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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.

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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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