Lesson/3
Contents
Hangul 2/5
In this lesson, we continue by adding some new symbols from Hangul.
Overview
- Aspirated consonants: ㅊㅋㅌㅍㅎ
- Basic Horizontal vowels: ㅗㅜㅡ
Aspirated Consonants
In Korean, consonants are not distinguished based on voiced vs. unvoiced. In English, voiced vs. unvoiced is very important. It's how we tell the difference between t and d, p and b, and k and g.
In Korean, some of the consonants are aspirated. That means that you add a lot of extra air when you pronounce them.
The aspirated consonants are based off of the basic consonants, except they have an extra horizontal line (or two) that indicates they are aspirated.
- ㅊ (aspirated ㅈ): Makes an airy 'ch' sound.
- ㅋ (aspirated ㄱ): Makes an airy 'k' sound.
- ㅌ (aspirated ㄷ): Makes an airy 't' sound.
- ㅍ (aspirated ㅂ): Makes an airy 'p' sound.
- ㅎ (aspirated ㅇ): Makes an 'h' sound.
Now, listen to the difference between these aspirated consonants and the basic consonants from a Korean speaker. Practice identifying which is which.
Horizontal Vowels
The horizontal vowels are:
- ㅗ (o): Open your mouth cavity, but make your lips into an 'o' shape. This is a deep, rich 'o', as you might use in the word 'hope'.
- ㅜ (u): Close your mouth cavity, but make your lips into an 'o' shape, sticking your lips out. This is a deep, full 'oo' sound, as you might hear in 'ruler'.
- ㅡ (eu): Hold your mouth halfway between ㅗ and ㅜ and open your mouth slightly. This makes a sound that really isn't in English at all.
These vowels will take practice. Take your time listening and trying to reproduce the sounds.
Vowels are Most Important
Unlike in English, Koreans care about vowels more than they do about the consonants. If you learn to be pedantic about your vowels, but lax with your consonants, you'll be well on your way to speaking and understanding Korean.
An example I like to use is the word for "bathtub" -- Mokyoktang. In my wife's region, this is often pronounced with the first 'k' sound almost missing: 'moyoktang'. And yet, no Korean has difficulty understanding this word, even if they're not from that region. You could probably drop all the consonants, and they'd still understand you, given the context, of course.
If you tried switching around the vowels however, 'mukyukteng', no one would know what you're talking about. In my wife's region, a particularly strong dialect replaces 'yeo' with 'e'. making them incomprehensible to other regions in those words. 'hyeongje' becomes 'hengje', and unless you are familiar with that accent, you'll be stuck looking in a dictionary for a word that starts with 'heng'.
I recall one time I was in the Pusan fish market when a young man called out to me, "hengjenim! hengjenim!" I turned around and he started talking to me, and I understood most of the words, but it was obvious he had some kind of speech impediment. I turned to my wife who was laughing. I had never encountered this dialect before, and in my Seoul-dialect, I asked him, "What is a 'hengje'?" The young man struggled with his tongue as he tried to pronounce the 'y' sound 'h-eongje, no, no, 'hyang-je', ah... you tell him!" My wife told me, "Hyeongje", and I was amused at the whole affair. My brain made the correction (yeo -> e) and soon I was able to talk with the fellow.
Another humurous sensation that swept Korea was a certain American who had learned Korean in that same region. On a game show, they gave hints to a word, the obvious answer being 'byongari', a chick. He slammed the buzzer and yelled out, "bingari!" The crowd roared with laughter, and soon all of Korea was talking about the curious American with a thick, southern accent.
Hopefully this describes the importance of vowels in the Korean language. Take time to make them sound exactly right, and you'll become better able to understand and communicate.
Exercises
- Read the following consonant-vowel combinations.
