The Use of The International Phonetic Alphabet in ... - (Chapter 14 Korean Diction and IPA Soojeong Lee)

Chapter 14
Korean Diction and IPA

Soojeong Lee
Nearly 80 million people around the world speak the Korean language. It is the official
language in North and South Korea, as well as one of the two languages in Yanbian, a
prefecture with a dense Korean population in the northeastern part of China. A large number in
the United States, Japan, the former Soviet Union, and many other countries also use the
Korean language. Although many linguists believe the language is a member of the Altaic
family, its origin has never been clearly known.
Korean Alphabet (Hangul)
In many respects, Korean is a fairly easy language for non-native speakers to learn its reading
and writing. It uses a purely phonetic alphabet, called Hangul [haŋ-gɨl], which is composed of
24 basic phonetic symbols (10 vowels and 14 consonants) and 16 additional symbols. These
alphabets are precisely designed to represent the distinctive sounds of Korean.
Hangul was created in 1443–1444, and published in 1446 in the title of "Hunmin Jeongum"
[hun-min -ʨʌŋ-ɨm] (Correct Sound for Teaching the People). It was known to be an invention by
a group of linguistic scholars who served as advisors to Sejong the Great (r. 1418–1450), the
fourth king of the Chosun Dynasty. A recent examination of the dynastic records, however, has
been convincingly shown that the Korean alphabet was a creation of solely King Sejong
himself1 and the project was kept in secret to avoid the opposition of the literate social class
who believed Chinese characters as their only legitimate writing system. Before the invention
of Hangul commoners did not have any means of a writing system, while the elite adopted
Chinese characters for many centuries.
Vowel and Consonant Charts

Copyright © 2012. Scarecrow Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Hungul has been praised by many linguists for its scientific phonetic alphabets, syllabic
design, and other uniqueness, and conceived as "the most remarkable single achievement in the
history of the alphabet."2 The consonant symbols were carefully designed with respect to the
shape of the mouth and tongue, and vowel symbols were devised following the philosophical
principles of the time: yin (earth) and yang (heaven) and vowel harmony (dark, bright, and
neutral). These alphabets perfectly fit to the Korean language.
In addition to the 24 basic symbols, Hangul has 5 double consonants and 11 vowels that
are made with a combination of the basic letters. Unlike other languages, the Korean alphabet
does not mix consonants and vowels in the order, rather they are arranged separately as seen in
the following charts.
The Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet in the Choral Rehearsal, edited by Duane Richard Karna, Scarecrow Press, Incorporated, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/iub-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1108257.
Created from iub-ebooks on 2023-04-12 05:25:17.
Consonants in Detail
Consonant Classification: Plain – Double (Tense) – Aspirate
Korean consonants could be uneasy for English speakers to pronounce in the beginning of
learning because they are all unvoiced sounds. Voiced consonants in Korean only occur as
variants when positioned between voiced sounds. In English, the most common way of
classifying the consonants is to pair them between voiced and unvoiced sounds, such as b/p,
d/t, v/f, and z/s. Unlike English consonants, many Korean consonants are classified by whether
they are plain, tensed, or aspirated (See the plain, double, and aspirate consonants in Chart 5).
For example, the consonants, , and, which share the same articulatory position, are all
unvoiced sounds and are differentiated by their tenseness and aspiration.
and are derived from .

, , and are homologous sounds, and all of them are unvoiced consonants.
The double is pronounced with a harder and dryer sound than the sound of the plain .
The aspirate is pronounced with more puff of air than the sound of the plain .
The subtle differences between the pronunciation of plain, tense, and aspirate consonants
often change the meaning of the words. For example,
Plain Consonants
, ,,
Korean , which IPA symbol could be [g] or [k], is not exactly same as "g" in girl neither "k"
in curl. has a similar articulatory position to English [g] and [k], however since it is rather
an unvoiced consonant, [k] is commonly used for the IPA of . Another example is the letter
, which articulatory position is similar to English "d" in doll and 't' in tall, and because of its
unvoiced sound, the IPA [t] is used for . The unvoiced consonants and also use [p] and
[ʨ], rather than [b] and [ʥ].
However, these unvoiced [k], [t], [p], [ʨ] become voiced consonants [g], [d],
[b], [ʥ], when they occur between voiced sounds including vowels, and the nasal
consonants [m] and [ŋ].
Double (Tense) Consonants
The double consonants , , , , and are derived from their plain counterparts
counterparts , , , , and . Although their orthography shows doubled consonants, in
actual pronunciation they do not repeat the consonants, but rather make stronger sounds with
extra muscular tension than the plain counterparts. The double consonants use extra symbols
with a double straight quotation mark underneath the IPA, as seen in [t͈] and [k͈]3
The sounds of double consonants , , and are similar to the sounds of the letter c [k],
p [p], and t [t] in the Latin language, which are much dryer and less aspirated sound than in
English. For example, the sound of in [k͈um] (dream) is very similar to the sound of the
letter c in cum [kum] in Latin. The sound of the letter in [a- p͈a] (father) is similar to the
sound of the letter p in padre in Italian or in père in French.
Aspirate Consonants
,,,
The aspirate consonants, , , and are derived from their plain counterparts counterparts
, , , and . The homologous pairs are produced in the same articulatory place, but , ,
, and are more aspirated than the plain , , , and.
[pal] – foot vs. [ph al] – arm
[ʨa] – ruler vs. [ʨ a] – car h
Lateral [l]
When occurs at the final position in a syllable or next to another , the sound is similar to
the lateral l. However, it is pronounced light and clear [l] with the tip of the tongue touching
the upper front teeth as in lady or fly in English, rather than the back and dark [l] found before
consonants or word-final as in hold or tall.
[tal] – moon or month
[p͈al-l
ε] – laundry
Alveolar flap [P]
When is between vowels, the sound is very much like the flipped r in Italian words as in
mare [ma-re] (sea). Do not pronounce it as the retroflex [ɹ] of English.
[pa-ram] – wind
[i -rɨm] – name
and
[s] softer and less aspirated than English /s/. The plain [s] and its tense [s͈] becomes an
alveolo-palatal [ɕ] and [ɕ͈] before [i] or [j] sounds.
[sa-raŋ]
[ɕi-gan]
[ɕ͈-at]
is null (Ø) in the initial of a syllable.

[a- p͈a] – father
[ʌm-ma] – mother
is a nasal consonant [ŋ] in the syllable-final.

[pjʌŋ] – bottle or sickness
[kaŋ-a-ʥi ] – puppy
has a post-alveolar affricative sound [ʨ], and becomes [ʥ] between vowel sounds. The
sounds [ʨ] and [ʥ] are a bit lighter and shorter than chase [ʧ] and job [ʤ] in English.
Final Consonants
Korean final consonants have a fully closed pronunciation and are never released. Although
any consonants can come into the syllable-final, many of them are pronounced differently from
their sounds as the initials, and make only 7 consonant sounds.
Consonant clusters such as , , , and occur only in the syllable-final position. When
they are followed by another consonant or nothing, one of the consonant sounds is deleted.
When followed by a vowel of the next syllable, both of the consonants are pronounced and the
second consonant of the clusters is linked to the next initial vowel. For example,
Vowels in Detail
(1) Diphthongs
The "j" diphthongs:[ja], [jʌ], [jo], [ju],[jε], [je],[ɨj]*
The "w" diphthongs: ,[wa], [wε], [we], [wʌ], [we], [wi]
* is an "j" off-glide diphthong, while the rest of "j" diphthongs are on-glide.
(2) — : Barred-i [ɨ] is a close/high central vowel.

Syllable Block
Another uniqueness of Hangul is that the alphabet letters are assembled into syllabic blocks
instead of being lined one after another. Unlike other languages, the Korean letters form blocks
by coming into above or below one another as well as side by side. A syllable contains at least
two letters as seen in the words below:
initial medial final initial medial final
Variation in Actual Pronunciation
The IPA transcription of the phonemes of Korean is relatively simple since the orthographic
alphabets are pronounced as a single sound or few sounds. However, there are some
challenges for non-Koreans to speak the language because the actual pronunciation of words in
context varies quite a lot. The following are the most common variations in speaking under
certain rules.
Assimilation
Nasalization
Liaison/Relink
Aspiration
Diphthong Reduction
Tensing
Notes
1. Iksop Lee and Robert Ramsey, The Korean Language (Albany, NY: State University
of New York, 2000), 32.
2. Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (New York:
Methuen, 1988), 91.
3. The tense consonants are sometimes indicated with an extra symbol * or ? at the right-
top corner of the IPA. Examples are [t*], [k*], [t?], and [k?].
Bibliography
Choo, Miho, and William O'Grady. The Sounds of Korean: A Pronunciation Guide. Honolulu,
HI: University of Hawai'i Press, 2003.
Ha, Seunghee, Cynthia J. Johnson, and David P. Kuehn. "Characteristics of Korean Phonology:
Review, Tutorial, Case Studies of Korean Children Speaking English." Journal of
Communication Disorder, 2009.
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/505768/description#description
(23 Mar. 2009).
Lee, Iksop, and Robert Ramsey. The Korean Language. Albany, NY: State University of New
York, 2000.
Lee, Peter H. A History of Korean Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
http://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/28581/sample/9780521828581ws.pdf (23 March,
2009).
About the Author
Soojeong Lee joined the Texas Women's University as Associate Professor of Music and
Coordinator of Vocal Studies in 2008. Prior to her appointment to TWU, she taught at the
University of North Alabama. Her teaching assignments at TWU include undergraduate and
graduate applied voice, vocal pedagogy, and opera production. -She holds a BS in vocal
performance from Seoul National University, a MM in vocal performance from the Manhattan
School of Music, and the DMA in vocal performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign.

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Chapter 14

Korean Diction and IPA

Korean Alphabet (Hangul)

Vowel and Consonant Charts

and are derived from .

Alveolar flap [P]

is null (Ø) in the initial of a syllable.

is a nasal consonant [ŋ] in the syllable-final.

(2) — : Barred-i [ɨ] is a close/high central vowel.

initial medial final initial medial final

Variation in Actual Pronunciation

About the Author

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