2007/08/15 by Sang-Cheol Ahn, Gregory K. Iverson · 2 citations
Psychology · Computer Science · Medicine · #Phonetics and Phonology Research #Speech Recognition and Synthesis #Voice and Speech Disorders
paper · doi:10.1075/cilt.284.21ahn
openalex publication_date 2007/08/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
ABSTRACT. This paper develops a structured account of the monophthongization and diphthongization processes which occurred in Korean during the 18th and the 19th centuries. These seemingly contradictory changes are seen as engendered by a persistent drive toward balance, symmetry and system optimization, with the result that Korean has come to abandon all off-glide diphthongs in favor of a rich set of (typologically less common) on-glide diphthongs. In 15th century Middle Korean, there were seven monophthongs (/i, , u, , o, a, /) as well as a number of both on-glide (/w, wa, yu, y, yo, ya, y/) and off-glide diphthongs (/y, uy, y, oy, ay, y/). As in the modern language, off-glides with /w / were not allowed (*/Vw/), and central unrounded / / went into combination only to form the off-glide diphthong /y/ (*/w/, */y/), which lasted into the 20th century before monophthongizing to /i / in most environments. By the end of the 18th century, the low rounded vowel / / had merged with /a/, and monophthongization had