Details of the Korean Alphabet Pt2: Consonant Pairs AKA Clusters AKA Gyup Batchim

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This lesson is going to cover double consonants, but not the double consonants that we learned about in the last two lessons. We are covering the type of double consonants where there are two different consonants together.

These double consonants are usually found on the bottom of the character block, in the batchim.

To make things easier to talk about in this lesson we will label the positions of the character block like so. The initial position will be called the first position, the next is the second position, and in the batchim the leading consonant will be the third position, and the final consonant will be the fourth position. I know it’s kind of obvious, but I don’t want to confuse anyone unnecessarily.

When you encounter two different double consonants, usually, the consonant in the fourth position is silent. Except for some combinations that involve ㄹ. Let’s go over, explicitly, some of the most common letter pairs.

ㄴㅈ
The first combo is “N J”. In this letter pair the letter in the fourth position, “J”, is silent.

 

ㅂㅅ
We can, also, have “S” in the 4th position and “B” in the third, and, once again, the letter in the 4th position goes silent. We do not pronounce the “S”. This is a good time to mention that the batchim pronunciation rules that we learned in the last lesson are observed so the B sounds like "P".

ㄴㅎ and ㄹㅎ
Another common letter pair involves H in the 4th position, and either an N or an “RL” in the 3rd. In both these combinations the “H” goes silent.

ㄹㅂ and ㄹㅌ 
Finally, we can have an “RL” in the 3rd position. This part is tricky. If the 4th letter is B or T then the same rule we’ve been talking about applies. The 3rd letter is pronounced and the 4th goes silent. So these combinations are pronounced as “L”.

ㄹㅁ, ㄹㅍ, and ㄹㄱ
But! If the 4th letter is M, P, or G, then the 4th letter is pronounced and the 3rd goes silent. So these combinations are pronounce as M, P, and G BUT with a batchim pronunciation G sounds like "K".
So, in sum, when you have two different letters in the batchim only pronounce the 3rd letter. Unless you have the combination of “RL” with M, P, or G in which case pronounce only the 4th letter.
Remember MPG in combination with R/L. M, P, G. Miles Per Gallon! Or any other memory device you want to use.

But then, as we’ve seen before, things get more interesting when the next character begins with a “Nothing” consonant.

When this happens the letter in the fourth position moves into the initial position of the next syllable so you end up pronouncing both. This includes the oddball combinations with “RL”, but does not include the combinations involving ㅎ “H”. Let's go through it more slowly and clearly.

When you have N with J and a “nothing” consonant in the initial position of the next syllable you pronounce the N in the bottom of the first syllable, and pronounce the J as if it were in the initial position of the second syllable.

When you have the BS combination followed by a syllable that begins with the nothing consonant the B is pronounced in the batchim of the first syllable and the S is pronounced in the initial position of the second syllable. Now you may be confused about whether to use batchim pronunciation or normal pronunciation and how it works is like this: The letter which is pronounced in the batchim of the first syllable does get batchim pronunciation, but the letter which is carried over into the initial position of the next syllable does not receive batchim pronunciation. So, in this case, we have the B in the batchim position, so it is pronounced like "P". But, the S has been carried over so it retains normal pronunciation and it sounds like "S".

Now, here is the tricky one. When you have the letter ㅎ(H) it goes silent, and the letter in the 3rd position is carried over. If you have “NH” in the batchim and “Nothing” in the initial position of the next syllable you will pronounce the first syllable with two letters and the next syllable will begin with N. Or If you have “R/L H” the H goes silent and the “R/L” is pronounced in the initial position of the second syllable.

When you have any of the combinations R/L B or R/L T ( the regular ones ) or R/LM, R/LP, R/LG ( the exceptions) they all follow the same regular rule. The “R/L” is pronounced in the batchim of the first syllable and the B, T, M, P, and G are each carried over into the initial position of the next syllable. And remember the R/L is in the batchim so it sounds more like an L, but the letters in the 4th position are carried over, and so they obey regular pronunciation rules.

So, in sum, When the next syllable begins with the nothing consonant the letter in the fourth position moves into the initial position of the next syllable so you end up pronouncing both. Unless the 4th letter is “H” in which case the H is not pronounced and the letter in the 3rd position moves into the initial position of the next syllable.

That’s it for this lesson. It is only one concept, but it is a convoluted one. As these double consonants appear in later lessons I will remind you of their pronunciation. Also, there are a few words that break the rules. If we encounter them I’ll do my best to let you know.

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