Hi, everyone! Are you having a good weekend?
I brought really important introduction about Korean today: Han-geul.
Hangeul is Korean alphabet. We make words and sentences with this amazing character.
Hangeul was invented by King Sejong about five hundred years ago to encourage education of common people; at that time, Koreans had used Chinese characters for writing, and only noblemen could learn Chinese characters in the educational institute.
As going through changes, Hangeul had had its current shape and it is also admitted as the most scientific character in the world.
Let me show you Hangeul's appearance.
- consonants
ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ
- vowels
ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ
How does it look? I think it’s cute :)
In Hangeul, like English alphabet, there are consonants and vowels, but there are three different parts that each elements can be located. Here is an example.
Like this example, Korean letters must start with consonant(beginning), and have only one vowel. And mostly they have ending consonant, which is always located in the bottom of the letter.
So, you can make a letter like below.
자 [ja] : a ruler
ㅈ[j] +ㅏ[a] (beginning + vowel)
잘 [jal]: well
ㅈ[j] +ㅏ[a] + ㄹ[l] (beginning + vowel +ending)
Today, I’m going to tell you how to pronounce consonants. There are basic consonants and double consonants. First, here are phonetic alphabets of basic consonants and examples of pronounciations.
ㄱ (Giyuk) [k/g]
* softer than Englsh 'g' sound. when it is in ending, it sounds like 'k'
i.e.) 가방 (bag) = gabang
ㄴ (Niun) [n]
i.e.) 나 (I/ me) = na
ㄷ (Digut) [t/d]
* when it is used as an ending, it sounds like 't' sound. And every endings with 'ㅅ', 'ㄷ', 'ㅌ', 'ㅈ', 'ㅊ', 'ㅎ' has 't' sound as ending consonant.
i.e.) 다리(legs) = dari
곧(soon) = got (you should pronouce this like Brithish)
옷(cloth) = ot
꽃(flower) = kkot (powerful)
ㄹ (Liul) [l/r]
* complicated one. when it is ending consonant, it has 'l' sound. However, when it is beginning consonant, its sound depends on the existence of ending in its before letter, which is directly connected to it. When it meets ending consonant before it, or there is no letter before it, its sound is 'L'.
i.e.) 난로 (heater): nan-lo
라면 (Koean ramen): lamyeon
Except for this, 'ㄹ' has 'R' sound.
i.e.) 가루 (powder): garu
바람 (wind): baram
ㅁ (Mium) [m]
i.e.) 몸 (body): mom
ㅂ (Biup) [p/b]
i.e.) 밥 (meal): bab
ㅅ (Shi-ot) [s]
*when it is ending sound, it changes to 't' sound.
i.e) 사람 (human) : saram
옷 (cloth) : ot
ㅇ (Yieung) [Ø/-ŋ]
* As a beginning consonant, this is silent, but when it is an ending consonant, it sounds 'ng' in English.
i.e.) 영 (zero) : young
유아 (infant): yua
ㅈ (Jiut) [ɖʒ]
i.e.) 잔다 (sleep) : janda
ㅊ (Chiut) [ʈʃ]
* Stronger sound of 'ㅈ'. when it its in the beginning, it has 'ch' sound.
Can you see ther littel line which distinguish 'ㅊ' and 'ㅈ'
The sylabels below are the stronger version of 'ㄱ', 'ㄷ', 'ㅂ', and they sound same as its weak version when it is ending consonant.
ㅋ (Kiuk) [c/k]
* stronger version of 'ㄱ'
i.e.) 코(nose) : ko
ㅌ (Tiut) [t]
* stronger version of 'ㄷ'
i.e.) 토끼(rabbit) : tokki
ㅍ (Piup) [p]
* stronger version of 'ㅂ'
i.e.) 파랑(blue) : parang
ㅎ (Hiut) [h]
* when it is ending consonant, it makes next beginnig consonant stronger.
i.e.) 하늘 (sky): haneul
좋다 (like) : jota
This is end of basic consonant! I know this can be difficult and complicated. But if you see the video I attached, it would be much easier to pronounce them. There are also explanation about double consonants pronounciation. Double consonants are too tricky for me to explain, unfortunately, you'd better watch this video.
Next post will be about vowels. Stand one more boring week, and you can read and write Korean!!
I'm finishing this post with "good night" in Korean.
잘자요~ (Jaljayo)
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