Table Of ContentContents
Acknowledgments vii
PART I: Pronuncialion Guide
1 Learning to Pronounce Korean 3
I . The organization of this book 4
2. Pronunciation and spelling 6
2 Vowels 9
I. Simple vowels 9
2 . Diphthongs 14
3. Appendix: The mechanics of vowels 17
3 Consonants 21
1. JI., 1::1, & till 23
2. E, t:, & IT. 29
3. =7,"',& 11 35
4 . 5<., A, & 7if, 40
5. A. & M 45
6. iJ 50
7. [J,L,&O 52
8. 2 53
9. Appendix: The details of aspiration 55
4 Adjustments 58
1. Consonant rclinking 58
2. Voicing 60
3. Diphthong reduction 62
4 . Contraction 64
5. Spcl.:i..1c hanges to the pronunciation of vowels 68
fl. ,) reductioll 69
7, Aspiralllll1 71
K. I'rllllUncliltillllllt' '- Its if it Wl'n: i'
73
r). I\.....III/allllli
76
10. 1'11111111'1 itilliu l (II' I~ Il." ifil \\iCIi:~ II ,"lr ( XI
VI CUNTI':NTS
11. Addition of 83
L
12. Tensing 87 Acknowledgments
13. A insertion 90
14. Modifications to the pronunciation of c and E 92 We are grateful to a number of people who took the time to read earlier
15 . Consonant weakening 94 versions of The Sounds of Korean and to provide helpful comments.
Special thanks are due to Dong-J ae Lee, Hae-Young Kim, Sang-Yee
5 Prosody 97 Cheon, and Youngkeun Lee for their detailed comments and suggestions.
1. Pitch, loudness, and length 97 We also received helpful feedback and advice from Ned Shultz, Sunyoung
2. Focus 99 Lee, S.-Y. Lee, Kyu-Seek Hwang, Sooyeon Tahk, Young-sook Shim,
3. Intonation 102 Hyun-ho Joo, and two anonymous referees for the University of Hawai'i
4. Intonation and the expression of emotion 104 Press. Eduardo Contreras provided valuable technical support, Victoria
5. Thought groups 105 Anderson offered insightful advice on phonetic matters, and Peter Koba
yashi assisted us with the artwork.
References 107 Shinwoong Lee played an indispensable role in the creation of the CD
that accompanies this book. In addition to serving as the male voice on the
Glossary 109 CD during many long hours of studio work, he offered valuable advice on
the recording material itself.
We also owe a special debt of gratitude to In-Sung Ko, for his
PART II: Practice Exercises assistance with the palatography and Iinguography studies that we drew
upon in describing the place of articulation of various Korean consonants.
How to Use the Practice Exercises 113 Thanks are also due to the five native speakers of Korean who served as
subjects for this study and to the Center for Korean Studies at the
1 Practice: Vowels 115 University of Hawai'i for funding this work.
We would also like to express our appreciation to the Liberal Arts
2 Practice: Consonants 133 rnstructional Technology Services at the University of Texas at Austin for
thcir technical and financial support during the preparation of the CD.
3 Practice: Adjustments 187
Special thanks are due to our audio specialist Mike Heidenreich, who spent
countless hours supervising the recording and preparing the final version of
4 Practice: Prosody 226
thG CD. In addition, we are grateful to director Joe TenBarge, who played a
Answer Guide for the Practice Exercises 239 major role in securing funding for the project.
f'inally , we owe thanks to the editorial and production team at the
List ofPractice Exercises 253 lillivcrsity of Hawai'i Press who contributed to bringing this book into
hll illg-cspecially executivc editor Pat Crosby, managing editor Ann
Index of Topics 255 i .l1liclllan. production editor Lucille Aono, and copyeditor Nancy R.
WI" Hiill)',toll.
\'II
,.,~o ===....
n....
~ ~o =~s.
c=.. ("D
Chaph'" I
Learning to Pronounce Korean
IIO\N man y different speech sounds are there? Fifty? A hundred? The
answer may surprise you: there are about eight hundred-six hundred
consonant sounds and two hundrcd vowels. '
Thai's far more than any single language can use. To keep things
lIlanageable, individual languages typically make contrasts among no more
than fifty sounds. And with about eight hundred sounds to choose from,
it's unlikely that any two languages will end up with exactly the same sound
system.
Herein lies one of the great challenges of second language learning.
Although infants are able to hear even the subtlest differences among
sounds in any language, this ability starts to diminish around the age of ten
or twelve months. By the time children finish elementary school, they have
to struggle to make and hear phonetic contrasts other than those in their
nati ve language.2 And, of course, things don't get any easier for ado·
lescents and adults.
That doesn't mean that you can't become fluent in another language,
however. It is possible to master the pronunciation of a second }anguage
but onJy if you go about it in a systematic way. You need to know precise.ly
what sounds your new language has, how they are produced, and what
changes they undergo in particular contexts. Then you have to practice
both by listening and by speaking.
The first goal of second language leaming is to pass through what might
be called the "threshold of intelligibility"-to reach the point where you can
make yourself understood and can understand what others are saying.3 To
achieve that goal in Korean, three challenges must be met.
First, Korean has a number of speech sounds that have no direct
counterpart in English-including (hree 'p'-like sounds, three 'I'-like.
sounds, three 'k'-like sounds, thre.e 'ch'-like sounds, and two 's'-like
I Ladefoged (1999).
2Eimas (1996:31), Werker et al. (1996).
3See, for example, edce-Murcia, Brinton & Goodwin (1996).
3
,!
II :-:IIUNI j 11l 1l,' f~I)RI :/\N II I; I ( I PittING! INt I I· .111 I\'N .~
S()LIlIUS III adlhlulli til "l'\'I'r,tlllIlhllllill.11 Vllwds. Mastcllllg IItI'SIJ ('(lllllll.,.ls
is u necessary step lllWUld hc~:nl llll1).: Duelltln Korean,
Second, the pronuncJallll11 of particuLar KOfl!an sounds can vary
enomlously depending on the context in which they occur. Take -' , for
instance. At the end of a word like 1~ 'hundred', its pronunciation
resem bles the 'k' sound in the English word backbone, but it is pronounced '"
like a 'g' sound in ~ ~ 'hundred days' and like a 'ug' sound in l!11~
'million'. Learning how these adjustments work will dramatically improve
your ability to speak and understand Korean.
Third, Korean uses pitch, loudness, and length (what linguists call
p rosody) in ways that give it a rhythm and a flow quite different from
English. Learning these aspects of pronunciation is also vital to improving
the naturalness of your Korean.
We will consider all of these things in this book. If you're a beginner,
you'll find the infonnation you need to cross the threshold of intclligibiljty
in Korean. And if you're a more advanced student, you 'll have an
opportunity to fine-tune your pronunciation and improve your compre
hension, so that both become more native-like.
1. t The organization of this book (3J-'5:
'he Sounds ofKorean is divided into two parts. Part I consists of five
Figure 1.1 Map of Korea
chapters, all focusing on the description of djfferent aspects of Korean
pronunciation. Chapter 2 presents the vowel sounds, whjle chapter 3 deals n
Part of The Sounds o/Korean makes up the heart of the book. It
with consonants. Chapter 4 discusses the various adjustment processes that
consists of a large set of practice exercises specifically designed to
modlfy speech sounds in different positions within words and phrases, and complement the descriptions and explanations in Part r. These exercises,
chapter 5 tackles the role of prosody in expressing meaning and emotion.
cach with its own instructions, have been recorded on the accompanying
Through explanations and exampJes, we'll take you through the basic facts
CD by two native speakers of standard Korean, one male and one female.
and contrasts that are needed to make your speech intelligible and natural
In preparing the practice exercises, we were careful to employ natural
sounding.
colloquial speech that represents the way Korean is actually spoken. The
Throughout our discussion, we will focus on the pronunciation of 80 goal of language learning is to become proficient in a new language-which
called standard Korean. This is the Korean which is spoken by educated
means being able to communicate and to understand what others are saying.
people in the Seoul area and which is almost always taught in second lan
Attaining this goal is possible only if you are exposed to Korean as iut ris,
guage classrooms.
spoken in the real world. IfKoreans pronounce .!i} 'Look' as ifit were
and if they sometimes pronounce ito1 'i1ower + subject marker' as if it
were .1lA] , you need to know this. Otherwise, you'll never understand
spoken Korean, and yow' own speech will never sound fluent.
I, III1 ''' -II t/li li\ I." . hi;iiIliAf\j
I.f(,\14NINil 'I 0 I'r(l"I Nl ll lNI ' I~ I" WI .\ N
,'-;111111' "I IIIL' plil' II', " I " -I~' · 1-,11'-1 f IIlf~ 1'1' lIdll" 101 11 (1 11 "I III~h\illll l,d
words, wlilk IIthn' t ill II', "" tlill 'I 1I11' 11l 1 I II I 1111'.1111' 1111. ' IlIltll IVIII''> "I i!l!I!I if1 't;GI (witl, II" ,II'JII'\ I 111.11Io.l" ), ," ;1.' ,Ill ' !I ' li"-c 01 l;VI,;II ' III ' like
pratli(.;c cxcn.;is\,;, we 11:IVC 111: '111 ~' hly ,1 11111 111 , 11\111',( ~111 11" 1i 1ll VOl..ll il ll .HV '(1) .tl III ;-, ",I (wi lli III' '.111 111( 111;11 1I\I.::lI1S '()lIly'). h lglrsh spelling often
items and to usc !I 1l~lll ill lIallll:ll :11,,11 1I1I1I\j11i,)! ',\:llltIlU'" III ;Iddilinn. WI' 1111"11 .r '11 111 1. 11 , Irull'/..',Y. hy I"~ way, That's why th~ roO I in words like
have made sure that the worJ~ and SCnl (; IICl·.~ Uti tile ('J) ;u(' prolltHJll\;cd at ;.1 ,,;1' ,IIHI f'II'u l/OIl I" "lwllL:" ('/'/'/11 evclt Ih()ugh the I has a 'sh'-like pro
moderate speed. Even this may seelll fa~l if YOII ;Il \,; ;1 k gilllling silltlelli. iill/id,lI 1111 I III I Ill' 'l..'lPII!I Wllld.
Indeed, some of the subtler phonetic contrasts round in Korcan arl! initially \t WI ' 11 1,l'l' III 11101l,' tlt:lail in the chapters that follow, Korean spelling
difficult to perceive at any speed. However, as you make progress, the f,. ii. ,\\', IIIl' PII II\.'iplc ()r olte ,~pclling per root or suffix with great regularity
sounds and rhythms that give Korean its phonetic identiry will become 11111,1 111 n ' lll y. III lacl, one or Ihe advantages of studying the sound system
increasingly familiar to you. It will be easier to make yourself understood, ul ~.I.I".1 1I I'i 111;11 y Oil will also end up with a better understanding of how
it will be easier to comprehend what Koreans are saying, and it will even be 11.,lIj·1I I Will "'."
easier to read and write the language. With diligent and regular use of the III d l" Cl ihing and discussing the sounds of Korean, it is sometimes
practice exercises, you may be surprised at how quickly your pronunciation It. , " -'oIlY I() represent a word's pronunciation more directly than spelling
and comprehension improve-even a few weeks of faithful practice will 1-" I lIlih As you will see, for example, words such as ~ 1:1 'input' and
make a difference. I " ,I ' (I\.'I al' are pronounced very differently from the way they are spelled.
Will I!' spelling docs not suffice, we use hangul inside square brackets to
II! 1(1 IIH Iil'alc how the word is pronounced-[~l ~] for ~ ~4 and [~\:l]
1.2 Pronunciation and spelling 111 1 :,1 _ This docs not capture all the phonetic details, of course, but it is
',I ,
Ihllll'I!t\'kss helpful, especially when used in conjunction with the CD.
Before we go any further, a note of caution is in order. There is a
natural temptation to pronounce words the way they are written, but this just
won' t work for Korean. (Or for English either, as you'll realize if you Syllahles and consonant relinking
think about the pronunciation of words such as Wednesday, comb, and
knee.) Another important feature of hangul has to do with the manner in which
Written languages differ in terms of how they capture the relationship II l'l'IJI-esents syllables. A syllable is simply a chunk of speech built around a
between pronunciation and spelling. 10 a language such as Spanish, the vilwel-so you'll always have as many syllables in a word as there are
writing system represents pronunciation quite directly, and there is nearly a vowel sounds. (The English word bed contains just one syllable, ago has
one-to-one relationship between letters and sounds. In Chinese, on the Iwo, computer has three, and so on.) As you have probably already
other hand, written symbols represent entire words rather than individual noticed, hangul groups sounds together into syllable-sized chunks. In
q
sounds . words such as L-}-¥- 'tree', ~ 'eat', and ;:>;}%::Z} 'automobile', these
The Korean writing system, hangul, lies somewhere in the mjddle of the letter groupings correspond exactly to the syllables used in Korean speech.
spectrum.4 In general, the goal of hangul is to provide a single spelling for lIowever, things work differently when one syllable ends in a consonant
each root an*d e ach suffix, without regard for var.iations in their pronun and the next syllable begins with a vowel sound-as happens in words such
ciation. So 'clothes' has a single spelling, regardless of how the final as ~-o1 'cooked rice + subject marker', <i':i o:j 'language', ~Ojl 'in front',
consonant is prouOlIDced- as a 't'-like sound when the word stands alone, and so on. Under these oircumstances, the consonant ends up being
as an 's'-like sound in -:9:- ~ (with the direct object marker), as a 'sh' -like pronounced at the beginning of the second syllable, thanks to an adjustment
-~----
4Por a general discussion of the history and workings of hangul, sec Kim-Renaud (1997)
and Sampson (1 985)_
IIII !-.1·IIINIi'l i II I' CuIU\N
plllL'CSS tlllli we ,'all "tI//\I/""'"/'r'!lIIA'ill,IJ,' J\~ II I • •1Il! ','I"" I', 1'1\lllIIlHI~'~'1I
1"1 1'1 I. '-:11)11:-' pWlllllllIll'd \r'll! I '1iI.i .n li',,11t 'haptcr 2
Consonant I'clinkllig IS II 1111' Il'tldlillV (1111\\', III ~llIcall :md CUll even
extend across won.l bountluncs WltL'1I IWII WilliI'. ,III' PIIIIIIII1I1CI.:d togdher as Vowels
a group, with no intervening pauses. I l1u\':\ why "II ',"I 't -:-,. 'prl.:tty um
brella' is pronounced (ojl.!!!!. !r=-tl·\' wiU,!h1.: ul' c'II ',"' al Ihe beginning or
I
the second word rather than at the end of the jjrst. Exactly the same thing
happens with the 2. in % ~) <>lSi. ' There's water' and in many other Vowel sOllnus in any Language are made by modifying the position of
Iltt" lunguc.lips, and jaw. You can get a feel for this by comparing the 'ee'
cases.
"I s('(' with lbe '00' of Sue in English. If you say these sounds one right
.1I1 l:1' the other (ee-oo, ee-oo), you'll feel the longue moving from a high
Examnle Pronounced
~o] 'cooked ricc +subject marker' [ tl~tl] l Iiont position in your mouth for the 'ee' to a more back position for '00' ,
~<>i 'language' r<>l L.'"lj Ynu ' 1\ also notice that your lips are rounded for '00', but not for 'ee'.
The 'ab' sound in father is different again. Your tongue is in a low
oj]~ -'f-~ 'pretty umbrella' [ 01]lIU T~] jll1sition, and your mouth is more open than for 'ee' or '00' . (You'll feel
% ~1 <>l Si. 'There's water' I.!f-C1 ~Si. J your jaw drop if you put your finger on your chin as you go from 'ee' to
'ah' .)
Hangul does not directly represent the effects of consonant reIi nking. There are basically two ways to learn the Korean vowel sounds. One is
However, it does provide a very good clue as to when consonant relinking 10 start with the vowels of English and try to make the cbanges that are
takes place. Notice that the second syllable of ~o], ~<>l , and other words needed to produce similar (and not-so-similar) Korean sounds, The other is
that undergo consonant relinking begins with the so-called zero consonant to become aware of how your tongue, lips, and jaw work together to
o. This symbol marks an empty position at the beginning ofthe syllable- produce vowel sounds. We will use both techniques here so that you can
pick and choose the pieces of information that are most helpful to you.
the very position in which the consonant from the preceding syllable is
We'll begin in a relatively informal way by comparing the vowels of
heard when the word is pronounced.
Korean with their nearest counterparts in English. Section 2.3 provides a
more technical description for !hose who want to understand the mechanics
~/,o]
of vowel production in more detail.
To make our discussion more manageable, we'll divide Korean vowels
You'11 find practice exercises involving consonant relinking in section A-I
into two groups- simple vowels and diphthongs.
ofthe CD that accompanies this book.
W ith these preliminaries behind us, we are ready to have a look at how
the individual sounds of Korean are pronounced. We'U begin with vowel 2.1 Simple vowels
sounds in the next chapter and then move on to consonants from there.
There are eight simple vowels in Korean.l Because of similarities and
differences in how they are produced, it makes sense to consider them in
small groups rather than separately.
5The term resy/lahijicalio/l is also used for this phenomenon.
6It is important not to confuse the 0 that occurs at the beginning of a syJlable with the
one that occurs at the end. The former is a place h.older with no pronwlciation of its own,
) Vowel length can be used to distinguish between words in Korean. For example, ~
but the latter stands for the 'ng' sound (see section 3.7).
means 'eye' when it has a short vowel, but 'snow' when it ha~ n long vowel; An means
'new' when it has a short vowel, but 'bird' when it has a long vowel; and l'lj means
9
III II II ISI IIIN!)' ; I II , I\( IIW\N \11\\ I , ,'. II
2.1.1 The vowels I , '1-, & )'1111 111 111111 101 Jlhld ,. i 1',lI, '''1·, 1111 IIII' Vt)Wl'I'; ;111(1 ,- III S(!l:IIOII
V I "I III\' CIl,
The vowels 1 and -r are very similar to sounds found in E nglish ami
are therefore easy Lo produce and perceive. However, as we will see,
-n, 1
presents a bit more of a challenge. 2. J.2 The vowels J1 , --.L., &
None of these four vowels is exactly like any of the vowels of English.
The vowel 1
Ld LIS consider each one in tum_
The 1 sound has a pronunciation almost identical to the 'ee' sound in
English words such as bee, except that the tongue is slightly higher in the he vowel -11
mouth.
The -n sound is similar to the vowel in English words such as bay and
haif. but with one important difference: the English vowel is followed by a
The vowel,
'y' sound. If you pronounce bay slowly, you'll probably be able to feel
your tongue rising for the 'y'. And if you put a finger on your jaw, you
The vowel -r is pronounced in virtually the same way as the '00' in
may feel it closing slightly near the end of the word as the 'y' is
Sue, although perhaps with the tongue slightly higher in the mouth and with
pronounced. The Korean -11 sound does not include this extra component,
the lips somewhat more rounded and protruded. It too creates little or no
so your tongue and jaw should remain stable throughout the entire vowel.
problem for English speakers.
The vowel B
The vowel-
The vowel H is produced with the tongue slightly lower and the mouth
The vowel - requires more attention, since English has nothing quite slightly more open than for the -11 sound. If you put a finger or two on
like it. One way to learn how to pronounce it is to start with the more your chin, you should feel it drop slightly for H , compared to -11 . The end
fanliliar 1 sound. As you pronounce 1 , move your tongue slightly back
result should be a sound somewhere between the 'e' of bet and the 'a' of
in your mouth while keeping your lips relaxed and unrounded, The bat.
resulting sound is Korean - ,
Many beginning students have trouble hearing the difference between
The contrast between -11 and B
and -r, and therefore miss important distinctions, such as the one between
:J.. 'that' and T 'nine' , or between ~ 'field' and % 'two'. It may help to
The contrast between -11 and H has all but ctisappeared in contemporary
remember that -r is produced with the tongue further back in the mouth
Korean, and most speakers pronounce the two sounds alike, more or less as
and that it has strong lip rounding. In contrast, - is produced with the
-11. Nonetheless, the distinction is still maintained in initial syllables by a
tongue more forward and without lip rounding.
few speakers, especially in careful speech, as in 711 'crab' versus 7B 'dog' ,
Ail {] 'three houses' versus AB {l 'new house ', or A1l 'my' versus AB
'ash' . The contrast has been largely lost in other positions,2 though, and
'bottle' when it has a short vowel, but 'illness' when it has a long vowel. Except for
some older speakers, however, most Koreans no longer make these contrasts. 2Marlin (1992:28), Sohn (1994:433).
I r, 111\· S(II INIl" ni, 1'~(lIl1i\'N 11\\,11 -" [.i
words such us ',' ,'II ' 1Ill dilY l lhl tlllllU)I"Cl W !lil t! ',' .'11 ~illlli III\.' I'IIl' vllWl~ 1 I
pronounced identically by virtuully ,til spl.la!-cl :-; III Korean.
Even whon a dhtinclion is mude in millal syllablcs between -II and II, 1'l' I It.Ii' ~ Ilw 111""\ dtl lii:lIll V\lwd 01 itll for st:\.:\)l1d language learners is
it is very subtle-so subtle that even native speakers of Korean have trouble '1111.·ll· rile \w( ) tcllll1iqucs tliat YOLI lIlight find helpful in learning bow 10
perceiving it when there is no context3 and may have to ask each other, "Is It1I11II1L1IH.'1.' II. Unl! is 10 start with lhe 'uh' sound thaloccurs in words such
it ' 1 1'(11 ) or ' } 1' (H)?" Indeed, the pronunciation of one common .1' II/I iJ lIU (1111" As YOLI produce this vowel, try moving your tongue to a
word has changed because of the difficulty of the 11 / Hcontrast. In col 11 1111": Ililck position without rounding your lips. The resulting sound is 1.
loquial Korean, the word q1 'your' is pronounced (Y J, so as to better (You can watch for lip rounding by Jooking in the mirror as you practice.)
t.B
distinguish it from 'my'. (Remember that we use square brackets to Another technique is to begin by pronouncing ..L.. Then, gradually
indicate a word's pronunciation when the spelling does not suffice.) ldax your lips so tiUlt lhey are no longer rounded and open your mouth a bit
11/
Although it has been largely lost in pronunciation, the R distinction lIllIre hy Jow..:ring your jaw slightly. (If you place your finger just beneath
1
is still alive and well in the spelling of words, including words that are your chin, you should feel it drop a little for compared to ...l-.) The
borrowed into Korean from English. As the following examples help rl'sulting sound, with a tongue position a bit lower than for..L. and with no
11 1
show, is consistently used for the English vowel sounds in words such lip rounding, is ,4 An advantage of this technique is that it allows you to
as bell and table, while H is employed for the vowel sound in apple. practice the ..L./ 1 contrast, which is difficult for English speakers but
crucial for distinguishing between words such as % 'stone' and tg 'less' ,
The spelling of some English loan words .:1L71 'meat' and 7i 71'there', and many others.
!i2ll- 'bell' °H~ 'apple' Sections V-2 through VA of the CD contain practice exercises involving
E11 01* 'tabte' £P&~ 'romance' Ihe vowels 11, H, ..L., and 1.
Ll1] A1 3L 'Mexico' AJl. c ~-*1 'sandwich'
ell/.. 5£<'J 'restaurant' ~~!l.y o} 'California' 2.1 .3 The vowel }
The vowel ~ is quite similar to the 'ah' sound in the pronunciation of
The vowel ...L
words such as/ather and cot in most parts of the United States and Canada.
It is produced with the tongue more fOlward and a little lower in the mouth
The ..L. sound of Korean is very similar to the '0' in English words such 1.
t11an for You should therefore feel your jaw drop slightly when you go
as low-with one significant difference. English '0' is accompanied by a 1
from to }.
following 'w' sound, which you can hear if you pronounce low slowly. 1
The contrast between ~ and is an important one, and is used to
(You'll feel your lips become tighter and rounder as you say the 'w'.) In
distinguish belween many words, inclucling W ' foot' versus ~ 'bee', and
contrast, the Korean vowel stands by itself, with no accompanying 'w'
r:} 'all' versus c~ 'more'. Section V-5 of the CD contains practice exercises
sound, so your tongue and jaw sbould remain stable throughout the entire
that will help you master the contrast between these two vowels.
sound.
4Some Koreans seem to pronounce 1 in a more forward posilion Utan -'-. wilhoUl
3Lee (1995), perceptibly lowering the tongue.
