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Many English words contain the "uh" sound found in the word "umbrella".

That is, many English words contain the open-mid back unrounded vowel.

Other examples of English words containing the open-mid back unrounded vowel are shown below...

ENGLISH
SPELLING

INTERNATIONAL
PHONETIC
ALPHABET
AN AMERICAN
PHONETIC
NOTATION
FOR
YOUNG
CHILDREN
Umbrella /ʌmbɹɛlə/ UhMBREhLUh
Up /ʌp/ UhP
Done /dʌn/ DUhN
America /ʌmɛɹ.ɪ.kʌ/ UhMEhRIhKUh

What letter in the Korean alphabet (if any) is used for the English Uh sound?

1 Answer 1

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It would be the vowel ㅓ. An uh-like sound made by the English vowel "u" or "o" is transliterated as ㅓ, so 엄브렐러 (umbrella), 업 (up), 던 (done) and so on.

"America" is spelled 아메리카 though. Unstressed "a" making the "uh" sound in English is transliterated as ㅏ rather than ㅓ, This is to follow the general rule of equating "a" with ㅏ (e.g. atom = 아톰, Abraham = 아브라함), because that is the sound it will take on in most languages except English.

Other such examples are Samoa (사모아) and Alhambra (알함브라 or 알람브라).

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