Word-prosodic structure of typologically diverse languages through the prism of contact linguistics

Uyutova Evgenia V.

The article discusses the problem of word prosody classification in typologically diverse languages. The author suggests that the results of the study on the interference phenomena in Korean English speech can be used for the typological analysis of Korean word prosody. The specifics of Korean word prosodic structure becomes more obviously highlighted in Korean English accented speech. In particular, the prosodic structure of an English word is replaced in Korean variant by unclear, indefinite “native-Korean” type of prosody. The results of the study make doubtful the fact of existence of Korean word stress in terms of traditional Indo-European phonology (as an opposition of accented and unaccented syllables).

Keywords:language contacts theory, typological classification, English, East-Asian English varieties, interference, word prosody, word stress, tonal languages, lack of stress, vowel harmony, intensity, pitch.