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September 10, 2025

Morphological influence on Korean /l/ pronunciation: A comparative study of heritage and native speakers

Key Points

Incomplete neutralization occurs in Korean /l/ before vowel-initial suffixes, affecting pronunciation.
Bilingual speakers balance morphological information and language influences, revealing differences in /l/ realization.
Heritage speakers exhibit variations in /l/ pronunciation compared to native speakers based on their dominant language.
Findings have implications for language education and understanding language production processes.

Abstract

This study examines how morphological information influences Korean /l/ pronunciation and how speakers' dominant language affects this process. The research compared heritage Korean speakers in the US with native Korean speakers. The experiment used 45 words with (C)V/l/ita structure, including morphologically simple words, complex phrases, and words with geminate /l/. Twenty college-aged participants (10 native speakers from Junnam Korea and 10 heritage speakers from the US Southeast) recorded these words in carrier sentences. Researchers analyzed the recordings using Praat and VoiceSauce, focusing on vowel duration, liquid duration, and burst release duration. The findings revealed that word-final /l/ before vowel-initial suffixes undergo incomplete neutralization in Korean. Additionally, Korean and English speakers differ in balancing morphological information preservation with epenthesis. The study showed that bilingual speakers' dominant language influences their /l/ realization in both languages. These insights contribute to understanding morphology's role in language production and have applications in language education and AI systems.

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