[KS] Long and short vowels

[Ri Hwasu]

As I said in my previous message, homophones like Kim (family name) and 
ki-m (seaweed) are differentiated when carefully compared each other.  But 
in normal speech the difference is a matter of the occurrence in a 
sentence.  It is not a phonetic or phonological, but a lexical difference.
 
Korean /i/ is not necessarily a front vowel.  In both Kim and ki-m /i/ can 
be pronounced with back of the tongue raised, as it is preceded by a velar 
stop, or with the front part or the whole part of the tongue raised.  
Following a palatal or dental consonant /i/ may be regarded as a front 
vowel, for example, chijin (earthquake), ch'ijil (hemorrhoids), t'ibi (TV), 
tti (band). But after a bilabial consonant  /i/ can be pronouned either the 
back or the front (the whole) part of the tongue raised.  Ex. pi (rain), 
p'i (blood), ppida (to sprain), miji (unknown).


>From: Mark Peterson <markpeterson at byu.edu>
>Reply-To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>Subject: Re: [KS] Long and short vowels
>Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 11:25:41 -0600
>
>H.H.  and all,
>
>Greetings,
>
>I've often puzzled on the Kim, kim difference.  I dont' think it is 
>a  matter of vowel length.  It's actually the position of the vowel 
>[- i-] in the mouth.  I'm not a linguist (help!, Ross) but it seems 
>that  Kim, the name, is more frontal, whereas kim, seaweed, is back 
>or  middle.  I know there are interpretations that say Kim and kim 
>are a  matter of vowel length, but say Kim with a short vowel or 
>with a long  vowel and say kim with a long vowel and a short vowel 
>and they are  both in different places, and both can be either long 
>or short -- not  that such is found in the spoken language, but 
>still, linguistically,  possible.
>
>Ross, step in and help out on this.  Or Young-key, Bob.
>
>
>best,
>Mark
>,
>
>
>
>On Sep 24, 2007, at 10:11 AM, H. H. Underwood wrote:
>
>>Ri Hwasu said that vowel length is no longer a distinctive feature  
>>in Korean.  I believe there are still exceptions; the one that came 
>>  to mind is "Kim" (the name) and "keem" (the seaweed), which seem 
>>to  be differentiated still by people well under 70.
>>
>>H.H.Underwood
>>
>>
>
>

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