Help:IPA/Korean

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Korean language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. It is based on the standard dialect of South Korea. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see {{IPAc-ko}} and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

See Korean phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Korean.

Korean consonants
IPA Hangul RR English approximation
b[a] ㅂ b ball
d[a] ㄷ d doll
dz[b] ㅈ j beds
dʑ[a] ㅈ j roughly like gee
ɡ[a] ㄱ g gall
h ㅎ h hall
ɦ[a] ㅎ h behind
j [ㅛ, ㅠ,ㅑ,ㅕ,
ㅖ, ㅒ][c]		 y you
k ㄱ [ㅋ][d] g, k lock
k͈ ㄲ kk skin
kʰ ㅋ [ㅎㄱ] k cup
l ㄹ [ㄴ][e] l alike
m ㅁ [ㅂ][f] m mall
n ㄴ
[ㄹ, ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅈ][g]		 n not
ŋ ㅇ [ㄱ][h] ng king
p ㅂ [ㅍ][i] b, p clip
p͈ ㅃ pp spit
pʰ ㅍ [ㅎㅂ] p paint
ɾ ㄹ r Scottish great or American ladder
s ㅅ s like see, but aspirated (with more breath)
s͈ ㅆ ss see
ɕ[j] ㅅ s roughly like she
ɕ͈[j] ㅆ ss see
t ㄷ
[ㅌ, ㅅ, ㅈ, ㅊ][k]		 d, t let
t͈ ㄸ tt stall
tʰ ㅌ [ㅎㄷ] t tall
ts[b] ㅈ j cats
ts͈[b] ㅉ jj
tsʰ[b] ㅊ [ㅎㅈ] ch let's have
tɕ ㅈ j roughly like cheek
tɕ͈ ㅉ jj roughly like pitcher
tɕʰ ㅊ [ㅎㅈ] ch roughly like cheek
w [ㅜ, ㅗ][l] w wall
z[a] ㅅ s like zee, but murmured (with more breath)
ʑ[m] ㅅ s roughly like illusion
Korean vowels and diphthongs[n]
IPA Hangul RR English approximation
a ㅏ a American bot
aː spa
e ㅔ e sate
eː say
ɛ ㅐ ae bet
ɛː bed, RP bare
i ㅣ i meat
iː mean
o ㅗ o American boat
oː RP broad
ø ㅚ[l] oe weld
øː wave
u ㅜ u bull
uː rule
ʌ ㅓ eo mud
əː RP pearl
ɯ ㅡ eu somewhat like book
ɯː somewhat like rude
ɰi ㅢ ui somewhat like we
y ㅟ[l] wi somewhat like sweet
yː somewhat like swede
Korean suprasegmentals
IPA Hangul RR Explanation
ː [o] geminated consonant

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f The plain stops and affricate /p t tɕ k/ and the fricatives /h s/ are voiced to [b d dʑ ɡ ɦ z] respectively between voiced sounds.
  2. ^ a b c d [ts ts͈ tsʰ dz] occur before back vowels.
  3. ^ /j/ cannot be spelled by itself, but by doubling the short line on the vowel which it phonetically precedes.
  4. ^ ㅋ is [k] and RR k at the end of a syllable.
  5. ^ ㄹ is [l] at the end of a syllable. ㄹㄴ and ㄴㄹ may be [lː].
  6. ^ ㅂ is [m] before /n/ or /m/.
  7. ^ ㄹ may be [n] at the start of a word. ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅈ are [n] before /n/ or /m/.
  8. ^ ㅇ is [ŋ] at the end of a syllable. ㄱ is [ŋ] before /n/, /m/, or /ɾ/.
  9. ^ ㅍ is [p] and RR p at the end of a syllable.
  10. ^ a b [ɕ ɕ͈] are the allophones of /s s͈/ before /i/ and /j/.
  11. ^ ㅌ, ㅅ, ㅈ, ㅊ are [t] and RR t at the end of a syllable.
  12. ^ a b c /w/ is spelled ㅜ before /ʌ/, /e/, /i/ (the latter combination producing /y/~[ɥi]), ㅗ before /ɛ/, /a/; ㅚ /ø/ can also be pronounced [we].
  13. ^ [ʑ] is the allophone of /z/ before /i/ and /j/.
  14. ^ In Standard Korean vowel length is contrastive, but this has mostly been lost in the spoken language.
  15. ^ Resulting from various sequences of consonants (and their relative transcriptions) in regressive assimilation.

References

  • Heo, Yong (2013). "An analysis and interpretation of Korean vowel systems". Acta Koreana. 16 (1): 23-43.
  • Lee, Hyun-bok (1999). "An IPA Illustration of Korean". Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. p. 120-123.
  • Lee, Hyun-bok (2002). 음성의 연구와 음성의 표기법 [Phonetic Notation in Phonetic Research: IPA and International Korean Phonetic Alphabet] (PDF). INTERSPEECH-2002.
  • Lee, Hyun-bok (2004). In search of a universal phonetic alphabet – theory and application of an organic visible speech (PDF). INTERSPEECH-2004.
  • Shin, J. (2015). Vowels and Consonants. In L. Brown & J. Yeon (Eds.). The Handbook of Korean Linguistics (pp. 3-21). Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell.
  • Shin, J., Kiaer, J., & Cha, J. (2012). The Sounds of Korean. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
  • Sohn, Ho-min (2001). The Korean Language. Cambridge language surveys. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521369436.

External links