Vowel Shifts on the Korean Peninsula
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Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 2015-03-01 A Diachronic Analysis of North and South Korean Monophthongs: Vowel Shifts on the Korean Peninsula Jessica M. Morgan Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Linguistics Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Morgan, Jessica M., "A Diachronic Analysis of North and South Korean Monophthongs: Vowel Shifts on the Korean Peninsula" (2015). Theses and Dissertations. 5764. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5764 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. A Diachronic Analysis of North and South Korean Monophthongs: Vowel Shifts on the Korean Peninsula Jessica M. Morgan A thesis submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Janis Bozic Nuckolls, Chair Dirk Allen Elzinga William G. Eggington Department of Linguistics and English Language Brigham Young University March 2015 Copyright © 2015 Jessica M. Morgan All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT A Diachronic Analysis of North and South Korean Monophthongs: Vowel Shifts on the Korean Peninsula Jessica M. Morgan Department of Linguistics and English Language, BYU Master of Arts The linguistic situation on the Korean peninsula is one ripe for research. For the past 70 years the two halves of the peninsula have been isolated from one another, thus creating two very different environments for development and change within the Korean language. It is hypothesized that due to conflict, divide, and social turmoil on the peninsula, the Korean language will have undergone a period of change in the last 70 years. This particular investigation looks at North and South Korean monophthong systems for evidence of a phonological shift. Studies of North Korea’s language planning (Yong, 2001; Kumatani, 1990) will be incorporated to provide a background for lexical change in the country, which may also have contributed to phonological change. This study was carried out with the expectation that, due to the turmoil following the Korean War, both standard dialects would display some signs of phonetic shift. In order to track the changes to the monophthong systems over the last 70 years, a total of 7156 samples of the Korean language’s eight monophthongs were collected from both North and South Korean films from the 1950s, 1980s, and 2010s. The vowels’ F1 and F2 formants were measured using the computer program Praat. The data was then separated by vowel and run through statistical analyses. The results of a mixed methods ANOVA determined which vowels had shown significant variance between decades; the estimated means were then determined for each formant. Based on the statistical analysis, the North Korean vowels /a/, /ʌ/, and /u/ have shifted significantly since the 1950s, while the rest of the North Korean monophthong system has not changed significantly. Most of the shifting occurred in the period after the 1980s. In the South, all vowels have shown significant variance for the variable of decade in F1, F2, or both formants. South Korea’s results also indicate separate shifts between the 1950s and 1980s, and between the 1980s and 2010s. If the results of this study could be successfully replicated with the languages of other countries thrown into post-WWII turmoil, this study could prove that WWII left a lasting effect on the languages of the world as well. Even if there are not far-reaching implications, the study still demonstrates strong evidence that linguistic change has occurred in both the northern and southern halves of the Korean peninsula since it was split into two separate countries. Keywords: North Korea, South Korea, vowel shifts, language planning, language change ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to all the many people who provided support and guidance throughout the arduous task of completing my thesis. First and foremost I would like to thank my thesis advisor and chair, Dr. Janis Nuckolls, for all her patience in the many changes my topic went through to arrive at its current form. I would also like to thank her for putting up with long periods of silence as I was immersed in my research and forgot to surface for counsel. I would also like to thank Dr. Dirk Elzinga and Dr. William Eggington for their help and encouragement especially in regards to the statistical analysis and formulation of the methodology of my study. I am also indebted to Dr. Kim Young-Soo of Kyunghee University for allowing me to bounce ideas off of her, getting her feedback as to exactly what was possible and what had already been done within the confines of Korean linguistic research. Furthermore, I would like to express gratitude to all my many Korean friends and acquaintances, as well as all the people in Seoul, South Korea and Provo, Utah who kindly allowed me to interview them, generously sharing their views on their beautiful language. 6 년 전 처음 한국에 갔을 때 한국과 그의 민족들 이렇게 사랑하게 될 거라고 생각조차 못했어요. 저를 도와 주신 분에게 영원히 감사 하겠습니다. Finally I am grateful to my parents, brothers, sister, niece, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents who put up with my constant data collecting during holidays, funerals, family parties, etc.. I dedicate this work to Yeon Ah and all the other North Korean defectors I had the opportunity to get to know during my time in South Korea. They inspired me more than they will ever know. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES and FIGURES .............................................................................................. viii Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review .................................................................................................. 4 2.1. Language Change Frameworks .................................................................................... 4 2.1.1. Punctuated Equilibrium Model ............................................................................. 4 2.1.2. William Labov....................................................................................................... 6 2.1.3. Sapir on Language Change and Language Drift ................................................... 9 2.1.4. Vowel Shift Framework ...................................................................................... 11 2.2. Historical and Social Context ..................................................................................... 14 2.2.1. North and South Korea ........................................................................................ 14 2.2.2. East and West Germany ...................................................................................... 19 2.3. Language Planning ..................................................................................................... 21 2.3.1. North Korean Language Planning ....................................................................... 21 2.3.2. South Korean Language Planning ....................................................................... 29 2.3.3. Linguistic Variation............................................................................................. 33 2.4. Previous studies .......................................................................................................... 34 2.5. Gaps in Research ........................................................................................................ 40 Chapter 3: Methodology ....................................................................................................... 43 3.1. Data Collection ........................................................................................................... 43 3.1.1. Sources of North Korean Vowel Samples .......................................................... 43 3.1.2. Sources of South Korean Vowel Samples .......................................................... 44 3.2. Data Analysis .............................................................................................................. 49 Chapter 4: Results ................................................................................................................. 50 4.1. North Korea ................................................................................................................ 50 4.1.1. /a/ (아) ................................................................................................................. 50 4.1.2. /ʌ/ (어) ................................................................................................................. 52 4.1.3. /o/ (오) ................................................................................................................. 53 4.1.4. /u/ (우) ...............................................................................................................