4. Aspiration and ㅎ weakening
The [h] sound in Korean becomes very weak when it appears in the middle of
a word or a sentence. This is similar to English, where for example, you
pronounce the phrase, ‘tell him’ as ‘telim’ with the [h] sound almost silent. In
particular, the ㅎ tends to become silent in casual speech between vowels,
after the nasal consonants ㄴ and ㅁ, or after the consonant ㄹ.
Examples
Spelling Pronunciation
전화 저놔
은행 으냉
감히 가미
말해 봐 마래 봐
When ㅎ immediately precedes or follows ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ or ㅈ, it becomes silent
and makes these soft consonants harder (i.e. aspirated):
aspirated
ㄱ ㅋ
ㄷ ㅌ
ㅂ ㅍ
ㅈ ㅊ
Examples
Spelling Pronunciation
축하 추카
좋다 조타
입학 이팍
그렇지 그러치�
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KEY TO KOREAN (키 투 코리얀)
RandomWelcome to KEY TO KOREAN! Your story of reliable korean lessons. This book will help you learn, speak, and write useful Korean words. Together, Let's Learn Korean! Some lessons are from my notes and others are come from different sources. I only co...
