Let’s start!
The first Korean letter you should learn is Bieup:
ㅂ
One more thing for today: it is possible to have syllables that end in a consonant. This typically occurs when there is a cluster of two consonants in the middle of a word: one consonant then forms the end of one syllable and the other forms the beginning of the next syllable. Fitting two consonants and a vowel into a little square box is a little more tricky, but not impossible. In most cases you write the first consonant + vowel next to each other as before and then put the final consonant below the two. For example, this is the syllable ban, which has no meaning of its own:
반
Now, the next important letter is Nieun:
ㄴ
Every character represents one syllable, so if you wanted to write baba for example, you would need two characters, one for each ba.
Every Korean syllable has to start with a consonant. That makes it easy to identify the beginning and end of syllables, but what about syllables that start with a vowel, such as the beginning of the famous Korean greeting “annyong haseyo”? Those syllables need a placeholder consonant that isn’t pronounced. Since its influence on the pronunciation of the syllable is zero, it is written like a zero, too. (That’s how you can remember it anyway)
O
It is called Ieung. So the syllable a would actually be written as 아.
Of course you can’t read anything with just this one consonant, so here’s a vowel to go with it:
ㅏ
This is the vowel a as in father
ㄴ
This is a regular n
Every character represents one syllable, so if you wanted to write baba for example, you would need two characters, one for each ba.
Every Korean syllable has to start with a consonant. That makes it easy to identify the beginning and end of syllables, but what about syllables that start with a vowel, such as the beginning of the famous Korean greeting “annyong haseyo”? Those syllables need a placeholder consonant that isn’t pronounced. Since its influence on the pronunciation of the syllable is zero, it is written like a zero, too. (That’s how you can remember it anyway)
O
It is called Ieung. So the syllable a would actually be written as 아.
One more thing for today: it is possible to have syllables that end in a consonant. This typically occurs when there is a cluster of two consonants in the middle of a word: one consonant then forms the end of one syllable and the other forms the beginning of the next syllable. Fitting two consonants and a vowel into a little square box is a little more tricky, but not impossible. In most cases you write the first consonant + vowel next to each other as before and then put the final consonant below the two. For example, this is the syllable ban, which has no meaning of its own:
반
This letter is Mieum:
ㅁ
This is pronounced just like a regular English m
Be careful not to confuse its appearance with ‘O’, which has rounded corners rather than straight.
ㅣ
This is the vowel i. It is pronounced like the ee in meet
This letter is Rieul
ㄹ
This letter is pronounced like r or l, typically somewhere in between in true Asian fashion
According to the official Korean romanisation system, it is always transliterated as l.
This letter is Giyeok:
ㄱ
This letter is pronounced like g or k.
Be careful not to confuse it with ㄴ. When this letter is combined with a vowel such as a or i, it changes shape slightly. See the syllable gi for instance: 기.
This letter is the vowel O:
ㅗ
This is pronounced like the oa in boat
This letter is Digeut.
ㄷ
This letter is pronounced like a t or d.
This letter is Shiot:
ㅅ
Shiot is pronounced like an s.
一
This vowel looks just like an ordinary horizontal line. It is much wider than tall, so it is also written below the preceding consonant rather than next to it. It’s pronunciation is a bit strange, somewhat like the French u or the German ü. It’s between the English oo and ee sounds. The u in the English word mure is probably one of the closest examples of the sound in English.
No comments:
Post a Comment