This study investigates how native Korean speakers, who moved from Kyungsang province to Seoul, acquire /w/ retainment in Seoul Korean (SK). The specific objective is to examine how mobile speakers adopt the SK-like /w/ retainment and evaluate how linguistic and non-linguistic factors influence this acquisition. Furthermore, the study aims to establish whether having explicit awareness of the SK-like /w/ retainment is a prerequisite for acquiring it. The overall results suggest that most speakers have successfully adopted the SK-like /w/ retention, but there is noticeable diversity among speakers in terms of the extent to which they retain /w/. This variability can be linked to linguistic and non-linguistic factors, such as where /w/ appears in speech and individual attitudes towards SK. This research sheds light on the acquisition of /w/ retainment among native Korean speakers who have relocated from Kyungsang province to Seoul, highlighting the impact of linguistic and non-linguistic factors. It underscores the role of explicit awareness and reveals significant interspeaker variation in the adoption of SK-like /w/ retainment, contributing to our understanding of dialect acquisition dynamics.

1. INTRODUCTION
2. FACTORS AFFECTING SDA
3. METHODS
    3.1. Participants
    3.2. Tasks
    3.3. Acoustic and Statistical Analysis
4. RESULTS
5. DISCUSSION
6. CONCLUSION

• Yoojin Kang(Researcher, College of General Studies, Yeungnam University; 280 Daehak-Ro, Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk 38541, Korea)