# Korean/Advanced Pronunciation Rules

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This lesson contains all information about standard pronunciation of Korean words, based on "Standard Korean Pronunciation Rules (1988)."

## Medials

Simple vowels 'ㅚ' and 'ㅟ' can be pronounced like diphthongs:
* ㅚ [ø] → ㅚ [we] or [we̞]
* ㅟ [y] → ㅟ [wi] or [ɥi]
Many native speakers cannot distinguish ‘금괴(金塊)’ from ‘금궤(金櫃).’
'져, 쪄, and 쳐' appearing in conjugation of verbs and adjectives is often pronounced '저, 쩌, and 처,' respectively:
In Korean, 'ㅈ, ㅉ, ㅊ' following vowels starting with /j/ sound, such as 'ㅕ', only appear as the form of '져, 쪄, 쳐,' except for some non-formal spelling of foreign words in Hangeul. The reason why there is such a rule is because 'ㅈ, ㅉ, ㅊ' cannot be followed by /j/ sounds. (/j/ elision)
In some dialects 'ㅖ' is pronounced 'ㅔ' except for '예' and '례':
'ㅢ' after initial consonant is often pronounced 'ㅣ':
Moreover, '의' ('ㅢ without initial consonant) which is a non-first syllable is often pronounced '이':
Also, the post-position '의' (meaning the word of) is often pronounced '에':
For '되어', '피어', '-이오', and '아니오', you can add /j/ sounds as follows:

## Finals

The sounds of some final consonants (받침, batchim) are different from their sounds as initials.
Only seven consonant sounds are found at the end of syllables: ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, and ㅇ.

### Nasalization

In general, obstruents before nasals are assimilated to nasals, while keeping the same place of articulation as before. ㄹ following obstruents also is affected. Let 'k-stop', 't-stop', 'p-stop' be obstruents stopping with k, t, p sounds, respectively. The general rules are:
* A k-stop (ㄱ, ㅋ, ㄲ, ...) becomes ㅇ before 'ㄴ and ㅁ'
* A t-stop (ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅌ, ㅎ, ...) becomes ㄴ before 'ㄴ and ㅁ'
* A p-stop (ㅂ, ㅍ, ㅃ, ...) becomes ㅁ before 'ㄴ and ㅁ'
* ㄹ following an obstruent becomes ㄴ, and above rules are applied. (For this, see below.)
Here are some examples:
* k-stops + ㄴ become ㅇㄴ
* k-stops + ㅁ become ㅇㅁ
* t-stops + ㄴ become ㄴㄴ
* t-stops + ㅁ become ㄴㅁ
* p-stops + ㄴ becomes ㅁㄴ
* p-stops + ㅁ becomes ㅁㅁ

### Aspiration

* ㄱㅎ becomes ㅋ
* ㅎㄱ becomes ㅋ
* t-stops + ㅎ becomes ㅌ (except for the next case):
* but, t-stops + 히 becomes 치 if it involves palatalization (see below):
* ㅎㄷ becomes ㅌ
* ㅂㅎ becomes ㅍ
* ㅎㅈ becomes ㅊ
* ㅎㅅ becomes ㅆ

### Palatalization

Some combinations involve palatalization:
* ㄷ이 becomes 지 if 이- only has grammatical meaning
* ㅌ이 and 't-stops + 히' becomes 치 if 히- only has grammatical meaning

### Assimilations and Alterations Related to ㄹ

Some involve complex assimilation/alterations:
* ㅁㄹ becomes ㅁㄴ
* ㅇㄹ becomes ㅇㄴ
* ㄱㄹ becomes ㅇㄴ (can be divided as ㄱㄹ -> ㄱㄴ -> ㅇㄴ)
* ㅂㄹ becomes ㅁㄴ (can be divided as ㅂㄹ -> ㅂㄴ -> ㅁㄴ)
* ㄴㄹ becomes ㄹㄹ (except some words)
The exceptions are the following 11 words:

### Linking

If a syllable with initial consonant ㅇ(meaning there is no sound) is either a postposition or a suffix/an ending, and it follows terminal syllable(받침, batchim), and if there is no addition of syllable, then that terminal syllable is moved to the position of ㅇ, as it is. Single consonants and tense consonants ㄲ, ㅆ are moved entirely, and for other double syllable like ㄼ, ㄾ, second component only moves (but ㅅ becomes ㅆ).
For the first case:
The other case:
If the syllable starting with ㅇ is the first character of a semantically meaningful word and if the vowel is not starting with /j/ sound, then first change the first syllable following the rule and moves the last consonant.
If two words become one where the first one ends with terminal consonant and the second one starts with /j/ sound, then ㄴ is added after applying the rules to each words.
More examples without explanation:
Here, ㄹㄴ with added ㄴ becomes ㄹㄹ.
Some permissions: you can read as it is, without adding ㄴ for the following 5 words:
Exceptions: do not add ㄴ for the following 4 words:
Caution: if this is not the case that two words became one word which is in the dictionary, you should not add ㄴ. For example,

## Brief Summary

During pronouncing,
Vowels:
* ㅚ and ㅟ can be dipthongs.
* /j/ following ㅈ, ㅉ, ㅊ should be removed.
* ㅖ following with initial consonant (neither ㅇ nor ㄹ) can be ㅔ.
* ㅢ with initial consonant (not ㅇ) should be ㅣ.
** If a ㅢ with initial consonant made by moving a consonant, then it primarily pronounced as it is, and it can be pronounced ㅣ.
* 의 as a non-first character of a word can be 이.
* 의, a postposition meaning "of", can be pronounced 에.
Consonants:
* Only 7 consonants can come as a terminal consonant, batchim: ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅇ.
* At the end of a word,
** ㄲ, ㅋ, ㄳ, ㄺ become ㄱ (k-stop)
** ㄵ, ㄶ become ㄴ
** ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅌ, ㅎ become ㄷ (t-stop)
** ㄼ, ㄽ, ㄾ, ㅀ become ㄹ (except for 밟-, 넓죽하다, and 넓둥글다)
** ㄻ becomes ㅁ
** ㄿ, ㅄ, ㅍ become ㅂ (p-stop)
* Nasalization: (k-stop, t-stop, p-stop) + (ㄴ or ㅁ) become (ㅇ, ㄴ, ㅁ)
* Aspiration
** k-stop + ㅎ become ㅋ
** t-stop + ㅎ become ㅌ
*** t-stop + 히(not semantically meaningful) become 치 due to palatalization
** p-stop + ㅎ become ㅍ
* Palatalization: (ㄷ, ㅌ) + meaningless (이, 히) become 지(ㄷ이) or 치(other cases)
* Assimilation/alternation: ㄹ become ㄴ after batchim which is not ㄴ/ㄹ, and ㄴㄹ and ㄹㄴ become ㄹㄹ except for some words
* Linking: basically move batchim to next ㅇ, except for:
** ㅅ become ㅆ.
** Combining meaningful words cause delay of moving of batchim or addition of ㄴ.
* Tensing
** ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅈ following obstruents become ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ
** ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅈ following a batchim of a word stem which is one of ㄴ(ㄵ), ㅁ(ㄻ), ㄼ, ㄾ become ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅆ, ㅉ
** In Sino-Korean words, ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅈ after ㄹ become ㄸ, ㅆ, ㅉ (except reduplication words)
** -ㄹ in some words following a word stem makes following ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅈ tense
** If two words become one where the first one modifies the second one and if there should be some delay pronouncing it, then the first ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅈ of the second word become tense.