13
votes
Why is 'ㅂ' in '박물관' pronounced as /p/ instead of /b/?
The Korean sound ㅂ does not correspond exactly to the English sounds /p/ and /b/. In fact, while the Revised Romanization uses a 'b' to represent initial ㅂ, the McCune-Reischauer romanization uses a '...
- 6,014
10
votes
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Does standard Korean still contain any signs of being a tonal language?
According to The Korean Language by Iksop Lee and S. Robert Ramsey, modern Korean dialects have either tones or vowel lengths or neither, but never both (see map below). The authors do recognize that ...
- 2,059
9
votes
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Why is 눈 pronounced the way it is?
The phenomenon you're hearing has been described not just in academic literature but also in more modern learners' guides to the Korean language. It is an example of initial denasalisation. Basically, ...
- 2,583
8
votes
Intonations in Korean
Be careful not to mix up tones and intonation.
A language with tones will distinguish words with different pitches or pitch contours - this means that you can have two words with the same phonemes, ...
- 6,014
8
votes
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Is there any rule for the pronunciation of 닫히다 as tachida not tathida?
This is called 구개음화 (palatalization), and it's one of several assimilation rules in Korean. It occurs when ㄷ or ㅌ is in the 받침, and is followed by a syllable beginning with 이:
같- + 이 = 같이 [가치]
굳- + ...
- 6,014
6
votes
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Korean hangul with voiced, unvoiced and aspirated or not aspirated
I can tell you right now.
(Always) Voiced: all vowels, ㄴ, ㅁ, ㅇ(final), ㄹ
(Conditionally) Voiceless: ㄱ, ㄲ, ㄷ, ㄸ, ㅂ, ㅃ, ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅉ, ㅊ, ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ, ㅎ
(Strongly) Aspirated: ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ, ㅅ, ㅊ, ㅎ
Not (strongly)...
- 7,536
6
votes
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Is ㅎ ‘labial’, glottal or both?
You're right, the consonant ㅎ is pronounced differently depending on the following vowel. In linguistical terminology, ㅎ has several allophones:
When followed by ㅜ, ㅟ, ㅝ, ㅞ, possibly ㅗ, ㅘ, ㅚ, ㅙ: it ...
- 6,014
6
votes
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Do all Sino-Korean words have exactly one reading?
Probably you know that a Hanja character may have more than one pronunciation. For example, 樂 has seven different pronunciations, 락, 악, 낙, 요, 료, 록, 로. (낙 is derived by the word-initial rule 두음법칙 ...
- 1,387
5
votes
When to use single (ㅅ) or double (ㅆ) consonants?
There's no rule for when to use ㅆ vs. ㅅ, just as there's no rule for when to use /b/ and when to use /p/ in English - they are separate phonemes, so you just have to memorize it. One thing that is ...
- 6,014
5
votes
Does standard Korean still contain any signs of being a tonal language?
(Disclaimer: Everything below applies to Korean spoken around Seoul area. I don't know the state of vowel length distinction in other areas.)
Well, the sentence you partially quoted already answers ...
- 7,467
5
votes
Does standard Korean still contain any signs of being a tonal language?
My parents were born and lived in the Gyeongsang region for over 30 years; and I was raised near Seoul. And sometimes, when I say something, they laugh and say "that's not how you say that word," and ...
- 7,536
5
votes
Pitch accent in Korean
That Wikipedia article(now fixed) is mistaken. Seoul Korean lost its pitch accent system at least since the 17th Century. The article is citing nothing related to an evidence supporting an existence ...
- 7,536
5
votes
Pronunciation of 옷이 with linking sound
When we read the word 옷이 slowly, the 받침 ㅅ is pronounced as ㄷ.
No, it's not. It's always pronounced [오시], no matter how slow you read it. Unless somehow the 이 part was obscured while 옷 was being read, ...
- 7,536
5
votes
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Pronunciation of 낯익다
I would have expected the ㅊ to have been voiced in the second syllable because of its initial ㅇ, and thus pronounced as [나칙따]
You only know the half of the rule; the above rule applies only if the ...
- 7,536
5
votes
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Colon in pronunciation guide of 정리하다 [정ː니하다]
The ː symbol is the phonetic length mark indicating that the vowel in proceeding syllable is elongated.
For example listen to the difference between 눈 (eye) and 눈ː (snow). Notice how the 우 sound is ...
- 2,059
5
votes
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Why is the initial consonant of the second syllable of 현장 not tensed (된소리)?
I hope someone else could write a more definite answer, but in short, your idea that "the second syllable becomes 된소리 when the first ends with a consonant" is generally wrong.
The phenomenon of some ...
- 7,467
5
votes
Accepted
Why is 자꾸 pronounced "Chakku" but written as "Jakku"?
Pronunciation?
What you've found is right: unvoiced at the beginning of a word, otherwise voiced.
Then why “j” instead of “ch?” ― Romanization consistency for Koreans
And as to the title, that's ...
- 2,840
5
votes
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In the pronunciation of 잘할게, the 할 sounds likeㄱ+ㅏ+ㄹ, and 게 sounds like ㄲ + ㅔ, and I'm confused
The standard pronunciation for “잘할게” (Verb “잘하다” ＋ Ending conjugation “-ᆯ게”) is [잘할께], one of the possible transliterations of which is “Chalhalkke.” And the rule applied is Tensation, Tensification ...
- 2,840
5
votes
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In which dialect are 애 and 에 pronounced differently?
I wonder in which dialect they are pronounced the same and in which differently.
Older speakers in 서북 방언, 동북 방언, 육진 방언, and 제주 방언 distinguish them according to this paper.
Location of dialects
...
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4
votes
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Pronouncing last digit as 하나
From what I've heard, it comes from the field artillery's way of saying numbers in the military. The number system that goes 하나, 둘, 삼, 넷, 오, 여섯, 칠, 팔, 아홉, 공(0), is commonly called 포병 숫자 (although lots ...
- 7,536
4
votes
How to transliterate 中文 in Mandarin pronunciation to Korean?
There is a standard for that, established by the National Institute of the Korean Language.
According to that, zhōngwén should be transliterated to "종원".
ㅈ/ㅅ is used for pinyin "zh/sh", and ㅉ/ㅆ is ...
- 7,536
4
votes
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Pronunciation of 잘 - /jal/ or /jai/
잘 is /t͜ɕal/. /jal/ would be 얄. Remember, /j/ is a "yes"-sound, not a ㅈ sound.
That being said, the reason why you're hearing /l/ as [i] or [j] is probably because the Korean /l/ at the end of a ...
- 7,536
4
votes
If ㅆ meets the consonant ㅅ, will the resulting sound be a double " ss "?
습니다 was actually historically spelled 읍니다 when it was followed by a ㅆ final until 1988.
It was changed to 습니다 in the reform of 1988. The reason was that there was no reason to differentiate between ...
- 7,536
4
votes
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Are these two pronunciations of 그럼 valid?
I'm a native Korean. I've replayed the recordings on forvo several times, but those two pronunciations sound same to me. They are not saying it with regional accents, either.
Correct pronunciation is ...
- 226
4
votes
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Pronunciation of 개 versus 게
In theory (the "Standard" Korean language), there's a difference. In practice, there isn't.
On the other hand, if there's no context (e.g., "개/게 먹으러 갈까?", where both interpretation would make sense),...
- 7,467
4
votes
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Pronunciation difference between 실례 and 신뢰
The first character of both words are pronounced same as "실". The second characters make the differences. "실례" is pronounced just as it is written. "신뢰" is read as either "실뢰" or "실뤠".
To be personal,...
- 1,678
4
votes
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Which one is correct: ‘갈 데까지 가다’ or ‘갈 때까지 가다’?
It's an idiomatic expression and the correct one is ‘갈 데까지 가다’. The other one does not make any sense. Their pronunciation is similar, though.
Their meanings
갈 데까지 가다 [갈떼까지가다] (갈(one goes) 데(where) -...
- 2,840
4
votes
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섭리 pronounced as 섬니? Is this another sound assimilation to make it easier to pronounce?
This is nasalization applied twice.
First, 섭리 > 섭니. Korean Standard Pronunciation, Chapter 5 Assimilation of Sounds, Clause 19, Attachment reads (English translation by myself):
받침 ‘ㄱ, ㅂ’ 뒤에 연결되는 ‘ㄹ’...
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