For assistance in making phonetic transcriptions of Korean for Wikipedia articles, see
Help:IPA/Korean
.
Sound system of the Korean language
This article is a technical description of the
phonetics
and
phonology
of
Korean
. Unless otherwise noted, statements in this article refer to
South Korean standard language
based on the
Seoul dialect
.
Morphophonemes
are written inside double slashes (
? ?
),
phonemes
inside slashes (
/ /
), and
allophones
inside brackets (
[ ]
).
Consonants
[
edit
]
Korean has 19 consonant phonemes.
[1]
For each plosive and affricate, there is a three-way contrast between unvoiced segments, which are distinguished as
plain
,
tense
, and
aspirated
.
- The "plain" segments, sometimes referred to as "lax" or "lenis," are considered to be the more "basic" or unmarked members of the Korean obstruent series. The "plain" segments are also distinguished from the tense and aspirated phonemes by changes in vowel quality, including a relatively lower
pitch
of the following vowel.
[2]
- The "tense" segments, also referred to as "fortis," "hard," or "glottalized," have eluded precise description and have been the subject of considerable phonetic investigation. In the
Korean alphabet
as well as all widely used
romanization systems for Korean
, they are represented as doubled plain segments:
ㅃ
pp
,
ㄸ
tt
,
ㅉ
jj
,
ㄲ
kk
. As it was suggested from the
Middle Korean
spelling, the tense consonants came from the initial consonant clusters
sC
-,
pC
-,
psC
-.
[3]
[4]
: 29, 38, 452
- The "aspirated" segments are characterized by
aspiration
, a burst of air accompanied by the delayed
onset of voicing
.
Korean syllable structure is maximally CGVC, where G is a glide
/j,
w,
?/
. (There is a unique off-glide diphthong in the character 의 that combines the sounds
[?]
and
[i]
creating
[?]
).
[5]
Any consonant except
/ŋ/
may occur initially, but only
/p,
t,
k,
m,
n,
ŋ,
l/
may occur finally. Sequences of two consonants may occur between vowels.
Example words for consonant phonemes
IPA
|
Example
|
|
|
|
Translation
|
/p/
|
불
bul
|
[pul]
|
'fire' or 'light'
|
/p?/
|
뿔
ppul
|
[p?ul]
|
'horn'
|
/p?/
|
풀
pul
|
[p?ul]
|
'grass' or 'glue'
|
/m/
|
물
mul
|
[m?ul]
|
'water' or 'liquid'
|
/t/
|
달
dal
|
[tal]
|
'moon' or 'month'
|
/t?/
|
딸
ttal
|
[t?al]
|
'daughter'
|
/t?/
|
脫
tal
|
[t?al]
|
'mask' or 'trouble'
|
/n/
|
날
nal
|
[n?al]
|
'day' or 'blade'
|
/t?/
|
자다
jada
|
[t?ada]
|
'to sleep'
|
/t??/
|
짜다
jjada
|
[t??ada]
|
'to squeeze' or 'to be salty'
|
/t??/
|
차다
chada
|
[t??ada]
|
'to kick' or 'to be cold'
|
/k/
|
基
gi
|
[ki]
|
'energy'
|
/k?/
|
끼
kki
|
[k?i]
|
'talent' or 'meal'
|
/k?/
|
키
ki
|
[k?i]
|
'height'
|
/ŋ/
|
房
bang
|
[paŋ]
|
'room'
|
/s/
|
살
sal
|
[sal]
|
'flesh'
|
/s?/
|
쌀
ssal
|
[s?al]
|
'uncooked grains of rice'
|
/?/
|
바람
baram
|
[pa?am]
|
'wind' or 'wish'
|
/l/
|
발
bal
|
[pal]
|
'foot'
|
/h/
|
하다
hada
|
[hada]
|
'to do'
|
Plain
[
edit
]
/p,
t,
t?,
k/
are voiced
[b,
d,
d?,
?]
between sonorants (including all vowels and certain consonants) but voiceless elsewhere. Among younger generations, they may be just as aspirated as
/p?,
t?,
t??,
k?/
in initial position; the primary difference is that vowels following the plain consonants
carry low tone
.
[6]
[7]
Aspirated
[
edit
]
/p?,
t?,
t??,
k?/
are strongly aspirated, more so than English voiceless stops. They generally do not undergo intervocalic voicing, but a 2020 study reports that it still occurs in around 10~15% of cases. It is more prevalent among older male speakers who have aspirated stops voiced in as much as 28% of cases.
[8]
Tense
[
edit
]
The
IPA
diacritic ⟨
??
⟩, resembling a subscript double straight quotation mark, shown here with a placeholder circle, is used to denote the tensed consonants
/p?/,
/t?/,
/k?/,
/t??/,
/s?/
. Its official use in the
Extensions to the IPA
is for
strong
articulation, but is used in literature in the context of Korean phonology for
faucalized voice
[
citation needed
]
. The Korean consonants also have elements of
stiff voice
, but it is not yet
[
when?
]
known how typical that is of faucalized consonants. Sometimes the tense consonants are marked with an apostrophe, ⟨
?
⟩, but that is not IPA usage; in the IPA, the apostrophe indicates
ejective
consonants. Some works use full-size
?
or small
?
before tensed consonants, this notation is generally used to denote
pre-glottalization
. Asterisk
*
after a tensed consonant is also used in literature.
[9]
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.
An alternative analysis
[10]
proposes that the "tensed" series of sounds are (fundamentally) regular voiceless, unaspirated consonants: the "lax" sounds are voiced consonants that become devoiced initially, and the primary distinguishing feature between word-initial "lax" and "tensed" consonants is that initial
lax
sounds cause the following vowel to assume a low-to-high pitch contour, a feature reportedly associated with voiced consonants in many Asian languages (such as
Shanghainese
), whereas tensed (and also aspirated) consonants are associated with a uniformly high pitch.
Vowels before tense consonants (as well as aspirated) tend to be shorter than before lax stops.
[9]
The
Gyeongsang dialect
is known for realization of tense
ㅆ
ss
as plain
ㅅ
s
.
Fricatives
[
edit
]
ㅎ
h
does not occur in final position,
[a]
though the sound
/h/
does occur at the end of non-final syllables, where it affects the following consonant. (See below.) Intervocalically, it is realized as voiced
[?]
, and after voiced consonants it is either
[?]
or silent.
[9]
The analysis of
/s/
as phonologically plain or aspirated has been a source of controversy in the literature.
[11]
[2]
Similarly to plain stops, it shows moderate aspiration word-initially but no aspiration word-medially.
[2]
[9]
It also often undergoes intervocalic voicing.
[2]
But similar to aspirated stops, it triggers high pitch in the following vowel.
Word-initial aspiration, intervocalic voicing, and higher pitch of the following vowels are shared qualities in Korean fricatives
/s/
and
/h/
.
Sonorants
[
edit
]
Sonorants resemble vowels in the sense that plain stops become voiced between a sonorant or a vowel and another vowel.
ㅁ, ㄴ
/m,
n/
tend to be
denasalized
word-initially.
[12]
ㅇ
ng
does not occur in initial position, reflected in the way the Hangul
jamo
ㅇ
has a different pronunciation in the initial position to the final position. These were distinguished when Hangul was created, with the
jamo
ㆁ
with the upper dot and the
jamo
ㅇ
without the upper dot; these were then conflated and merged in both the North Korean and South Korean standards.
/ŋ/
can technically occur syllable-initially, as in
名이
, which is written as
/mj?ŋ.i/
, but pronounced as
/mj?.ŋi/
.
ㄹ
/l/
is an alveolar flap
[?]
between vowels or between a vowel and an
/h/
. It is
[l]
or
[?]
at the end of a word, before a consonant other than
/h/
, or next to another
/l/
; in these contexts, it is palatalized to
[?]
before
/i,
j/
and before palatal consonant allophones.
[13]
There is free variation at the beginning of a word, where this phoneme tends to become
[n]
before most vowels and silent before
/i,
j/
, but it is commonly
[?]
in English loanwords. Geminate
/ll/
is realized as
[ll]/[??]
, or as
[??]
before
/i,
j/
.
[14]
[15]
In native Korean words,
ㄹ
r
does not occur word initially, unlike in Chinese loans (
Sino-Korean vocabulary
).
[12]
In South Korea, it is silent in initial position before
/i/
and
/j/
, pronounced
[n]
before other vowels, and pronounced
[?]
only in compound words after a vowel. The prohibition on word-initial
r
is called the "
initial sound law
" or
dueum beopchik
(
頭音法則
). Initial
r
is officially spelled with
ㄹ
in North Korea, but is often pronounced the same way as it is in South Korea.
- "labour" (
勞動
) ? North Korea:
r
odong
(
勞動
), South Korea:
n
odong
(
勞動
)
- "history" (
歷史
) ? North Korea:
ry
?ksa
(
歷史
), South Korea:
y
eoksa
(
歷史
)
This rule also extends to
ㄴ
n
in many native and all Sino-Korean words, which is also lost before initial
/i/
and
/j/
in South Korean; again, North Korean preserves the
[n]
phoneme there.
- "female" (
女子
) ? North Korea:
ny
?ja
(
女子
), South Korea:
y
eoja
(
女子
)
In both countries, initial
r
in words of foreign origin other than Chinese is pronounced
[?]
. Very old speakers may pronounce word-initial
r
as
[n]
even in Western loanwords, e.g. in "lighter"
라이터
[nait??ː]
.
When pronounced as an alveolar flap
[?]
,
ㄹ
is sometimes allophonic with
[d]
, which generally does not occur elsewhere.
[
clarification needed
]
The features of consonants are summed up in the following table.
Features of consonants
[9]
[16]
[10]
Consonant class
|
Voice
|
Tension
|
Aspiration
|
Pitch
of following vowel
|
Sonorants
ㅁㄴㄹㅇ
m n r ?
|
yes
|
lenis
|
no
|
low
|
Plain
ㅂㅈㄷㄱ
b j d g
|
intervocalically
|
lenis
|
slight
heavy (word-initially)
|
low
|
ㅎ
h
|
intervocalically
(if not silent)
|
lenis
|
(yes)
|
high
|
ㅅ
s
|
possible
|
lenis
|
slight
heavy (word-initially)
|
high
|
Aspirated
ㅍㅊㅌㅋ
p ch t k
|
no
|
fortis
|
heavy
|
high
|
Tense
ㅃㅉㄸㄲㅆ
pp jj tt kk ss
|
no
|
fortis
|
no
|
high
|
Clusters
[
edit
]
Morphemes may also end in CC
clusters
, which are both expressed only when they are followed by a vowel. When the morpheme is not suffixed, one of the consonants is not expressed; if there is a
/h/
, which cannot appear in final position, it will be that. Otherwise it will be a coronal consonant (with the exception of
/lb/
, sometimes), and if the sequence is two coronals, the voiceless one (
/s,
t?,
t?/
) will drop, and
/n/
or
/l/
will remain.
/lb/
either reduces to
[l]
(as in 짧다
[t???alt?a]
"to be short"
[17]
) or to
[p?]
(as in 밟다
[paːp?t?a]
"to step"
[18]
); 여덟
[j?d?l]
"eight" is always pronounced 女덜 even when followed by a vowel-initial particle.
[19]
Thus, no sequence reduces to
[p?]
in final position.
Sequence
|
ㄳ
gs
|
ㄺ
lg
|
ㄵ
nj
|
ㄶ
nh
|
ㄽ
ls
|
ㄾ
lt
|
ㅀ
lh
|
ㄼ
lb
|
ㅄ
bs
|
ㄿ
lp
|
ㄻ
lm
|
Medial allophone
|
[k?s?]
|
[l?]
|
[nd?]
|
[n(?)]
|
[ls?]
|
[lt?]
|
[l(?)]
|
[lb]
|
[p?s?]
|
[lp?]
|
[lm]
|
Final allophone
|
[k?]
|
[n]
|
[l]
|
[p?]
|
[m]
|
When such a sequence is followed by a consonant, the same reduction takes place, but a trace of the lost consonant may remain in its effect on the following consonant. The effects are the same as in a sequence between vowels: an elided obstruent will leave the third consonant fortis, if it is a stop, and an elided
?h?
will leave it aspirated. Most conceivable combinations do not actually occur;
[b]
a few examples are
?lh-t??
=
[lt??]
,
?nh-t?
=
[nt?]
,
?nh-s?
=
[ns?]
,
?lt?-t?
=
[lt?]
,
?ps-k?
=
[p?k?]
,
?ps-t??
=
[p?t??]
; also
?ps-n?
=
[mn]
, as
/s/
has no effect on a following
/n/
, and
?ks-h?
=
[k?]
, with the
/s/
dropping out.
When the second and third consonants are homorganic obstruents, they merge, becoming fortis or aspirate, and, depending on the word and a preceding
?l?
, might not elide:
?lk-k?
is
[lk?]
.
An elided
?l?
has no effect:
?lk-t?
=
[k?t?]
,
?lk-t??
=
[k?t??]
,
?lk-s?
=
[k?s?]
,
?lk-n?
=
[ŋn]
,
?lm-t?
=
[md]
,
?lp-k?
=
[p?k?]
,
?lp-t?
=
[p?t?]
,
?lp-t??
=
[p?t??]
,
?lp?-t?
=
[p?t?]
,
?lp?-t??
=
[p?t??]
,
?lp-n?
=
[mn]
.
Positional allophones
[
edit
]
Korean consonants have three principal positional allophones: initial, medial (voiced), and final (checked). The initial form is found at the beginning of
phonological words
. The medial form is found in voiced environments, intervocalically (immediately between vowels), and after a voiced consonant such as
n
or
l
. The final form is found in checked environments such as at the end of a phonological word or before an obstruent consonant such as
t
or
k
. Nasal consonants (
m
,
n
,
ng
) do not have noticeable positional allophones beyond initial denasalization, and
ng
cannot appear in this position.
The table below is out of alphabetical order to make the relationships between the consonants explicit:
Phoneme
|
ㄱ
g
|
ㅋ
k
|
ㄲ
kk
|
ㅇ
ng
|
ㄷ
d
|
ㅌ
t
|
ㅅ
s
|
ㅆ
ss
|
ㅈ
j
|
ㅊ
ch
|
ㄸ
tt
|
ㅉ
jj
|
ㄴ
n
|
ㄹ
r
|
ㅂ
b
|
ㅍ
p
|
ㅃ
pp
|
ㅁ
m
|
ㅎ
h
|
Initial allophone
|
k~k?
|
k?
|
k?
|
n/a
|
t~t?
|
t?
|
s~s?
|
s?
|
t?~t??
|
t??
|
t?
|
t??
|
n~n?
|
?~l~n~n?
|
p~p?
|
p?
|
p?
|
m~m?
|
h
|
Medial allophone
|
?
|
ŋ
|
d
|
d?
|
n
|
?
|
b
|
m
|
h~?
~
n/a
|
Final allophone
|
k?
|
t?
|
n/a
|
l
|
p?
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
All
obstruents
(stops, affricates, fricatives) become stops with
no audible release
at the end of a word: all coronals collapse to
[t?]
, all labials to
[p?]
, and all velars to
[k?]
.
[c]
Final
ㄹ
r
is a
lateral
[l]
or
[?]
.
Palatalization
[
edit
]
The vowel that most affects consonants is
/i/
, which, along with its semivowel homologue
/j/
, palatalizes
/s/
and
/s?/
to
alveolo-palatal
[?]
and
[??]
for most speakers (but see
differences in the language between North Korea and South Korea
).
ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅉ
are pronounced
[t?~d?,
t??,
t??]
in
Seoul
, but typically pronounced
[ts~dz,
ts?,
t?s]
in
Pyongyang
.
[20]
Similarly,
/s,
s?/
are palatalized as
[?,
??]
before
/i,
j/
in Seoul. In Pyongyang they remain unchanged.
[
citation needed
]
This pronunciation may be also found in Seoul Korean among some speakers, especially before back vowels.
As noted above, initial
?l?
is silent in this palatalizing environment, at least in South Korea. Similarly, an underlying
?t?
or
?t??
at the
end
of a morpheme becomes a phonemically palatalized affricate
/d?/
or
/t??/
, respectively, when followed by a word or suffix beginning with
/i/
or
/j/
(it becomes indistinguishable from an underlying
?t???
), but that does not happen within native Korean words such as
/?ti/
[?di]
"where?".
/k?/
is more affected by vowels, often becoming an affricate when followed by
/i/
or
/?/
:
[cci]
,
[kx?]
. The most variable consonant is
/h/
, which becomes a
palatal
[c]
before
/i/
or
/j/
, a
velar
[x]
before
/?/
, and a
bilabial
[??]
before
/o/
,
/u/
and
/w/
.
[9]
Allophones of consonants before vowels
|
/i,
j/
|
/?/
|
/o,
u,
w/
|
/a,
?,
?,
e/
|
ㅅ
/s/
|
[?]
|
[s]
|
ㅆ
/s?/
|
[??]
|
[s?]
|
ㄷ
/t/
+ suffix
|
[d?]-
|
[d]-
|
ㅌ
/t?/
+ suffix
|
[t??]-
|
[t?]-
|
ㅋ
/k?/
|
[cc]
|
[kx]
|
[k?]
|
ㅎ
/h/
word-initially
|
[c]
|
[x]
|
[??]
|
[h]
|
ㅎ
/h/
intervocalically
|
[?]
|
[?]
|
[β?]
|
[?]
|
In many morphological processes, a vowel
/i/
before another vowel may become the semivowel
/j/
. Likewise,
/u/
and
/o/
, before another vowel, may reduce to
/w/
. In some dialects and speech registers, the semivowel
/w/
assimilates into a following
/e/
or
/i/
and produces the front rounded vowels
[ø]
and
[y]
.
Consonant assimilation
[
edit
]
As noted above,
tenuis
stops and
/h/
are voiced after the voiced consonants
/m,
n,
ŋ,
l/
, and the resulting voiced
[?]
tends to be elided. Tenuis stops become fortis after obstruents (which, as noted above, are reduced to
[k?,
t?,
p?]
); that is,
/kt/
is pronounced
[k?t?]
. Fortis and nasal stops are unaffected by either environment, though
/n/
assimilates to
/l/
after an
/l/
. After
/h/
, tenuis stops become aspirated,
/s/
becomes fortis, and
/n/
is unaffected.
[d]
/l/
is highly affected: it becomes
[n]
after all consonants but
/n/
(which assimilates to the
/l/
instead) or another
/l/
. For example, underlying
?t?oŋlo?
(鍾路) is pronounced
/t?oŋno/
(종노).
[21]
These are all
progressive
assimilation. Korean also has regressive (anticipatory) assimilation: a consonant tends to assimilate in
manner
but not in
place of articulation
: Obstruents become nasal stops before nasal stops (which, as just noted, includes underlying
?l?
), but do not change their position in the mouth. Velar stops (that is, all consonants pronounced
[k?]
in final position) become
[ŋ]
; coronals (
[t?]
) become
[n]
, and labials (
[p?]
) become
[m]
. For example,
?hanku
k
mal?
(韓國말) is pronounced
/hanku
ŋ
mal/
(한궁말) (phonetically
[han?uŋmal]
).
[21]
Before the fricatives
/s,
s?/
, coronal obstruents assimilate to a fricative, resulting in a
geminate
. That is,
?t?s?
is pronounced
/ss?/
(
[s?ː]
). A final
/h/
assimilates in both place and manner, so that
?h
C
?
is pronounced as a geminate (and, as noted above, aspirated if C is a stop). The two coronal sonorants,
/n/
and
/l/
, in whichever order, assimilate to
/l/
, so that both
?nl?
and
?ln?
are pronounced
[lː]
.
[21]
There are lexical exceptions to these generalizations. For example, voiced consonants occasionally cause a following consonant to become fortis rather than voiced; this is especially common with
?ls?
and
?lt??
as
[ls?]
and
[lt??]
, but is also occasionally seen with other sequences, such as
?kj?.u
lp
aŋhak?
(
[kj?u
lp?
aŋak?]
),
?t??a
mt
oŋan?
(
[t??a
mt?
oŋan]
) and
?weja
ŋk
an?lo?
(
[weja
ŋk?
an??o]
).
[21]
Phonetic realization (before
/a/
) of underlying consonant sequences in Korean
2nd C
1st C
|
coda
|
ㄱ
g-
|
ㄲ
kk-
|
ㄷ
d-
|
ㄸ
tt-
|
ㄴ
n-
|
ㄹ
r-
|
ㅁ
m-
|
ㅂ
b-
|
ㅃ
pp-
|
ㅅ
s-
|
ㅆ
ss-
|
ㅈ
j-
|
ㅉ
jj-
|
ㅊ
ch-
|
ㅋ
k-
|
ㅌ
t-
|
ㅍ
p-
|
ㅎ
h-
|
ㅎ
-h
|
n/a
|
k?.k?
|
n/a
|
t?.t?
|
n/a
|
n.n
|
n/a
|
p?.p?
|
n/a
|
s.s?
|
n/a
|
t?.t??
|
n/a
|
velar stops
1
-k
|
k?
|
k?.k?
|
k?.t?
|
ŋ.n
|
ŋ.m
|
k?.p?
|
k.s?
|
k?.t??
|
k?.t??
|
k?.k?
|
k?.t?
|
k?.p?
|
.k?
|
ㅇ
-ng
|
ŋ
|
ŋ.?
|
ŋ.k?
|
ŋ.d
|
ŋ.t?
|
ŋ.b
|
ŋ.p?
|
ŋ.sː
|
ŋ.s?
|
ŋ.d?
|
ŋ.t??
|
ŋ.t??
|
ŋ.k?
|
ŋ.t?
|
ŋ.p?
|
ŋ.?
~
.ŋ
|
coronal stops
2
-t
|
t?
|
t?.k?
|
t?.t?
|
n.n
|
n.m
|
t?.p?
|
s.s?
|
t?.t??
|
t?.t??
|
t?.k?
|
t?.t?
|
t?.p?
|
.t?
|
ㄴ
-n
|
n
|
n.?
|
n.k?
|
n.d
|
n.t?
|
n.n
|
l.l
|
n.b
|
n.p?
|
n.sː
|
n.s?
|
n.d?
|
n.t??
|
n.t??
|
n.k?
|
n.t?
|
n.p?
|
n.?
~
.n
|
ㄹ
-l
|
l
|
l.?
|
l.k?
|
l.d
|
l.t?
|
l.l
|
l.m
|
l.b
|
l.p?
|
l.sː
|
l.s?
|
l.d?
|
l.t??
|
l.t??
|
l.k?
|
l.t?
|
l.p?
|
l.?
~
.?
|
labial stops
3
-p
|
p?
|
p?.k?
|
p?.t?
|
m.n
|
m.m
|
p?.p?
|
p.s?
|
p?.t??
|
p?.t??
|
p?.k?
|
p?.t?
|
p?.p?
|
.p?
|
ㅁ
-m
|
m
|
m.?
|
m.k?
|
m.d
|
m.t?
|
m.b
|
m.p?
|
m.sː
|
m.s?
|
m.d?
|
m.t??
|
m.t??
|
m.k?
|
m.t?
|
m.p?
|
m.?
~
.m
|
- Velar obstruents found in final position:
ㄱ
g
,
ㄲ
kk
,
ㅋ
k
- Final coronal obstruents:
ㄷ
d
,
ㅌ
t
,
ㅅ
s
,
ㅆ
ss
,
ㅈ
j
,
ㅊ
ch
- Final labial obstruents:
ㅂ
b
,
ㅍ
p
The resulting geminate obstruents, such as
[k?k?]
,
[ss?]
,
[p?p?]
, and
[t?t??]
(that is,
[k?ː]
,
[s?ː]
,
[p?ː]
, and
[tː??]
), tend to reduce (
[k?]
,
[s?]
,
[p?]
,
[t??]
) in rapid conversation. Heterorganic obstruent sequences such as
[k?p?]
and
[t?k?]
may, less frequently, assimilate to geminates (
[p?ː]
,
[kː?]
) and also reduce to (
[p?]
,
[k?]
).
These sequences assimilate with following vowels the way single consonants do, so that for example
?ts?
and
?hs?
palatalize to
[???]
(that is,
[??ː]
) before
/i/
and
/j/
;
?hk?
and
?lk??
affricate to
[kx]
and
[lkx]
before
/?/
;
?ht?
,
?s?h?
, and
?th?
palatalize to
[t?t??]
and
[t??]
across morpheme boundaries, and so on.
Hangul
orthography does not generally reflect these assimilatory processes, but rather maintains the underlying
morphology
in most cases.
Vowels
[
edit
]
| This section needs to be
updated
. The reason given is: The vowel charts are outdated.
Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.
(
February 2017
)
|
The vowel phonemes of Korean on a
vowel chart
, from (Lee, 1999).
[14]
The bottom chart represents long vowels.
Most Standard Korean speakers have seven vowel phonemes.
Korean
/a/
is
phonetically
[?]
.
[14]
The distinction between
/e/
and
/?/
is lost in South Korean dialects?both are most commonly realized as
[e?]
, but some older speakers still retain the difference; as for North Korean, some works report the distinction to be robust. However, the data from one study suggests that while younger
KCTV
anchors try to produce them more or less distinctly, it is not clear whether that is learned or natural pronunciation, as they do so inconsistently. Notably, older anchor
Ri Chun-hee
and even
Kim Jong-un
both have
/e/
and
/?/
merged.
[22]
[23]
[24]
[4]
: 4?6
In
Seoul Korean
,
/o/
is produced higher than
/?/
, while in North Korean dialects the two are comparable in height, and
/?/
is more fronted. In
Gyeongsang dialect
,
/?/
and
/?/
once have merged into
[?]
in speech of older speakers, but they are distinct among young and middle-aged
Daegu
residents (they actually have the same vowels as Seoulites due to influence from Standard Korean).
[24]
[9]
[22]
In Seoul,
/u/
is fronted, while
/o/
is raised, and both are almost the same height, though
/o/
is still more rounded. Due to this, alternative transcriptions like
[u?]
or
[u?]
for
/o/
, and
[u?]
or
[u?]
for
/u/
are proposed.
[22]
In both varieties,
/?/
is fronted away from
/u/
, and in North Korean it is also lower, shifting more towards
[?]
.
[24]
[9]
[22]
Korean used to have two additional phonemes,
[
ø
]
ㅚ
and
[
y
]
ㅟ
, but they are replaced by the diphthongs
[we]
and
[?i]
by the majority of speakers.
[9]
[22]
Middle Korean
had an additional vowel phoneme denoted by
ㆍ
, known as
arae-a
(literally "lower a"). The vowel merged with
/a/
in all mainland varieties of Korean, but remains distinct in
Jeju
where it is pronounced
[
?
]
.
Diphthongs and glides
[
edit
]
Because they may follow consonants in initial position in a word?which no other consonant can do?and also because of Hangul orthography, which transcribes them as vowels,
semivowels
such as
/j/
and
/w/
are sometimes considered to be elements of
rising diphthongs
rather than separate consonant phonemes.
Diphthongs, disregarding length
[14]
IPA
|
Hangul
|
Example
|
/je/
|
ㅖ
|
豫算
ye
san
|
[je?ː.s?n]
|
'budget'
|
/j?/
|
ㅒ
|
얘기
yae
gi
|
[j??ː.?i]
|
'story'
|
/ja/
[j?]
|
ㅑ
|
野球
ya
gu
|
[j?ː.?u]
|
'baseball'
|
/jo/
|
ㅛ
|
敎師
g
yo
sa
|
[k?oː.sa]
|
'teacher'
|
/ju/
|
ㅠ
|
有利
yu
ri
|
[ju.?i]
|
'glass'
|
/j?/
|
ㅕ
|
여기
yeo
gi
|
[j?.?i]
|
'here'
|
/wi
~
y/
[?i]
|
ㅟ
|
뒤
d
wi
|
[t?i]
|
'back'
|
/we/
|
ㅞ
|
櫃
g
we
|
[k?e?]
|
'chest' or 'box'
|
/w?/
|
ㅙ
|
왜
wae
|
[w??]
|
'why'
|
/wa/
[w?]
|
ㅘ
|
과일
g
wa
il
|
[k??ː.il]
|
'fruit'
|
/w?/
|
ㅝ
|
뭐
m
wo
|
[m??ː]
|
'what'
|
/?i/
[?i
~
i]
|
ㅢ
|
醫師
ui
sa
|
[?i.s?]
|
'doctor'
|
In modern pronunciation,
/?i/
merges into
/i/
after a consonant.
[
citation needed
]
Some analyses treat
/?/
as a central vowel and thus the marginal sequence
/?i/
as having a central-vowel onset, which would be more accurately transcribed
[??i]
or
[??i]
.
[25]
: 12
Modern Korean has no
falling diphthongs
, with sequences like
/a.i/
being considered as two separate vowels in
hiatus
. Middle Korean had a full set of diphthongs ending in
/j/
, but these monophthongized into modern-day front vowels in Early Modern Korean (
/aj/
>
/?/
,
/?j/
[ej]
>
/e/
,
/oj/
>
/ø/
,
/uj/
>
/y/
,
/?j/
>
/?i
~
i/
).
[25]
: 12
This is the reason why the hangul letters
ㅐ
,
ㅔ
,
ㅚ
etc. are represented as back vowels plus
i
.
The sequences
/*jø,
*jy,
*j?,
*ji;
*wø,
*wy,
*wo,
*w?,
*wu/
do not occur, and it is not possible to write them using standard hangul.
[e]
The semivowel
[?]
occurs only in the diphthong
/?i/
, and is prone to being deleted after a consonant.
Loss of vowel length contrast
[
edit
]
Korean used to have a length distinction for each vowel, but this is now reported to be almost completely neutralized (though it is still prescriptive).
[26]
Long vowels were pronounced somewhat more peripherally than short ones. As an exception, for most of the speakers who still utilize vowel length contrastively, long
/?ː/
is actually
[?ː]
.
[14]
Vowel length is a remnant of rising tone, first emerging in Middle Korean. It was preserved only in initial syllables and was often neutralized, particularly in the following cases:
[27]
- In compound words:
- 사람
[s?a?ː?a?m]
"man", but
- 눈사람
[nuːns?a??a?m]
"snowman";
- 벌리다
[p?ː??ida?]
"to open, to spread", but
- 떠벌리다
[t???b????ida?]
"to brag".
- In most monosyllabic verbs when attaching a suffix starting with a vowel
- 굶다
[kuːmt?a?]
"to starve", but
- 굶어
[kulm??]
;
- 넣다
[n?ːt?a?]
"to put", but
- 넣으니
[n???ni]
,
- or a suffix changing transitivity
- 붇다
[puːt?t?a?]
"to swell up", but
- 불리다
[pu??ida?]
"to soak";
- 꼬다
[k?o?ːda?]
"to twist", but
- 꼬이다
[k?o?ida?]
"to be entangled".
- There were exceptions though:
- 얻다
[?ːt?t?a?]
"to obtain" still had long vowels in
- 얻어
[?ːd??]
;
- 없다
[?ːp?t?a?]
"to not be" still had long vowels in
- 없으니
[?ːp?s??ni]
.
It has disappeared gradually among younger speakers, but some middle-aged speakers are still aware of it and can still produce it in conscious speech. The long?short merger has had two main aspects. The first is phonetic: The duration of long vowels in relation to short ones has reduced by a lot (from 2.5:1 in the 1960s to 1.5:1 in the 2000s). Some studies suggest that the length of all vowels is dependent on one's age (older speakers seem to exhibit a slower speech rate, and even their short vowels are produced relatively longer than those of younger speakers). The second aspect is lexical: The subset of words produced with long vowels has gotten smaller. Long vowels tend to be reduced most frequently in high-frequency words.
[27]
Vowel phonemes with length distinction
[14]
IPA
|
Hangul
|
Example
|
/
i
/
|
ㅣ
|
市場
s
i
jang
|
[?i.d??ŋ]
|
'hunger'
|
/iː/
|
市場
s
i
jang
|
[?iː.d??ŋ]
|
'market'
|
/
e
/
[f]
|
ㅔ
|
베개
b
e
gae
|
[pe?.???]
|
'pillow'
|
/eː/
|
베다
b
e
da
|
[peː.d?]
|
'to cut'
|
/
?
/
[f]
|
ㅐ
|
倍
b
ae
|
[p??]
|
'pear'
|
/?ː/
|
倍
b
ae
|
[p?ː]
|
'double'
|
/
a
/
|
ㅏ
|
말
m
a
l
|
[m?l]
|
'horse'
|
/aː/
|
말
m
a
l
|
[m?ːl]
|
'word, language'
|
/
o
/
|
ㅗ
|
보리
b
o
ri
|
[po?.?i]
|
'barley'
|
/oː/
|
保守
b
o
su
|
[poː.su?]
|
'salary'
|
/
u
/
|
ㅜ
|
눈
n
u
n
|
[nun]
|
'eye'
|
/uː/
|
눈
n
u
n
|
[nuːn]
|
'snow'
|
/
?
/
|
ㅓ
|
벌
b
eo
l
|
[p?l]
|
'punishment'
|
/
?ː
/
|
벌
b
eo
l
|
[p?ːl]
|
'bee'
|
/
?
/
|
ㅡ
|
어른
eor
eu
n
|
[?ː.??n]
|
'seniors'
|
/?ː/
|
飮食
eu
msik
|
[?ːm.?ik?]
|
'food'
|
/
ø
/
[we]
[g]
|
ㅚ
|
敎會
gyoh
oe
|
[?k?oː?ø?]
~
[k?oː.β?e?]
|
'church'
|
/øː/
[weː]
|
外套
oe
tu
|
[ø?ː.t?u]
~
[we?ː.t?u]
|
'overcoat'
|
/
y
/
[?i]
[g]
|
ㅟ
|
쥐
j
wi
|
[t??y]
~
[t???i]
|
'mouse'
|
/yː/
[?iː]
|
鬼神
g
wi
sin
|
[?kyː?in]
~
[?k?iː?in]
|
'ghost'
|
Vowel harmony
[
edit
]
Korean vowel harmony
Positive, "light", or "
yang
" vowels
|
ㅏ
a
|
ㅑ
ya
|
ㅘ
wa
|
ㅗ
o
|
ㅛ
yo
|
(
ㆍ
?
)
|
ㅐ
ae
|
ㅒ
yae
|
ㅙ
wae
|
ㅚ
oe
|
(
ㆉ
yoe
)
|
(
ㆎ
?i
)
|
Neutral or center vowels
|
ㅣ
i
|
Negative, "heavy", or "
yin
" vowels
|
ㅓ
eo
|
ㅕ
yeo
|
ㅝ
wo
|
ㅜ
u
|
ㅠ
yu
|
ㅡ
eu
|
ㅔ
e
|
ㅖ
ye
|
ㅞ
we
|
ㅟ
wi
|
(
ㆌ
ywi
)
|
ㅢ
ui
|
Obsolete and dialectal sounds in parentheses.
|
Traditionally, the Korean language has had strong
vowel harmony
; that is, in pre-modern Korean, 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 universally prevalent in modern usage, but it remains 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
ㅡ
(eu) is considered both partially neutral and partially negative. 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 representing diminutives and negative vowels representing exaggeration:
- Onomatopoeia:
- 퐁당퐁당
(
p
o
ngd
a
ng-p
o
ngd
a
ng
) and
풍덩풍덩
(
p
u
ngd
eo
ng-p
u
ngd
eo
ng
), light and heavy water splashing
- Emphasized adjectives:
- 노랗다
(
n
o
r
a
ta
) means plain yellow, while its negative,
누렇다
(
n
u
r
eo
ta
), means very yellow
- 파랗다
(
p
a
r
a
ta
) means plain blue, while its negative,
퍼렇다
(
p
eo
r
eo
ta
), means deep blue
- Particles at the end of verbs:
- 잡다
(
j
a
pda
) (to catch) →
잡았다
(
j
a
b
a
tda
) (caught)
- 접다
(
j
eo
pda
) (to fold) →
접었다
(
j
eo
b
eo
tda
) (folded)
- Interjections:
- 아이고
(
a
ig
o
) and
어이구
(
eo
ig
u
) expressing surprise, discomfort or sympathy
- 아하
(
a
h
a
) and
어허
(
eo
h
eo
) expressing sudden realization and mild objection, respectively
While these vowels change, it is important to note that one is aware of just slight differences when speaking Korean. There are many minimal pairs in Korean in which a change of sound can alter the meaning of the word or sentence spoken completely.
[5]
- 별 'star' (
b
yeol
[p???l?]
with normal pitch) and 펼 'unfold' (
p
yeol
[p???l?]
with higher pitch)
- 이 가방이 싸요 'this bag is cheap' (i gabang-i
ss
ayo
[i
k??b?ŋi
s??j?]
) and 이 가방이 사요 'this bag buys' (i gabang-i
s
ayo
[i
k??b?ŋi
s??j?]
)
Accent and pitch
[
edit
]
In modern Standard Korean, in multisyllabic words the second syllable has high pitch that gradually comes down in subsequent syllables. The first syllable may have pitch as high as the second if it starts with a tense
ㅃ, ㅉ, ㄸ, ㄲ, ㅆ
/p?,
t??,
t?,
k?,
s?/
or an aspirated
ㅍ, ㅊ, ㅌ, ㅋ
/p?,
t??,
t?,
k?/
consonant, as well as
ㅅ, ㅎ
/s?,
h/
, or lower rising pitch if it starts with plain
ㅂ, ㅈ, ㄷ, ㄱ
/p,
t?,
t,
k/
or a sonorant
ㅁ, ㄴ, ㄹ
/m,
n,
r/
, including silent
ㅇ
, i.e. a vowel.
[10]
As early as 2004, researchers have posited that pitch and voicing are the actual distinguishing features between modern Korean consonants rather than the standard but seemingly ill defined "tense" vs "lax" theory.
[10]
A 2013 study by Kang Yoon-jung and Han Sung-woo which compared voice recordings of Seoul speech from 1935 and 2005 found that in recent years,
lenis consonants
(ㅂㅈㄷㄱ),
aspirated consonants
(ㅍㅊㅌㅋ) and fortis consonants (ㅃㅉㄸㄲ) were shifting from a distinction via
voice onset time
to that of pitch change, and suggests that the modern
Seoul dialect
is currently undergoing
tonogenesis
.
[28]
Kim Mi-Ryoung (2013) notes that these sound shifts still show variations among different speakers, suggesting that the transition is still ongoing.
[29]
Cho Sung-hye (2017) examined 141 Seoul dialect speakers, and concluded that these pitch changes were originally initiated by females born in the 1950s, and has almost reached completion in the speech of those born in the 1990s.
[30]
On the other hand, Choi Ji-youn et al. (2020) disagree with the suggestion that the consonant distinction shifting away from voice onset time is due to the introduction of tonal features, and instead proposes that it is a
prosodically conditioned change
.
[8]
Dialectal pitch accents
[
edit
]
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:
[31]
- 메누리
menuri
[me.nu.?i]
'daughter-in-law'
- 어무이
eomu-i
[?.mu.i]
'mother'
- 原語民
woneomin
[w?.n?.min]
'native speaker'
- 오래비
orebi
[o.?e.bi]
'elder brother'
Age differences
[
edit
]
The following changes have been observed since the mid-20th century and by now are widespread, at least in South Korea.
- Contrastive vowel length has disappeared. Although still prescriptive, in 2012, the vowel length is reported to be almost completely neutralized in Korean, except for a very few older speakers of the Seoul dialect,
[26]
for whom the distinctive vowel length distinction is maintained only in the first syllable of a word.
[32]
Even amongst those middle-aged speakers who retain the distinction, the phonetic contrast between a long vowel and a short vowel has shrunk to 1.5:1, compared to 2.5:1 recorded in the 1960s;
[27]
additionally, the number of lexical items featuring long vowels has also reduced, with low-frequency words being more likely to retain long vowels than high-frequency ones.
[27]
Vowel length has subsequently become a
prosodic feature
of the language, used mainly for emphasis, and placed typically on the first syllable of the word.
[26]
- The
mid front rounded vowel
(
[
ø
]
ㅚ
) and the
close front rounded vowel
(
[
y
]
ㅟ
),
[25]
: 6
can still be heard in the speech of some older speakers, but they have been largely replaced by the diphthongs
[we]
and
[?i]
, respectively.
[4]
: 4?6
In a 2003 survey of 350 speakers from Seoul, nearly 90% pronounced the vowel
ㅟ
as
[?i]
.
[32]
- The distinction between
/e/
and
/?/
is lost in South Korean dialects. A number of homophones have appeared due to this change, and speakers may employ different strategies to distinguish them. For example,
내가
/n?-?a/
"I-
subject
" and
네가
/ne-?a/
"you-
subject
" are now pronounced as
[ne???]
and
[ni??]
respectively, with the latter having changed its vowel;
새 盞
/s?
t?an/
"new glass" is pronounced with tensified
[s?]
by some young speakers to not be conflated with
세 盞
/se
t?an/
"three glasses".
Some changes are still ongoing. They depend on age and gender, the speech of young females tends to be most innovative, while old males are phonologically conservative.
- Plain stops in word-initial position are becoming as aspirated as "true" aspirated stops. They are still distinguished by their pitch,
[6]
which indicates ongoing
tonogenesis
in Contemporary Seoul Korean.
[28]
[29]
[30]
This is however contested by studies which explain this as a
prosodic feature
.
[8]
- Some words experience tensification of initial plain consonants, in both native and Sino-Korean words. It is proscribed in normative Standard Korean, but may be widespread or occur in free variation in certain words.
[33]
Examples:
- 가시
/kasi/
"1) thorn; 2) worm" is pronounced
까시
/k?asi/
- 닦다
/tak?t?a/
"to polish" is pronounced
딲다
/t?ak?t?a/
- 조금
/t?o??m/
"a little" is pronounced
쪼금
/t??o??m/
,
쬐끔
/t???ek??m/
- Tensification is very common in Western loanwords:
배지
[p?e?t??i]
"badge",
버스
[p???s??]
"bus",
잼
[t??e?m]
"jam", although also proscribed in South Korea.
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Orthographically, it is found at the end of the name of the letter
ㅎ
,
히읗
hieut
.
- ^
For example, morpheme-final
?lp?
occurs only in verb roots such as
밟
balb
and is followed by only the consonants
d
,
j
,
g
,
n
.
- ^
The only fortis consonants to occur finally are
ㄲ
kk
and
ㅆ
ss
.
- ^
Other consonants do not occur after
/h/
, which is uncommon in morpheme-final position.
- ^
While
워
is romanized as
wo
, it does not represent
[wo]
, but rather
[w?]
.
- ^
a
b
Heavy-bordered boxes indicate vowels which are now pronounced the same for most speakers.
- ^
a
b
Shaded cells indicate vowels that can be pronounced either as monophthongs or glide-vowel sequences.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Sohn, Ho-Min (1994).
Korean: Descriptive Grammar
. Descriptive Grammars. London:
Routledge
. p. 432.
ISBN
9780415003186
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Cho, Taehong; Jun, Sun-Ah; Ladefoged, Peter (2002).
"Acoustic and aerodynamic correlates of Korean stops and fricatives"
(PDF)
.
Journal of Phonetics
.
30
(2): 193?228.
doi
:
10.1006/jpho.2001.0153
.
hdl
:
11858/00-001M-0000-0013-1A88-E
.
- ^
Kim-Renaud, Young-Key, ed. (1997).
The Korean Alphabet: Its History and Structure
. Honolulu:
University of Hawai?i Press
. pp. 169?170.
ISBN
9780824817237
.
- ^
a
b
c
Brown, Lucien; Yeon, Jaehoon, eds. (2015).
The Handbook of Korean Linguistics
. West Sussex, UK:
Wiley-Blackwell
.
ISBN
9781118370933
.
- ^
a
b
Lee, Eunhee; Madigan, Sean; Park, Mee-Jeong (October 30, 2015).
An Introduction to Korean Linguistics
.
doi
:
10.4324/9781315678016
.
ISBN
9781317389910
.
- ^
a
b
Kim, Mi-Ryoung; Beddor, Patrice Speeter; Horrocks, Julie (2002). "The contribution of consonantal and vocalic information to the perception of Korean initial stops".
Journal of Phonetics
.
30
(1): 77?100.
doi
:
10.1006/jpho.2001.0152
.
- ^
Lee, Ki-Moon; Ramsey, S. Robert (2011).
A History of the Korean Language
. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
. p. 293.
ISBN
9780521661898
.
- ^
a
b
c
Choi, Jiyoun; Kim, Sahyang; Cho, Taehong (October 22, 2020).
"An apparent-time study of an ongoing sound change in Seoul Korean: A prosodic account"
.
PLOS ONE
.
15
(10): e0240682.
Bibcode
:
2020PLoSO..1540682C
.
doi
:
10.1371/journal.pone.0240682
.
PMC
7580931
.
PMID
33091043
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
Shin, Jiyoung; Kiaer, Jieun; Cha, Jaeeun (2012).
The Sounds of Korean
. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
.
ISBN
9781107672680
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Kim, Mi-Ryoung; San, Duanmu (2004).
"
'Tense' and 'Lax' Stops in Korean"
.
Journal of East Asian Linguistics
.
13
(1): 59?104.
doi
:
10.1023/B:JEAL.0000007344.43938.4e
.
hdl
:
2027.42/42997
.
S2CID
121197437
.
- ^
Chang, Charles B. (2013).
"The production and perception of coronal fricatives in Seoul Korean: The case for a fourth laryngeal category"
(PDF)
.
Korean Linguistics
.
15
(1): 7?49.
doi
:
10.1075/kl.15.1.02cha
.
- ^
a
b
Kim, Young Shin (2011).
An acoustic, aerodynamic and perceptual investigation of word-initial denasalization in Korean
(Doctoral thesis).
University College London
.
- ^
Crosby, Drew; Dalola, Amanda (March 2021).
"Phonetic variation in the Korean liquid phoneme"
.
Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America
.
6
(1): 706?707, 711.
doi
:
10.3765/plsa.v6i1.5002
. Retrieved
September 5,
2022
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Lee, Hyun Bok (1999).
"Korean"
.
Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet
. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
. pp. 120?123.
ISBN
9780521637510
.
- ^
Lee, Youngjoo (2001).
"A Moraic Account of Liquid Alternation in Korean"
(PDF)
.
Rutgers Optimality Archive
.
S2CID
19000375
. ROA 486.
- ^
Choo, Miho; O'Grady, William (2003).
The Sounds of Korean: A Pronunciation Guide
.
University of Hawaii Press
.
ISBN
9780824826017
.
- ^
"짧다 - Wiktionary"
.
en.wiktionary.org
. Retrieved
June 2,
2019
.
- ^
"밟다 - Wiktionary"
.
en.wiktionary.org
. Retrieved
June 2,
2019
.
- ^
"여덟 - Wiktionary"
.
en.wiktionary.org
. Retrieved
June 2,
2019
.
- ^
Kwang-Bock You; Kanghee Lee; Sin-Ae So (August 2019).
"A Comparative Study of the Speech Signal Parameters for the Consonants of Pyongyang and Seoul Dialects - Focused on the affricates "ㅈ/ㅉ/ㅊ"
"
.
韓國知識情報技術學會論文지
.
14
(4): 411?423.
doi
:
10.34163/JKITS.2019.14.4.010
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
梅田, 博之 (1985).
ハングル入門
. Tokyo: NHK Publishing.
ISBN
9784140350287
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Berrjod, Victor (2014).
Korean Vowel Systems: A Study of Vowel Systems in Seoul and Pyongyang
(PDF)
.
- ^
Kwak, Chung-gu (2003).
"The Vowel System of Contemporary Korean and Direction of Change"
.
Journal of Korea Linguistics
.
41
: 59?91.
- ^
a
b
c
Kang, Yoonjung; Schertz, Jessamyn L.; Han, Sungwoo (2015). "Vowels of Korean dialects".
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
.
137
(4): 2414.
Bibcode
:
2015ASAJ..137Q2414K
.
doi
:
10.1121/1.4920798
.
- ^
a
b
c
Ahn, Sang-Cheol; Iverson, Gregory K. (2005).
"Structured imbalances in the emergence of the Korean vowel system"
. In Salmons, Joseph C.; Dubenion-Smith, Shannon (eds.).
Historical Linguistics 2005
. Madison, WI:
John Benjamins
. pp. 275?293.
CiteSeerX
10.1.1.557.3316
.
doi
:
10.1075/cilt.284.21ahn
.
ISBN
9789027247995
.
- ^
a
b
c
Kim-Renaud, Young-Key (2012). Tranter, Nicolas (ed.).
The Languages of Japan and Korea
. Oxon, UK:
Routledge
. p. 127.
ISBN
9780415462877
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Kang, Yoonjung; Yoon, Tae-Jin; Han, Sungwoo (October 1, 2015).
"Frequency effects on the vowel length contrast merger in Seoul Korean"
.
Laboratory Phonology
.
6
(3?4): 469?503.
doi
:
10.1515/lp-2015-0014
.
ISSN
1868-6354
.
- ^
a
b
Kang, Yoonjung; Han, Sungwoo (September 2013). "Tonogenesis in early Contemporary Seoul Korean: A longitudinal case study".
Lingua
.
134
: 62?74.
doi
:
10.1016/j.lingua.2013.06.002
.
- ^
a
b
Kim, Mi-Ryoung (2013). "Tonogenesis in contemporary Korean with special reference to the onset-tone interaction and the loss of a consonant opposition".
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
.
133
(3570): 3570.
Bibcode
:
2013ASAJ..133.3570K
.
doi
:
10.1121/1.4806535
.
- ^
a
b
Cho, Sunghye (2017).
Development of pitch contrast and Seoul Korean intonation
(PDF)
(PhD thesis). University of Pennsylvania. Archived from
the original
on October 29, 2020.
- ^
Jun, Jongho; Kim, Jungsun; Lee, Hayoung; Jun, Sun-Ah (2006).
"The prosodic structure and pitch accent of Northern Kyungsang Korean"
(PDF)
.
Journal of East Asian Linguistics
.
15
(4): 289?317.
doi
:
10.1007/s10831-006-9000-2
.
S2CID
18992886
.
- ^
a
b
Lee, Iksop; Ramsey, S. Robert (2000).
The Korean Language
. Albany, NY:
SUNY Press
. p. 66.
ISBN
978-0791448311
.
- ^
張, 笑韻 (February 2017).
Hyeondae hangug-eoui eodu gyeong-eumhwa yeongu
現代 韓國語의 語頭 硬音化 硏究
[
A study on word-initial consonants in modern Korean
] (master's thesis). Seoul National University Graduate School.
hdl
:
10371/132177
.
Further reading
[
edit
]