A Study on the Consonant Cluster Simplification in Jeju dialect: Focusing on 20s

This study aims to identify the tendency and characteristics of consonant cluster simplification in the Jeju dialect, based on experimental phonetic methodology. For this purpose, we conducted a reading experiment with the Jeju dialect in their 20s, and examined the types of stem consonant cluster in the 'ㄹ' series and the variation of these consonant clusters by following endings, individual words, and gender. The results of the study showed that the types of stem consonant cluster was a variable in the stem-final consonant cluster simplification among the Jeju dialect in their 20s. In other words, we found that the types of stem consonant cluster in the ‘ㄹ’ series can be categorized into ‘ㄾ’ with a high selection rate, ‘ㄿ’ with a low selection rate, and ‘ㄺ, ㄼ’ with an intermediate selection rate. In addition, the ‘ㄹ’ series stem consonant clusters speakers in their 20s from Jeju dialect showed the same significant correlation with following endings as speakers in their 20s from the metropolitan area. However, speakers in their 20s in the Jeju dialect showed a higher overall rate of ‘ㄹ’ selection compared to speakers in their 20s in the metropolitan area, which was determined to be due to the influence of the standard language convergence phenomenon and the enlarged stem caused by the addition of ‘ㄹ’ in the Jeju dialect. Next, we found that gender and vocabulary did not act as significant variables in the simplification of the ‘ㄹ’ series stem consonant clusters in 20 speakers of the Jeju dialect.