The Korean language, known for its unique phonetic system, comprises 19 distinct consonant phonemes that exhibit a rich variety of articulatory features. Unlike many languages, Korean consonants are categorized into three main types: plain, tense, and aspirated, each contributing to the language's distinctive soundscape. Also, Korean phonology is characterized by a complex system of classification and pronunciation rules that play a crucial role in the language's phonetic and phonological structure.
For each plosive and affricate, there is a three-way contrast between unvoiced segments, which are distinguished as plain, tense, and aspirated.
The "plain" segments, sometimes referred to as "lax" or "lenis", are considered to be the more "basic" or unmarked members of the Korean obstruent series. The "plain" segments are also distinguished from the tense and aspirated phonemes by changes in vowel quality, including a relatively lower pitch of the following vowel.[2]
The "tense" segments, also referred to as "fortis", "hard", or "glottalized", have eluded precise description and have been the subject of considerable phonetic investigation. In the Korean alphabet as well as all widely used romanization systems for Korean, they are represented as doubled plain segments: ㅃpp, ㄸtt, ㅉjj, ㄲkk. As it was suggested from the Middle Korean spelling, the tense consonants came from the initial consonant clusters sC-, pC-, psC-.[3][4]:29,38,452
The "aspirated" segments are characterized by aspiration, a burst of air accompanied by the delayed onset of voicing.
Korean syllable structure is maximally CGVC, where G is a glide /j,w,ɰ/. (There is a unique off-glide diphthong in the character 의 that combines the sounds [ɯ] and [i] creating [ɰ]).[5] Any consonant except /ŋ/ may occur initially, but only /p,t,k,m,n,ŋ,l/ may occur finally. Sequences of two consonants may occur between vowels.
/p,t,tɕ,k/ are voiced [b,d,dʑ,ɡ] between sonorants (including all vowels and certain consonants) but voiceless elsewhere. Among younger generations, they may be just as aspirated as /pʰ,tʰ,tɕʰ,kʰ/ in initial position; the primary difference is that vowels following the plain consonants carry low tone.[6][7]
Aspirated
/pʰ,tʰ,tɕʰ,kʰ/ are strongly aspirated, more so than English voiceless stops. They generally do not undergo intervocalic voicing, but a 2020 study reports that it still occurs in around 10 to 15% of cases. It is more prevalent among older male speakers who have aspirated stops voiced in as much as 28% of cases.[8]
Tense
The IPA diacritic ⟨◌͈⟩, resembling a subscript double straight quotation mark, shown here with a placeholder circle, is used to denote the tensed consonants /p͈/,/t͈/,/k͈/,/t͈ɕ/,/s͈/. Its official use in the Extensions to the IPA is for strong articulation, but is used in literature in the context of Korean phonology for faucalized voice.[citation needed] The Korean consonants also have elements of stiff voice, but it is not yet[when?] known how typical that is of faucalized consonants. Sometimes the tense consonants are marked with an apostrophe, ⟨ʼ⟩, but that is not IPA usage; in the IPA, the apostrophe indicates ejective consonants. Some works use full-size ʔ or small ˀ before tensed consonants; this notation is generally used to denote pre-glottalization. An asterisk * after a tensed consonant is also used in literature.[9]
They are produced with a partially constricted glottis and additional subglottal pressure in addition to tense vocal tract walls, laryngeal lowering, or other expansion of the larynx. An alternative analysis[10] proposes that the "tensed" series of sounds are (fundamentally) regular voiceless, unaspirated consonants: the "lax" sounds are voiced consonants that become devoiced initially, and the primary distinguishing feature between word-initial "lax" and "tensed" consonants is that initial lax sounds cause the following vowel to assume a low-to-high pitch contour, a feature reportedly associated with voiced consonants in many Asian languages (such as Shanghainese), whereas tensed (and also aspirated) consonants are associated with a uniformly high pitch.
Vowels before tense consonants (as well as aspirated) tend to be shorter than before lax stops.[9]
The Gyeongsang dialect is known for realization of tense ㅆss as plain ㅅs.
Fricatives
ㅎh does not occur in final position,[lower-alpha 1] though the sound /h/ does occur at the end of non-final syllables, where it affects the following consonant. (See below.) Intervocalically, it is realized as voiced [ɦ], and after voiced consonants it is either [ɦ] or silent.[9]
The analysis of /s/ as phonologically plain or aspirated has been a source of controversy in the literature.[11][2] Similarly to plain stops, it shows moderate aspiration word-initially but no aspiration word-medially.[2][9] It also often undergoes intervocalic voicing.[2] But similar to aspirated stops, it triggers high pitch in the following vowel.
Word-initial aspiration, intervocalic voicing, and higher pitch of the following vowels are shared qualities in Korean fricatives /s/ and /h/.
Sonorants
Sonorants resemble vowels in the sense that plain stops become voiced between a sonorant or a vowel and another vowel.
ㅇng does not occur in initial position, reflected in the way the Hangul jamoㅇ has a different pronunciation in the initial position to the final position. These were distinguished when Hangul was created, with the jamoㆁ with the upper dot and the jamoㅇ without the upper dot; these were then conflated and merged in both the North Korean and South Korean standards. /ŋ/ can technically occur syllable-initially, as in 명이, which is written as /mjʌŋ.i/, but pronounced as /mjʌ.ŋi/.
ㄹ/l/ is an alveolar flap [ɾ] between vowels or between a vowel and an /h/. It is [l] or [ɭ] at the end of a word, before a consonant other than /h/, or next to another /l/; in these contexts, it is palatalized to [ʎ] before /i,j/ and before palatal consonant allophones.[13] There is free variation at the beginning of a word, where this phoneme tends to become [n] before most vowels and silent before /i,j/, but it is commonly [ɾ] in English loanwords. Geminate /ll/ is realized as [ll]/[ɭɭ], or as [ʎʎ] before /i,j/.[14][15]
In native Korean words, ㄹr does not occur word initially, unlike in Chinese loans (Sino-Korean vocabulary).[12] In South Korea, it is silent in initial position before /i/ and /j/, pronounced [n] before other vowels, and pronounced [ɾ] only in compound words after a vowel. The prohibition on word-initial r is called the "initial sound law" or dueum beopchik (두음법칙). Initial r is officially spelled with ㄹ in North Korea, but is often pronounced the same way as it is in South Korea.
"labour" (勞動) – North Korea: rodong (로동), South Korea: nodong (노동)
"history" (歷史) – North Korea: ryŏksa (력사), South Korea: yeoksa (역사)
This rule also extends to ㄴn in many native and all Sino-Korean words, which is also lost before initial /i/ and /j/ in South Korean; again, North Korean preserves the [n] phoneme there.
"female" (女子) – North Korea: nyŏja (녀자), South Korea: yeoja (여자)
In both countries, initial r in words of foreign origin other than Chinese is pronounced [ɾ]. Very old speakers may pronounce word-initial r as [n] even in Western loanwords, e.g. in "lighter" 라이터[naitʰɔː].
When pronounced as an alveolar flap [ɾ], ㄹ is sometimes allophonic with [d], which generally does not occur elsewhere.[clarification needed]
The features of consonants are summarized in the following table.
Morphemes may also end in CC clusters, which are both expressed only when they are followed by a vowel. When the morpheme is not suffixed, one of the consonants is not expressed; if there is a /h/, which cannot appear in final position, it will be that. Otherwise it will be a coronal consonant (with the exception of /lb/, sometimes), and if the sequence is two coronals, the voiceless one (/s,tʰ,tɕ/) will drop, and /n/ or /l/ will remain. /lb/ either reduces to [l] (as in 짧다 [t͡ɕ͈alt͈a] "to be short"[17]) or to [p̚] (as in 밟다 [paːp̚t͈a] "to step"[18]); 여덟 [jʌdʌl] "eight" is always pronounced 여덜 even when followed by a vowel-initial particle.[19] Thus, no sequence reduces to [p̚] in final position.
Sequence
ㄳ gs
ㄺ lg
ㄵ nj
ㄶ nh
ㄽ ls
ㄾ lt
ㅀ lh
ㄼ lb
ㅄ bs
ㄿ lp
ㄻ lm
Medial allophone
[k̚s͈]
[lɡ]
[ndʑ]
[n(ɦ)]
[ls͈]
[ltʰ]
[l(ɦ)]
[lb]
[p̚s͈]
[lpʰ]
[lm]
Final allophone
[k̚]
[n]
[l]
[p̚]
[m]
When such a sequence is followed by a consonant, the same reduction takes place, but a trace of the lost consonant may remain in its effect on the following consonant. The effects are the same as in a sequence between vowels: an elided obstruent will leave the third consonant fortis, if it is a stop, and an elided ⫽h⫽ will leave it aspirated. Most conceivable combinations do not actually occur;[lower-alpha 2] a few examples are ⫽lh-tɕ⫽ = [ltɕʰ], ⫽nh-t⫽ = [ntʰ], ⫽nh-s⫽ = [ns͈], ⫽ltʰ-t⫽ = [lt͈], ⫽ps-k⫽ = [p̚k͈], ⫽ps-tɕ⫽ = [p̚t͈ɕ]; also ⫽ps-n⫽ = [mn], as /s/ has no effect on a following /n/, and ⫽ks-h⫽ = [kʰ], with the /s/ dropping out.
When the second and third consonants are homorganic obstruents, they merge, becoming fortis or aspirate, and, depending on the word and a preceding ⫽l⫽, might not elide: ⫽lk-k⫽ is [lk͈].
Korean consonants have three principal positional allophones: initial, medial (voiced), and final (checked). The initial form is found at the beginning of phonological words. The medial form is found in voiced environments, intervocalically (immediately between vowels), and after a voiced consonant such as n or l. The final form is found in checked environments such as at the end of a phonological word or before an obstruent consonant such as t or k. Nasal consonants (m, n, ng) do not have noticeable positional allophones beyond initial denasalization, and ng cannot appear in this position.
The table below is out of alphabetical order to make the relationships between the consonants explicit:
Phoneme
ㄱ g
ㅋ k
ㄲ kk
ㅇ ng
ㄷ d
ㅌ t
ㅅ s
ㅆ ss
ㅈ j
ㅊ ch
ㄸ tt
ㅉ jj
ㄴ n
ㄹ r
ㅂ b
ㅍ p
ㅃ pp
ㅁ m
ㅎ h
Initial allophone
k~kʰ
kʰ
k͈
n/a
t~tʰ
tʰ
s~sʰ
s͈
tɕ~tɕʰ
tɕʰ
t͈
t͈ɕ
n~n͊
ɾ~l~n~n͊
p~pʰ
pʰ
p͈
m~m͊
h
Medial allophone
ɡ
ŋ
d
dʑ
n
ɾ
b
m
h~ɦ~n/a
Final allophone
k̚
t̚
n/a
l
p̚
n/a
n/a
All obstruents (stops, affricates, fricatives) become stops with no audible release at the end of a word: all coronals collapse to [t̚], all labials to [p̚], and all velars to [k̚].[lower-alpha 3] Final ㄹr is a lateral[l] or [ɭ].
ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅉ are pronounced [tɕ~dʑ,tɕʰ,t͈ɕ] in Seoul, but typically pronounced [ts~dz,tsʰ,t͈s] in Pyongyang.[20] Similarly, /s,s͈/ are palatalized as [ɕ,ɕ͈] before /i,j/ in Seoul. In Pyongyang they remain unchanged.[citation needed] This pronunciation may be also found in Seoul Korean among some speakers, especially before back vowels.
As noted above, initial ⫽l⫽ is silent in this palatalizing environment, at least in South Korea. Similarly, an underlying ⫽t⫽ or ⫽tʰ⫽ at the end of a morpheme becomes a phonemically palatalized affricate /dʑ/ or /tɕʰ/, respectively, when followed by a word or suffix beginning with /i/ or /j/ (it becomes indistinguishable from an underlying ⫽tɕʰ⫽), but that does not happen within native Korean words such as /ʌti/[ʌdi] "where?".
/kʰ/ is more affected by vowels, often becoming an affricate when followed by /i/ or /ɯ/: [cçi], [kxɯ]. The most variable consonant is /h/, which becomes a palatal[ç] before /i/ or /j/, a velar[x] before /ɯ/, and a bilabial[ɸʷ] before /o/, /u/ and /w/.[9]
Allophones of consonants before vowels
/i,j/
/ɯ/
/o,u,w/
/a,ʌ,ɛ,e/
ㅅ /s/
[ɕ]
[s]
ㅆ /s͈/
[ɕ͈]
[s͈]
ㄷ /t/+ suffix
[dʑ]-
[d]-
ㅌ /tʰ/+ suffix
[tɕʰ]-
[tʰ]-
ㅋ /kʰ/
[cç]
[kx]
[kʰ]
ㅎ /h/word-initially
[ç]
[x]
[ɸʷ]
[h]
ㅎ /h/intervocalically
[ʝ]
[ɣ]
[βʷ]
[ɦ]
In many morphological processes, a vowel /i/ before another vowel may become the semivowel /j/. Likewise, /u/ and /o/, before another vowel, may reduce to /w/. In some dialects and speech registers, the semivowel /w/ assimilates into a following /e/ or /i/ and produces the front rounded vowels [ø] and [y].
Consonant assimilation
As noted above, tenuis stops and /h/ are voiced after the voiced consonants /m,n,ŋ,l/, and the resulting voiced [ɦ] tends to be elided. Tenuis stops become fortis after obstruents (which, as noted above, are reduced to [k̚,t̚,p̚]); that is, /kt/ is pronounced [k̚t͈]. On the other hand, fortis and nasal stops are unaffected by either environment, though /n/ assimilates to /l/ after an /l/. After /h/, tenuis stops become aspirated, /s/ becomes fortis, and /n/ is unaffected.[lower-alpha 4] . Additionally, /l/ undergoes significant changes: it becomes [n] after all consonants except /n/ (which assimilates to /l/) or another /l/. For example, the word ⫽tɕoŋlo⫽ (종로) is pronounced /tɕoŋno/ (종노).[21]
Korean also features regressive (anticipatory) assimilation, where a consonant tends to assimilates in manner but not in place of articulation. For example, Obstruents become nasal stops before nasal stops (which, as just noted, includes underlying ⫽l⫽), but do not change their position in the mouth. Velar stops (that is, all consonants pronounced [k̚] in final position) become [ŋ]; coronals ([t̚]) become [n], and labials ([p̚]) become [m]. For example, ⫽hankukmal⫽ (한국말) is pronounced /hankuŋmal/ (한궁말) (phonetically [hanɡuŋmal]).[21]
Before the fricatives /s,s͈/, coronal obstruents assimilate to a fricative, resulting in a geminate. That is, ⫽tʰs⫽ is pronounced /ss͈/ ([s͈ː]). A final /h/ assimilates in both place and manner, so that ⫽hC⫽ is pronounced as a geminate (and, as noted above, aspirated if C is a stop). The two coronal sonorants, /n/ and /l/, in whichever order, assimilate to /l/, so that both ⫽nl⫽ and ⫽ln⫽ are pronounced [lː].[21]
There are lexical exceptions to these generalizations. For example, voiced consonants occasionally cause a following consonant to become fortis rather than voiced; this is especially common with ⫽ls⫽ and ⫽ltɕ⫽ as [ls͈] and [lt͈ɕ], but is also occasionally seen with other sequences, such as ⫽kjʌ.ulpaŋhak⫽ ([kjʌulp͈aŋak̚]), ⫽tɕʰamtoŋan⫽ ([tɕʰamt͈oŋan]) and ⫽wejaŋkanɯlo⫽ ([wejaŋk͈anɯɾo]).[21]
Incorrect application of these phonological rules, such as improper nasalization or assimilation, can significantly impair intelligibility for native speakers. This highlights the need for comprehensive instruction in these rules to ensure clear and effective communication. For instance, failing to apply nasalization rules correctly or not recognizing assimilation patterns can lead to pronunciations that are difficult for native speakers to understand, underscoring the importance of precise phonological training.[22][23]
Phonetic realization (before /a/) of underlying consonant sequences in Korean
2nd C
1st C
coda
ㄱ g-
ㄲ kk-
ㄷ d-
ㄸ tt-
ㄴ n-
ㄹ r-
ㅁ m-
ㅂ b-
ㅃ pp-
ㅅ s-
ㅆ ss-
ㅈ j-
ㅉ jj-
ㅊ ch-
ㅋ k-
ㅌ t-
ㅍ p-
ㅎ h-
ㅎ-h
n/a
k̚.kʰ
n/a
t̚.tʰ
n/a
n.n
n/a
p̚.pʰ
n/a
s.s͈
n/a
t̚.tɕʰ
n/a
velar stops1-k
k̚
k̚.k͈
k̚.t͈
ŋ.n
ŋ.m
k̚.p͈
k.s͈
k̚.t͈ɕ
k̚.tɕʰ
k̚.kʰ
k̚.tʰ
k̚.pʰ
.kʰ
ㅇ-ng
ŋ
ŋ.ɡ
ŋ.k͈
ŋ.d
ŋ.t͈
ŋ.b
ŋ.p͈
ŋ.sː
ŋ.s͈
ŋ.dʑ
ŋ.t͈ɕ
ŋ.tɕʰ
ŋ.kʰ
ŋ.tʰ
ŋ.pʰ
ŋ.ɦ~.ŋ
coronal stops2-t
t̚
t̚.k͈
t̚.t͈
n.n
n.m
t̚.p͈
s.s͈
t̚.t͈ɕ
t̚.tɕʰ
t̚.kʰ
t̚.tʰ
t̚.pʰ
.tʰ
ㄴ-n
n
n.ɡ
n.k͈
n.d
n.t͈
n.n
l.l
n.b
n.p͈
n.sː
n.s͈
n.dʑ
n.t͈ɕ
n.tɕʰ
n.kʰ
n.tʰ
n.pʰ
n.ɦ~.n
ㄹ-l
l
l.ɡ
l.k͈
l.d
l.t͈
l.l
l.m
l.b
l.p͈
l.sː
l.s͈
l.dʑ
l.t͈ɕ
l.tɕʰ
l.kʰ
l.tʰ
l.pʰ
l.ɦ~.ɾ
labial stops3-p
p̚
p̚.k͈
p̚.t͈
m.n
m.m
p̚.p͈
p.s͈
p̚.t͈ɕ
p̚.tɕʰ
p̚.kʰ
p̚.tʰ
p̚.pʰ
.pʰ
ㅁ-m
m
m.ɡ
m.k͈
m.d
m.t͈
m.b
m.p͈
m.sː
m.s͈
m.dʑ
m.t͈ɕ
m.tɕʰ
m.kʰ
m.tʰ
m.pʰ
m.ɦ~.m
Velar obstruents found in final position: ㄱg, ㄲkk, ㅋk
Final coronal obstruents: ㄷd, ㅌt, ㅅs, ㅆss, ㅈj, ㅊch
Final labial obstruents: ㅂb, ㅍp
The resulting geminate obstruents, such as [k̚k͈], [ss͈], [p̚pʰ], and [t̚tɕʰ] (that is, [k͈ː], [s͈ː], [pʰː], and [tːɕʰ]), tend to reduce ([k͈], [s͈], [pʰ], [tɕʰ]) in rapid conversation. Heterorganic obstruent sequences such as [k̚p͈] and [t̚kʰ] may, less frequently, assimilate to geminates ([p͈ː], [kːʰ]) and also reduce to ([p͈], [kʰ]).
These sequences assimilate with following vowels the way single consonants do, so that for example ⫽ts⫽ and ⫽hs⫽ palatalize to [ɕɕ͈] (that is, [ɕ͈ː]) before /i/ and /j/; ⫽hk⫽ and ⫽lkʰ⫽ affricate to [kx] and [lkx] before /ɯ/; ⫽ht⫽, ⫽s͈h⫽, and ⫽th⫽ palatalize to [t̚tɕʰ] and [tɕʰ] across morpheme boundaries, and so on.
Hangul orthography does not generally reflect these assimilatory processes, but rather maintains the underlying morphology in most cases.
Vowels
This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: The vowel charts are outdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(February 2017)
The vowel phonemes of Korean on a vowel chart, from (Lee, 1999).[14] The bottom chart represents long vowels.
Most Standard Korean speakers have seven vowel phonemes.
The distinction between /e/ and /ɛ/ is lost in South Korean dialects—both are most commonly realized as [e̞], but some older speakers still retain the difference; as for North Korean, some works report the distinction to be robust. However, the data from one study suggests that while younger KCTV anchors try to produce them more or less distinctly, it is not clear whether that is learned or natural pronunciation, as they do so inconsistently. Notably, older anchor Ri Chun-hee and even Kim Jong-un both have /e/ and /ɛ/ merged.[24][25][26][4]:4–6
In Seoul Korean, /o/ is produced higher than /ʌ/, while in North Korean dialects the two are comparable in height, and /ʌ/ is more fronted. In Gyeongsang dialect, /ɯ/ and /ʌ/ once have merged into [ə] in speech of older speakers, but they are distinct among young and middle-aged Daegu residents (they actually have the same vowels as Seoulites due to influence from Standard Korean).[26][9][24]
In Seoul, /u/ is fronted, while /o/ is raised, and both are almost the same height, though /o/ is still more rounded. Due to this, alternative transcriptions like [u̹] or [u̠] for /o/, and [u̜] or [u̟] for /u/ are proposed.[24] In both varieties, /ɯ/ is fronted away from /u/, and in North Korean it is also lower, shifting more towards [ɘ].[26][9][24]
Korean used to have two additional phonemes, [ø]ㅚ and [y]ㅟ, but they are replaced by the diphthongs [we] and [ɥi] by the majority of speakers.[9][24]
Middle Korean had an additional vowel phoneme denoted by ᆞ, known as arae-a (literally "lower a"). The vowel merged with /a/ in all mainland varieties of Korean, but remains distinct in Jeju where it is pronounced [ɒ].
Diphthongs and glides
Because they may follow consonants in initial position in a word—which no other consonant can do—and also because of Hangul orthography, which transcribes them as vowels, semivowels such as /j/ and /w/ are sometimes considered to be elements of rising diphthongs rather than separate consonant phonemes.
In modern pronunciation, /ɰi/ merges into /i/ after a consonant.[citation needed] Some analyses treat /ɯ/ as a central vowel and thus the marginal sequence /ɰi/ as having a central-vowel onset, which would be more accurately transcribed [ȷ̈i] or [ɨ̯i].[27]:12
Modern Korean has no falling diphthongs, with sequences like /a.i/ being considered as two separate vowels in hiatus. Middle Korean had a full set of diphthongs ending in /j/, but these monophthongized into modern-day front vowels in Early Modern Korean (/aj/>/ɛ/, /əj/[ej]>/e/, /oj/>/ø/, /uj/>/y/, /ɯj/>/ɰi~i/).[27]:12 This is the reason why the hangul letters ㅐ, ㅔ, ㅚ etc. are represented as back vowels plus i.
The sequences /*jø,*jy,*jɯ,*ji;*wø,*wy,*wo,*wɯ,*wu/ do not occur, and it is not possible to write them using standard hangul.[lower-alpha 5] The semivowel [ɰ] occurs only in the diphthong /ɰi/, and is prone to being deleted after a consonant.
Loss of vowel length contrast
Korean used to have a length distinction for each vowel, but this is now reported to be almost completely neutralized (though it is still prescriptive).[28] Long vowels were pronounced somewhat more peripherally than short ones. As an exception, for most of the speakers who still utilize vowel length contrastively, long /ʌː/ is actually [ɘː].[14]
Vowel length is a remnant of rising tone, first emerging in Middle Korean. It was preserved only in initial syllables and was often neutralized, particularly in the following cases:[29]
In compound words:
사람[sʰa̠ːɾa̠m] "man", but
눈사람[nuːns͈a̠ɾa̠m] "snowman";
벌리다[pɘːʎʎida̠] "to open, to spread", but
떠벌리다[t͈ʌ̹bʌ̹ʎʎida̠] "to brag".
In most monosyllabic verbs when attaching a suffix starting with a vowel
굶다[kuːmt͈a̠] "to starve", but
굶어[kulmʌ̹];
넣다[nɘːtʰa̠] "to put", but
넣으니[nʌ̹ɯni],
or a suffix changing transitivity
붇다[puːt̚t͈a̠] "to swell up", but
불리다[puʎʎida̠] "to soak";
꼬다[k͈o̞ːda̠] "to twist", but
꼬이다[k͈o̞ida̠] "to be entangled".
There were exceptions though:
얻다[ɘːt̚t͈a̠] "to obtain" still had long vowels in
얻어[ɘːdʌ̹];
없다[ɘːp̚t͈a̠] "to not be" still had long vowels in
없으니[ɘːp̚s͈ɯni].
It has disappeared gradually among younger speakers, but some middle-aged speakers are still aware of it and can still produce it in conscious speech. The long–short merger has had two main aspects. The first is phonetic: The duration of long vowels in relation to short ones has reduced by a lot (from 2.5:1 in the 1960s to 1.5:1 in the 2000s). Some studies suggest that the length of all vowels is dependent on one's age (older speakers seem to exhibit a slower speech rate, and even their short vowels are produced relatively longer than those of younger speakers). The second aspect is lexical: The subset of words produced with long vowels has gotten smaller. Long vowels tend to be reduced most frequently in high-frequency words.[29]
Traditionally, the Korean language has had strong vowel harmony; that is, in pre-modern Korean, not only did the inflectional and derivational affixes (such as postpositions) change in accordance to the main root vowel, but native words also adhered to vowel harmony. It is not universally prevalent in modern usage, but it remains in onomatopoeia, adjectives and adverbs, interjections, and conjugation. There are also other traces of vowel harmony in Korean.
There are three classes of vowels in Korean: "positive", "negative", and "neutral". The vowel ㅡ (eu) is considered both partially neutral and partially negative. The vowel classes loosely follow the negative and positive vowels; they also follow orthography. Exchanging positive vowels with negative vowels usually creates different nuances of meaning, with positive vowels representing diminutives and negative vowels representing exaggeration:
Onomatopoeia:
퐁당퐁당 (pongdang-pongdang) and 풍덩풍덩 (pungdeong-pungdeong), light and heavy water splashing
Emphasized adjectives:
노랗다 (norata) means plain yellow, while its negative, 누렇다 (nureota), means dark yellow
파랗다 (parata) means plain blue, while its negative, 퍼렇다 (peoreota), means deep blue
Particles at the end of verbs:
잡다 (japda) (to catch) → 잡았다 (jabatda) (caught)
접다 (jeopda) (to fold) → 접었다 (jeobeotda) (folded)
Interjections:
아이고 (aigo) and 어이구 (eoigu) expressing surprise, discomfort or sympathy
아하 (aha) and 어허 (eoheo) expressing sudden realization and mild objection, respectively
Accent and pitch
In modern Standard Korean, in multisyllabic words the second syllable has high pitch that gradually comes down in subsequent syllables. The first syllable may have pitch as high as the second if it starts with a tense ㅃ, ㅉ, ㄸ, ㄲ, ㅆ/p͈,t͈ɕ,t͈,k͈,s͈/ or an aspirated ㅍ, ㅊ, ㅌ, ㅋ/pʰ,tɕʰ,tʰ,kʰ/ consonant, as well as ㅅ, ㅎ/sʰ,h/, or lower rising pitch if it starts with plain ㅂ, ㅈ, ㄷ, ㄱ/p,tɕ,t,k/ or a sonorant ㅁ, ㄴ, ㄹ/m,n,r/, including silent ㅇ, i.e. a vowel.[10]
As early as 2004, researchers have posited that pitch and voicing are the actual distinguishing features between modern Korean consonants rather than the standard but seemingly ill-defined "tense" vs "lax" theory.[10] A 2013 study by Kang Yoon-jung and Han Sung-woo which compared voice recordings of Seoul speech from 1935 and 2005 found that in recent years, lenis consonants (ㅂㅈㄷㄱ), aspirated consonants (ㅍㅊㅌㅋ) and fortis consonants (ㅃㅉㄸㄲ) were shifting from a distinction via voice onset time to that of pitch change, and suggests that the modern Seoul dialect is currently undergoing tonogenesis.[30] Kim Mi-Ryoung (2013) notes that these sound shifts still show variations among different speakers, suggesting that the transition is still ongoing.[31] Cho Sung-hye (2017) examined 141 Seoul dialect speakers, and concluded that these pitch changes were originally initiated by females born in the 1950s, and has almost reached completion in the speech of those born in the 1990s.[32] On the other hand, Choi Ji-youn et al. (2020) disagree with the suggestion that the consonant distinction shifting away from voice onset time is due to the introduction of tonal features, and instead proposes that it is a prosodically conditioned change.[8]
Dialectal pitch accents
Several dialects outside Seoul retain the Middle Korean pitch accent system. In the dialect of Northern Gyeongsang, in southeastern South Korea, any syllable may have pitch accent in the form of a high tone, as may the two initial syllables. For example, in trisyllabic words, there are four possible tone patterns:[33]
메누리ménuri[mé.nu.ɾi] 'daughter-in-law'
어무이eomú-i[ʌ.mú.i] 'mother'
원어민woneomín[wʌ.nʌ.mín] 'native speaker'
오래비órébi[ó.ɾé.bi] 'elder brother'
Age differences
The following changes have been observed since the mid-20th century and by now are widespread, at least in South Korea.
Contrastive vowel length has disappeared. Although still prescriptive, in 2012, the vowel length is reported to be almost completely neutralized in Korean, except for a very few older speakers of the Seoul dialect,[28] for whom the distinctive vowel length distinction is maintained only in the first syllable of a word.[34] Even amongst those middle-aged speakers who retain the distinction, the phonetic contrast between a long vowel and a short vowel has shrunk to 1.5:1, compared to 2.5:1 recorded in the 1960s;[29] additionally, the number of lexical items featuring long vowels has also reduced, with low-frequency words being more likely to retain long vowels than high-frequency ones.[29] Vowel length has subsequently become a prosodic feature of the language, used mainly for emphasis, and placed typically on the first syllable of the word.[28]
The mid front rounded vowel ([ø]ㅚ) and the close front rounded vowel ([y]ㅟ),[27]:6 can still be heard in the speech of some older speakers, but they have been largely replaced by the diphthongs [we] and [ɥi], respectively.[4]:4–6 In a 2003 survey of 350 speakers from Seoul, nearly 90% pronounced the vowel ㅟ as [ɥi].[34]
The distinction between /e/ and /ɛ/ is lost in South Korean dialects. A number of homophones have appeared due to this change, and speakers may employ different strategies to distinguish them. For example, 내가/nɛ-ɡa/ "I-subject" and 네가/ne-ɡa/ "you-subject" are now pronounced as [ne̞ɡɐ] and [niɡɐ] respectively, with the latter having changed its vowel; 새 잔/sɛtɕan/ "new glass" is pronounced with tensified [s͈] by some young speakers to not be conflated with 세 잔/setɕan/ "three glasses".
Some changes are still ongoing. They depend on age and gender, the speech of young females tends to be most innovative, while old males are phonologically conservative.
Plain stops in word-initial position are becoming as aspirated as "true" aspirated stops. They are still distinguished by their pitch,[6] which indicates ongoing tonogenesis in Contemporary Seoul Korean.[30][31][32] This is however contested by studies which explain this as a prosodic feature.[8]
Some words experience tensification of initial plain consonants, in both native and Sino-Korean words. It is proscribed in normative Standard Korean, but may be widespread or occur in free variation in certain words.[35] Examples:
가시/kasi/ "1) thorn; 2) worm" is pronounced 까시/k͈asi/
닦다/tak̚t͈a/ "to polish" is pronounced 딲다/t͈ak̚t͈a/
조금/tɕoɡɯm/ "a little" is pronounced 쪼금/t͈ɕoɡɯm/, 쬐끔/t͈ɕʷek͈ɯm/
Tensification is very common in Western loanwords: 배지[p͈e̞t͈ɕi] "badge", 버스[p͈ʌ̹s͈ɯ] "bus", 잼[t͈ɕe̞m] "jam", although also proscribed in South Korea.
Notes
↑ Orthographically, it is found at the end of the name of the letter ㅎ, 히읗hieut.
↑ For example, morpheme-final ⫽lp⫽ occurs only in verb roots such as 밟balb and is followed by only the consonants d, j, g, n.
↑ The only fortis consonants to occur finally are ㄲkk and ㅆss.
↑ Other consonants do not occur after /h/, which is uncommon in morpheme-final position.
↑ While 워 is romanized as wo, it does not represent [wo], but rather [wʌ].
1 2 Heavy-bordered boxes indicate vowels which are now pronounced the same for most speakers.
1 2 Shaded cells indicate vowels that can be pronounced either as monophthongs or glide-vowel sequences.
Related Research Articles
In phonology, an allophone is one of multiple possible spoken sounds – or phones – used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plosive and the aspirated form are allophones for the phoneme, while these two are considered to be different phonemes in some languages such as Central Thai. Similarly, in Spanish, and are allophones for the phoneme, while these two are considered to be different phonemes in English.
In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of breath that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. In English, aspirated consonants are allophones in complementary distribution with their unaspirated counterparts, but in some other languages, notably most South Asian languages and East Asian languages, the difference is contrastive.
Non-native pronunciations of English result from the common linguistic phenomenon in which non-native speakers of any language tend to transfer the intonation, phonological processes and pronunciation rules of their first language into their English speech. They may also create innovative pronunciations not found in the speaker's native language.
The phonology of Standard German is the standard pronunciation or accent of the German language. It deals with current phonology and phonetics as well as with historical developments thereof as well as the geographical variants and the influence of German dialects.
Tinglish refers to any form of English mixed with or heavily influenced by Thai. It is typically produced by native Thai speakers due to language interference from the first language. Differences from standard native English occur in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. The term was coined in 1970, and several alternative terms have been proposed since its inception, such as Thainglish (1973), Thaiglish (1992), Tinglish (1994), Thinglish (1976), Thenglish (2003), and Tenglish (2012).
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds. Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless or voiced.
Irish phonology varies from dialect to dialect; there is no standard pronunciation of Irish. Therefore, this article focuses on phenomena shared by most or all dialects, and on the major differences among the dialects. Detailed discussion of the dialects can be found in the specific articles: Ulster Irish, Connacht Irish, and Munster Irish.
Osage is a Siouan language that is spoken by the Osage people of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Their original territory was in present-day Missouri and Kansas but they were gradually pushed west by European-American pressure and treaties.
English phonology is the system of speech sounds used in spoken English. Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar phonological system. Among other things, most dialects have vowel reduction in unstressed syllables and a complex set of phonological features that distinguish fortis and lenis consonants.
In linguistics, fortis and lenis, sometimes identified with 'tense' and 'lax', are pronunciations of consonants with relatively greater and lesser energy, respectively. English has fortis consonants, such as the p in pat, with a corresponding lenis consonant, such as the b in bat. Fortis and lenis consonants may be distinguished by tenseness or other characteristics, such as voicing, aspiration, glottalization, velarization, length, and length of nearby vowels. Fortis and lenis were coined for languages where the contrast between sounds such as 'p' and 'b' does not involve voicing.
In phonology, tenseness or tensing is, most broadly, the pronunciation of a sound with greater muscular effort or constriction than is typical. More specifically, tenseness is the pronunciation of a vowel with less centralization, longer duration, and narrower mouth width compared with another vowel. The opposite quality to tenseness is known as laxness or laxing: the pronunciation of a vowel with relatively more centralization, shorter duration, and more widening.
Japanese phonology is the system of sounds used in the pronunciation of the Japanese language. Unless otherwise noted, this article describes the standard variety of Japanese based on the Tokyo dialect.
The phonology of the Persian language varies between regional dialects, standard varieties, and even from older varieties of Persian. Persian is a pluricentric language and countries that have Persian as an official language have separate standard varieties, namely: Standard Dari (Afghanistan), Standard Iranian Persian (Iran) and Standard Tajik (Tajikistan). The most significant differences between standard varieties of Persian are their vowel systems. Standard varieties of Persian have anywhere from 6 to 8 vowel distinctions, and similar vowels may be pronounced differently between standards. However, there are not many notable differences when comparing consonants, as all standard varieties have a similar number of consonant sounds. Though, colloquial varieties generally have more differences than their standard counterparts. Most dialects feature contrastive stress and syllable-final consonant clusters. Linguists tend to focus on Iranian Persian, so this article may contain less adequate information regarding other varieties.
Wong Shik Ling published a scheme of phonetic symbols for Cantonese based on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in the book A Chinese Syllabary Pronounced According to the Dialect of Canton. The scheme has been widely used in Chinese dictionaries published in Hong Kong. The scheme, known as S. L. Wong system (黃錫凌式), is a broad phonemic transcription system based on IPA and its analysis of Cantonese phonemes is grounded in the theories of Y. R. Chao.
This article describes those aspects of the phonological history of English which concern consonants.
The phonology of the Ojibwe language varies from dialect to dialect, but all varieties share common features. Ojibwe is an indigenous language of the Algonquian language family spoken in Canada and the United States in the areas surrounding the Great Lakes, and westward onto the northern plains in both countries, as well as in northeastern Ontario and northwestern Quebec. The article on Ojibwe dialects discusses linguistic variation in more detail, and contains links to separate articles on each dialect. There is no standard language and no dialect that is accepted as representing a standard. Ojibwe words in this article are written in the practical orthography commonly known as the Double vowel system.
The phonology of Bengali, like that of its neighbouring Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, is characterised by a wide variety of diphthongs and inherent back vowels.
This article is about the sound system of the Navajo language. The phonology of Navajo is intimately connected to its morphology. For example, the entire range of contrastive consonants is found only at the beginning of word stems. In stem-final position and in prefixes, the number of contrasts is drastically reduced. Similarly, vowel contrasts found outside of the stem are significantly neutralized. For details about the morphology of Navajo, see Navajo grammar.
In phonology, voicing is a sound change where a voiceless consonant becomes voiced due to the influence of its phonological environment; shift in the opposite direction is referred to as devoicing or surdization. Most commonly, the change is a result of sound assimilation with an adjacent sound of opposite voicing, but it can also occur word-finally or in contact with a specific vowel.
The phonology of Standard Chinese has historically derived from the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. However, pronunciation varies widely among speakers, who may introduce elements of their local varieties. Television and radio announcers are chosen for their ability to affect a standard accent. Elements of the sound system include not only the segments—e.g. vowels and consonants—of the language, but also the tones applied to each syllable. In addition to its four main tones, Standard Chinese has a neutral tone that appears on weak syllables.
1 2 Kim, Mi-Ryoung; Beddor, Patrice Speeter; Horrocks, Julie (2002). "The contribution of consonantal and vocalic information to the perception of Korean initial stops". Journal of Phonetics. 30 (1): 77–100. doi:10.1006/jpho.2001.0152.
1 2 Kang, Yoonjung; Han, Sungwoo (September 2013). "Tonogenesis in early Contemporary Seoul Korean: A longitudinal case study". Lingua. 134: 62–74. doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2013.06.002.
1 2 Kim, Mi-Ryoung (2013). "Tonogenesis in contemporary Korean with special reference to the onset-tone interaction and the loss of a consonant opposition". The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 133 (3570): 3570. Bibcode:2013ASAJ..133.3570K. doi:10.1121/1.4806535.
↑ 張, 笑韻 (February 2017). Hyeondae hangug-eoui eodu gyeong-eumhwa yeongu현대 한국어의 어두 경음화 연구[A study on word-initial consonants in modern Korean] (master's thesis). Seoul National University Graduate School. hdl:10371/132177.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
