An ERP study on the perception of Korean stop sounds /t/, /t’/, and /th/

Abstract

This study investigated the sound change of aspirated stops in Korea by comparing neural and behavioral responses between younger and older generations of Korean speakers. Neural sensitivities were examined using event-related potentials (ERPs) in four conditions: /t/ vs. /th/, /t/ vs. /t’/, /th/ vs. /t/, and /t’/ vs. /t/. In addition, accuracies and reaction times in an AX discrimination task were measured. A total of 40 Korean native speakers participated in the study: 20 in the younger generation group in their 20 s and 20 in the older generation group in their 50 s. The results were as follows: (i) in the behavioral task, both the younger and the older generations did well at distinguishing aspirated stops from lax stops with high accuracy rates over 90% and similar reaction times, (ii) while the ERP results showed generational differences; mismatch negativity (MMN) was elicited for the aspirated and lax stops distinction only for the older generation, but not for the younger generation. Such group differences were not found for the tense and lax stop distinctions. The findings of this study provide neurophysiological evidence for the ongoing sound change of aspirated stops in Korea. © 2021