earticle

영어

This paper investigates a three-way laryngeal contrast observed in one Korean-speaking child aged from 13 to 20 months. Her production data was transcribed and analyzed in terms of acoustic properties in order to systematically examine if there was a developmental trend when the data was divided into two periods (first 4 months (13~16 months) and second 4 months (17~20 months). The production data of her primary caretaker was also phonetically analyzed in synchrony with child production data. The results showed that there was a developmental trend in the acquisition of the three-way laryngeal contrast although her stage of language development was not similar to the established three-way contrast in adult speech. Firstly, the child produced lenis more frequently than the other stop categories in the first four months (13~16 month) while she produced fortis more frequently in the second four months (17~20 months). Secondly, the frequency of aspirated stops increased over time as that of lenis stops decreased. Thirdly, although adult production demonstrated a bimodal distribution (fortis vs. lenis/aspirated) in the VOT continuum, child production consistently displayed a unimodal distribution both in the first four months and the second four months. The results suggested that ease of articulation played a key role in the child production (e.g., lenis/fortis vs. aspirated). At the same time, child production has not reached an adult-like VOT distribution.