ဝိက်ရှေန်နရဳ:ပညာရမျာင်ကိုဝ်ရဳယျာ

 Korean phonology on ဘာသာအင်္ဂလိက် ဝဳကဳပဳဒဳယာ
Consonants
IPA Examples English approximation
p bul spill
b[၁] abeoji about
[၂] bap cup
ppul like spill but with a stronger articulation
pul pill
m mul mill
t dal star
d[၁] eodi debt
[၂] ot shut
ttal like star but with a stronger articulation
tal tall
n nal no
ɲ[၃] simnyeon new
[၄] jada roughly like posture
[၁][၄] uija roughly like jack
t͈ɕ[၄] jjada roughly like posture but with a stronger articulation
tɕʰ[၄] chada roughly like chill
k ga skull
ɡ[၁] Hanguk again
[၂] 두산 Baekdusan pick
kka like skull but with a stronger articulation
ka car
kx[၅] keuda skull followed by Scottish English loch
[၅] 우다 kiuda queue
ŋ bang sing, English
[၆] sal roughly like sing
ɕʰ[၆][၇] Silla roughly like ship
ʃʰ[၆][၇] swida roughly like schwa
ssal roughly like sing but with a stronger articulation
ɕ͈[၇] ssireum roughly like ship but with a stronger articulation
ʃ͈[၇] sswi roughly like schwa but with a stronger articulation
ɭ[၈] bal, 밀랍 millap roughly like RP light
ɾ[၈] rodong, ilheun, baram Scottish English through, GA latter, ladder
ʎ[၃][၈] 천리 Cheollima Ljubljana
h[၉] hada help
ɸ[၉] hwangje hope, Southern American English white
x[၉] heumgyeol Scottish English loch
ç[၉] hyang huge
ɦ[၉] 좋아 joahada like help but weaker
β[၉] ahop like hope or Southern American English white but weaker
ɣ[၉] hamheung like Scottish English loch but weaker
ʝ[၉] yeonghyang like huge but weaker
Vowels
IPA Examples English approximation
Monophthongs
a mal GA lot
ʌ̹ beol cut
o bori GA short
u guri fool
ɯ eoreun somewhat like book
i ireum seat
ɛ̝[၁၀] taeyang bet
[၁၀] begae Scottish English sate
ø gyohoe somewhat like RP hurl
y jwi ruin
Semivowels[၁၁]
j yeoja yes
w wang water
ɰ[၁၂] uija somewhat like the first part of write
ɥ 하다 wihada somewhat like we
Suprasegmentals
ksin[၁၃] long vowel[၁၄]
words stress[၁၅]

Overall Korean phonemically has these vowels and diphthongs and consonants:

  1. ㄱ /k/, ㄲ /k͈/, ㄴ /n/, ㄷ /t/, ㄸ /t͈/, ㄹ /l/, ㅁ /m/, ㅂ /p/, ㅃ /p͈/, ㅅ /s/, ㅆ /s͈/, ㅇ /ŋ/, ㅈ /tɕ/, ㅉ /t͈ɕ/, ㅊ /tɕʰ/, ㅋ /kʰ/, ㅌ /tʰ/, ㅍ /pʰ/, ㅎ /h/ (all of which, except for ㅇ /ŋ/, are allowed at the beginning of a phonemic syllable)
  2. ㅏ /a/, ㅐ /ɛ/, ㅑ /ja/, ㅒ /jɛ/, ㅓ /ʌ/, ㅔ /e/, ㅕ /jʌ/, ㅖ /je/, ㅗ /o/, ㅘ /wa/, ㅙ /wɛ/, ㅚ /ø/, ㅛ /jo/, ㅜ /u/, ㅝ /wʌ/, ㅞ /we/, ㅟ /y/, ㅠ /ju/, ㅡ /ɯ/, ㅢ /ɰi/, ㅣ /i/

Only seven consonants are allowed at the end of a phonemic syllable: ㄱ /k/, ㄴ /n/, ㄷ /t/, ㄹ /l/, ㅁ /m/, ㅂ /p/, ㅇ /ŋ/; all other consonants and clusters assimilate into these ones. Inside a word each one of these consonants can be followed by another consonant, allowing for 95 consonant clustes:

  1. ㄱㄲ /kk͈/, ㄱㄸ /kt͈/, ㄱㅃ /kp͈/, ㄱㅆ /ks͈/, ㄱㅉ /kt͈ɕ/, ㄱㅊ /ktɕʰ/, ㄱㅋ /kkʰ/, ㄱㅌ /ktʰ/, ㄱㅍ /kpʰ/
  2. ㄷㄲ /tk͈/, ㄷㄸ /tt͈/, ㄷㅃ /tp͈/, ㄷㅆ /ts͈/, ㄷㅉ /tt͈ɕ/, ㄷㅊ /ttɕʰ/, ㄷㅋ /tkʰ/, ㄷㅌ /ttʰ/, ㄷㅍ /tpʰ/
  3. ㅂㄲ /pk͈/, ㅂㄸ /pt͈/, ㅂㅃ /pp͈/, ㅂㅆ /ps͈/, ㅂㅉ /pt͈ɕ/, ㅂㅊ /ptɕʰ/, ㅂㅋ /pkʰ/, ㅂㅌ /ptʰ/, ㅂㅍ /ppʰ/
  4. ㅇㄱ /ŋk/, ㅇㄲ /ŋk͈/, ㅇㄴ /ŋn/, ㅇㄷ /ŋt/, ㅇㄸ /ŋt͈/, ㅇㅁ /ŋm/, ㅇㅂ /ŋp/, ㅇㅃ /ŋp͈/, ㅇㅅ /ŋs/, ㅇㅆ /ŋs͈/, ㅇㅈ /ŋtɕ/, ㅇㅉ /ŋt͈ɕ/, ㅇㅊ /ŋtɕʰ/, ㅇㅋ /ŋkʰ/, ㅇㅌ /ŋtʰ/, ㅇㅍ /ŋpʰ/, ㅇㅎ /ŋh/
  5. ㄴㄱ /nk/, ㄴㄲ /nk͈/, ㄴㄴ /nn/, ㄴㄷ /nt/, ㄴㄸ /nt͈/, ㄴㅁ /nm/, ㄴㅂ /np/, ㄴㅃ /np͈/, ㄴㅅ /ns/, ㄴㅆ /ns͈/, ㄴㅈ /ntɕ/, ㄴㅉ /nt͈ɕ/, ㄴㅊ /ntɕʰ/, ㄴㅋ /nkʰ/, ㄴㅌ /ntʰ/, ㄴㅍ /npʰ/, ㄴㅎ /nh/
  6. ㄹㄱ /lk/, ㄹㄲ /lk͈/, ㄹㄹ /ll/, ㄹㄷ /lt/, ㄹㄸ /lt͈/, ㄹㅁ /lm/, ㄹㅂ /lp/, ㄹㅃ /lp͈/, ㄹㅅ /ls/, ㄹㅆ /ls͈/, ㄹㅈ /ltɕ/, ㄹㅉ /lt͈ɕ/, ㄹㅊ /ltɕʰ/, ㄹㅋ /lkʰ/, ㄹㅌ /ltʰ/, ㄹㅍ /lpʰ/, ㄹㅎ /lh/
  7. ㅁㄱ /mk/, ㅁㄲ /mk͈/, ㅁㄴ /mn/, ㅁㄷ /mt/, ㅁㄸ /mt͈/, ㅁㅁ /mm/, ㅁㅂ /mp/, ㅁㅃ /mp͈/, ㅁㅅ /ms/, ㅁㅆ /ms͈/, ㅁㅈ /mtɕ/, ㅁㅉ /mt͈ɕ/, ㅁㅊ /mtɕʰ/, ㅁㅋ /mkʰ/, ㅁㅌ /mtʰ/, ㅁㅍ /mpʰ/, ㅁㅎ /mh/

All other clusters assimilate into these ones. The clusters ㄱㄲ /kk͈/, ㄱㅋ /kkʰ/, ㄷㄸ /tt͈/, ㄷㅆ /ts͈/, ㄷㅉ /tt͈ɕ/, ㄷㅊ /ttɕʰ/, ㄷㅌ /ttʰ/, ㅂㅃ /pp͈/, ㅂㅍ /ppʰ/, ㄴㄴ /nn/, ㄹㄹ /ll/ and ㅁㅁ /mm/ can be considered as double consonants ㄱㄲ /k͈ː/, ㄱㅋ /kːʰ/, ㄷㄸ /t͈ː/, ㄷㅆ /s͈ː/, ㄷㅉ /t͈ɕː/, ㄷㅊ /tɕːʰ/, ㄷㅌ /tːʰ/, ㅂㅃ /p͈ː/, ㅂㅍ /pːʰ/, ㄴㄴ /nː/, ㄹㄹ /lː/ and ㅁㅁ /mː/.

  1. ၁.၀ ၁.၁ ၁.၂ ၁.၃ When plain stops and affricates /p t tɕ k/ are followed by a vowel and preceded by a sonorant (vowel or /n l m ŋ/), they get voiced to [b d dʑ ɡ].
  2. ၂.၀ ၂.၁ ၂.၂ When plain stops /p t k/ are not followed by a vowel, they are not released [p̚ t̚ k̚].
  3. ၃.၀ ၃.၁ The dental sonorants /n l/ are usually palatalized to [ɲ ʎ] before /i/ and especially before /j/. In South Korea [ɲ ʎ] at the beginning of a word are usually dropped in native and Sino-Korean words and this is reflected in spelling.
  4. ၄.၀ ၄.၁ ၄.၂ ၄.၃ The palatal affricates [tɕ dʑ t͈ɕ tɕʰ] are non-palatal in North Korea, so there they are [ts dz t͈s tsʰ].
  5. ၅.၀ ၅.၁ /kʰ/ followed by /i/ or /j/ is palatalized to [cç], /kʰ/ followed by /ɯ/ is pronounced as [kx].
  6. ၆.၀ ၆.၁ ၆.၂ The dental fricative /s/ and its allophones are aspirated [sʰ ɕʰ ʃʰ].
  7. ၇.၀ ၇.၁ ၇.၂ ၇.၃ The dental fricatives /s s͈/ are palatalized to [ɕʰ ɕ͈] before /i/ and /j/ and to [ʃʰ ʃ͈] before /y/ and [ɥ], although [ʃ͈] is a very marginal sound. In North Korea it may happen that this palatalization does not occur at all.
  8. ၈.၀ ၈.၁ ၈.၂ The dental approximant /l/ is pronounced [ɾ] when it is followed by a vowel or /h/, it is pronounced [ɭ] otherwise. /ll/ is always pronounced [ɭɭ] depending on the following vowel. At the beginning of a words it is [ɾ] although [ɭ] are also possible depending on the speaker. [ɭ] is palatalized to [ʎ] before /i/ and /j/.
  9. ၉.၀ ၉.၁ ၉.၂ ၉.၃ ၉.၄ ၉.၅ ၉.၆ ၉.၇ The aspirated /h/ and is pronounced [ɸ] before /u o w/, [x] before /ɯ/, [ç] before /i/ and /j/ and [h] otherwise. Between two sonorants (vowels or /n l m ŋ/) all these allophones become voiced (respectively [β ɣ ʝ ɦ]) or /h/ is just dropped.
  10. ၁၀.၀ ၁၀.၁ Nowadays /e/ and /ɛ/ are only distinguished in spelling, but have merged phonetically.
  11. Semivowels can only come before vowels. All the semivowels coming after the vowels have been assimilated into the preceding vowel throughout the centuries.
  12. The semivowel /ɰ/ only occurs in the diphthong /ɰi/. Usually inside a word /ɰ/ is dropped so the diphthong merges with /i/ triggering all the sound changes that it usually triggers.
  13. Yale romanization
  14. Vowel length is no longer realized in Seoul Korean speech, except by some elder speakers. Vowel length has also never existed in the eastern dialects, where a pitch accent is the predominant prosodic feature. Vowel length is not shown in word spelling.
  15. Word stress is very weak; pitch accent is more relevant.