KOREAN LANGUAGE: KOREAN CONSONANTS AND VOWELS

Hi Guys,

In the previous posting, i have talked about creation principles of Korean alphabet. This time, let's find out about Korean consonants and vowels

Do you know how many consonants and vowels they have? 19? 21? 

Yup you are right. Korean has 19 consonants and 21 vowels (both included the double consonants and vowels)

But in this posting, i would like to explain too about where you should pronounce Korean consonants. So you can notice the difference sounds between Korean and your mother tongue. By the way, for pronunciation writing system, i suggest you to use IPA . If you want to know the right pronunciation of a language, please do not use the romanization or pronunciation of your mother tongue. Why? Cause your mother tongue might have non voiceless consonants while consonant in Korean are voiceless consonants. And Korean has three different way to pronounce such as lax sound, tense sound and aspirated one.

CONSONANTS

According to 신지영(2013) <sin tɕi jʌŋ> , here is the table of Korean consonants. 

source : click here

 Most of Korean learners are not familiar with this table. When you first study Korean, you only study with this sequence, ㄱ, ㄴ,ㄷ,ㄹ,ㅁ,ㅂ,ㅅ,ㅇ,ㅈ,ㅊ,ㅋ,ㅌ,ㅍ,ㅎ. This sequence is dictionary sequence. 

What is  파열음 < 파여름> ? this means plosive way. There three form of plosive consonants.  평음  means lax consonant and it shall be pronounced as voiceless consonant <무성음> . 격음 means aspirated consonants. You need to add some air while pronounce it. And  경음 means fortis consonants. You need to tense sound while pronounce it. You can feel the vibration on your vocal records (touch your neck to confirm it). 

So, then how to differentiate it the three sounds? Put your hand in front of your mouth , while you pronounce the aspirated consonant it should be some air come out from your mouth. 

 Korea also have the frictional consonant such as   ㅅ<s> and ㅆ <s*>.  One of these consonants does not exist in Indonesian nor Javanese, so i could not really know how to pronounce. Let me know you that most Indonesian are using these consonants. <s>, <ʃ>, <z> . While God is fair, Korean does not have it it. Until now i am struggling to pronounce correctly 시간 <si kan>, unconsciously i pronounce it as <s*i kan> or  <ʃi kan>. 

next is  파찰음 <pha cha  lɯm>, which means affricate consonants. What is that? A consonants which begins as as a stop (plosive) but then end up as fricative sound. For following explanation, click here.
 So there are three consonants,  ㅈ<tɕ>, ㅉ <tɕ*>, ㅊ<tɕh>.

Okay, still two left, nasal and  liquid consonants. Maybe you are familiar with nasal consonants. Pinch your nose and  start to pronounce  ㅁ <m> , ㄴ<n>,ㅇ<ŋ>.  So hard right? why? because these consonants are pronounced by using the nasal voice. 

And what is the liquid consonants?  well liquid? no, it is not what you imagine of a liquid. This consonants is special in Korea because it has two sounds. The sounds are different in the first letter of or in the last letter of a syllable. While Indonesian has a trill consonant, Korea does not. So becareful with your trill.  라면  <noodles > and  달 < moon> both of the words have  ㄹ <l> consonants. The first  ㄹ  consonant is pronounced like <r> but it does not as clear as  Indonesian 's r consonant. It is a sound between r and l. In IPA, it is symbolized as <ɽ>. While the second  ㄹ is pronounced as  <l>.  I suggest you to download "popping korean pronounciation" or  check this out  korean consonants pronunciation guide (by national institue of Korean language)

the mouth/oral organ

First, touch your lips! i am not kidding.  Why? because i want to show you where you supposed to pronounce bilabial consonant (양순음). When you pronounce the letter ㅂ<b>, ㅃ<p*>, ㅍ<ph>, ㅁ<m>, you should open and close your lips. Then,   for  ㄷ<t>,ㄸ<t*>,ㅌ<th>, ㅅ <s>,ㅆ<s*>, ㄴ<n>,ㄹ<l> consonants, what you need to know(look at the picture)  is those consonants should be articulated in the back of your teeth. Look number 3 and 6. We call it dental palatal sound or in Korean  (치경음). There is any Korean consonant which asks you to bite your tongue. So if you ever heard some Koreans speak like  nde instead of " 네"(when says yes), The reason is not because they bite a little bit of their tongue but they use their nasal voice (since  ㄴis a nasal consonant too).

This is not my subjective opinion. I have asked my professor in Korean pronunciation teaching class and she answered me like the way i told you guys.  This question was based on my curiosity and suspicious respond of  네/ 데 explanation (check this video). 

Then lets move to  경구음 which means hard palatal sound, Where is it? Look at number 4 and 7.  The hard palatal consonants are consisted of  ㅈ <tɕ>, ㅉ <tɕ*>,ㅊ<tɕh>. For me sometimes i misspell  질문 <tɕilmun > , instead of it, i often pronounce <tɕ*ilmun>.

Behind your hard palatal, there is a soft part( if your tongue can reach it) which is called "soft palatal "  (look at number 5 )and the consonants that should be pronounced there are  ㄱ<k>,ㄲ<k*>,ㅋ<kh>  and ㅇ< ŋ>. 

The last one is the the glottal sound.  Look at number 9. It is the only Korean consonant that produced from the pharyngeal. How about Indonesian ? do you know the word kakak? <kakaʔ > . We pronounce the last <k> different from the two k consonants. the consonants ʔ in Indonesian is also produced in pharyngeal. NEXT i will make the comparison between Indonesian and Korean consonant phonology system. 

I am exhausted ..😅 

But let is keep it up our spirit to find more about the vowels. 

Maybe some people will ask me why i started first with consonants. Since vowel ( 모음) can not stand alone with out consonants or this  ㅇ ( ㅇ  of  아). So from my opinion, it's better to know and understand the consonants table first. 

And second , actually there are some arguments in vocals pronunciation guide. I will compare three tables of sing,e vols pronunciation.

 ㅐ, ㅟ, ㅚ  are considered as the single consonants
source:  외국인을 위한 한국어 발음 교육 (허용. 김선정 :2006), also you will find the similar table in  소리와 발음 (김성규.정승천 : 2017)

 This vocal pronunciation table does not recognize  외  and  위 as the single consonants
  (You can find this in 우리 말 소리의 체계 , written by  신지영)

you can find out more explanation :전설, 중설, 후설 모음 체계

 Lets talk about the single and double consonants's argument first.
For  ㅟ and ㅚ, those vocals are considered as double vocals in second table because when you pronounce it, you move your mouth from vocal ㅜ to  ㅣ.  You do not pronounce it as the old people pronunce  외국인  (some of Korean elder people can pronounce  외 to be a single vocal.  Sorry i do not have the record)
Second, for the  ㅔ  and  ㅐ vowels arguments,  신지영 ( 한국어의 말소리, 2016:163) gave some proves that shown even Korean can differentiate between  ㅔ and  ㅐ, but in daily life (reality) they (most of them) do not pronounce it as two different vowels.

Last, why the last table divide the vowels into three group, upper, central and back vowels?
I assumed the two tables only use the upper back criteria to divide the single vowels. While the picture below is showing where the vowels are pronounced and dividing high low sounds.

but as a contrary argument, Sin jiyong (2016) held an experiment to 10 man and 10 woman speaker to find out the actual pronunciation of Korean vowels.

Aaah, it will be 100 times harder to study Indonesian phonology. But i will do it in summer vacation.
As a conclusion, even in Korean teaching education too, there are many arguments about vowels pronunciation. It depends how strong is your arguments. In addition, language, especially for phonology will always change based on the native speaker's pronunciation.

KOREAN LANGUANGE : THE PRINCIPLES OF VOWELS AND CONSONANT CREATION

I do not like only study for my self, so always questioning my self about the output. 

If i learn something then i just memorize it, then i will prefer to memorize my holy book. 

Lets start with a basic question. Who, When, Where, What, Why and How  Hangeul (Korean Alphabet was created?

My professor "proudly" said ( i think not only her), that only few languages can be tracked when it was created. Most of existed and spoken languages were derived from old language such latin, sanskirt and etc. So, How about Korean?

Based on the book, Hangeul was created (moon calendar) in September 1446 or equivalent with 9th October 1446. So that is why every 9th October is a public holiday. 

(while North Korea celebrates it every 15th January)

 The principles of  Korean Consonant Creation

1. According to the articulation organ ( 조음 기관)  there were 5 basic extraction letter (초출자)

ㄱ(아음), ㄴ(설음),ㅁ (순음), ㅅ (치음),ㅇ (후음)

2. Nine letters as 가획자 ( catch ability letter)
3. Three letter as  이체자  (different shape letter)
You can reference to this site for further information.
That is why while you are studying Korean alphabet, you do not need to memorize all. For example you just remember  ㄱ <k> , then when you want to pronounce aspirated consonant of  ㄱ you just need to add one stroke and it becomes  ㅋ  < kk>

consonant creation principles
Source : clickhere

How about the vowels? Does it shape like our oral organ too?
No. The vocal creation principle is more philosophical. Maybe one of Confucianism influences in Korean language. It based on three main elements. (,)a dot, (ㅣ)a vertical line (ㅡ) and a horizontal line. A harmony in our life. Dot represents land, vertical line represents human and vertical line represents sky.  If you remember well these three elements, you can write all of vowel alphabet (whether is the single or double vowels)

creation process of vowel alphabets 

source : click here

I found the creation of hangeul was so systematic. But do you know what else the excellent things of hangeul ?

1. Hangeul alphabet is systematic. You can scroll up to see how they create the alphabet only by adding one stroke to basic alphabet. 

2. It is also scientific and creative. The Korean consonants were made based on shape of the oral organ while we are actually pronounce the letter. 

3. It's an invention, not a developing result previous alphabet. Javanese alphabet was derived from Old Java alphabet. Old Java alphabet was derived from Pallawa alphabet. 

4. The writing system. Korean alphabet using  모아쓰기 which means syllable based alphabet. First,
By using this writing system, hangeul can be combined with hanja, Second, it shows the attribute of  agglutination in Korean, such as  먹어, 먹으니, 먹어서.  If hangeul was written using alphabet rules it will be like  ㅁ ㅓ ㄱ ㅓ, ㅁ ㅓㄱ ㅡ ㄴ ㅣ. It will be so difficult to identify the agglutination form. And the last one, this writing system helps Korean to read faster than if it was written in alphabet. ex: compare   먹어 and  ㅁㅓㄱ ㅓ.  which one is faster?

So, you can question yourself about how your mother tongue was created! And then compare it to Korean. As an addition, i usually use hangeul printed pattern scarf for my hijab. Somehow it looks so cute. You can buy it in Insadong  (10000won).

Okay , Next posting is still about Korean pronounciation! 

ENGLISH : STAND IN SOMEONE'S SHOES

*disclaimer : all written here is pure my subjective opinion and i will try to do not offense any group.

First, I want to recall my old memories. Starting from i was an elementary kids. As i told before in my previous post, i moved from state school to Islamic private school. I felt shocked actually. But i just could express it. We had to wear a covered uniform and studied at school till four pm. In the very beginning process, the school only changed my outer. And as second grade kid, i did not care about why i had to use the hijab. What i knew was my new school is different and seemed to be more interesting than the old one. Since it just changed my uniform, i cheated for the first time in the exam. I brought  a paper, full of the expected surah and answers. Judge me if you want to judge. Two of my friends knew it and told me that i could not do something like that during exam. Well, i just felt guilty after that. But if i recalled my opinion at that time, i had a reason why i brought that paper. I was a state school student. I was not familiar with all surahs in quran. At that time, reading quran, even for a sentence was so hard. Do not even a sentence, i still could not read properly the letters. Several years after that, i felt that what i did before was not a sin.it was a mistake. Not only me but school too. How you could ask a transferred kid to memorize something unfamilliar? So for me, it was a learning. Until now i am learning by doing mistakes. And now, whenever i have an exam, i will say do not think about grades. Just focus on my understanding to the related subject.

Second, I moved to another environment again when i was in high school. After being almost 9 years private school student, i had to step on new society. My friends were so different. No more boy and girl class separation, no more Arabic class, Islam related subject was only given two hours a week. OH, i felt so stressed. In this step, i was really miss my tahfidz (memorizing quran) class. I have been haunted of  guilt emotions if i lose my memories, Yes you can JUDGE ME. why you do not go to Islamic school , so you can continue your tahfidz programs.why you are so into dunya (materialism) , just worry about your future university...

well it was a choice. I had many theories about being a good moslems and my friends were all moslems. So, i was grew up in homogeneous society (despite some of my friends are arabic Indonesia), which can lead me to feel superior.But after moved to high school, i could understand many things that i have been questioned before in junior high school. Well, high school is well know for first loves story,puppy love or friend zone, but for me it was a social laboratory or observation. I was so shocked when seeing for the first time my friend held her boyfriend like almost kissing. You will say that it was normal, wake up!Yes for you, but not for me. I had 9 years studying in Islamic environment which banned any boys girl relationship. Otherwise you will include in blacklist. 

So, what i want to say is i did not blame them. It was their choice.. But i was failed. I judged them (sorry friends). then, slowly made my self realized that in this new environment, i should not judge them. They were in their process. As I,also was in a process too. You know what happened than, because of a prejudice, somebody was misunderstood my opinion and told to every one that i shared some thing about that couple to my teacher. I felt so sad because i did not do it but i learnt many things of it. I will stay away from a badmouth. If our mouth often to speak bad words, it will not easy to appreciate somebody else.

Third, my junior who also graduated from Islamic school took off her hijab when she started high school life. as a senior, me and some of my friends, we were really upset. If you graduated from elementary then you take out your hijab, i could understand but this?I do not know why my self was so angry. Maybe because i wanted her to keep our previous school name in new school. oh my God, when i just realized it then i shouted to my self, i was so fool. No need to do that. So, then in my life, i met some one who started to wear hijab and also the one who decided to take off the hijab. Now i could understand both of them. Yeah well, if  i feel upset, i just kept it by myself. But i do not need to judge them as a bad woman. What they did was a process of learning. Same cases for my friend who decided to convert their religion. I will frankly speak that i am upset but as it their choices, then it is their rights, not my right. I do not need to feel guilty or have to do something on it. I have many things to do in my life. 

Fourth, I am currently living in Korea. I was a triple majority in Indonesia but here , in Korea, i am triple minority (women, Indonesia, moslem). Some body will say if you move to a place, you shall move to a  good place for practicing Islam. I refused that opinion. Sorry, this time was also a choice. I chose to study in non friendly moslem society. Does it hard? so hard. Even if the fact that we are same Asian, First, not like China which has a muslim ethnic, Korean does not have it. A minority population of moslem are mostly converted muslim. This society is driven by unseen (conventional) confusion tradition. Even you believe one religion. Then like i said before, practicing Islam is hard compared to Indonesia. And here is a choice too. No body care about your religion or your status. Here people are more interested on your love story, travel story or your achievement. Like eating food for example, you will find so many moslems choose to eat non halal food. You will find out moslem in all over the word are different. The one who is really strict about the food (will even never  eat outside because worrying of the oil),or like me (if the non halal substance is not inside the food then i can eat), the one who only do not eat pork,or the one who does not care about the restriction. 

If some one judge one of this group, then i would like to recommend them to travel here. Test yourself here! May be you do not drink alcohol in Indonesia, but because of environment , then you start drink. It is so possible to happen. I tell you everything can happen here. Here, i feel that religion is more about me, God and how i treat people. I do not need to score/ to judge others. They are doing their lives while me also have my own life. While we need to be together, it is a good time to understand each other. I wrote people in my facebook status that i do not to force my friend to eat halal food or they also do not force me to eat non halal food. And 100% halal food is not every where in Korea. What i am doing now is i am trying to avoid non halal substances. For example, if we eat food, i will ask my friend to eat in restaurants that have many menus. So I can eat veggie or seafood.

Last, i know somebody will say that no body judge you why you think that some one are judging you (shuudzon)? This post is not for answering judgments. But more likely to ask people to think twice before before jump in a conclusion. If no one judge me than i will be so happy.

One sentence that i like for this week ( i saw from my friend's instagram) 

I was not born to please every one

see you 

(back to boook)

ENGLISH : ATTITUDE or language barrier?

Hi guys ,

I would like to discuss about this problem "ATTITUDE".

Have you ever read social media comments recently? they typed whatever they want to speak before think twice.  

Actually, I have been criticized by family for being to stubborn if i have my own opinion

Sometimes they will say, i shall do in a polite way. Do not shout, I do not teach you to shout or yell in home, mom said. True, some time even for me i still can not act properly in different situational. It does not mean when i am in home, i shall consider to speak more politely cause we speak in honorific language, but they way i speak is more important. Do not rise your voice, how many times my sister told me. 

Well it's just an introduction to our topic. In the past, i have been strongly believed that language barrier is the biggest problem in communication. But, it seems wrong now. Like a case in my home, mom does not care whatever language i use to speak with her but the problem is how i speak to her. 

Because in communication process, there is a non verbal language that can be understand by your partner even they do not really understand what you speak. Like tears can express the emotion of sad or your hand gesture while speaking also help your partner to understand your message. The problem is how you treat your speaking partner. They are listening to you. They invest their precious time to be your listener. So, if you just focus on your message without considering how does it should be speak , i doubt your partner is happy to have conversation with you. 

Lets make it short~~Forget it. I am gonna tell you another story

Living in Korea, makes me realize another thing. Those who say that the mid age people are unfriendly might needs to think twice. Why? The fact shows me different view. I have experience living in two cities, one is Gyeongsan and Seoul. Both has a similar thing, ajumma (the married girl, mid age woman)  who clean our dorm is so friendly. Whenever i smile or say  안녕하세요( Ipa: annjʌŋ ɦasejo , they will smile back or answer my greetings. Sometimes, they spoke to me. Some people will say, o yes you can speak Korean that's why they speak to you. NO NO you miss my point. they do it to everyone. My friend who is suffering in communication with Korean (i will tell later the reason) sometime can talk with ajumma.  Although it is just a short conversation such us basic greetings, expression of happiness but ajumma listen and pay attention to her. That's my point. Well i do not try to generalize all ajumma here but most of time, they are so polite to foreigner. Even sometimes they talk to much (like mom) or yell to me when i take banchan (side dish) too much. 

And how about the average Korean? Are they kind and polite? Yes. They are kind and polite. For politeness, i will not doubt it because their language has honorific form (which is same as my mother tongue;read as Javanese). But when we talk about how they interact to foreigner, most of them will say that language barrier is the biggest problem for them. Have you ever heard some body says that she/he can not speak English so it is hard to have foreign friends? I can understand but then i will say are you kidding me. Show this blog to native English and then they will easily point out my grammar error. 

Guys, the biggest problem here is not about your language skill. It's related to your attitude. In case you can not speak English, then you do not approach foreigner, instead you will blame the language, you are in problem. You have an attitude problem. It is same if you, a foreigner who can not speak Korean, and does not approach Korean (because they can not speak English), instead may be complain about how can people can not speak English, you are in problem too. 

I will give an example to make it clear. Wonder if you have same problem. 

My friend can not speak fluently in Korean but she understand what people tell to her (passive speaker). She has a problem to arrange the final ending or non final ending in Korean. Or even put the proper particle. She smiles and greets ajumma and people whom she knows. Always say thank you whenever she gets help. With this kind of attitude, she still suffer whenever she communicate with her Korean fellows in classes. Why? 

Do you know the word  삼삼오오  (grouping)? or  우리끼리(just in your circle)?Her department only has one experience to receipt one foreigner before (a Chinese who can speak Korean better than my friend). She said her classmates tend to talk only with their group. First i think it because we are studying in womans university but i feel that it can be happened everywhere. She will go together with her classmates  only if the professor ask them to do field study. No body asked her out. I met her friends in person. When she got sick, they accompanied us to acupuncture clinic.Such as nice people . Sadly why they just care when my friend got sick. If i jump to a conclusion, where were them when my fried needed help. Her classmate said if she tell to her professor sooner, she can get better treatment. Hey common, why you do not notice that some body in your classes does not feel well? their classes only have five student. 

But , i could not jump in conclusion, we need to be fair. First, maybe her classmates did not know about her health issues cause my friend did not tell them. Second, Korean life is so tough. They do not have time to hang out with friends. Study is only their choice. So that is why her friend never ask her to hang out. 

In my opinion, they do not have a good communication in a community. Not because their language barrier problem (since many Koreans understand English and my friend understand Korean), but how they treat each other as part of the community. Korean is a communal community but nowadays the individualism sparks everywhere. You just go to classes for yourself. You do not care your classmates, just care about your grade and your future. That's all. 

I will compare my problem that i face in Korean society.  I do not have a problem in verbal communication. But I struggle with the politeness and  눈치 ( you have to see people around you act first) society. Fyi , my mother tongue is also a honorific language too ( which is more complicated than Korean) and i used to with the typically same society. For instance, when my mom and i visited my relative, mom forced me to stay hunger just to wait our relative asked us to eat (fed us food). Mom said it was not polite to ask food. (what mom? i can order or go with taxi to get some food). She kept saying no. What was the politeness for mom~~~if i have hurt my self.

Some time, people are so polite in expression that actually they do not really mean that. It just what you can call intermezzo or GREETING. For me , greeting expression like where are you going,have you eat are okay. But when it comes to promise, let's eat one time together, i will contact you later are so annoying. Like what i said before, why you should say when you do not really mean it. Or at least teach me first that it was only for greeting. Well, as a Korean learner, i do not find it in text book but i did a research, i asked my teacher about this.
Do not mistake me that i hate those honorific and formal expressions. I love it whenever they use the expression in the terms like asking my order, announcement and etc. But you do need that if you are friend of me. Because i do not want my friend talk to me like talk to stranger. No one Korean use formal expression to talk to their friends. Sometimes even to their mom or dad. Me too. I do not use proper language to my mom.Why ? cause i do not build a wall there. I talk to her the way i talk to my friend so i will not hide any single thing and feel burden to speak. as a comparison,speaking to grandpa is so hard,sometimes i end up mix it with Indonesian. 

So if the foreigner who are living in Korea, is also part of society, why do not people treat us like they treat Korean in terms of communication? Just small talk and showing your care or attention (does not mean you need to ask about personal stuff)will be glad for foreigner. While also,if you are foreigner in Korea, teach your friend how they should communicate with you. Speak up if you do not  feel comfortable with your environment. Especially, if you live in campus, go get consultation.

Actually, a good communication between Korean and foreigner can make an opportunity for both of them. Like in my department, Those who wanna teach foreigner shall know what are our biggest problem in studying in Korean. So they need my stories. I need their help to have a better understanding in Korean. Learning language as a learner and as a teacher is a waaaaaaaaaaaaay different.

Let's make a better world. 

see u on next post