Pitch realization of Sino-Korean words produced by Chinese Korean learners*

This study investigates the influence of Chinese on the pitch of Sino-Korean words produced by Chinese learners of Korean. Korean and Chinese are typologically classified into different prosodic categories. Chinese is a tonal language, while Korean is a non-tonal language in which tones do not serve phonological functions. In this context, Sino-Korean words provide a mechanism for observing the interference of the native language and aspects of L2 intonation, such as pitch reduction. To investigate these aspects, we conducted both phonological and phonetic analyses. In the phonological analysis, we examined the pitch pattern of each syllable and observed similarities with native tones. In the phonetic analysis, pitch span, pitch level, and pitch dynamism quotient (PDQ) were used as prosodic measures. Six native Korean speakers and 20 intermediate and advanced Chinese learners participated in a prosodic production test. The material analyzed consisted of 10 Sino-Korean words embedded in six sentences. The results showed that Sino-Korean words produced by Chinese speakers exhibited certain similarities with native tones, a low pitch level, a more expanded pitch span, and greater syllable-internal pitch variation. These results suggest that the learners