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영어

This paper aims to analyze Korean speakers’ pitch contours of boundary tones and four phonemic tones in pronouncing Standard Chinese (SC). The Korean language has the phonological stress which can be modified some various pitch patterns phonetically. In contrast, tone languages such as SC, which have underlying tones phonologically, can be restricted within narrow limits in realizing their pitch patterns. The prosodic typological differences between the two types of languages tend to lead Korean speakers to errors in pronouncing tonal pitch. The pronunciations of 248 sentences by Korean and Chinese participants were analyzed in terms of pitch contours and their pitch targets, target positions, target-to-target slope. Results show that tone 4 (high fall) at an interrogative sentence final can be easily changed into a rising pitch contour such as tone 2 (high rise), suggesting Korean-style pitch modification of SC at an interrogative boundary. Also, the Korean participants tended to pronounce a tone 3 (low dipping), which pitch contour has only one low target at non-boundary positions in SC, as tone 2 which has two targets. The finding indicates not only that Korean speakers are learned to pronounce Chinese sentences using strict tonal pitch patterns but also that pitch variations were influenced by the first language.