Introduction
International marriages between provincial Korean bachelors and Asian women (who frequently consider the marriage as a way to immigrate to Korea, occasionally after just an international "blind date") have been increasing because of religious or economic reasons. The number of international marriages was only 4,710 in 1990, but it has been increasing; international marriage has occupied more than 11.1% of all marriages (43,121 in 2005 and 38,491 in 2007) in Korea
1). Recently, social problems have been increasing due to these unprepared international marriages. These problems have been caused by the abrupt, unprepared nature of the marriages due to the mutual lack of social, cultural, and linguistic understanding. Most bachelors live in rural communities and are not fully ready for a marriage, both socially and economically
2). Moreover, Korea is a country that is traditionally relatively conservative with regard to other nationalities and still needs to establish adequate social and educational systems for assisting less prepared immigrants such as foreign brides. This situation could cause many problems such as family deconstruction by cultural difference, communication, social adaptation, and childcare by exposing the immigrants and their children to cultural and linguistic fragilities (also known as Kosian)
1,
3,
4).
We analyzed the development and articulation error in Korean language usage among Japanese women immigrants (who came mainly for religious reasons) who have a relatively longer immigration history than other nationalities
5). According to the preceding study by the authors, Japanese immigrants showed Korean pronunciation errors on vowels such as /e/, /a/, /u/, /o/, /ε/, and /ω/ and also showed errors on consonants such as the replacement of lenis or fortis sounds, because the ability to discriminate fortis sounds from aspirated sounds has been reduced.
This study compares the articulation development and characteristics by comparing the articulation development among the Japanese-Korean children under Japanese immigrant mothers with that of Korean children under Korean mothers.
Discussion
With respect to the vowel formant results of the Kosian and Korean children, the F1: 518±135.1 of /o/ of the Kosian children was significantly higher than the F1: 451.3±35.5 of the Korean children (
P<0.05). This indicates that the Kosian children's sound is located in more open and lower position. Also, the F2: 1085.7±335.2 for the Kosian children was higher than the F2: 887.7±362.1 for the Korean children (
P<0.10). This is a significant result, and it is related to the Japanese language characteristics where the lip is not rounded, pursed, and protruded outwards in comparison with the Korean language
7). For rounded vowels, the F2 value was lower, but the F2 value was higher for less rounded vowels.
The findings correspond to the Japanese women immigrants' vowel formant analysis results by Jo et al.
5). The Kosian children are affected by their mothers' pronunciation. However, Japanese women immigrants showed significant results in the F1 of /e/, the F1 of /a/, and the F2 of /u/, but the Kosian children did not show such results. Korean consonants are different from western languages' double contrast framework, because they consist of triple contrast
8,
9). The Korean language is divided by lenis sounds, aspirated sounds, and fortis sounds. From the acoustic aspect, these sounds are discriminated by the VOT length. The VOT length is prolonged as glottis is more open at stop sound
9,
10).
Korean consonants are discriminated by lenis sounds, aspirated sounds, and fortis sounds, but Japanese sounds are discriminated by voiced and voiceless sounds
11,
12). In Japanese language, for voiced and voiceless, bilabial stop is discriminated by /b/ and /p/; alveolar stop by /e/ and /t/; velar stop by /g/ and /k/; and fricative by /s/ and /z/
10-
12). In contrast, Korean consonants are discriminated by the bilabial stops /p/, /p
*/, and /p
h/; alveolar stop by /t/, /t
*/ and /t
h/; velar stop by /k/, /k
*/, and /k
h/; alveolopalatal affricate by /c/, /c
*/, and /c
h/; and alveolar fricative by /s/, /s
*/, and /∫/
8,
9).
Of the VOT values of the Kosian children, the aspirated sounds /p
h/, /t
h/, and /k
h/ showed significant difference from the Korean children. This suggests a substitution from aspirated sounds to lenis or fortis sounds. The prolonged VOT at /p
h/, /t
h/ among the Kosian children are correlated with the results of a previous adult study
5) by the authors.
The results of the fricative /s/ and /s*/ among the Kosian children were also significantly shorter than the Korean children's. This suggests that the fricatives of the Kosian children are substituted for alveolar stop. The Kosian children showed frequent articulation error, even at a school age.
The TD of the Kosian children was prolonged for all phonemes except /p
*/ and /s
*/. The increase in TD indicates a decrease in speaking fluency. This suggests that Kosian children are less fluent in comparison to Korean children
13).
The VOT and CD results showed a significant common difference in /ph/, /th/, /kh/, and /ch/ among the Japanese and Korean women and the Kosian and Korean children studied. However, the patterns of the increases and the decreases were not similar. For the Japanese women, articulation errors were shown, such as substituting lenis sounds or aspirated sounds for fortis sounds. Therefore, the VOT of fortis sounds were longer than those of the Korean women, but the children did not show these characteristics. The articulation error among the Kosian children was in substituting aspirated and fortis sounds for lenis sounds. The phonemes presenting the articulation errors were also different. The most common error among the Japanese women was the /p/ affiliate; the most common error among the Kosian children was the /c/ affiliate. A commonly mistaken phoneme was /l/. The substitution of /ɧ/ (→/n/) was also a common error, but the error rate was higher for the Japanese women (62.5%) than for the Kosian children (14.3%).
In this study, we compared the phonological process, the occurrence among the Kosian and Korean children for omission, addition, and substitution, which was significantly different between groups. With respect to the articulation error, the Kosian children showed many more errors, particularly higher rates of substitution and omission than the Korean children.
With respect to the phonological process patterns, the Kosian children showed a higher phonological process occurrence than the Korean children in the fronting of velar, aspiration, and deaspiration. These suggest a discrimination of aspirated sound and liquid, which do not exist in the Japanese language. Also, the distortion of liquid was the most common articulation error pattern, possibly influenced by the Japanese mothers.
The following summarizes the results of this study: First, with respect to formant, the F1 and F2 of the Japanese women and the Kosian children were significantly higher than those of the Korean children and the Korean women for the vowel /o/. For the vowels /a/, /i/, /u/, and /e/, the Korean and Kosian children showed similar values, but the Japanese women had lower values for all formants except for the F2 of the vowel /u/. Second, with respect to VOT, CD, and TD, the resulting data for the Kosian children and the Japanese women were statistically different from those of the Korean children and the Korean women for the fortis sounds /ph/, /th/, and /kh/ of consonants. However, the increases in values and the patterns of decreases were not similar. For the Japanese women, articulation errors such as the substitution of fortis sounds or lenis sounds for aspirated sounds was shown, resulting in the prolonging of the VOT of fortis sounds, but the Kosian children did not show these characteristics. The articulation error among the Japanese women was chiefly the substitution of lenis sounds and aspirated sounds for fortis sounds. On the other hand, the articulation error among the Kosian children was mainly the substitution of fortis sounds and aspirated sounds to lenis sounds. The phoneme of articulation error was also different. The Japanese women showed the most errors on the /p/ affiliates, but the Kosian children had the most errors on the /c/ affiliates. The phoneme that had common errors was /l/. The substitution of /ɧ/ to /n/ was also a common error, but the error rate among the Japanese women (62.5%) was higher than that of the Kosian children (14.3%). Third, the Kosian children showed a very high rate of error on fronting, aspiration, deaspiration, affrication, the stopping of affricate, and liquid omission. Also, the Kosian children had difficulty in the discrimination of fortis sounds and liquid sounds and in the enunciation of liquid sounds.
Japanese immigrants, who came to Korean mainly for religious reasons, are the subject of this study. These immigrants have relatively less economic problems in comparison with the immigrants (by marriage) from other countries; they also have characteristics similar to Koreans. Regardless, the results of this study suggest that the second generation Japanese-Koreans have been experiencing linguistic problems. Therefore, appropriate language education programs may be warranted not only for immigrant women but also for the second generation. This study is expected to contribute to the development of multicultural education programs for Kosian children.