Recent from talks
Korean phonology
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Korean phonology
The phonology of the Korean language covers the language's phonemic, or distinct and meaningful, sounds (19 consonants and 7 vowels in the standard Seoul dialect) and the rules governing how those sounds interact with each other. This article is a technical description of the phonetics and phonology of Korean. Unless otherwise noted, statements in this article refer to the South Korean standard language based on the Seoul dialect.
Korean has 19 consonant phonemes.
For each plosive and affricate, there is a three-way contrast between unvoiced segments, which are distinguished as plain, tense, and aspirated.
Korean syllable structure is maximally CGVC, where G is a glide /j, w, ɰ/. (There is a unique off-glide diphthong in the character 의 that combines the sounds [ɯ] and [i] creating [ɰ]). 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.
/p, t, tɕ, k/ are voiced [b, d, dʑ, ɡ] between sonorants (including all vowels and certain consonants) but voiceless elsewhere. Among younger generations, they may be just as aspirated as /pʰ, tʰ, tɕʰ, kʰ/ in initial position; the primary difference is that vowels following the plain consonants carry low tone.
/pʰ, tʰ, tɕʰ, kʰ/ 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 to 15% of cases. It is more prevalent among older male speakers who have aspirated stops voiced in as much as 28% of cases.
The IPA diacritic ⟨◌͈⟩, resembling a subscript double straight quotation mark, shown here with a placeholder circle, is used to denote the tensed consonants /p͈/, /t͈/, /k͈/, /t͈ɕ/, /s͈/. 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.[AI-retrieved source] 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, ⟨ʼ⟩, but that is not IPA usage; in the IPA, the apostrophe indicates ejective consonants. Some works use full-size ʔ or small ˀ before tensed consonants; this notation is generally used to denote pre-glottalization. An asterisk * after a tensed consonant is also used in literature.
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 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.
Hub AI
Korean phonology AI simulator
(@Korean phonology_simulator)
Korean phonology
The phonology of the Korean language covers the language's phonemic, or distinct and meaningful, sounds (19 consonants and 7 vowels in the standard Seoul dialect) and the rules governing how those sounds interact with each other. This article is a technical description of the phonetics and phonology of Korean. Unless otherwise noted, statements in this article refer to the South Korean standard language based on the Seoul dialect.
Korean has 19 consonant phonemes.
For each plosive and affricate, there is a three-way contrast between unvoiced segments, which are distinguished as plain, tense, and aspirated.
Korean syllable structure is maximally CGVC, where G is a glide /j, w, ɰ/. (There is a unique off-glide diphthong in the character 의 that combines the sounds [ɯ] and [i] creating [ɰ]). 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.
/p, t, tɕ, k/ are voiced [b, d, dʑ, ɡ] between sonorants (including all vowels and certain consonants) but voiceless elsewhere. Among younger generations, they may be just as aspirated as /pʰ, tʰ, tɕʰ, kʰ/ in initial position; the primary difference is that vowels following the plain consonants carry low tone.
/pʰ, tʰ, tɕʰ, kʰ/ 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 to 15% of cases. It is more prevalent among older male speakers who have aspirated stops voiced in as much as 28% of cases.
The IPA diacritic ⟨◌͈⟩, resembling a subscript double straight quotation mark, shown here with a placeholder circle, is used to denote the tensed consonants /p͈/, /t͈/, /k͈/, /t͈ɕ/, /s͈/. 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.[AI-retrieved source] 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, ⟨ʼ⟩, but that is not IPA usage; in the IPA, the apostrophe indicates ejective consonants. Some works use full-size ʔ or small ˀ before tensed consonants; this notation is generally used to denote pre-glottalization. An asterisk * after a tensed consonant is also used in literature.
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 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.