Phonology and phonetics of epenthetic vowels in loanwords: Experimental evidence from Korean

This paper investigates acoustic properties of epenthetic vowels used in the adaptation of English loanwords with final obstruents in Korean (e.g. phokhi < folk, phochi < poach). An extensive analysis of spectral and durational properties of these vowels produced by six speakers of Seoul Korean reveals that loanword epenthesis is a categorical vowel insertion process. The quality of epenthetic vowels in the data was essentially identical to that of the native high vowels /i/ and /i/, depending on the place of articulation of the preceding consonant. Duration of epenthetic vowels was also similar to that of native vowels. These findings provide evidence for the phonological status of epenthesis and vowel coloring in loanwords into Korean, supporting some previous phonological accounts of the phenomenon, while questioning others. Importantly, the categorical vowel coloring in loanwords is different from gradient coarticulatory effects exerted by preceding consonants and non-adjacent vowels, which were also observed in the data. This underscores the importance of careful experimental investigation of vowel epenthesis, as a way of teasing apart phonological processes and phonetic effects.