Abstract

The World Englishes classify English-speaking countries into three circles based on their use of English. South Koreans whose country belongs to the Expanding Circle often experience phonological processes since English is not their primary foreign language. Despite this, English is widely used for communication, especially in entertainment. For example, BTS uses English in some of their songs to connect with fans globally. This research aimed to analyze phonological factors found in four BTS' English songs and determine their phonological factors by utilizing the content analysis method by Krippendorff. The findings revealed that there were 5 phonological processes in BTS' English songs, namely assimilation, dissimilation, deletion, coalescence, and metathesis. Among these processes, deletion was the most common process. Furthermore, the research identified that the absence of nearly all English fricatives, the absence of all English diphthongs, and consonant cluster restriction in Korean contributed to the phonological processes observed in BTS' English songs. Consequently, these findings indicate that the native language can affect phonological processes of the second language.

Keywords: BTS, English phonology, Korean phonology, phonological processes