WATCH THE LESSON: https://youtu.be/YMPOpw2stCQ
So, last lesson we learned how to pronounce each Korean
letter, and that they are arranged into character blocks which each represent
one syllable. But, we didn’t spend much time learning how the letters are
arranged in the blocks. You likely found it fairly easy and intuitive as the letters
are read from left to right, and top to bottom, just we’re used to in English. However, there are few rules in how a character block is
arranged and they are worth stating explicitly.
The first position is always a consonant. If your syllable
does not start with a consonant then we learned that very useful NOTHING consonant which makes no sound at the beginning of a character.
The second position is always a vowel, and it is sometimes
located to the right of the first consonant and sometimes located below the
first consonant. It depends on the shape of the vowel. The vertical shaped ones
go beside the first consonant, and the horizontal shaped ones go below the first
consonant.
Some characters only contain letters in these two positions, and the third one is left empty. But, the third position in a character block is
located on the bottom, and it can contain only consonants. The third position
is also known as the batchim position, and when certain letters are located in
the batchim position they are, in fact, pronounced completely differently from
the way we learned in the last lesson!
We’ve already seen a little preview of this concept when we
learned the NOTHING consonant. It makes NO sound at the beginning of a character, and an "NG" sound at the end of a character. That was the first Batchim
pronunciation rule we learned.
Now, let’s learn the other ones, too.
ㅎ
Remember this letter? It’s the hat on the head which sounds like the letter H. However, if you ever see this letter on the bottom of a character don’t pronounce it like an H. When it is on the bottom it is silent. It makes no sound at all.
Remember this letter? It’s the hat on the head which sounds like the letter H. However, if you ever see this letter on the bottom of a character don’t pronounce it like an H. When it is on the bottom it is silent. It makes no sound at all.
ㅂ
Now, this character, we learned, sounds like a B. But, when written in the batchim position it sounds like a P
Now, this character, we learned, sounds like a B. But, when written in the batchim position it sounds like a P
ㄱ
This character sounds like a G, but when located in the batchim position it sounds like a K.
This character sounds like a G, but when located in the batchim position it sounds like a K.
ㄲ
Remember doubles? They usually make the same sound as singles just with more emphasis. But, in the batchim position the double G just sounds like a single.
Remember doubles? They usually make the same sound as singles just with more emphasis. But, in the batchim position the double G just sounds like a single.
Now these letters: the D, the CH, the J, the S, and double S
all sound like the letter "T" when located in the batchim position.
And yes, this means that if you have a name that ends in T it
could be spelled 6 different ways. For example the name Matt can be written with
the D letter on the bottom, the CH, the J, the S, the double S, or of course
the T.
Now, an important point to bring up is that these
pronunciation rules apply only when 1) the letter is in the batchim position
and also 2) the next syllable in the word does not begin with the NOTHING
consonant. When that happens the word is pronounced as if the batchim letter
has been moved into the first position of the next syllable. It does not retain
batchim pronunciation. It goes back to its normal pronunciation.
Let’s look at the case of the letter ㅂ. If you see ㅂ in the
batchim followed by a character with NOTHING consonant in the initial
position, just as I have written here, then you pronounce it like so.
Also, the same thing happens with ㄱ. When written like this. (see picture) It is pronounce like this.(see picture)
Now let’s look at an example of an actual word: sib il ("shee beel") (which is Korean for the number 11) and is pronounced "shee beel", not "sheep eel"
Did you take my suggestion and practice Korean writing by
writing your name? You may need to make a change now that you’ve learned this
new pronunciation rule.
Another thing to note is that Koreans don’t put much
emphasis on the last consonant. When we say the name Matt we make a big
“tuh” at the end of it. You make noise when you
exhale. But, when Koreans say the
name Matt they would just say Matt and then breathe silently. It is a habit
that is a little difficult to get into, I find. But one thing that I have started
doing is holding my breath for a fraction of a second at the end of the word to
give myself time to figure out how to breathe silently without making the “tuh”
sound. If anyone else has any tips to share I would love to hear them.
The Beginning of a
Word
So, as I was just describing, letters can be pronounced
differently when they are at the end of a syllable and now we will learn that
they can also be pronounced differently at the beginning of a word. Note that I
said beginning of a word, not syllable, WORD. Only the very first letter in a
word will have these special pronunciation rules... and they are not so much
rules as they are just tendencies.
ㄱ
Let’s start with "G". When "G" is at the beginning of a word it
sounds like "K"
ㅋ
Now when "K" is at the beginning of a word it sounds like "Kh".
What does a "Kh" sound like? Well, we don’t usually make the
distinction in English but have you ever noticed there is an “h” in the word
khaki? We’re supposed to be saying "khaki" not just "kaki", "Khaki". It is subtle.
But that is how you would say a K when is is at the beginning of a Korean word.
Have you ever heard a Korean say he word “Korean”. They say it with an h! They
say "Khorean".
ㄷ
Moving on, When "D" is at the beginning of a word it sounds
like a "T".
ㅈ
When "J" is at the beginning of a word it sounds like a "CH"
ㅂ
When "B" is at the beginning of a word it sounds like a "P"
Go back to where you wrote your name. Do you need to rewrite
it again?
Also, let’s take some time to note that there are no Korean equivalents
for the letters F, V, and Z or the combination TH. The S usually serves as an SH
blend and Koreans do tend to pronounce their S a bit like an SH anyways. If
your name contains a TH you can use a T or an S instead whichever sounds better
to you.
In place of a Z the convention is to use a J. The Korean word
for Pizza is Pija. In place of a V you can use a B. And the most common
substitution for F is P. Coffee in Korean is Kuppi.
Another problem you might encounter in writing your name is
blends like TR KR GR DR BR BL what Koreans do with these blends is insert a
vowel between the two consonants. Usually, it is the BROOK vowel
So if your name is BRAD you write BEU RAD but wait! We just
learned Batchim rules. This doesn’t say Brad, it says Brat! No one wants to be
called a BRAT! So we add another brook vowel to the very end:
BEU RA DEU
We had to change a 1 syllable name into a 3 syllable name
but we have now managed to write a western name in Hangul.
But wait, we just learned that a B at the beginning of a word
sounds like a P! That doesn’t say BRAD it says PRAD! How do we fix that? Well,
we can’t. So, enjoy your new name, Prad.
No, actually we can
do something about that. Remember we learned about double consonants? Only 5 Korean
letters can be doubled, but, luckily, all the letters which are pronounced
different at the beginning of a word are included in those 5. So, you can use a
double consonant if you really want to preserve the pronunciation of your first
initial. But this not commonly done for Korean names you’d be much better off
embracing the new pronunciation of your name. I did!
There is one more lesson on the details of the Korean
alphabet. That will be the next video/post!
Linked Korean letters and Roman equivalents including batchim pronunciation
Thanks for watching!
WATCH THE LESSON: https://youtu.be/0lmYzofNaB0