Korean phonology is the study of how sounds (phonemes) function in the Korean language. It includes consonants, vowels, syllable structure, sound changes, and prosody.
1. Consonants
Modern Korean has 19 consonant phonemes.
(1) Three-way distinction
Korean stop and affricate consonants are characterized by a three-way contrast:
Plain (Lenis) Light, unaspirated ㄱ ㄷ ㅂ ㅈ
Aspirated Strong burst of air ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅊ
Tense (Fortis) Tight, stiff articulation ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅉ ㅆ
This distinction is not based on voicing (unlike English), but on tension and aspiration.
(2) Sonorants
Other consonants include:
• Nasals: ㄴ /n/, ㅁ /m/, ㅇ /ŋ/
• Liquid: ㄹ /l, r/
• Fricatives: ㅅ /s/, ㅎ /h/
2. Vowels
Modern Korean has 10 basic vowels, often analyzed as monophthongs.
Front ㅣ/i/ ㅔ/e/ ㅐ/ɛ/ ㅚ/ø/ ㅟ/y/
Central ㅡ/ɯ/ ㅓ/ʌ/ ㅏ/a/
Back ㅗ/o/ ㅜ/u/
Features:
• No phonemic vowel length in modern standard Korean
• Lip rounding contrasts (ㅗ, ㅜ are rounded; others are unrounded)
Compound vowels (glides)
Vowels like ㅘ, ㅝ, ㅢ are phonologically sequences of a glide + vowel.
3. Syllable Structure
The basic structure is:
(C)(G)V(C)
• C = consonant
• G = glide (ㅣ, ㅜ as /j, w/)
• V = vowel
• Final consonant (받침) is optional
Examples:
• 가 /ka/
• 꽃 /kkot/
• 한국 /han.guk/
4. Batchim (Final Consonants)
Although many consonants can appear in spelling, only 7 sounds occur in syllable-final position:
/p t k m n ŋ l/
Examples:
• 밥 /pap/
• 꽃 /kot/
• 산 /san/
This leads to frequent neutralization of final consonants.
5. Sound Changes (Phonological Rules)
Korean has many regular phonological processes:
• Assimilation: 국물 → /궁물/
• Nasalization: 앞문 → /암문/
• Liaison (연음): 한국어 → /한구거/
• Tensification: 학교 → /학꾜/
These rules are essential for natural pronunciation.
6. Stress and Intonation
• Korean has no lexical stress
• Meaning is not distinguished by pitch (not tonal)
• Intonation mainly marks sentence type (statement, question, emphasis)
