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～ 칠 색 밭 ～

Korean pronunciation rules

This section deals with situations in Korean, when the pronunciation does not follow the writing. All examples come from children's songs.

1. Pronunciation rules for batchim

[1.1] What is a "batchim"?

"Batchim" refers to the consonant sound within a syllable that comes after the vowel. Korean has a vowel-centered syllable structure, i.e., the syllable is always structured as

an optional consonant + a mandatory vowel + a second optional consonant.

The second optional consonant in the formula above is called batchim.

[1.2] What are the sounds of "batchim"?

Although there are many different kinds of batchim in writing, there are only 7 possible sounds in actual prounuciation. These are:

[ㅂ],[ㄷ],[ㄱ],[ㄴ],[ㅁ],[ㅇ],[ㄹ].

[1.3] Single, double and compound batchim

There are three classes of batchim in writing: single, double, and compound. Single batchim consists of only one symbol, such as ㄱ and ㅎ. Double batchim consists of two repeated symbols, such as ㄲ and ㅆ. Compound batchim consists of two different symbols, such as ㄼ and ㅄ.

[1.4] Prounuciation rules for single and double batchim

Everything related to ㅂ (namely ㅂ and ㅍ, as ㅃ never appears as batchim) is pronunced [ㅂ].

Everything related to ㄷ (namely ㄷ and ㅌ, as ㄸ never appears as batchim) is pronunced [ㄷ].

Everything related to ㄱ (namely ㄱ, ㄲ and ㅋ) is pronunced as [ㄱ].

ㄴ,ㅁ,ㅇ,ㄹ are pronunced as themselves.

Everything else (within the realm of single and double batchim that is) is pronunced as [ㄷ]. These are: ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅊ and ㅎ.

[1.5] Pronunciation rules for compound batchim

The main rule: normally, the second symbol of a compound batchim is silent. But in ㄺ, ㄻ and ㄿ, it is the first symbol that is silent. When pronuncing the non-silent symbol, rules [1.4] apply. For instance, ㄿ is prounuced [ㅂ].

The exceptions to the main rule:

i) ㄺ. according to the main rule, it is pronunced as [ㄱ]. However, when it occurs at the end of a verb or adjective stem, and the ending that comes immediately after the stem starts with ㄱ, then the ㄺ is prounuced [ㄹ], with the following ㄱ intensified to [ㄲ].

For example:

맑고[맑꼬] 고운 목소리로 노래 부르는 매미야... <노래숲의 아이들>
맑게[말께] 개인 공원에서... <화가>
...붉게[불께] 물들어 타는 저녁 놀. <노을>

ii) ㄼ. According to the main rule, it is pronunced as [ㄹ]. However, there are two words where complications occur.

ii-i) The first one is 밟다 (to step on). When its stem 밟- is immediately followed by an ending that begins with a consonant, the batchim ㄼ is prounuced as [ㅂ], and the following consonant is intensified. For example, the traditional Filipino game of a kid stepping on coconut shells (called "karang" in Tagalog) should be pronunced 코코넛 밟기[밥끼].

ii-ii) The second one is 넓다 (wide). When used by itself, the main rule is respected. However, when used in compound words, the batchim ㄼ is prounuced as [ㅂ]. For example, 넓죽하다[넙쭈카다] (wide and flat), 넓둥글다[넙뚱글다] (wide and round).

2. Liaison

[2.1] What is liaison?

When a syllable that ends with batchim is followed by another syllable that starts with a vowel, the batchim tends to "jump over" to combine with the vowel. This is called liaison.

[2.2] Rules for liaison

When there is liaison, should we still apply the batchim pronunciation rules before the "jumpover"? Curiously, it depends on the meaning of the thing that comes after. If it referrs to something concrete, then the batchim rules should be applied. Otherwise, if it only carries grammatical significance, the batchim rules should not be applied.

For example:

노란 가을 들녘에는[들려케는] 양발 벌린 허수아비... <가을 들녘길>. Here 에 is an auxiliary word meaning "in" or "at". It does not refer to anything concrete. Thus, no batchim pronunciation rule is needed for the batchim ㅋ in 들녘. It jumps directly over to combine with 에. Unfortunately, this word is mispronounced as [들려게는] in all recordings of this song.
방긋이[방그시] 엿보면서 웃는 저 달은... <달이 떴다>. Here 이 is an adverbial ending carrying only grammatical significance, so the ㅅ directly jumps over to combine with it.
나를 보고 싱긋 웃는[싱그 둔는] 우산속 요정... <우산속의 요정>. Here 웃는 has a concrete meaning, namely "smiling". So the ㅅ batchim in 싱긋 first becomes a [ㄷ], as per the batchim pronunciation rule, then jumps over to combine with 웃.

[2.3] Liaison involving a composite batchim

If a vowel comes after a composite batchim, and the batchim pronunciation rules are not in effect (as per conditions outlined in [2.2]), then only the second symbol of the batchim combines with the vowel, whereas the first symbol remians within the previous syllable. Furthermore, if the second symbol is ㅅ, it will be intensified.

For example:

비바람 불어도 변함 없이[업씨] 갈매기 친구를 하며... <섬>. Here 이 is again an adverbial ending carrying only grammatical significance, so no batchim pronunciation rules. The ㅅ in 없 jumps directly over to combine with 이 with intensification.
자리 위에 올라앉은[올라안즌] 콩쥐 아가씨. <솔개그늘 이야기>. Here 은 is a grammatical ending that changes a verb into an adjectival construct. Hence the batchim pronunciation rules are not in effect here. The ㅈ in 앉- jumps over directly to combine with 은.
빛처럼 맑은[말근] 마음으로 너를 닮고[담꼬] 싶어. <네잎 클로버>. For 맑은, the reasoning is exactly the same as the previous example.

Here is a somewhat different example: 닭 앞에 (in front of a chicken) is pronunced [다가페]. Why? Because 앞 (front) is a word with concrete meaning, so the batchim pronunciation rules should first be applied to 닭 before the liaison occurs, which results in [닥]+앞에, that is, [다가페].

3. Assimilation

[3.1] What is assimilation?

When two sounds come together, changes may be triggered in one or both under mutual influence. The direction of change is for those two sounds to have more common characteristics. This is called assimilation. In Korean, there are three possible directions of assimilation: nasal, liquid and aspirated.

[3.2] Assimilation towards nasal sound (1)

When the a batchim is pronounced [ㄱ], [ㄷ], or [ㅂ], and is followed by nasal sounds, namely ㄴ or ㅁ, the batchim sounds themselves become nasalized. That is, [ㄱ] becomes [ㅇ], [ㄷ] becomes [ㄴ], [ㅂ] becomes [ㅁ].

Note that the position of pronunciation does not change in this process. For example, both [ㅂ] and [ㅁ] are pronounced with lips. To summarize,

[ㄱ] [ㄷ] [ㅂ] + ㄴ ㅁ -> [ㅇ] [ㄴ] [ㅁ] + ㄴ ㅁ.

Here are some examples:

저녁마다[저녕마다] 놀지는 저기가 거긴가? <고향땅>. This example is the result of [ㄱ] + ㅁ -> [ㅇ] + ㅁ.
파란 언덕위에 수놓는[수논는] 일곱 빛깔 무지개... <내 마음에는>. According to the batchim pronunciation rules, the ㅎ batchim in 수놓는 has a [ㄷ] sound. When this [ㄷ] comes before ㄴ, it gets further nasalized to [ㄴ].
풀잎마다[풀림마다] 송송이 맺힌[매친] 이슬 아름다워. <이슬>. There are two different processes going on in 풀잎마다. Here we only focus on the ㅍ batchim of 잎. It has a [ㅂ] sound, which gets assimilated to [ㅁ] under the influence of 마다.

[3.3] Assimilation towards nasal sound (2)

When a batchim pronunced [ㄱ], [ㄷ], or [ㅂ] is followed by ㄹ, not only does the batchim sound get nasalized, but the ㄹ also takes on a [ㄴ] sound. Namely,

[ㄱ] [ㄷ] [ㅂ] + ㄹ -> [ㅇ] [ㄴ] [ㅁ] + [ㄴ].

Very few examples can be found in children's songs, because this phenomenon mostly occurs in Chinese originated words that seldom gets used in children's songs. But here is one example:

목련꽃[몽년꼳] 활짝 핀 뜨락에 서서... <꽃처럼 하얗게>.

[3.4] Assimilation towards nasal sound (3)

You might be wondering about the rule [3.3], because initially there are no nasal sounds, but after the sound change everything gets nasalized. It does seem a little bit strange. But here's another rule that might help you understand how [3.3] comes about:

ㅇ ㄴ ㅁ + ㄹ -> ㅇ ㄴ ㅁ + [ㄴ].

From [3.2], we already see that ㄱ, ㄷ and ㅂ tend to get nasalized BEFORE nasal sounds. Now [3.4] tells us that ㄹ tends to get nasalized AFTER nasal sounds. And when you put ㄱ, ㄷ and ㅂ before ㄹ, even without real nasal sounds initially, all of them nasalize under mutual influence, hence [3.3].

TODO: examples

Nota bene: there is an important caveat in rule [3.4] with ㄴ + ㄹ, which will be explained in [3.5].

[3.5] Assimilation towards liquid sound

Assimilation towards liquid sound happens only when ㄴ and ㄹ come together, regardless of order:

ㄴ + ㄹ -> [ㄹ] + ㄹ;

ㄹ + ㄴ -> ㄹ + [ㄹ].

For example:

푸른하늘 너울너울[너울러울] 춤을 추는 물새처럼. <노래 부르자>.
먹구름 심술보 터지면 큰일난다[크닐란다]. <여우 이야기>.

Now we see that there are two possible ways of change when ㄴ is followed by ㄹ. The first way is

ㄴ + ㄹ -> ㄴ + [ㄴ] as per [3.4].

The second way is

ㄴ + ㄹ -> [ㄹ] + ㄹ as per [3.5].

Both of these occur, and one needs only to remember that the first way is limited in its scope. Without going into too much detail, let us just say that the first way only applies in a very limited set of Chinese originated words, where the ㄹ leads a syllable that corresponds to various Chinese characters of specific meanings, such as the "력" in 결단력[결딴녁](決斷力, meaning will to decide), and the "량" in 생산량[생산냥](生產量, meaning amount of output or yield). Children's songs normally don't have these words.

[3.6] Assimilation towards aspirated sound

When the symbol ㅎ is present immediately before or immediately after the consonant sounds [ㄱ], [ㄷ], [ㅂ] or [ㅈ], it will be assimilated INTO those sounds to make them aspirated: ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ and ㅊ. That is,

[ㄱ] [ㄷ] [ㅂ] [ㅈ] + ㅎ -> [ㅋ] [ㅌ] [ㅍ] [ㅊ];

ㅎ + [ㄱ] [ㄷ] [ㅂ] [ㅈ] -> [ㅋ] [ㅌ] [ㅍ] [ㅊ].

Note that the number of sounds decrease. There are many such examples in children's songs and here are some of them:

TODO: examples

4. Intensification

10. Initial sound rules

While this section mainly deals with situations where pronunciation does not follow writing, it is worth mentioning some cases where the sound change IS reflected in writing. One of those is when the co-called "initial sound rules" come into play.

[10.1] What are initial sound rules?

Korean language, or more specifically the language that is standard in South Korea, is repellent towards "ㄹ" and "ㄴ" sounds at the beginning of a word. In particular,

1. The initial "ㄹ" sound always changes into "ㄴ".

2. If an "i" sound (e.g., ㅣ, ㅕ, ㅠ etc.) follows an initial "ㄴ" (which may or may not have been resulted from rule 1), the "ㄴ" drops.

For example, the word 역사, "history", should have been 력사, as can be seen from its Chinese equivalent, 歷史, which is pronunced as "lì shǐ". The ㄹ first changes into a ㄴ according to rule 1, then drops according to rule 2.

The Chinese originated word for "age", 연령 (which is equivalent to the native Korean word 나이), is a good example where only rule 2 applies. Here 연 comes from 년, "year", as in "2020년". The ㄴ drops because it is at the front of a word and is followed by an "i" sound.

Another example is the word 노동, "labour". Originally it should have been 로동, and the 로 has changed into 노 according to rule 1. Rule 2 does not apply here since the vowel coming after the ㄴ is "o" rather than "i". In North Korea the state newspaper is called "Labour News", or 로동신문, because the initial sound rules do not apply in North Korea. We refer you to the section "DPRK Children's Songs" and "Children's songs of ethnic Korean people in Yanbian" for more such examples.

[10.2] Exceptions to initial sound rules

Back to the standard South Korean language. There are 4 prominent exceptions to the initial sound rules outlined above. The first one is in loanwords that come from the west. Initial sound rules seldom apply to them. For example, 라디오, "radio"; "뉴스", news. The second exception is with numerical quantifiers 리(里), 년(年) and 냥(兩). These sould always be used in the form listed here.

There are also situations where the initial sound rules DO apply, while a literal interpretation of those rules would indicate otherwise. For instance, the second component of a compound word, like in 시골여행, "trip to countryside", functions like an independent word as long as these rules are concerned. Another more curious situation happens only with 렬 and 률. These become 열 and 율 even in the middle of a word, as long as they come after a vowel or a ㄴ sound. (Examples: 법률/운율, 행렬/수열.)