yeongdong bangeone seongjo [Tone in Yeongnam and Yeongdong Korean],” Hangul 155.
Gim, Cha-Gyun (1997) “Jeongdojajilgwa urimalui ummunhyeonsang [Gradient Features and Phonological Phenomena in Korean],” Chungnam Nonmunjip 24, 161-253.
Goldsmith, John (1981) “English as a Tone Language,”in D. L. Goyvaerts (ed.), Phonology in the 1980's, E. Story-Scientia, Ghent, Belgium, pp. 287-308.
Haggard, Mark P., S. Ambler, and M. Callow (1970) “Pitch as a Voicing Cue,” Journal of Acoustical Society of America 47, 613-617.
Halle, Morris and Kenneth Stevens (1971) “A Note on Laryngeal Features,” Quarterly Progress Report 101, 198-213.
Han, Jeong-Im (1992) “On the Korean Tensed Consonants and Tensification,” CLS 28, 206-223.
Han, Jeong-Im (1996) The Phonetics and Phonology of “Tense” and “Plain” Consonants in Korean, PhD dissertation, Cornell University.
Han, Mieko S. and Raymond S. Weitzman (1970) “Acoustic Features of Korean /P, T, K/, /p, t, k/, and /ph, th, kh/,” Phonetica 22, 112-128.
Hardcastle, William J. (1973) “Some Observations on the Tense-lax Distinction in Initial Stops in Korean,” Journal of Phonetics 1, 263-272.
Hashimoto, Mantaro J. and Chang-Kyun Yu (1972) “Phonological Distinctions of Korean Consonants,” Eomunhak 26, 49-61.
Haudricourt, Andre G. (1954) “De l'origine des tons du Viêtnamien,” Journal Asiatique 242, 69-82.
Hirose, Hajime and Thomas Gay (1972) “The Activity of the Intrinsic Laryngeal Muscles in Voicing Control: An Electromyographic Study,” Phonetica 25, 140-164.
Hirose, Hajaime, C.-Y Lee, and Tatsujiro Ushijima (1974). “Laryngeal Control in Korean Stop Production,” Journal of Phonetics 2, 145-152.
Hombert, Jean-Marie, John J. Ohala, and William G. Ewan (1979) “Phonetic Explanation for the Development of Tones,” Language 55, 37-58.
Hu, Tan (1980) “Zangyu (Lasa hua) shengdiao yanju [A Study of Tone in Lhasa Tibetan],” Minzu Yuwen 1, 22-36.
Huh, Wung (1985) Gugeo eumunhak [Korean phonology], Saemmunhwasa, Seoul, Korea.
Hyman, Larry and Russell G. Schuh (1974) “Universals of Tone Rules: Evidence from West Africa,” Linguistic Inquiry 5, 81-115.
Ito, Junko, and Armin Mester (1986) “The Phonology of Voicing in Japanese,” Linguistic Inquiry 17, 49-73.
Iverson, Gregory K. and Joseph C. Salmons (1995) “Aspiration and Laryngeal Representation in Germanic,” Phonology 12, 369-396.
Jenner, Philip N., Laurence C. Thompson and Stanley Starosta (eds.) (1976) Austroasiatic Studies, Part I, Honolulu, University Press of Hawaii.
Jones, Daniel (1950) The Phoneme: Its Nature and Use, W. Heffner and Sons, Cambridge.
Jun, Sun-Ah (1990) “The Accentual Pattern and Prosody of the Chonnam Dialect of Korean,” Ohio State University Working Papers in Linguistics 38, 121-140.
Jun, Sun-Ah (1993) The Phonetics and Phonology of Korean Prosody, PhD dissertation, The Ohio State University.
Jun, Sun-Ah (1994) “The Status of the Lenis Stop Voicing Rule in Korean,” in Y.-K. Kim-Renaud (ed.), Theoretical Issues in Korean Linguistics, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University, pp. 101-114
Jun, Sun-Ah (1996) “Influence of Microprosody on Macroprosody: A Case of Phrase Initial Strengthening,” UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics 92, 97-116.
Jun, Sun-Ah (1998) “The Accentual Phrase in the Korean Prosodic Hierarchy,” Phonology 15.2, 189-226.
Jun, Sun-Ah, Mary E. Beckman, and Hyuck-Joon Lee (1998) “Fiberscopic Evidence for the Influence on Vowel Devoicing of the Glottal Configurations for Korean Obstruents,” UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics 96, 43-68.
Kagaya, Ryohei (1974) “A Fiberoptic and Acoustic Study of Korean Stops, Affricates, and Fricatives,” Journal of Phonetics 2, 161-180.
Kang, Ongmi (1992) Korean Prosodic Phonology, PhD dissertation, University of Washington.
Keating, Patricia A. (1988) “Underspecification in Phonetics,” Phonology 5, 275-292.
Kim, Chin-Wu (1965) “On the Autonomy of the Tensity Feature in Stop Classification (with Special Reference to Korean Stops),” Word 21, 339-359.
Kim, Chin-Wu (1970) “A Theory of Aspiration,” Phonetica 21, 107-116.
Kim, Dae-Won, Hajime Hirose, and Seiji Niimi (1992) “A Fiberoptic Study of Laryngeal Gestures for Korean Intervocalic Stops,” Annual-Bulletin-Research-Insititute-of-Logopedics-and-Phoniatrics 26, 13-28.
Kim, Hyunsoon and Allard Jongman (1996) “Acoustic and Perceptual Evidence for Complete Neutralization of Manner of Articulation in Korean,” Journal of Phonetics 24, 295-312.
Kim, Hyunsoon (1998) “A Phonetic Characterization of Release and Nonrelease: The Case of Korean and English,” Language Research 34.2, 347-368.
Kim, Kee-Ho (1987) The Phonological Representation of Distinctive Features: Korean Consonantal Phonology, PhD dissertation, University of Iowa.
Kim, Mi-Ryoung (2000) Segmental and Tonal Interactions in English and Korean: A Phonetic and Phonological Study, PhD dissertation, The University of Michigan.
Kim, Mi-Ryoung, Patrice Beddor, and Julie Horrocks (2002) “The Contribution of Consonantal and Vocalic Information to the Perception of Korean Iinitial Stops,” Journal of Phonetics 30.1, 77-100.
Kim, Mi-Ran Cho (1994) Acoustic Characteristics of Korean Stops and Perception of English Stop Consonants, PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Kim, Seong-Soo (1995) “Changwon jiyeoge moksori yeongu [A study of sound in Changwon area],” Urimal Yeongu 5, 1-18.
Kim, Wan-Jin (1967) “Hangugeo baldalsasang [The Development of Korean],” Hanguk Munhwasadegye 5.
Kim-Renaud, Young-Key (1974) Korean Consonantal Phonology, PhD dissertation, University of Hawaii.
Kingston, John (1986) “Are F0 Differences after Stops Accidental or Deliberate?,” paper presented at the 11th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Spring 1986.
Kingston, John and Randy L. Diehl (1994) “Phonetic Knowledge,” Language 70, 419-454.
Ko, Eon-Suk (2003) “The Laryngeal Effect in Korean: Phonology or Phonetics?” in Jeroen van der Weijer, Vincent J. Heuven, and Harry van der Hulst (eds.), The Phonological Spectrum, Volume I: Segmental Structure, Current Issues in Linguistic Theory series no. 233, John Benjamns, Philadephia and Amsterdam, pp. 171-191.
Krakow, Rena A. (1999) “Physiological Organization of Syllables: a Review,” Journal of Phonetics 27.1, 23-54.
Lee, Beong-Geon (1985) Hyundai Hangugeoui Saengseong Eumunron [The Generative Phonology of Modern Korean], Ilji Co., Seoul, Korea.
Lee, Ki-Moon (1972) Gugeo Eumunsa Yeongu [A Study of Korean phonology], Tower Co., Seoul, Korea.
Liberman, Mark (1975) The Intonational System of English, PhD dissertation, MIT, Cambridge, Mass.
Lisker, Leigh and Arthur S. Abramson (1964) “A Cross-Language Study of Voicing in Initial Stops: Acoustical Measurements,” Word 20, 384-422.
Lombardi, Linda (1991) Laryngeal Features and Laryngeal Neutralization, PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Martin, Samuel E. (1954) Korean Morphophonemics, Linguistic Society of America, Baltimore.
Massaro, Dominic W. and Michael M. Cohen (1976) “The Contribution of Fundamental Frequency and Voice Onset Time to the /zi/-/si/ Distinction,” Journal of the Acoustical Society America 60, 704-717.
Matisoff, James A. (1973) “Tonogenesis in Southeast Asia,” in L. Hyman (ed.), Consonant Types and Tone, Southern California Occasional Papers in Linguistics 1. Department of Linguistics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, pp. 71-95.
McKinney, Norris P. (1990) “Temporal Characteristics of Fortis Stops and Affricates in Tyap and Jju,” Journal of Phonetics 18, 255-266.
Moon, Yang-Soo (1974) “Yeoksa eoneohak [Historical Linguistics],” Eoneoyeongu 10.2, 1-7.
Oh, Jong-Gap (1981) Gugeo yuseong jeohaeeumui byeoncheone gwanhan yeongu [A Study of Korean Voiced Obstruents with Special Reference to /b, d, z, g/], PhD dissertation, Yeongnam University.
Park, H.-S. (1999) “The Phonetic Nature of the Phonological Contrast between the Lenis and Fortis Fricatives in Korean,” in Proceedings of the 14th International Congress of Phonetic Science (ICPhS 99) 1, pp. 424-427.
Park, Jong-Hee (1983) Gugeo eumunron yeongu [A Study of Korean Phonology], WonGwang University Press, Korea.
Pierrehumbert, Janet B. (1980) The Phonology and Phonetics of English Intonation, PhD dissertation, MIT.
Schmidt, Deborah (1995) “Syllable Contact in Korea,” Linguistic Analysis 25, 3-20.
Shimizu, Katsumasa (1996) A Cross-language Study of Voicing Contrasts of Stop Consonants in Asian Languages, Seibido Publishing, Tokyo.
Silva, David James (1992) The Phonetics and Phonology of Stop Lenition in Korean, PhD dissertation, Cornell University.
Steriade, Donca (1987) “Redundant Values,” Papers from the 23rd Annual Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, Part 2: Parasession on Autosegmental and Metrical Phonology, pp. 339-362.
Steriade, Donca (1997) “Phonetics in Phonology: The Case of Laryngeal Neutralization,” Ms, UCLA.
Stevens, Kenneth N. and Samuel Jay Keyser (1989) “Primary Features and Their Enhancement in Consonants,” Language 65.1, 81-106.
Wang, Jenny Zhijie (1993) The Geometry of Segmental Features in Beijing Mandarin, PhD dissertation, University of Delaware, Newark, DE.
Wang, Jenny Zhijie (1997) “The Different Nature of Syllable-final Nasals in English and Chinese,” Xiandai Waiyu 78, 17-29.
Whalen, Doug H., Arthur S. Abramson, Leigh Lisker, and Maria Mody (1993) “F0 Gives Voicing Information Even with Unambiguous Voice Onset Times,” Journal of the Acoustical Society America 93.4, 2152-2159.
Xu, Yi (1986) “Putonghua yinlian de shengxue yuyin texing [Acoustic Properties of Syllable junctures in Standard Chinese],” Zhongguo Yuwen 1986.5, 353-360.
Yip, Moira (1980) The Tonal Phonology of Chinese, PhD dissertation, MIT.
Yip, Moira (2002) Tone. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Yoon, K. (1998) An Acoustic Analysis of Korean Aspirated and Tense Alveolar Fricatives Using Multi-Speech, M.A. thesis, University of Kansas.
Yue-Hashimoto, Anne O. (1986) “Tonal Flip-flop in Chinese Dialects,” Journal of Chinese Linguistics 14.2, 161-183.
Zee, Eric and Ian Maddieson (1979) “Tones and Tone Sandhi in Shanghai: Phonetic Evidence and Phonological Analysis,” UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics 45, 93-129. Department of Linguistics, University of California, Los Angeles.
Zemlin, Willard R. (1998) Speech and Hearing Science; Anatomy and Physiology, 4th edition. Allyn and Bacon, Boston.
Zhu, Xiaonong (1995) Shanghai Tonetics, PhD dissertation, Australian National University, Canberra.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kim, MR., Duanmu, S. “Tense” and “Lax” Stops in Korean. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 13, 59–104 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JEAL.0000007344.43938.4e
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JEAL.0000007344.43938.4e