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Phonological variation in Korean: The case of the “disappearing w”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

David James Silva
David James Silva
Affiliation:
Cornell University
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Abstract

In Korean, the tendency to delete the labiovelar glide w when it appears postconsonantally is conditioned by linguistic, stylistic, and social factors. Chief among these is the place specification for the preceding consonant: labiovelar glides are more likely to be deleted when preceded by a velar than by a labial, alveolar, or alveopalatal. It is proposed that this observation can be explained in terms of current phonological theory, in particular, the notions of feature geometry (Clements 1985; Sagey 1986) and the Obligatory Contour Principle (McCarthy 1986). Under such a model, adjacent segments share common features in ways that promote variability; specifically, the labiovelar glide shares the feature [back] with an adjacent velar (but shares no place features with adjacent labials, alveolars, and alveopalatals), thereby providing structural cohesiveness that inhibits the application of the deletion rule.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , July 1991 , pp. 153 - 170
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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