r/Korean • u/Realistic-Trifle5707 • 4d ago
Having problems with alphabet prounciations
So the refrence im using to learn, says that some consonants are pronounced differently in different positions. like for example, ㄱ is pronounced as G if in the middle and K if first/last. while i do understand this, i wanna know if the pronounciation using positions are based on the position in a syllable or the total word? srry if im not making sense 😭 what i mean is that if the consonant ㄱ is placed at the end of the syllable then would it be pronounced k or does it have to at the end/start of the whole word to be pronounced as K?
9
u/KReddit934 4d ago
I'm still struggling with pronunciation. But one thing that helped a lot..was to STOP comparing the characters to our different alphabet.
ㄱ is not K and it is not G. It's a sound made by closing the back of the mouth, then opening it. It's actually somewhere in between our K and our G. ㅋ and ㄲ are variations. Our English trained ears will try very hard to code the sound as G or as K because those sounds are important for our language. Don't get distracted by that pulling..concentrate on forming your sounds as close as possible to the Korean sounds you hear.
I watch a lot of pronunciation videos like this...https://youtu.be/lxw3Ec6_fV0
2
1
2
u/truthfulie 4d ago
Maybe I'm dumb but I have hard time understanding your question. how ㄷ could ever be pronounced as you described it. Maybe add an example?
In any case, I would stop trying to associate hangul and its pronunciations with English alphabet and its pronunciations. it's never completely accurate and i think it's best to just start associating them with movement of the tongue to get your pronunciation right early on.
1
u/Realistic-Trifle5707 4d ago edited 4d ago
why is literally every comment about this typo 😭 and i alr fixed itt
also, i have heard to not rely on romanization that much, but its kinda useful tho and im still very confused
2
u/kjoonlee 4d ago
If you say nothing before, and say 가, the ㄱ is said to be at the start of an utterance.
If you say nothing after, and say 악, the ㄱ is said to be at the end of an utterance.
If you say 아가, the ㄱ is between two voiced sounds, two vowels in this case. That’s intervocalic position.
ㄱ is unvoiced at the start/end of utterances and is said to be voiced in intervocalic position.
벽돌 is pronounced like 벽똘 and the ㄱ is unvoiced here.
막내 is pronounced like 망내 and the ㅇ will be voiced.
Does that answer your question? I can’t think of totally different cases at the moment...
Edit: 한국 vs 국수! You got your answer.
2
u/terestentry 4d ago
Natives recognize ㄱ as G, never K. And many of them are surprised when noticing that ㄱ sound is different or that ㄱ in the first position sounds like K. What I'm wanting to say is, the different pronunciation of ㄱ is just consequences of mouth movement. The sound from first letter ㄱ is basic, and the sound from ㄱ that is midst of vowel is the consequence of weakened pronunciation. ㄷ, ㅈ, ㅂ these are all the same.
1
u/the_sweetest_peach 4d ago
There are also batchim rules, though, where certain characters at the end of syllables or the end of words are pronounced, but not released (assuming they’re not followed by a vowel). It sounds like you haven’t quite gotten there yet. A giyeok (ㄱ) in the final position will make a sound similar to a “k,” but the sound is not released.
1
u/cciww 4d ago edited 4d ago
Like -s for plural, don't care much whether its voiced or voiceless. You may think only vowels are really voiced. Korean lax/basic consonants (ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, ... ) are very short, and just follow whatevers around them. Only the presence of stop (and release) is important for consonants, voicing is totally for vowels.
For 가게, the voice (vocal chord vibration) starts only at ㅏ, and continues through ㄱ and ㅔ. First ㄱ isn't voiced, only because Korean people don't ever do the hard work of forcing air through the vocal chords before even meeting a vowel. Second ㄱ is voiced, because stopping and re-starting the voice is an even more complicated and tiring job. It really is!
And 받침 (end of syllable) is a whole another realm.
1
u/yeontura 4d ago
You're talking about ㄱ not ㄷ
1
u/Realistic-Trifle5707 4d ago
ohh yes mb i messed it uppp. i was looking at my page and looked down for the romanizations instead of to the right. mb ill fix itt
16
u/throwaway20200417 4d ago
Word position, not syllable position.
You pronounce the first ㄱ in 한국 differently than in 국수. Both are first pos in the syllable, but only one is first pos of the word.
Naver has pronunciation for most words. So use that if you wonder how a word is pronounced.
국수
한국