The objective of this study was the acoustic analysis of vocalizations of domestic dogs when they want to play with humans. Using a digital camcorder and microphone, we recorded and acoustically analyzed the vocalizations of six 7-month-old dogs (beagle) when they wanted to play with humans. The vocalizations were classified into five types, namely, barking (type Ⅰ, type Ⅱ), whining (type Ⅰ, type Ⅱ), and howling, based on the shapes of waveforms and spectrograms. There was a significant difference in the fundamental frequency (p<0.01), intensity (p<0.0001), 1st formant (p<0.001), 2nd formant (p<0.0001), 3rd formant (p<0.001), and 4th formant (p<0.05) among the vocalizations, whereas the duration was not different (p<0.05). Whining type I showed high values in the fundamental frequency and 3rd formant, while whining type II showed high values in the fundamental frequency and 1st, 2nd, and 4th formant. Further, bark types I and II showed high intensity values, with bark type II having a high value in the 1st formant. Finally, whining showed high values in the 4th formant only and significantly lower values in the 1st and 2nd formants than other vocalizations. Domestic dogs mainly exhibited barking and whining with differences in characteristics of fundamental frequency, intensity, and formant dispersion when they wanted to play with humans during the experiment. Accordingly, we suggest that vocalization could be a useful method for identifying dogs’ intentions or emotional state in a non-invasive manner.

In Korean, the onset constraints based on the sonority preference have the following hierarchy in the initial position of word : *ONS/RHO >> *ONS/LAT >> *ONS/NAS, and it offers a possible explanation for the prohibition on word-initial lateral. However, *med[ONS/NAS dominates *med[ONS/LAT (and *med[ONS/RHO) in the middle of word. Lateralization and nasalization in Korean are the phonological variation to equalize the sonority between the coda and its following onset according to *med[ONS/NAS >> *med[ONS/LAT without violating SYLLCON and IDENT-IO(cor/ant). However, this hierarchy cannot explain why both nasalization and lateralization are possible in case of /n.l/. To find out the reason, the phonetic experiment was conducted with the subjects who speak Daegue dialect, one of Kyeongsang dialect that is considered a pitch language. According to the precedent studies, neutralization does not occur at the strong position. In case of /n.l/, when subjects pronounce the syllable with /n/ using higher pitch than the following syllable with /l/, the syllable with /n/ becomes a phonetically strong position. Accordingly, /n/ can not be pronounced as /l/ by lateralization and instead, /l/ of the following syllable is pronounced as /n/ by nasalization. If subjects pronounce the syllable with /n/ and the following syllable with /l/ with the same pitch, lateralization occurs. The pronunciation of /n.l/ can be explained by phonetically strong position, not by constraints hierarchy.