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1
Neutralization and anti-homophony in Korean1
Daniel Silverman
San José State University
ABSTRACT. Neutralization in Korean involves a large number of oppositions,
and affects a significant portion of the lexicon. Nonetheless, it induces
remarkably little homophony. These highly divergent facts are argued herein to
be intimately related: the neutralization of so many values in Korean is tolerated
EXACTLY BECAUSE it has a negligible effect on the amount of derived
homophony. Understanding how this came to pass requires an investigation of
the history of Korean, especially in the context of its extensive contact with
Middle Chinese. The present findings suggest a reconsideration of the role that
‘functional load’ (Martinet 1952, Hockett 1967) plays in patterns of sound
change.
…[T]here is no doubt that in some way or other, linguistic systems respond to change in ways
that maintain meaning—more or less -William Labov (1994, 569)
0. INTRODUCTION
2
Generally speaking, low level phonetic variation among contrastive values is passively delimited
such that a comfortable perceptual ‘buffer zone’ is maintained between one value and its
immediate systemic ‘neighbors’ (see, for example, Paul 1880, Kruszewski 1883, Baudouin de
Courtenay 1910, Martinet 1952, Hockett 1955, Lindblom, MacNeilage, & Studdert-Kennedy
1984, Labov 1994, Flemming 1995, de Boer 2001). However, under certain circumstances this
buffer zone may be fatally breached such that one value may (diachronically) merge or
(synchronically) neutralize with another. Martinet (1952), for example, indeed observes that
there is a strong tendency for merged values to have been phonological neighbors in the past, in
the sense that they had already shared a significant number of phonetic features. In short,
MERGED VALUES TEND TO HAVE BEEN PHONETICALLY SIMILAR IN THE PAST.
Now, as it is not readily testable, a compelling diagnostic of ‘phonetic similarity’
continues to elude scholars of linguistic sound structure. ‘Perceptual similarity,’ however, CAN
be tested, by measuring the degree to which sounds might be confused with one another. We
might propose, then, that IN A GIVEN LANGUAGE, SOUNDS ARE PERCEPTUALLY SIMILAR IF LOW
LEVEL VARIATION IN COMPARABLE CONTEXTS MIGHT RENDER THEM PERCEPTUALLY INDISTINCT,
AT LEAST ONCE IN A WHILE. Under the proper conditions, it is these sorts of values that may be
susceptible to merger. Thus, for example, we don’t expect [] and [] to merge (or neutralize),
since it is highly unlikely that low level variation would ever render one confusable with the
other. However, under certain circumstances, it would not surprise us if [] and, say, [] were to
merge, since low level variation may indeed render one confusable with the other, at least once
in a while.
3
For Martinet though, the fact that a language might possess similar values like [] and []
does not necessarily increase the likelihood of these values’ merging. Far from the ‘blind’
approach to sound change espoused by the Neogrammarians, what crucially matters according to
Martinet is the extent to which this opposition minimally distinguishes meaningful units of
language (that is, morphemes), since the amount of homophony in a lexicon may have an impact
on communicative success: the more homophony, the more likely that the speech signal will
contain lexical ambiguities, and so the more often speech might induce confusion for listeners.
Under the assumption that successful speech is more likely to take hold as the conventionalized
norm than is unsuccessful speech, then speech with fewer homophones is more likely to take
hold as the conventionalized norm than is speech with more homophones (see especially
Silverman 2006 on this point). Martinet consequently proposes additional pressures at work in
patterns of diachronic merger, the most important being the ‘functional load’ of the opposition.
Martinet writes: ‘In its simplest and somewhat unsophisticated acceptation, [functional yield,
burden, or load] refers to the number of lexical pairs which would be complete homonyms if it
were not for that one word of the pair presents one member A of the opposition where the other
shows the other member B: the pair pack – back is part of a functional yield of the /p/-/b/
opposition in English, and so are repel – rebel, cap – cab, and hosts of others’ (p.8). In other
words, the functional yield, burden, or load of an opposition is determined by the number of
MINIMAL MORPHEME PAIRS for which the opposition is responsible. If the functional load of, say,
the []-[] opposition is high, then merger is less likely to take place between these phonetically
similar sounds. But if the functional load of the opposition is low, merger is more likely to
proceed, since merger of the two will not significantly increase homophony.
4
Martinet immediately acknowledges several shortcomings of this straightforward
definition. First, considering a single opposition may be insufficient to gauge the likelihood of
merger. Rather, the extent to which this opposition is CORRELATED should be considered as well.
The Trubetskoyan notion of CORRELATED OPPOSITION (1939) takes into account all the
oppositions in a system that crucially hinge on one feature. For example, although the functional
load of the English [] – [] opposition is exceedingly meager, it is merely one member of a
correlated opposition involving voicing. Since sound changes tend to affect correlated values
(that is, natural classes) rather than single members of a correlated opposition (at least for
consonants), then—because the functional load of the voicing opposition in English is rather
high—merger of the [] – [] opposition might be curtailed. THE LESS CORRELATED THE
OPPOSITION, THE MORE LIKELY THAT MERGER MIGHT TAKE PLACE; THE MORE CORRELATED THE
OPPOSITION, THE LESS LIKELY THAT MERGER MIGHT TAKE PLACE.
Moreover, Martinet’s preliminary definition of the term ‘functional load’ does not
consider the number of minimal pairs belonging to different SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES (not his
term). If there are many minimal pairs, but the respective members of these pairs belong to
different syntactic categories, communicative success should not be jeopardized upon merger;
the functional load of this opposition may be low, and so tendencies toward merger of the
opposition might not be curtailed. THE LOWER THE NUMBER OF RELEVANT MINIMAL PAIRS
WITHIN A GIVEN SYNTACTIC CATEGORY, THE MORE LIKELY THAT MERGER MIGHT TAKE PLACE;
THE HIGHER THE NUMBER OF RELEVANT MINIMAL PAIRS WITHIN A GIVEN SYNTACTIC CATEGORY,
THE LESS LIKELY THAT MERGER MIGHT TAKE PLACE.
5
Also, it is important to consider the TOKEN FREQUENCY (again, not his term) of each
member. If token frequency of one or both members of the relevant minimal pairs is low, then
the functional load of this opposition may be low as well, and so merger might not be curtailed.
If token frequency of one or both members of the relevant minimal pairs is high, then the
functional load of this opposition may be high as well, and so merger might be curtailed. THE
LOWER THE TOKEN FREQUENCY OF ONE OR BOTH MEMBERS OF THE RELEVANT MINIMAL PAIRS,
THE MORE LIKELY THAT MERGER MIGHT TAKE PLACE; THE HIGHER THE TOKEN FREQUENCY OF
ONE OR BOTH MEMBERS OF THE RELEVANT MINIMAL PAIRS, THE LESS LIKELY THAT MERGER
MIGHT TAKE PLACE.
Finally, ADDITIONAL MORPHOLOGICAL MARKERS may serve to disambiguate homophonic
sets. For example, Martinet writes that, even if the // - // opposition is lost in Parisian French,
the merged pair poignée – poignet will be disambiguated in the presence of gender-differentiated
singular markers. THE GREATER THE DISAMBIGUATING ROLE OF MORPHOLOGICAL MARKERS, THE
MORE LIKELY THAT MERGER MIGHT TAKE PLACE; THE LESSER THE DISAMBIGUATING ROLE OF
MORPHOLOGICAL MARKERS, THE LESS LIKELY THAT MERGER MIGHT TAKE PLACE.
To summarize, according to Martinet, the tendency toward merger of an opposition is
favored to the extent that:
1) The values in opposition are phonetically similar
2) The number of minimal morpheme pairs that the opposition is responsible for is low
3) The number of minimal pairs within a correlated opposition is low (or the opposition is
uncorrelated)
4) The minimal pairs belong to different syntactic categories
5) The token frequency of one or both members of the minimal pairs is low
6) The presence of additional morphological markers serves a disambiguating function
6
Ultimately however, merger is not likely to take place simply because SOME of the
relevant morphemes have a low token frequency, or because SOME of the relevant minimal pairs
happen to belong to different syntactic categories, etc. Rather, these totals must be
CUMULATIVELY low across the totality of the lexicon in use. After all, if sounds are to merge,
then, according to Martinet’s ‘functional load’ criteria, the output of the process—ACROSS THE
LEXICON IN USE—should not yield a significant increase in the amount of communicative
confusion.
Armed with this intuitively appealing definition of functional load, Martinet is
nonetheless quick to retreat:
…[I]t is clear that the functional yield of an opposition can only be evaluated with
any degree of accuracy if we deal with linguistic stages for which fairly
exhaustive word lists are available. This circumstance makes it practically
impossible to check the validity of the functional assumption in the case of
prehistoric sound shifts. (p.9)
7
King, in his 1967 rejoinder to Martinet, implicitly acknowledges this problem in
quantifying functional load: it is extremely difficult—or, at the time of King’s writing, perhaps
downright impossible—to gauge the degree of functional load in accordance with Martinet’s
criteria both before and after a merger has taken place, that is, at two different stages of a
language’s development. In his attempt to do just this, however, King embraces neither
Martinet’s ‘unsophisticated’ first approximation of the term’s working definition (the number of
minimal pairs involving phonetically similar values), nor Martinet’s qualifiers (the role of
correlated oppositions, the role of syntactic category, the role of token frequency, the role of
morphology). Instead, he proposes his own criteria for the determination of functional load,
crucially excluding the overriding importance of minimal pairs. King’s investigation of the role
of ‘functional load’ in Icelandic, Old Saxon, German, and Yiddish vowel changes provides
largely negative results, that is, ‘functional load’ (according to his criteria) does not seem to be a
genuine force acting on patterns of sound change.
King’s definition of the term ‘functional load’ possesses two components (p.836):
(1) ‘The global text frequencies of the two phonemes involved.’
(2) ‘The degree to which [the two phonemes] contrast in all possible environments,
where environment means, roughly speaking, one phoneme to the left and right.’
8
Regarding his first criterion, note that the raw frequency of a given set of phonemes does
not provide any direct information about the role that this opposition plays in keeping
morphemes phonologically distinct from one another. For example, if we tally the raw frequency
of similar values [] and [], then words that contrast [ab] versus [ab] are clearly relevant to
the functional load of the []-[] opposition; these are minimal pairs. However words that
contrast [ab] versus [ab] would also be relevant to the []-[] opposition, despite the fact they
are not minimal pairs. Consequently, this first criterion fails to capture the genuinely relevant
property that a proper characterization of functional load requires, that is, that the opposition
create minimal pairs.
Regarding his second criterion, King would propose that instances of our example
phonemes [] and [] should be counted toward the functional load of the []-[] opposition
when immediately flanked by identical values, say, [a] and [b]. Consequently, words that
contrast [ab] versus [ab] are, once again, clearly relevant to the functional load of the []-[]
opposition, as these are minimal pairs. However, words that contrast [abc] versus [abd] would
also be relevant to the []-[] opposition, despite the fact that they are not minimal pairs.
Consequently, this second criterion also fails to capture the genuinely relevant property that a
proper characterization of functional load requires.
Instead of considering the role that minimal pairs play in the tendency toward merger,
King floats the following three hypotheses regarding the likelihood of merger (p.834ff; emphasis
added):
9
(1) The weak point hypothesis: ‘if all else is equal, sound change is more likely to start within
oppositions bearing low functional loads than within oppositions bearing high functional
loads; or, IN THE CASE OF A SINGLE PHONEME, A PHONEME OF LOW FREQUENCY OF
OCCURRENCE IS MORE LIKELY TO BE AFFECTED BY SOUND CHANGE THAN IS A HIGH-
FREQUENCY PHONEME.’
(2) The least resistance hypothesis: ‘if all else is equal, and if (for whatever reason)
there is a tendency for a phoneme x to merge with either of the two phonemes Y or z,
then that merger will occur for which the functional load of the merged opposition
is smaller: i.e. x > y if L(x, y) is smaller than L(x, z), and x > z if L(x, z) is smaller
than L(x, y), where L(x, y) designates the functional load of the opposition x y,
and > designates merger.’
(3) THE FREQUENCY HYPOTHESIS: ‘IF AN OPPOSITION X Y IS DESTROYED BY MERGER,
THEN THAT PHONEME WILL DISAPPEAR IN THE MERGER FOR WHICH THE RELATIVE
FREQUENCY OF OCCURRENCE IS SMALLER: I.E. X > Y IF THE RELATIVE FREQUENCY
OF X IS SMALLER THAN THAT OF Y, AND Y > X IF THE RELATIVE FREQUENCY OF Y
IS SMALLER THAN THAT OF X.’
10
The first component of his ‘weak point’ hypothesis, as well as his ‘least resistance’
hypothesis, purport to specifically target oppositions with low functional loads. However, as just
discussed, King’s criteria for the determination of functional load do not accord with Martinet’s,
as they do not directly isolate the number of relevant minimal pairs that would be rendered
homophonous upon merger. Further, note the italicized portions of his three criteria. King is
especially concerned with the phonetic quality of the merged values: does, say, [] become [],
or does [] become []? But surely, in terms of the functional consequences of a merged
opposition, directionality does not matter. Whether [] merges towards [], or [] merges toward
[], the functional result is the same: a certain number of morphemes that were previously
distinguished solely by the []-[] opposition will be rendered non-distinct from each other.
Furthermore, King does not consider whether the relevant forms are in the same or different
syntactic categories; nor does he consider whether the token frequencies of the relevant forms are
high or low; nor does he consider whether additional morphological markers do or do not serve a
disambiguating function.
King readily acknowledges that ‘Language has…manifold devices for carrying on its
business of communication [and] distinctiveness lost at the phonological level might be assumed
without interruption of communication by higher-level markers in morphology and syntax’
(p.849), but this CAVEAT remains unexplored. Given his method of determining the functional
load of an opposition—with its under-emphasis on the role of minimal pairs, and its over-
emphasis on the role of the directionality of the merger—any numerical investigation of the
concept of ‘functional load’ using King’s criteria cannot be taken as evidence (either supporting
or disconfirming) of Martinet’s proposal (see Hockett 1967 for further concerns about King’s
investigation).
11
It is NOT the purpose of the present study to investigate the role that ‘functional load’ may
or may not play in (diachronic) sound mergers; Martinet’s original concerns appear fully
justified in that, even at our present level of knowledge, extensive information about the lexicon
in use is exceedingly difficult to ascertain for TWO different stages of a language, both before and
after a merger takes place (but see Surendran & Niyogi 2003, 2006 for an example from
Cantonese). Instead, in this paper I report on a case study of (synchronic) neutralization and its
functional consequences. Upon the neutralization of contrastive values, morphemes may be
rendered homophonous in cases where the neutralized opposition elsewhere serves to minimally
distinguish the forms. We might therefore employ Martinet’s ‘functional load’ criteria in order to
investigate patterns of neutralization in terms of the amount of homophony that results. With
today’s computer-tallied corpora, such investigations may be readily undertaken.
Taking all of Martinet’s criteria into account, the hypothesis explored herein is
straightforward:
Neutralizing alternations are more likely to be present in a language if their outputs do
not significantly increase the level of homophony; DERIVED HOMOPHONY IS NOT
EXCESSIVE.
12
The wording of this hypothesis is intentionally vague, because I do not pretend to be able
to zero in on a numerical upper limit of derived homophony. While this value may ultimately be
empirically ascertained by thoroughly investigating many languages, I herein merely intend to
show that, in a given language—the focus of this paper is neutralization in Korean—the amount
of derived homophony is remarkably low.
I argue herein that certain natural tendencies toward neutralization were tolerated in
Korean exactly because of concomitant morphological developments that maintained lexical
contrast. My proposal is that, in Korean, many patterns of neutralization were tolerated—and
continue to expand—due to the huge influx of Chinese nouns during the Middle Korean period.
The expansion of neutralizing alternation in Korean began in earnest due to the aplosive nature
of Middle Chinese root-final stops, which were largely imported into the Korean vocabulary,
supplanting Native Korean nouns, and influencing the phonotactics and word-building processes
of the language at large. For example, Middle Korean root-final , and
perhaps all eventually became when lexically non-prevocalic.
13
Clearly, this much neutralization runs the risk of creating a significant amount of
homophony. However, as numerically documented in Sections 1 and 4, Contemporary Korean
possesses remarkably little homophony. In the case of nouns—the lexical category investigated
herein—any potential functional damage caused by this massive collapse of contrast was avoided
by the concomitant development of a pervasive compounding process, which was also likely due
to contact with Chinese. As compounding rendered nouns longer, phonetic distinctness among
them was increased significantly, thus offsetting any counter-functional consequences of
neutralization itself. In the case of the verb vocabulary (not under investigation here), obligatory
suffixation, usually with vowel-initial allomorphs for consonant-final roots, results in root-final
stop plosivization (release into a vowel). Consequently, for verbs, root-final laryngeal values are
implemented in their canonical fashion, that is, at stop release (Kingston 1985, Bladon 1986,
Silverman 1995). Indeed, Chinese-influenced compounding may have served a dual role in this
scenario. First, it offset the potential homophony that neutralization might have otherwise
induced in the noun system, and second, due to this, it may have sped the natural tendency
toward neutralization, as there were now fewer functional pressures that would inhibit this
phonetically natural development.
As discussed in some detail in the concluding section, goal-directed behavior, speaker
intention, and teleology play no role here, nor anywhere else in phonology, for that matter. The
present-day patterns of neutralization are simply the passive consequence of selectional pressures
acting on the variation inherent in speech and language. Homophony was minimal at the outset,
and, despite an ever-increasing amount of neutralization, has remained minimal to the present
day.
14
In Section 1 I investigate the extent of potential homophony due to aplosivization in
Contemporary Korean by investigating word structure in the Sejong Project corpus, an online
database of several million words gathered from written sources (http: //sejong.or.kr/). I find that,
despite the fact that a significant portion of the lexicon undergoes aplosivization, the amount of
derived homophony is remarkably meager. In Section 2 I trace the historical development of the
pattern, in particular, placing it in the context of an ongoing trend of root-final consonant
contrast attrition. In section 3 I offer an account of the increasing pervasiveness of neutralizing
aplosivization: the influx of Chinese forms—with their aplosive root-final values, coupled with
their compound nature—came to induce both compounding, and an expansion of aplosivization
in Korean. In section 4 I consider subsequent routes to neutralization in Korean—nasal
lateralization, liquid nasalization, cluster reinforcement, assibilation, and nasal assimilation—
showing that these too induce little homophony. I also briefly consider variable assimilation of
both labials to dorsals, and coronals to labials and dorsals. I conclude that ‘functional load’ (in
the sense of Martinet) might indeed play a part in the diachronic comportment of linguistic sound
systems.
1. APLOSIVIZATION AND ANTI-HOMOPHONY IN KOREAN
15
Laryngeal neutralization is quite prevalent among non-prevocalic stops, and virtually
unattested among prevocalic ones (Lombardi 1991, Steriade 1995, 1997, 2000). This position of
neutralization typically involves THE LOSS OF STOP RELEASE, or APLOSIVIZATION. For
aerodynamic and auditory reasons, stop releases are the optimal location for laryngeally-based
cues (Kingston 1985, 1990, Bladon 1986, Silverman 1995, 1996, Wright 2004). If a stop is not
released into a more open gesture such as a vowel, it may lose the phonetic cues associated with
this interval of the speech stream, among them, cues to the state of the larynx. In the limiting
case, the perceptual distinction among contrastive laryngeal states is extinguished completely.
This is laryngeal neutralization due to aplosivization.
In this section I show, specifically, regarding the tendencies in merger vis-à-vis Korean
aplosivization:
THE TENDENCY TOWARD MERGER OF AN OPPOSITION IS FAVORED TO THE EXTENT THAT:
REGARDING APLOSIVIZATION IN KOREAN:
1) The values in opposition are phonetically similar 1) The values that neutralize are phonetically similar2) The number of minimal morpheme pairs that the
opposition is responsible for is low2a) The percentage of the lexicon that potentially
engages in neutralizing aplosivization is remarkably HIGH
2b) The number of minimal morpheme pairs that the opposition is responsible for is LOW
3) The number of minimal pairs within a correlated opposition is low (or the opposition is uncorrelated)
3) The relevant oppositions are HIGHLY CORRELATED
4) The minimal pairs belong different syntactic categories
4) The amount of derived homophony within a syntactic category is remarkably LOW
5) The token frequency of one or both members of the minimal pairs is low
5) The token frequency of at least one member of the relevant minimal sets is usually LOW
6) The presence of additional morphological markers serves a disambiguating function
6) In neutralized forms, the addition of morphological material—specifically, due to compounding (for nouns)—serves a disambiguating function
16
1.1 Aplosivization involves phonetically similar values, and is highly correlated
The tabular display in (1) highlights both the phonetic similarity, and the high degree of
correlation, among Korean’s neutralized aplosive values: voiced, aspirated, and glottalized
values, be they labial, coronal, or dorsal, all aplosivize when lexically non-prevocalic, as does
[]. (Shaded values do not alternate, as they never appear in morpheme-final position. Additional
alternations which nasalize root-final obstruents are considered in Section 4.)
Lexically prevocalic Lexicallynon-prevocalic
Plain Voiced Aspirated Tensed AplosiveLabial: A
lternatew
ith
Coronal:
()
Dorsal: k
17
Table 1Distribution of Korean obstruents (and [])
In (1) it is shown that the plain obstruents, the voiced plosives, the aspirated plosives (and
[]), and the tensed obstruents may appear before vowels in Korean. Aplosives are found
elsewhere, that is, in lexically non-prevocalic contexts. Due to the rich suffixing system in
Korean, the plosives (except for the plain plosives and the glottalized anterior plosives), the
fricatives, as well as [], all alternate with the aplosives. Two values neutralize to the labial
aplosive, seven values neutralize to the coronal aplosive, and three values neutralize to the dorsal
aplosive. Altogether, twelve values neutralize to three, which constitutes a remarkably high 75%
reduction in the number of contrasts here.
Some examples of alternating values are provided in (2) (adapted from Jun 2007).
Plosive: Aplosive: Gloss:
(a) Locative (-e) (b) Nominative (-i) (c) Isolation Form
Labial:
Alternates w
ith
rice leaf
Coronal:
clothes field day
light
Dorsal: soup
kitchen outside
18
Table 2Examples of plosive-aplosive alternation in Korean
In (2), note especially that there is an array of laryngeal distinctions in root-final position
when a vowel-initial suffix is added (2a,b; underlined). However, these distinctions all neutralize
to their corresponding aplosive value when lexically non-prevocalic (2c; also underlined;
coronals palatalize before []).
1.2 A sizable portion of the lexicon engages in aplosivization
I have thus far established that a large set of CONTRASTIVE VALUES engages in aplosivization in
Korean. However, we do not yet know how many WORDS are potentially subject to this
neutralization. In this section, I numerically investigate this issue. I show that a rather significant
portion of the Korean noun inventory potentially engages in the alternation.
All told, Sejong Project the corpus lists 34,803 DIFFERENT nouns (not the number of
TOKENS). Of this total, 10,412 nouns possess aplosive alternants: 5,132 are word-final, and 5,280
are word-internal. These are pooled by their word- and morpheme-final plosive alternants in (3).
(In theory, a given form may be counted more than once if, for example, it possesses both word-
internal and word-final aplosive alternants, though this rarely seems to occur.)
Labials Coronals Dorsals
Value Number of words Value Number
of words Value Number of words
#+
1,154762
#d+
30
#+
3,5223,272
p#p+
18933
#+
6360
k#k+
121
p#+
00
#+
00
k#k+
158
19
#+
1041
#+
7443
#+
00
#+
257612
()#()+
05
#+
02
#+
1,343795
#+
407763
#+
3,5493,281
Total: 2,138 Total: 1,170 Total: 6,8305299 nouns possess word-final neutralized aplosive alternants;
4839 nouns possess neutralized word-internal aplosive alternants;10,138 out of 34,803 nouns; 29% of all nouns
20
Table 3Distribution of word-final (#) and morpheme-final (+) obstruents/h for 10,412 nouns, from The
Sejong Project.
At 29%, it is clear that the proportion of the noun vocabulary that is subject to
neutralizing aplosivization is not at all insignificant. However, it is important to note that a full
19.2% of consists of []-final elements, and that there are only 35 words with which these words
might alternate. A further 6% are []-final, which potentially neutralize with only 72 other
forms.
1.3 Derived homophony due to aplosivization is remarkably low
At this point in our discussion we have determined that, not only is neutralizing aplosivization
highly correlated in Korean—affecting a sizable number of the system’s contrastive values—but
also, a sizable proportion of the noun inventory (29% ) may be subject to the process. Even when
considering the high incidence of []- and []-final noun morphemes, these numbers do not bode
especially well for our hypothesis that derived homophony is not excessive.
Korean indeed possesses nouns that are rendered homophonous as a consequence of
aplosivization. An oft-cited example of derived noun homophony is provided in (4).
[- day (subject) [ - day and face (subject) [ - face and sickle (subject) [ - sickle and
21
Table 4Derived homophony in Korean
The Native Korean words for ‘day,’ ‘face’, and ‘sickle’ are phonetically distinct when
suffixed with the vowel-initial suffix [ (the subject marker). However, when any of these
words is suffixed with a consonant-initial suffix such as [] (‘and’), the root-final obstruent
aplosivizes to [], and the words are rendered phonetically indistinct.
How extensive is derived homophony? Among the 10,412 nouns that are subject to
aplosivization, the sets in (5) comprise an exhaustive list of homophonous words. (Certain words
in the corpus have eluded a dictionary search, and are unfamiliar to native speakers of Korean
[‘UNKNOWN’]. The significance of these errors is discussed in section 4.6.). These facts, coupled
with the very low token frequencies here, suggest that these are mere spelling errors documented
in the Sejong Project corpus.) Not including these suspect forms, in total, only 15 sets (32 words
in all)—out of a total of 34,803 nouns in the corpus—are subject to derived homophony due to
aplosivization.
22
It should be emphasized that the Sejong Project corpus tallies INFLECTED WORDS ACROSS
THE LEXICON IN USE, and not simply bare roots. Consequently, it is not the case that ALL
potential derived homophonic ROOTS are documented here. Indeed, certain known potentially
homophonous roots are absent from the corpus in their bare form, for example, [] (lacquer)
– [] (clothing). Rather, the list in (5) consists of those WORDS documented in the Sejong
Project corpus—whether bare roots or inflected—that are homophonous as a consequence of
neutralizing aplosivization. This is an important distinction, because the present investigation
intends to document homophony across the lexicon IN USE, and not across the lexicon IN TOTO.
(The version of the Sejong Project corpus used here is the same as that used in Albright 2008.
Hangul was Romanized by A. Albright using HCode Hangul Code Conversion software [Lee
1994]. Tokens counts are discussed in section 1.4.)
Set number NeutralizedIPA
Word number Root IPA Hangul Token count Gloss
1 1 젖 44 breast/milk2 젓 5 salted fish
2
3
젓가락 27 chopsticks
4
젖가락 3 UNKNOWN
3 5 집 9 house6 짚 19 straw
4 7 좆 21 penis8 좇 2 UNKNOWN
5 9 입 1,139 mouth10 잎 158 leaf
6 11 것 40,544 one12 겉 120 surface
7 13 맛 392 taste14 맡 3 nearby place
8 15 밀집 21 crowd
23
24
16 밀짚 2 straw
9 17 낮 294 day18 낯 91 face19 낫 25 sickle
10
20 오지랍 4 UNKNOWN
21 오지랖 3 front of outer
garment
11 22 박 581 gourd23 밖 1,568 exterior
12 24 밭 380 heritage25 받 2 field
13 26 빛 726 light27 빚 128 debt28 빗 6 comb
14 29 볕 32 sunshine
30 볏 6 crest (of fowl)
15
31 새우젓 8 UNKNOWN
32 새우젖 2 salted
shrimp
16 33 숯 14 charcoal34 숱 7 hair density
17 35 덫 31 trap36 덧 4 a short time
18 37 테잎 2 tape38 테입 9 UNKNOWN
19
39 집단 400 group
40 짚단 12 sheaf of straw
20
41
낯짝 5 face
42
낮짝 2 UNKNOWN
21
43
빗줄기 16 sheets of rain
25
44
빛줄기 2 rays of light
22
47 닦달 8 scolding
48 닥달 3 UNKNOWN
15 actual sets (7 due to spelling errors); 32 nouns out of 34,803; 46,781 tokens out of 1,234,323
26
Table 5Homophonic noun sets due to aplosivization
The exhaustive list in (5) makes it clear that the counter-functional consequences of
neutralizing aplosivization among nouns must be exceedingly meager: only 32 out of 34,803
nouns are homophonous due to aplosivization. Each set in (5) possesses at least one Native
Korean noun. This is to be expected, because Sino-Korean forms do not possess root-final
laryngeal distinctions, and so are not subject to neutralizing aplosivization.
As pointed out by Surendran & Niyogi (2006), totals such as those presented here acquire
greater significance when they are compared to values that are NOT eligible for derived
homophony. Word-initial values provide a relevant comparison to word-final values, because the
set of contrastive values allowed root-initially is very similar to (though larger than) the set of
values allowed root-finally, and are, of course, not subject to aplosivization. In (6) I compare the
number of words and the number of minimally distinctive sets, in both word-initial and word-
final position.
Labials Coronals DorsalsWord-initial Word-final Word-initial Word-final Word-initial Word-final4,323 words 1,202 words 15,988 words 408 words 5,814 words 3,524 words
100 sets 4 sets 1,755 sets 10 sets 57 sets 1 set26,125 nouns begin with obstruents, out of 34,803;
1,912 sets of would-be word-initial homophonic sets due to laryngeal neutralization5,299 words end with obstruents;
15 homophonic sets due to aplosivization
27
Table 6Would-be homophonic noun sets due to word-initial laryngeal neutralization versus genuine sets
of homophones due to word-final aplosivization
It is quite clear from these figures that the functional load of word-initial obstruent
oppositions is far heavier than their word-final counterparts: 26,125 nouns begin with obstruents,
out of 34,803; 1,912 sets would be word-initial homophonic sets due to laryngeal neutralization;
5,134 words end with obstruents; 15 homophonic sets are due to aplosivization. This should not
be surprising. Recall my proposal that languages do not evolve towards a state in which derived
homophony is excessive; a language will never tolerate neutralization should it induce excessive
homophony. Laryngeal neutralization among Korean root-initial plosives would induce just such
an excessive amount of homophony.
The comparison in (6) is NOT stacking the deck in my favor. The fact that word-initial
neutralization is a phonetically implausible development does NOT confound the significance of
these asymmetrical findings. Rather, it compounds their significance. Languages naturally
evolve toward states that exploit the acoustic/auditory space to good advantage, and so lexicons
are naturally structured such that more words are distinguished in contexts that are capable of
saliently encoding critically distinctive cues, for example, lexically prevocalic contexts over
lexically non-prevocalic ones.
1.4 THE TOKEN FREQUENCY OF ONE OR MORE MEMBERS OF THE HOMOPHONIC SETS IS
USUALLY LOW
28
We have thus far established that the potential for derived homophony due to aplosivization is
remarkably limited. But how frequent are the words that actually engage in this counter-
functional alternation? In fact, words which engage in aplosivization typically have a low token
count. Above, in (5), I provide the token counts of all the relevant forms, tallied from the Sejong
Project corpus. While the mean token count among nouns is 35, eight of the 15 noun sets possess
at least one member with a token count below ten. While there are 46,781 tokens, a full 40,544
are of one word (것), while its homophone (겉) has a token count of 120. If we discount this one
set—which, due to the high frequency of one word, and the low frequency of its homophone, is
scarcely likely to induce confusion—then out of 1,234,323 noun tokens total number of
homophones due to aplosivization reduces to 6,117. This is a very low level of homophony.
1.5 Summary of the Korean aplosivization pattern
I first considered the number of CONTRASTIVE VALUES that engage in neutralizing aplosivization
in Korean, finding this total to be remarkably high: three correlated oppositions—voiced,
aspirated, and tensed values, be they labial, coronal, or dorsal (also [])—all neutralize to their
aplosive counterparts when lexically non-prevocalic. In all, twelve values reduce to three.
I next determined that a sizable portion of the noun inventory—29%—is subject to the
neutralization process. All sets possess Native Korean forms, since Sino-Korean forms do not
possess root-final laryngeal distinctions.
Despite these high values, the number of homophonic sets within the noun inventory
turned out to be remarkably low: only 14 sets of nouns (30 nouns in all) are occasionally
rendered homophonous as a consequence of neutralizing aplosivization.
29
Significantly, there is a very strong tendency for one or more members of each set to
have a low token frequency.
Finally, it must be emphasized that our numerical investigation has only uncovered the
raw amount of homophony due to aplosivization. What remains unexplored is the actual
incidence of communicative confusion, that is, semantic ambiguity. Whatever this total turns out
to be, it is likely to be exceedingly low.
The most salient—and saliently divergent—findings of our discussion are:
(1) KOREAN APLOSIVIZATION INDUCES THE NEUTRALIZATION OF A REMARKABLY HIGH
NUMBER OF OPPOSITIONS: twelve values neutralize to three. 29% of the nouns are
subject to neutralizing aplosivization.
(2) KOREAN APLOSIVIZATION INDUCES THE HOMOPHONY OF A REMARKABLY LOW
NUMBER OF NOUNS: 15 sets of nouns are homophonous (32 nouns out of 34,803—
<0.1%; 6,117 noun tokens out of 1,234,323 tokens—<0.1%).
These wildly divergent results call out for an explanation. How did it happen that so
much neutralization developed in Korean, with such negligible counter-functional consequences?
Neogrammarians—and, in fact, anyone subscribing to a theory in which language change in
general, and sound change in particular, takes place completely independently of functional
considerations—would be forced to attribute this result to sheer dumb luck. As sound change is
blind, so the story goes, Korean could just as easily have evolved its pattern of neutralization
even if the resulting homophony were excessive.
30
Rather, these divergent results are, in fact, INTIMATELY RELATED: the neutralization of so
many values is tolerated in Korean EXACTLY BECAUSE it has a negligible effect on the amount of
derived homophony. How this came to pass requires an investigation of the history of Korean,
especially in the context of its extensive contact with Middle Chinese. I turn to this issue now.
2. THE HISTORY OF KOREAN NEUTRALIZATION VIS-À-VIS SINO-KOREAN COMPOUNDING
Korean has witnessed a massive influx of Chinese words in its distant past—beginning at
least 1300 hundred years ago, with the greatest amount of borrowing during the Kolye Dynasty,
about 1000 to 600 years ago—which served to supplant a significant portion of its native
vocabulary, particularly its noun inventory. During the era of borrowing, Chinese possessed a
very limited set of consonants in root-final position: [, , , , , ]. The Korean of this
era had these endings, though Middle Chinese final [t] was typically—and oddly—incorporated
into Korean as [l]. This is odd since, as stated, Native Korean indeed possessed [t]-final words.
However, it was usually transcribed ‘[]’ in an apparent effort to call attention to its
phonetically checked nature, at least in prescriptive pronunciations. Martin (1997) plausibly
suggests that the sound in question was borrowed as a flap ([]). The dearth of roots with final [t]
even in Middle Korean—only forty-eight verbs and a few nouns, according to Martin (1997)—
suggests a frequency effect: the loan pattern may have been influenced by the infrequency of
Native Korean [t]-final roots, and the high frequency of Native Korean [/]-final roots. Though
nothing crucial hinges on this issue, and though the issue is far from resolved (indeed, I am doing
Martin an injustice by so simplifying his remarkably detailed discussion), I herein operate under
the assumption that Middle Chinese root-final [] was borrowed as [], and alternated with []
when non-prevocalic, much as this value does today.
31
In addition to these simple stop endings, Korean roots possessed what Martin (1992)
terms ‘overstuffed’ endings, among them , pt, , , , , , , , , ,
, , , , , , , , , (the affricates were not yet palatalized; they were
dental) (Martin 1992, Sohn 1999, Song 2005) Up to 600 years ago, Martin believes that these
endings were realized intact when a vowel followed, but by 400 years ago were reduced to a
single member when non-prevocalic. Contemporary Korean root-final tensed values seem to be
the subsequent reflexes of at least some of these previously complex root-final clusters; other
root-final clusters survive to the present. Also around this time, root-final all
reduced to when non-prevocalic
By 400 years ago, non-prevocalic [s] (which was now an alternant of )
had succumbed to aplosivation, neutralizing to [t]. However, Manchu and Mongol loanwords
were transcribed with a final [s] as recently as 200 years ago. In the case of final [h], it was
dropped word-finally, but realized as post-aspiration when a lexical stop followed. In
Contemporary Korean, root-final [h] has been completely eliminated among noun roots,
surviving only in some (morphologically complex) forms.
32
Significantly, the simplification of root-final obstruent values continues into the present
day. Whereas past neutralizing values have primarily been among NON-PREVOCALIC alternants,
in present-day Korean there are additional neutralizations among PREVOCALIC root-final values,
though, again, with negligible counter-functional consequences. For example, according to Jun
(2007), young Korean speakers are introducing a significant amount of variation in the phonetic
values among prevocalic root-final obstruents, though with preferences for some values over
others. Among roots that heretofore have contrasted [] prevocalically, there is
now a substantial amount of variation among these values. In other words, the distinction among
these prevocalic root-final values appears to be breaking down. Simplifying somewhat, among
the coronals, is the favored variant; among the labials ([])is the favored
variant; among the dorsals ([, k]), [] is the favored variant. These favored variants are
also the most frequent in terms of the number of words that possess them, as can be readily
observed in the tabular displays in (3). Jun suggests that this is no coincidence: the TOKEN
PREVALENCE of some VARIANTS over others may be a consequence of the LEXICAL PREVALENCE
of some VALUES over others (See also Kim 2001, Ito 2006, Kang 2006, and Albright 2008 on
this topic).
33
Several additional points should be highlighted. First, Kang (2006) observes that those
coronal-final roots varying toward [s] tend to be low frequency items. Second, the variable
change from root-final [t] to [s] is not limited to Contemporary Korean. Rather, Ito (2006)
observes that since the Middle Korean period, ten (out of 13) [t]-final roots have changed to [s].
Third, Ito observes that Middle Korean root-final coronals that changed to [s] were nouns only,
never verbs. Fourth and finally, Ito finds that polysyllabic nouns were much more likely to
change to [s] than were monosyllabic nouns. The significance of these points is discussed in
Section 5.
The upshot is that root-final obstruents are becoming increasingly subject to
neutralization, both non-prevocalically AND prevocalically. The tabular display in (8) provides a
simplified timeline of this diachronic process. Note in particular that root-final consonant
clusters are NOT listed in (7), and thus the introduction of root-final glottalized obstruents (from
earlier root-final clusters) actually involves a DECREASE in the number of root endings, and not
the increase that is suggested by the display.
Labials Coronals DorsalsKorean consonantal root endings, lexically prevocalic, >600 years ago (bold values are also Sino-Korean): ()
Korean consonantal root endings, lexically non-prevocalic, >600 years ago:
Korean consonantal root endings, lexically prevocalic, >400 years ago: ()
Korean consonantal root endings, lexically non-prevocalic, >400 years ago:
Contemporary Korean consonantal root endings, lexically prevocalic (bold cells vary; bold values are preferred variants): ()
Contemporary Korean consonantal root endings, lexically non-prevocalic:
34
Table 7Simplified timeline of Korean obstruent root ending attrition
In short, the inventory of root-final values in Korean seems to be in a rather constant—if
slow-going—state of attrition. Aplosivization induces a significant decrease in the number of
contrastive values in non-prevocalic position, and variation towards frequent values is inducing a
decrease even prevocalically. How this came pass is the focus of the following section.
3. SINO-KOREAN COMPOUNDING SERVED AS A CATALYST FOR NEUTRALIZATION
It is surely the case that Korean has always possessed at least some compounding, but during the
era of massive borrowing from Chinese (recall, the Kolye Dynasty, about 1000 – 600 years ago),
compounding in the noun vocabulary became one of the primary characteristics of the Korean
lexicon. Sohn (1999) discusses three layers of Sino-Korean compound words. For our purposes,
the first and third layers are the most important. The first layer consists of nouns borrowed
directly from Chinese. The list of examples in (8) is adapted from Sohn (p.104).
nature reception
heaven and earth question
preparation school
student filial son
effort direction
rich year parents
change life
body sun
clothes manners
35
Table 8Sino-Korean words from Chinese (adapted from Sohn 1999, 104)
The third layer consists of Sino-Korean compound nouns that were not directly borrowed
from Chinese, but instead were coined in Korea. These are exemplified in (9), again adapted
from Sohn (p.104).
rice field-dry field paddies and dry fields all-horn bachelor day-energy weather outside-upside on credit blessing-virtue-room real estate agency
comfortable paper letter four-pillar one’s destiny year three-inch uncle
husband’s side-home family of one’s husband
eating-mouth family, members of a family
six-inches second cousin
36
Table 9Sino Korean words coined in Korea (adapted from Sohn 1999, 104)
While the first layer (direct borrowings) consists primarily of academic and scientific
terms due to contact with the Chinese intelligentsia, the third layer (native coins) are a later
development, perhaps best viewed as a result of ‘trickling down’: as Sino-Korean vocabulary
began to pervade the language of the elite, its patterns of word formation came to influence
lower social strata.
The huge influx of Sino-Korean nouns was largely coincident with the onset of root-final
attrition. Although COINCIDENT, this development was surely not COINCIDENTAL, for, as noted,
the Chinese of the lending era possessed only [, , , , , ] in root-final position.
Consequently, the Sino-Korean vocabulary lacked the ‘overstuffed’ root-endings found in Native
Korean. What seems to have happened is that this property came to influence Korean
phonotactics at large: THE SLOW-GOING ATTRITION OF THE KOREAN SYSTEM OF ROOT-FINAL
VALUES DOCUMENTED IN SECTION 2 WAS LIKELY SET IN MOTION BY THE INFLUX OF SINO-
KOREAN FORMS.
The obvious question that arises (and for which I have already proposed an answer) is
this: if the influx of Chinese compounds into Korean set in motion an attrition of root-final
values, how did Korean avoid developing excessive homophony? The answer, of course, is
inherent in the question itself: THE ATTRITION OF ROOT-FINAL VALUES WAS OFFSET BY THE
COMPOUNDING NATURE OF THE SINO-KOREAN VOCABULARY. Two heads are better than one:
compounding greatly increased the opportunity for nouns to contrast with each other. Any
limitations on the number of contrasts imposed by the smaller inventory of root-final consonants
is offset by these roots’ combining and recombining into new and varied compounds.
37
Non-prevocalic aplosivization is a natural development, since, as stated, without a vowel
following, contrastive states of the glottis tend to be less saliently encoded in the speech signal.
However, simply because a sound change is natural does not entail that it will be actuated every
chance it gets. As noted by Martinet, functional factors may indeed play an intervening role. In
the case of Korean at least, it is likely that aplosive stops became so pervasive only because
communication was not adversely affected by the resultant neutralization: THE NUMBER OF
VALUES UNDERGOING APLOSIVIZATION INCREASED EXACTLY BECAUSE OF THE COMPOUNDING
THAT WAS INTRODUCED BY THE SINO-KOREAN VOCABULARY, WHICH OFFSET ANY COUNTER-
FUNCTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS.
It is almost unimaginable that Korean would have tolerated the attrition of its root-final
obstruent system had it resulted in extensive homophony/ambiguity of word meaning. Indeed, as
suggested in Section 1, Sino-Korean compounding may be seen as playing a dual role: first, it
offset the potential homophony that aplosivization might have otherwise induced in the noun
system, and second, due to this, it may have sped the attrition of root-final values, as there were
now fewer functional pressures that would inhibit this development.
Regarding verbs, which were NOT supplanted by Sino-Korean compounds, still, the
counter-functional effects of aplosivization were negligible. Since verbs are suffixed—and, not
coincidently, since consonant-final verbs are typically suffixed with vowel-initial allomorphs—
the consequences of aplosivization are trivial.
4. OTHER NEUTRALIZING ALTERNATIONS IN KOREAN INDUCE VERY LITTLE HOMOPHONY
38
As the preceding discussion has shown, components of the neutralizing aplosivization seem to
have been in place even before the Kolye Dynasty, and it was subsequent to this era—due to
Korean’s extensive contact with Chinese—that the pattern began to expand, coming to
incorporate affricate- and fricative-final roots, and, eventually leading indirectly to the
neutralization of certain non-prevocalic root-final values, though always with negligible counter-
functional consequences.
In fact, the pattern of root-final neutralization has not stopped there. In the centuries
following the Kolye Dynasty, a number of additional neutralizing alternations have entered the
language, affecting both root-final and following root-initial values. In this section I consider
five of these more recent routes to neutralization and potential homophony in Korean: nasal
lateralization (4.1), liquid nasalization (4.2), nasal assimilation (4.3), assibilation (4.4), and
cluster reinforcement (4.5) (Martin 1992). None of these neutralizing alternations induces a
significant amount of homophony. I also briefly consider variable assimilation of labials to
dorsals, and coronals to labials and dorsals (4.6).
In (10) I provide a chart of intervocalic values in Korean. The first column lists
morpheme-final consonants; the first row lists following morpheme-initial consonants, and the
table interior indicates the phonological values of these morphologically-ordered elements.
+CC+
39
40
Table 10Korean intervocalic values (bold-boxed cells are variably implemented; adapted from Martin
1992)
In all, there are 304 possible morphologically-ordered sequences here. Variable values
are bold-boxed. Including these among the neutralized values for now, the 304 morphologically
ordered sequences reduce to only 77 phonetic values. In this section I show that, despite this
drastic reduction in the number of intervocalic values, derived homophony remains minimal.
4.1 Nasal lateralization induces very little homophony
Nasals and laterals form a natural class in that they are the only consonants possessing
both formants and anti-formants. Coronal nasals in particular are acoustically similar to laterals,
as their formant transitions are rather comparable. It is little surprise, then, that coronal nasals
and laterals are readily confusable. In Korean, their perceptual confusability has apparently
culminated in a neutralizing alternation: a sequence of a lateral or tap and a coronal nasal in
either order is realized as a long lateral: [+, [+, [l+n] [(Kim-Renaud 1975,
Martin 1992, Davis & Shin 1999). This process entered the language about 400 years ago
(Martin 1992: 52).
41
As the non-prevocalic lateral alternates with the tap when prevocalic, the acoustic
connection between this latter alternant and the coronal nasal becomes rather tenuous. Though
aerodynamically a non-obstruent (since the duration of its oral closure is insufficient to
significantly reduce trans-glottal airflow), the tap possesses neither formants nor anti-formants; it
is an extremely short oral stop. However, critical to the implementation of a tap is an oral
opening both after AND BEFORE the oral closure: a tap is only a tap if the tongue makes BRIEF
contact with a passive articulator. In the context of a preceding gesture that involves prolonged
contact between these two articulators—such as a coronal nasal or a lateral—there is little
opportunity for the tongue to fall away from its contact site, and then quickly re-implement
contact. Rather, tongue contact is likely to be maintained—much like aplosivization—resulting
in a single gesture. This results in either a longer lateral or a longer coronal nasal. Nasal
lateralization, consequently, may be seen as an extension of aplosivization: due to the absence of
lateral or nasal release, tongue contact is maintained for the duration of the morphologically-
ordered consonantal sequence. Since laterals and the coronal nasal are confusable, the origins of
this neutralization pattern now come into focus.
It didn’t have to be this way, of course. If nasal lateralization were to induce excessive
homophony, Korean would likely have evolved a way to avoid this neutralizing alternation. But,
as shown in (11), the process induces remarkably little homophony.
42
Set number NeutralizedIPA
Word number Root IPA Hangul Token count Gloss
1
1 찰라 5 UNKNOWN
2 찰나 22 a moment
2 3
환로 2 file
4 활로 11 bow
3 5 인류 179 humanity6 일류 32 peculiarity
4
7 일사분란 3 UNKNOWN
8 일사불란 7 being in
perfect order
5
9 건립 55 building10 걸립 9 alms rounds
6
11 권련 2 deep affection
12 궐련 10 cigarette
7 15 분리 124 separation16 불리 7 handicap
8
17 분량 61 quantity18 불량 40 inferiority
9 19 산림 35 woodland20 살림 179 lifestyle
10
21 신록 3 fresh verdure
22 실록 6 chronicle
11 23 술래 20 smell of liquor
24 술내 4 tagger
12
25 연락 220 connection26 열락 2 joy
10 actual sets (2 due to spelling errors); 20 words; 1001 tokens
43
Table 11Homophonic sets due to nasal lateralization
Out of 1,001 nouns in the corpus possessing , 681 derive from [+, 316 derive
from [+4 derive from [l+n]There are ten homophonic sets. Two additional cases
are probably false positives due to documented spelling errors. Eight of the actual sets possess at
least one member with a token count under ten. It is thus apparent that there were few functional
pressures acting against the development of this sound pattern. It seems, then, that the PHONETIC
confusion induced by the relevant sound sequences did not induce sufficient SEMANTIC
confusion to passively inhibit the conventionalization of this neutralizing alternation. Since
successful communication was not jeopardized as a consequence of any perceptual confusion
between the coronal nasal and the lateral/tap, neutralizing lateralization naturally came to hold
sway.
4.2 Liquid nasalization induces very little homophony
Another neutralizing alternation in Korean involves the nasalization of non-coronal obstruent –
liquid (tap) sequences: [+ [+ [(Kim-Renaud 1975, Martin 1992,
Davis & Shin 1999). This alternation is mentioned only in passing by Martin (1992); he does not
discuss when the pattern may have entered the language. Surely, there is no phonetic motivation
for the pattern. Rather, this alternation has the ‘feel’ of being analogically derived from nasal
assimilation. It is likely, therefore, that the alternation is a rather recent innovation.
44
In all, 695 nouns listed in the corpus possess the relevant sequences. There are 119 nouns
possessing (45 derive from [+, and 74 are lexical +), and 576 nouns possessing
(182 derive from +, and 394 are lexical [+). In (12) I provide an exhaustive list
of homophones due to liquid nasalization. There are eight cases in all, two of which are
suspected spelling errors.
Set number NeutralizedIPA
Word number Root IPA Hangul Token count Gloss
1 1 정리 287 arrangement2 적리 3 dysentary
2
3 정립 71 triangular position
4 적립 4 accumulation
3 5 강론 8 sermon
6 각론 4 detailed exposition
4
7 구직난 2 unemploy-
ment problem
8 구직란 2 UNKNOWN
5 9 경리 14 UNKNOWN10 격리 37 quarantine
6
11 백련 15 white lotus
12 백년 5 century
7
13 병력 90 replacement depot
14 벽력 4 thunder and lightning
8
16 양력 26 solar
calender
16 약력 3 vita
6 actual sets (2 due to spelling errors); 12 words; 520 tokens
45
Table 12Homophonic noun sets due to liquid nasalization
In all, there are six homophonic sets of nouns, and two which may be the result of
spelling errors in the corpus. Excluding these two sets, a total of 520 nouns tokens (out of
1,234,323) are homophonous, which verges on 0% of the total.
4.3 Nasal assimilation induces very little homophony
Korean has a process of nasal assimilation such that any obstruent that comes to precede a nasal
becomes nasal itself (Kim-Renaud 1975, Martin 1992, Davis & Shin 1999). This process entered
Korean at least 600 years ago (Martin 1992: 52). There are two domains of application of this
pervasive process: across morpheme boundaries, and across word boundaries (Kim-Renaud
1975).
Regarding word internal nasal sequences, 559 are derived consequence of nasal
assimilation: 46 nouns possess +, 102 +, 271 +, 18 +, 47 +n, and 75
+. Meanwhile, there are 1,734 NON-derived nasal+nasal sequences: 127 + 473
+, 459 +, 97+, 184 +, and 394 +. In all then, there are 2,293
nasal-nasal sequences in the set of 34,803 nouns.
The sets in (13) constitute an exhaustive list of homophones found in the Sejong Project
corpus due to word-internal nasal assimilation.
46
Set number NeutralizedIPA
Word number Root IPA Hangul Token count Gloss
1
1 작목 7 poor night
vision
2 장목 3 lumber
2
3 작물 35 crops
4 장물 14 loot
3
5 작문 24 composition
6 장문 5 wide-open
gate
4
7 작년 267 yesteryear
8 장년 8 prime of life
5
9
찬물 26 cold water
10
찻물 2 tea
6 11
학문 234 scholarship
12 항문 9 anus
7 13
곡물 20 corn
14 공물 3 tribute
8 *
15 구직난 2 unemploy-
ment problem
16 구직란 2 UNKNOWN
9
17 군막 3 military tent
18 굿막 3 miners’ hut
10 19
오랜만 116 UNKNOWN
20
오랫만 8 UNKNOWN
47
11
21 백련 15 white lotus
22 백년 5 century
12 23
벚나무 5 cherry tree
24 벗나무 2 UNKNOWN
13 25
성물 17 UNKNOWN
26 석물 5 stone figures
14 27
약물 42 medicinal waters
28 양물 7 penis
10 actual sets (4 due to spelling errors); 20 words; 732 tokens.*non-unique—already listed with lateral nasalization
48
Table 13Homophonic noun sets due to word-internal nasal assimilation
In all, there are ten homophonic sets out of 2,293 neutralized nouns in the list of 34,803
nouns (732 out of 1,234,323 tokens), and four probable spelling errors.
Hwang (2008) investigates the amount of potential noun homophony due to the word
boundary process. Her results in (14) show that a full 51% of all nouns (17,763 out of 34,803)
are potentially subject to neutralizing nasal assimilation (P=labial obstruent, T=coronal
obstruent, K=dorsal obstruent).
Labials Coronals DorsalsValue Number
of words% of total
Value Number of words
% of total
Value Number of words
% of total
#P#
1,9131,343
5.33
#T#
5,477407
15.31
#K#
5,0743,549
14.1510
Total: 3,256 8.7 Total: 5,884 16.4 Total: 8,623 23.917,763 out of 34,803 nouns; 51% of all nouns
Table 14Potential word-final nasal-assimilated nouns
Despite the enormous amount of potential neutralization here, Hwang shows that a mere
2.8% of the noun inventory is potentially subject to derived homophony as a consequence of
nasal neutralization. Her results are displayed in (15).
49
Labials Coronals DorsalsValue Number
of words% of total
Value Number of words
% of total
Value Number of words
% of total
#P#
8789
.2
.2#T#
4459
0.10.1
#K#
354355
1.01.0
Total: 176 .4 Total: 103 0.25 Total: 709 2.0988 words out of 34,803 nouns; 2.8% of all nouns
Table 15Potential word-final nasal-assimilated homophones
Hwang is careful to point out that these numerical results do not show the actual rate of
homophonic usage. Rather, these totals merely indicate the POTENTIAL for derived homophony.
Crucially, any noun that might be subject to derived homophony as a consequence of nasal
assimilation must be immediately followed by a nasal in the next word. This being the case, the
amount of actual homophony is likely to be extremely low indeed. To get a sense of this value,
there are 3,404 nouns in the corpus that are nasal-initial. Assuming this is representative of the
language as a whole, this constitutes about 10% of the lexicon. This suggests that the likelihood
of derived homophony is likely to be one-tenth of 2.8%, or .28%. This result is in full keeping
with the remarkably low levels of derived homophony found elsewhere.
4.4 Coronal assibilation induces very little homophony
Coronal obstruents assibilate before , resulting in (neutralized) (Martin
1992). Out of the 34,803 nouns in the corpus, 131 words possess the relevant value: 41 lexical,
90 derived. There is a total of one homophonic set as a result of this alternation, 14 tokens in all,
as shown in (16).
50
Set number NeutralizedIPA
Word number Root IPA Hangul Token count Gloss
1 1
빛살 12 light ray
2 빗살 2 comb teeth
1 set; 2 words; 14 tokens
51
Table 16Homophonic noun set due to word-internal coronal assibiliation
4.5 Cluster reinforcement induces no homophony
When a non-aspirated obstruent comes to follow another obstruent, the second value tenses
(Kim-Renaud 1975, Martin 1992). This is a neutralizing alternation. There are 4,048 nouns in the
corpus that possess word-medial tensed obstruents: 449 , 476 , 1017 , 1090
, and 1016 . In (17) I provide a list of the homophonic sets due to cluster
reinforcement. Allthree sets are false positives.
Set number NeutralizedIPA
Word number Root IPA Hangul Token count Gloss
1 [
1[
짝꿍 3 buddy
2[
짝궁 2 UNKNOWN
2
3
깍두기 7 radish kimchi
4
깍뚜기 4 UNKNOWN
3
5
곱배기 3 UNKNOWN
6
곱빼기 3 double shot
no actual set (all due to spelling errors); 0 words; 0 tokens
52
Table 17Homophonic noun sets due to cluster reinforcement
4.6 Variable assimilation might induce more homophony (but might not…)
In colloquial Korean speech, coronals (excluding the lateral) variably assimilate to a following
consonant (Kim-Renaud 1975, Martin 1992), and labials variably assimilate to a following
dorsal. In theory, this assimilation process, unlike the others discussed herein, has the potential to
induce a non-negligible amount of homophony. In (18) I provide the total number of nouns that
are potentially subject to this process (18a) alongside the total number of non-variable (genuinely
morphologically-sequenced) values with which the variable forms might neutralize (18b).
Finally, I provide the total number of potentially homophonic sets (18c).
a. Variable contrastive value
Number of nouns
b. Non-variable contrastive value
Number of nouns
c. Number of potentially
homophonic sets+P ~ +P 126 ++P 92 No sets
+P ~ +P 683 +P 385 15 sets
+m] ~ + 575 + 173 No sets
+K ~ +K 171
+K 688 14 sets+K ~ +K 177
+K ~ +K 1217
+K 1,324 62 sets+K ~ +K 249
5,680 nouns; 91 potentially homophonic sets
53
Table 18Potential homophony due to variable assimilation
A sizable number of homophonic sets are possible here. An important point to keep in
mind, however, is that this is a VARIABLE pattern of neutralization: sometimes neutralization
occurs (more often in casual speech), and sometimes it doesn’t (more often in formal speech).
Jun (1995), for example, investigates the variable labial-to-dorsal obstruent assimilation pattern
using the aerodynamic methodology introduced by Silverman & Jun (1994). He reports gestural
reduction of labials (in + sequences) to occur about 35% of the time in casual speech, and
about 15% of the time in formal speech. However, Jun finds that this variable pattern does not
vary between discrete values versus . Rather the variation is gradient, such that
tokens may, in theory, fall anywhere on the phonetic continuum between these two endpoints.
This sort of variation sets up a situation in which NEAR-NEUTRALIZATIONS are practically
inevitable: some speech tokens are nearly—but, crucially, not completely—neutralized, and so
contrasts may remain recoverable despite the near-obliteration of their acoustic distinctiveness.
Many cases of near-neutralization are documented in the phonetics literature, increasingly so as
analytic techniques become more sophisticated (see, for example, Dinnsen & Charles-Luce 1984,
and Charles-Luce 1985 on Catalan, Port & O’Dell 1985, Charles-Luce 1985, Port & Crawford
1989 on German, Slowiaczek & Dinnsen 1985 on Polish, Pye 1986 on Russian, Warner,
Jongman, Sereno, and Kemps 2004 on Dutch, Bishop 2007 on Andalusian Spanish).
54
Among variable processes such as Korean coronal assimilation, it is quite possible that
potentially homophonic forms in particular are more likely to maintain their distinctive status
than are neutralized heterophones, at least in semantically ambiguous contexts. Charles-Luce
(1985), for example, finds that potential homophones in Catalan are more likely to remain
acoustically distinct from each other in semantically ambiguous contexts, in comparison to both
homophones in semantically transparent contexts, and to neutralized heterophones. Comparable
findings are reported for Dutch (Warner, Jongman, Sereno, and Kemps 2004).
Anecdotally, an informal, non-systematic dictionary investigation of potentially
homophonic sets due to variable coronal assimilation (approximately forty-five minutes checking
an online dictionary ‘Babylon Korean Dictionary’,
http://www.babylon.com/dictionary/1271/Babylon-Korean-English.html) yielded only a few
false-positives for words with optionally assimilated sequences. This suggests that such
sequences are indeed realized as VARIABLY and PARTIALLY assimilated, at least a significant
portion of the time. Were these sequences completely neutralized, we might expect a higher
number of false positives: completely neutralized forms are more likely subject to spelling errors,
since, for such forms, there is less spur-of-the-moment (while writing) evidence to suggest that
their phonetic properties are a consequence of (neutralizing) alternation. Indeed, the documented
spelling errors in the Sejong Corpus are not random, but instead, always reflect accurate
pronunciations of the (presumably intended) word.
55
In Section 0, I wrote that perceptual similarity can be tested by measuring the degree to
which sounds might be confused with one another. In a study to be undertaken soon, I hope to
reproduce Jun’s findings on the variable realization—and also the perception—of the relevant
assimilations in Korean, this time with an eye cast on potentially homophonous forms in both
semantically ambiguous and semantically transparent contexts. The findings of this study may
shed light on the issue of derived homophony and near-neutralization. (I note here that Kim and
Jongman [1996], in their investigation of Korean neutralizing aplosivization, find no evidence of
near-neutralization under any circumstances. That is, in the case of aplosivization at least—and
unlike coronal and labial assimilation—neutralization is apparently complete.)
4.7 Summary of neutralizing alternations in Korean
We have now investigated six neutralizing alternations that were introduced into Korean
subsequent to the expansion of the aplosivization pattern, which, in turn, was subsequent to—
and, by hypothesis, triggered by—the huge influx of aplosive Chinese compounds. I summarize
the numerical results in tabular form in (19).
56
Alternation
Number of nouns, both lexical and
derived(out of 34,803)
Number of homophonic sets
Number of homophonic tokens(out of 1,234,323)
Aplosivization 10,138 15 6,117 (46,781-40,664)Nasal lateralization 1,001 10 288Liquid nasalization 695 6 520Nasal assimilation 7,592 10 732
Coronal assibilation 131 1 14Cluster reinforcement 4,048 0 0
(VARIABLE ASSIMILATION) (5,680) (91) (UNDETERMINED)
Totals: 13,258 42 7,671
57
Table 19Summary of neutralizing alternations and derived homophony
In running Korean speech, out of 1,234,323 noun tokens encountered, chances are that
about 7,671 will be homophonous. This is a very low level of homophony.
5. FINAL REMARKS
I have argued that anti-homophony is a genuine pressure acting on language change.
Indeed, upon even the briefest reflection, it is patently obvious that language could never possess
excessive homophony—especially, homophony that induces listener confusion; language would
not be worth the air that carries it were it not successful in its communicative function.
This anti-homophonic pressure acting on language has been assumed by some to be
directly isolable in speakers’ intentions. King (1967: 850), for example, assumes that sound
changes due to ‘functional load’ must indeed be teleological in origin, hence are untenable: ‘The
theory of therapeutic sound change as developed especially in Prague School linguistics is
predicated on the assumption that the speaker, or at any rate some higher linguistic
consciousness, is aware of certain informational indices in his language—relative frequencies of
phonemes, functional loads of oppositions, etc. —and that the speaker (or his higher
consciousness, whatever it is) possesses the ability to act on this knowledge to avert possible
linguistic changes. I know of no empirical findings which support this assumption. I think,
therefore, that concrete evidence of the soundness of such an assumption should precede further
speculations on the nature of therapeutic sound change.’
58
But King’s conclusion is, quite frankly, unmotivated, because his premise is faulty: there
is no reason to assume that teleology, speaker intention, or any other form of goal-directed
behavior plays a role in functionally-motivated phonological change, any more than there is
reason to assume comparable forces acting on the evolution of species.
Even when there is a natural phonetic tendency toward a particular phonetic state, say
non-prevocalic aplosivization among obstruents, a given language will most likely NOT evolve
toward that state if excessive homophony were to result, for the very speech tokens that are
produced with homophone-inducing aplosives are also the very speech tokens that would likely
confuse listeners. And so, as a natural, passive consequence, such tokens would not be
reproduced as these listeners become speakers. Rather, in such a language, there is likely to be a
natural, passive maintenance of contrast—either through the maintenance of plosivization or by
some other means—for it is exactly those speech tokens that are communicated successfully to
listeners that are more likely to take hold, and become conventionalized as the speech norm.
Quite simply, successful speech variants, like successful mutations, are naturally selected.
By contrast, for a language like Korean, in which—due to the huge influence of Chinese
—root-final distinctions are not especially dependent on plosivization, we see massive
neutralization in root-final values both non-prevocalically, and even, increasingly,
prevocalically. Since communication remains unencumbered, natural tendencies towards such
simplifications encounter little resistance. As Labov writes (1994: 586), ‘It is not the desire to be
understood, but rather the consequence of misunderstanding that influences language change.
This mechanism implies a mismatch between producer and interpreter: the type of built-in
instability that we would expect to find behind long-term shifts in language behavior.’
59
Labov’s implication of the listener as a source of sound change should not be conflated
with the approach espoused by Ohala (1981). Ohala proposes that the misinterpretation of
speakers’ phonetic intentions may drive sound change. Listeners may misinterpret unintended
components of speakers’ speech as intended, and subsequently incorporate these components
into their own repertoire of (intended) articulatory routines (‘hypocorrection’). Conversely,
listeners may also misinterpret intended components of speakers’ speech as unintended, and
subsequently ‘undo’ these components in their own speech (‘hypercorrection’).
60
Labov’s role for the listener as source of sound change is somewhat different from Ohala’s
(though by no means must we assume that the two are mutually exclusive): instead of listeners
misinterpreting speakers’ PHONETIC intentions, listeners may misinterpret speakers’ SEMANTIC
intentions. Unlike phonetics, there is external reference in semantics, which provides fertile
ground for hypothesis testing. We can readily investigate whether listeners do or do not
apprehend speakers’ semantic intentions (see, for example, Casenhiser 2005 for experimental
evidence suggesting that children avoid homophony during language acquisition); by contrast,
we cannot investigate with any degree of confidence whether listeners do or do not apprehend
speakers’ phonetic intentions, since such intentions are wholly private activities, and are not
reliably documented by interview. If only for this reason, a Labovian role for listeners in sound
change seems a more promising theory than an Ohalaian one. As should be clear from all
previous discussion, this is the source—the mechanism—of anti-homophony proposed herein.
‘Language is a system of conventionalized patterns of usage that arises from the minor and
limited variations in which speakers naturally engage. The communicative success of certain
spontaneous innovations over others—especially in the face of potentially confusing,
homophonous forms—may very slowly, almost imperceptibly, drive the linguistic system in new
directions. Very minor phonetic tendencies, coupled with the ambiguities they might induce or
eschew, may eventually have far-reaching consequences for the phonological system.’
(Silverman 2006: 217).
61
Before I conclude, please consider several points left hanging from Section 2. Recall that
Jun (2007) finds that prevocalic root-final coronals are increasingly varying towards [] in
Contemporary Korean, and that Kang (2006) observes that these roots tend to be low frequency
items. Consistent with the hypothesis that ‘functional load’ is a genuine—if passive—pressure
on systems, it is exactly low frequency items that may be most susceptible to neutralizing
changes, as their functional load is low. Further, recall Ito’s (2006) finding that, since the Middle
Korean period, ten (out of 13) [t]-final noun roots have changed to []. This finding further
demonstrates the role of ‘functional load’ in sound change: were there many hundreds of []-
final nouns, there would likely have been a significant number of minimal pairs with []-final
forms. The fact that Middle Korean nouns with root-final coronals changed to [], not verbs, is,
once again, in full accordance with the hypothesis that ‘functional load’ is indeed a passive
pressure on sound systems: since nouns, unlike verbs, were subject to compounding, they may
readily endure the loss of root-final distinctions without undue counter-functional consequences.
This may further account for Ito’s finding that polysyllabic nouns were more likely to change to
[s] than were monosyllabic nouns.
Other patterns of alternation (nasal lateralization, nasal assimilation, liquid nasalization,
assibilation, and cluster reinforcement)—all of which seem to have entered Korean AFTER the
Kolye Dynasty—may also have been tolerated, and, indeed, sped along, exactly because they
had negligible counter-functional consequences. Thus, all of these slow-acting developments on
the sound pattern of Korean may be seen as responses—however indirect—to the contact that
Chinese and Korean enjoyed all those centuries ago.
62
Like the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in that very same land, the consequences of
which may eventually produce a tornado in the American heartland, the Chinese lexicon of a
millennium ago may be seen as possessing a reach that continues to press—however passively—
on the minds of Korean speakers, even to this very day.
63
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1. For their help (which does not entail their endorsement of my conclusions), thanks to Adam Albright, David Etienne-Bouchard, Devin Casenhiser, Stuart Davis, Ik-Sang Eom, Andrew Garrett, Chris Golston, Bill Idsardi, Chiyuki Ito, Jongho Jun, Yoonjung Kang, Hahn Koo, Bruce Lyon, Öner Özçelik, Glyne Piggott, Richard Wiese, and members of my SJSU Phonology 2 class, S08. This paper is dedicated to the memory of my teacher, Peter Ladefoged.