Korean phonology
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This article is a technical description of the phonetics and phonology of Korean.
Korean has many allophones, so it is important here to distinguish morphophonemics (written in pipes | |) from corresponding phonemes (written in slashes / /) and allophones (written in brackets [ ]).
[edit] Consonants
The following are phonemic transcriptions of Korean consonants.
- |p, t, tɕ, k| become voiced [b, d, dʑ, g] between voiced sounds.
- |ŋ| appears only in the syllable coda.
- |l| becomes an alveolar flap [ɾ] between vowels, and [l] or [ɭ] at the end of a syllable or next to another |l|. A syllable-final |l|, when followed by a vowel or a glide or |h| (i.e., when the next character starts with 'ㅇ' or 'ㅎ'), migrates to the next syllable and thus becomes [ɾ].
Example words for consonants:
| Phoneme |
Example |
Romanized |
English |
| ㅂ |p| |
불 [pul] |
bul |
'fire' or 'light' |
| ㅃ |p͈| |
뿔 [p͈ul] |
ppul |
'horn' |
| ㅍ |pʰ| |
풀 [pʰul] |
pul |
'grass' or 'glue' |
| ㅁ |m| |
물 [mul] |
mul |
'water' or 'liquid' |
| ㄷ |t| |
달 [tal] |
dal |
'moon' |
| ㄸ |t͈| |
딸 [t͈al] |
ttal |
'daughter' |
| ㅌ |tʰ| |
타다 [tʰada] |
tada |
'to ride' or 'to burn', etc. |
| ㄴ |n| |
날 [nal] |
nal |
'day' |
| ㅈ |tɕ| |
자다 [tɕada] |
jada |
'to sleep' |
| ㅉ |tɕ͈| |
짜다 [tɕ͈ada] |
jjada |
'to squeeze' or 'to be salty' |
| ㅊ |tɕʰ| |
차다 [tɕʰada] |
chada |
'to kick' or 'cold' |
| ㄱ |k| |
가다 [kada] |
gada |
'to go' |
| ㄲ |k͈| |
깔다 [k͈alda] |
kkalda |
'to spread; to lay out' |
| ㅋ |kʰ| |
칼 [kʰal] |
kal |
'knife' |
| ㅇ |ŋ| |
방 [paŋ] |
bang |
'room' |
| ㅅ |s| |
살 [sal] |
sal |
'flesh' |
| ㅆ |s͈| |
쌀 [s͈al] |
ssal |
'uncooked grains of rice' |
| ㄹ |l| |
바람 [paɾam] |
baram |
'wind' or 'wish' |
| ㅎ |h| |
하다 [hada] |
hada |
'to do' |
The IPA symbol <◌͈> (a subscript double straight quotation mark, shown here with a placeholder circle) is used to denote the tensed consonants /p͈/, /t͈/, /k͈/, /tɕ͈/, /s͈/. Its official use in the Extensions to the IPA is for 'strong' articulation, but is used in the literature for faucalized voice. The Korean consonants also have elements of stiff voice, but it is not yet known how typical this is of faucalized consonants. They are produced with a partially constricted glottis
and additional subglottal pressure in addition to tense vocal tract
walls, laryngeal lowering, or other expansion of the larynx.
Sometimes the tense consonants are indicated with the apostrophe-like symbol <ʼ> symbolising glottalization, as in Americanist phonetic notation. This should not be confused with official IPA, as IPA <ʼ> represents the ejective
consonants, with their piston-like upward glottal movement and
non-pulmonic air pressure, which the Korean tense consonants do not
feature.
[edit] Vowels
| Monophthongs |
/i/ ㅣ, /e/ ㅔ, /ɛ/ ㅐ, /a/ ㅏ, /o/ ㅗ, /u/ ㅜ, /ʌ/ ㅓ, /ɯ/ ㅡ, /ø/ ㅚ |
Vowels preceded by intermediaries,
or Diphthongs |
/je/ ㅖ, /jɛ/ ㅒ, /ja/ ㅑ, /wi/ ㅟ, /we/ ㅞ, /wɛ/ ㅙ, /wa/ ㅘ, /ɰi/ ㅢ, /jo/ ㅛ, /ju/ ㅠ, /jʌ/ ㅕ, /wʌ/ ㅝ |
(/ɰi/ ㅢ is the only true diphthong in the Korean language.)[citation needed]
[edit] Monophthongs
Korean has 8 different vowel qualities and a length distinction for each. Two more vowels, the close-mid front rounded vowel (IPA: /ø/, Hangul: ㅚ) and the close front rounded vowel (IPA: /y/, Hangul: ㅟ),[citation needed] can still be heard in the speech of some older speakers, but they have been largely replaced by the diphthongs [we] and [wi] respectively. In a 2003 survey of 350 speakers from Seoul, nearly 90% pronounced the vowel 'ㅟ' as [wi].
Length distinction is almost completely lost; length distinction for
all vowels can still be heard from older speakers, but almost all
younger speakers either do not distinguish length consistently or do
not distinguish it at all. The distinction between /e/ and /ɛ/
is another decreasing element in the speech of some younger speakers,
mostly in the area of Seoul, whereas in other dialectal areas the two
vowels can be distinctly heard. For those speakers who do not make the
difference [e] seems to be the dominant form. Long /ʌː/ is actually [əː] for most speakers.[1]
| Short vowel |
Long vowel |
| /i/ 시장 (sijang [ɕiˈdʑaŋ], 'hunger') |
/iː/ 시장 (sijang [ˈɕiːdʑaŋ], 'market') |
| /e/ 베개 (begae [peˈɡɛ], 'pillow') |
/eː/ 베다 (beda [ˈpeːda], 'cut') |
| /ɛ/ 태양 (taeyang [tʰɛˈjaŋ], 'sun') |
/ɛː/ 태도 (taedo, [ˈtʰɛːdo], 'attitude') |
| /a/ 말 (mal [ˈmal], 'horse') |
/aː/ 말 (mal [ˈmaːl], 'word, language') |
| /o/ 보리 (bori [poˈɾi], 'barley') |
/oː/ 보수 (bosu [ˈpoːsu], 'salary') |
| /u/ 구리 (guri [kuˈɾi], 'copper') |
/uː/ 수박 (subak [ˈsuːbak], 'watermelon') |
| /ʌ/ 벌 (beol [ˈpʌl], 'punishment') |
/əː/ 벌 (beol [ˈpəːl], 'bee') |
| /ɯ/ 어른 (eoreun [ˈəːɾɯn], 'seniors') |
/ɯː/ 음식 (eumsik [ˈɯːmɕik], 'food') |
| /ø/ 교회 (gyohoe [ˈkjoːhwe, ˈkjoːhø, ], 'church') |
/øː/ 외투 (oetu [ˈweːtʰu, ˈøːtʰu], 'overcoat')[1] |
[edit] Diphthongs and glides
/j/ and /w/ are considered to be components of diphthongs rather than separate consonant phonemes.
| j |
w |
ɰ |
| |
|
|
|
|
wi |
[twi] |
뒤 |
dwi |
'back' |
ɰi |
[ˈɰisa] |
의사 |
uisa |
'doctor' |
| je |
[ˈjeːsan] |
예산 |
yesan |
'budget' |
we |
[kwe] |
궤 |
gwe |
'chest' or 'box' |
|
|
|
|
|
| jɛ |
[ˈjɛːgi] |
얘기 |
yaegi |
'story' |
wɛ |
[wɛ] |
왜 |
wae |
'why' |
|
|
|
|
|
| ja |
[ˈjaːgu] |
야구 |
yagu |
'baseball' |
wa |
[kwaːˈil] |
과일 |
gwail |
'fruit' |
|
|
|
|
|
| jo |
[ˈkjoːsa] |
교사 |
gyosa |
'teacher' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ju |
[juˈɾi] |
유리 |
yuri |
'glass' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| jʌ |
[jʌgi] |
여기 |
yeogi |
'here' |
wʌ |
[mwʌ] |
뭐 |
mwo |
'what'[1] |
|
|
|
|
|
[edit] Distribution of allophones
|s| becomes an alveolo-palatal [ɕ] before [j] or [i] for most speakers (but see Differences in the language between North Korea and South Korea).
This occurs with the tense fricative and all the affricates as well. At
the end of a syllable, |s| is realized as /t/ (Example: beoseot (버섯)
'mushroom').
|h| may become a bilabial [ɸ] before [o] or [u], a palatal [ç] before [j] or [i], a velar [x] before [ɯ], a voiced [ɦ] between voiced sounds, and a [h] elsewhere.[citation needed] It aspirates a following stop.
Traditionally, |l| was disallowed at the beginning of a word. It disappeared before /j/, and otherwise became /n/. However, the inflow of western loanword changed the trend, and now word-initial |l| (mostly from English loanwords) are pronounced as a free variation of either [ɾ] or [l]. The traditional prohibition of word-initial |l|
became a morphological rule called "initial law" (두음법칙) in South Korea,
which pertains to Sino-Korean vocabulary. Such words retain their
word-initial |l| in North Korea.
/kʰ/ can appear together with fricatives in front of [ɯ] or [i], as [kʰxɯ] and [kʰɕi].
All obstruents (plosives, affricates, fricatives) are unreleased [p̚, t̚, k̚] at the end of a word.
Plosive stops |p, t, k| become nasal stops /m, n, ŋ/ before nasal stops.
Some of these phonetic assimilation rules can be seen in the following:
- |tɕoŋlo| is pronounced [tɕoŋ.no]
- |hankukmal| as [han.ɡuŋ.mal]
Hangul spelling does not reflect these assimilatory pronunciation rules, but rather maintains the underlying morphology.
One difference between the pronunciation standards of North and South Korea is the treatment of initial |l| and /n/. For example,
- "labour" - north: rodong (로동), south: nodong (노동)
- "history" - north: ryŏksa (력사), south: yeoksa (역사)
- "female" - north: nyŏja (녀자), south: yeoja (여자)
[edit] Phonotactics
Korean syllables may not start or end with consonant clusters,
except in a few cases. Consequently, consonant clusters in Korean are
usually limited to sequences of two consonants where two syllables have
been joined.
Only seven consonant allophones are found at the end of utterances: [p̚, m, t̚, n, l, k̚, ŋ]. Utterance-final plosives are all unreleased.
The combinations /jw, wj, ji, jɯ, wu, wɯ, wo/ are not allowed and it is impossible to write them using standard Hangul.[2]
[edit] Vowel harmony
Korean Vowel Harmony
| Positive/"light"/Yang Vowels |
ㅏ (a) |
ㅑ (ya) |
ㅗ (o) |
ㅛ (yo) |
| ㅐ (ae) |
ㅘ (wa) |
ㅚ (oe) |
ㅙ (wae) |
| Negative/"heavy"/Yin Vowels |
ㅓ (eo) |
ㅕ (yeo) |
ㅜ (u) |
ㅠ (yu) |
| ㅔ (e) |
ㅝ (wo) |
ㅟ (wi) |
ㅞ (we) |
| Neutral/Centre Vowels |
ㅡ (eu) |
ㅣ (i) |
ㅢ (ui) |
Traditionally, the Korean language has had strong vowel harmony; that is, in pre-modern Korean, as in most Altaic languages, not only did the inflectional and derivational affixes (such as postpositions)
change in accordance to the main root vowel, but native words also
adhered to vowel harmony. It is not as prevalent in modern usage,
although it remains strong in onomatopoeia, adjectives and adverbs, interjections, and conjugation. There are also other traces of vowel harmony in Korean.
There are three classes of vowels in Korean: positive, negative, and
neutral. The vowel eu is considered partially a neutral and negative
vowel. The vowel classes loosely follow the negative and positive
vowels; they also follow orthography. Exchanging positive vowels with
negative vowels usually creates different nuances of meaning, with
positive vowels sounding diminutive and negative vowels sounding crude.
Some examples:
- Onomatopoeia:
- 퐁당퐁당 (pongdangpongdang) and 풍덩풍덩 (pungdeongpungdeong), light and heavy water splashing
- Emphasised adjectives:
- 노랗다 (norata) means plain yellow, while its negative, 누렇다 (nureota) means very yellow
- 파랗다 (parata) means plain blue, while its negative, 퍼렇다 (peoreota) means deep blue
- Particles at the end of verbs:
- 잡다 (japda) (to catch) → 잡았다 (Jabatda) (caught)
- 접다 (jeopda) (to fold) → 접었다 (Jeobeotda) (folded)
- Interjections:
- 아이고 (aigo) and 어이구 (eoigu) expressing surprise, discomfort or sympathy
- 아하 (aha) and 어허 (eoheo) expressing sudden realization and mild objection, respectively
[edit] Pitch accent
Standard Seoul Korean only uses pitch for prosodic purposes. However, several dialects outside Seoul retain the Middle Korean pitch accent
system. In the dialect of Northern Gyeongsang, in southeastern South
Korea, any syllable may have pitch accent in the form of a high tone,
as may the two initial syllables. For example, in trisyllabic words,
there are four possible tone patterns:[3]
- [mé.nu.ɾi] ('daughter-in-law')
- [ə.mú.i] ('mother')
- [wə.nə.mín] ('native speaker')
- [ó.ɾé.pi] ('elder brother')
[edit] References
- ^ a b c International Phonetic Association (1999). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge University Press, pp. 120–122. ISBN 0-521-63751-1.
- ^ Note: While 워 is romanized as wo, it does not represent /wo/.
- ^ The Prosodic Structure and Pitch Accent of Northern Kyungsang Korean, Jun et al., JEAL 2005[ling.snu.ac.kr/jun/work/JEAL_final.pdf]
[edit] See also
[[i] 本帖最後由 penkyamp 於 2008-8-17 04:36 編輯 [/i]] |
發表於 2008-8-17 04:32:17
