Is the pronunciation of 시 same as "x" as in Mandarin ? It's sound similar to me, but I'm not sure if they are exactly the same. Do they have the same tongue position and mouth shape, having the same sound ?
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what do you mean by x in Mandarin?– user17915 ♦Mar 3, 2021 at 17:34
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1Click the speaker icon here to hear what it sounds like: papago.naver.com/?sk=ko&tk=en&st=%EC%8B%9C– user17915 ♦Mar 3, 2021 at 17:34
1 Answer
Almost.
"x" in Mandarin refers to Mandarin Pinyin, which points to the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative. In IPA, a comparison can be given as follows:
- Mandarin 「細」 (Pinyin: xì), Toneless IPA: /ɕi/ (audio sample)
- Korean (Seoul) 「시」, IPA: /ɕʰi/ (audio sample)
The difference between the two is that in Korean, at least in the Seoul standard, 「시」 is supposed to be pronounced with an aspiration, although I confess I can't really hear the difference.