Before we go on and learn the consonants, I want to teach you about different sounds. The first is Nasal sounds. Nasals are sounds that when made, the air flows through the nose, instead of the mouth. We've actually already learned these. ㅁㄴㅇ are the nasal sounds of Korean. Just remember that these are nasals, because that will help you when it comes to our lesson on irregular pronunciation.
The next two sounds I will teach you as a pair: voiced and unvoiced. Voiced just means that your vocal chords vibrate when you make the sound. So if voiced sounds have vocal chord vibration, unvoiced does not. A lot of English letters are formed in pairs, one is voiced while the other is not. These are b/p, g/k, d/t, j/ch, v/f, and z/s(the first being voiced and the second being voiceless). The first four sets are the same as Korean, except, they just get one character(Koreans do have the 's', but they don't have the 'z') Also note that the second letters in these sets are usually represented as 'aspirated' consonants. We'll learn more about these in our next lesson.
These consonants are unvoiced(the P,K,T,CH sounds) at the beginning of the sentence. Note, and I'm not exactly 100% on the usage, but when words come in the middle of sentences, when they are from distinct Hanja, the first consonant is pronounced unvoiced, as well.
=====저는 제미예요.
--That first ㅈ(in 저는) is pronounced 'ch', not 'j'. The second ㅈ(in 제미예요), -is- pronounced 'j' because it's not at the beginning of the sentence or in the middle of a word.
These consonants are voiced
ㅂ
This consonant has either a 'b' or a soft 'p' sound, depending on where it goes. Generally, consonants at the beginning of words are aspirated or sounded with a puff of air. Put your hand in front of your mouth. Say 'PAY'. And then say 'BAY'. Did you feel the intense puff of air when you said PAY? Good. This consonant is also aspirated at the end of a word and before another consonant. In between 2 vowels and after a consonant, it has the 'b' sound. I will use 'p' and 'b' respectively in the pronunciations.
**Since it will come up frequently when speaking Formal Polite Korean, when ㅂ is followed by an ㄴ, the ㅂ takes on the same sound as ㅁ. For example: 입니다 is not 'ip-ni-dah', it is 'im-ni-dah'.. we'll learn why in the Irregularities Lesson
ㅈ
This consonant has either a 'j' or a soft 'ch' sound, depending on where it goes, as well. Again, it's aspirated at the beginning, so it would sound like the 'ch', and then the 'j' in between vowels and after a consonant. What about before consonants and at the end of words? It sounds like a 't', just like ㅅ and ㅎ does. Some people might sound the 'j' pronunciation as a 'z' or a cross between j/z. I'll will use 'ch' and 'j' respectively in the pronunciations.
ㄷ
This consonant has the same pronunciation theory: aspirated in the beginning and end, not aspirated in the middle. This consonant is 'd' and a soft 't'. It sounds like 't' when it is at the beginning or end or right before another consonant, and then it sounds like 'd' when it's in between two vowels or after a consonant. 'D' and 'T' respectively in pronunciations.
ㄱ
The same again, this consonant sounds like 'g' or 'k'. Aspirated, the 'k' sound, at the beginning, end, and before a consonant, and the 'g' sound (like GATE) between vowels and after consonants. 'G' and 'K' respectively in pronunciations.
Let's look at some examples:
비빔밥
Prounounced 'Pee-bim-bahp', with the 'p' sound being light, almost a mix between b/p
자잦잦
Pronounced 'Chah-jaht-jaht'
도돋맏
'Toh-doht-maht'
국 / 한국 / 한국어
All of these words are actual words, each with the first in it '국'. By itself, 국 would be pronounced 'Kook', the second, 한국, is 'Hahn-guk', and the the third, 한국어, which is 'Hahn-goo-go'. This shows how to use aspirations very nicely, I think.
Now the vowels. Ultimately, while all of them are new, the last 6 are just spin-offs of the basic vowels. Let's learn the two new vowesl sounds, technically one sound tho!, and then we'll learn the spin-offs!
ㅐ/ㅔ
At one point in time, these sounds used to have 2 distinct sounds. Over time they have come to be known to make the same sound. You can find the specific sounds each make, but it's not necessary. Both of these will make sort of an 'ay' sound(like bay) or a 'eh' sound(like WET) or a combination of the two. In the common Korean greeting '안녕하세요', 세 is pronounced like 'say' but you stop your self before you get the 'y' sound out, if that makes any sense. I'll use the 'eh' in pronunciations for this vowel.
The rest of the vowels, ㅛㅕㅑㅠㅒㅖ, are ㅗㅓㅏㅜㅐㅔ, respectively, except with a 'y' at the beginning. For example:
y+ㅗ = ㅛ
y+ㅓ=ㅕ
y+ㅏ=ㅑ
y+ㅜ=ㅠ
y+ㅐ=ㅒ
y+ㅔ=ㅖ
ㅛ
'Yoh'
ㅕ
'Yo'
ㅑ
'Yah'
ㅠ
'Yoo' or say the English word YOU.
ㅒ/ㅖ
'Yeh'
You'll get plenty of practice on the Pronunciation Worksheet below, so I won't go into any examples. Also, remember how I said that the 'y' vowels will make ㅅ sound like 'sh'? Well, it also takes the 'y' sound out of it. So 샤, instead of being 'syah' or 'shyah', it's just 'shah'. 쇼 is 'shoh', sounding like 'show'.
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Download a Pronunciation Worksheet here:
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Video to come!
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