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The Korean Association for the Study of English Language and Linguistics
[ Article ]
Korea Journal of English Language and Linguistics - Vol. 25, No. 0, pp.1192-1213
ISSN: 1598-1398 (Print) 2586-7474 (Online)
Print publication date 31 Jan 2025
Received 13 May 2025 Revised 19 Aug 2025 Accepted 22 Aug 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15738/kjell.25..202508.1192

Korean Learners’ Production of L1 Korean and L2 English Alveolars: Ultrasound Imaging Evidence of Sub-Phonemic Articulatory Variation

Youn-Kyoung Lee ; Gwanhi Yun
(First author) Instructor, Department of English Language and Literature, Kyungpook National University 80 Daehak-ro, Buk-gu, Daegu, Korea Tel: 053) 950-5120 yklee0805@knu.ac.kr
(Corresponding author) Professor, Department of English Education, Daegu University 201 Daegudae-ro, Jillyang-eup, Gyeongsan-si, Gyeongbuk, Korea Tel: 053) 850-4123 ghyun@daegu.ac.kr


© 2025 KASELL All rights reserved
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the variation in the realization of L1 Korean alveolars and L2 English alveolars at the sub-phonemic level through ultrasound imaging of tongue articulation. Another primary goal is to examine whether transfer from L1 to L2 occurs regarding place of articulation within the phonemic category, i.e., alveolars. To this end, Korean alveolar stops /t, th/ and fricative /s/ and English stops /t,d/ and fricative /s/ were elicited from Korean learners of L2 English in an ultrasound experiment. First, results showed that three Korean stops were produced with the tongue tip raising toward the alveolar ridge at the same height, but they exhibited variation regarding the height of the tongue blade gesture at the phonetic-fine gestural level. Second, it was found that three L2 English alveolars were articulated with the tongue tip raising toward the alveolar ridge like L1 Korean alveolars, but the placement pattern of the tongue blade varied depending on individual speakers. Finally, it was demonstrated that Korean stops /th, t/ are articulated with the tongue front raising higher, compared to their English counterparts /t, d/, which accounts for the difference in the intraoral pressure and different VOTs between the two languages. Furthermore, the pattern of Korean /s/ and English /s/ showed interspeaker variations in terms of the relative tongue front position. These findings provide support for gradient realizations of L2 English alveolars /t,d,s/ as well as L1 alveolars /th,t,s/regarding the gestural movement of the tongue blade, indicative of differential patterns at the sub-phonemic level.

Keywords:

alveolar consonants, L2 production, Korean, English, sub-phonemic features, articulatory gestures, ultrasound imaging technique

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Daegu University Research Grant, 2024. We are grateful to anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and constructive feedback.

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