Help:IPA for Korean

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) helps with Korean language pronunciations in pages. For a guide to adding IPA characters to pages, see {IPA-ko}, {IPAc-ko} and :en:Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

Korean consonants
IPA Hangul RR English approximation
b[1] ㅂ b ball
d[1] ㄷ d doll
dz[2] ㅈ j beds
dʑ[1] ㅈ j roughly like gee
ɡ[1] ㄱ g gall
h ㅎ h hall
ɦ[1] ㅎ h behind
j [ㅛ, ㅠ,ㅑ,ㅕ,
ㅖ, ㅒ][3]		 y you
k ㄱ [ㅋ][4] g, k lock
k͈ ㄲ kk skin
kʰ ㅋ [ㅎㄱ] k cup
l ㄹ [ㄴ][5] l alike
m ㅁ [ㅂ][6] m mall
n ㄴ
[ㄹ, ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅈ][7]		 n not
ŋ ㅇ [ㄴㄱ][8] ng king
p ㅂ [ㅍ][9] 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 saw
ɕ[10] ㅅ s roughly like she
ɕ͈[10] ㅆ ss see
t ㄷ
[ㅌ, ㅅ, ㅈ, ㅊ][11]		 d, t let
t͈ ㄸ tt stack
tʰ ㅌ [ㅎㄷ] t tall
ts[2] ㅈ j cats
ts͈[2] ㅉ jj
tsʰ[2] 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][12] w wall
z[1] ㅅ s like zee, but murmured (with more breath)
ʑ[13] ㅅ s roughly like illusion
Korean vowels and diphthongs[14]
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[12] 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/ɥi ㅢ ui/yi somewhat like we, year
y ㅟ[12] wi somewhat like sweet
yː somewhat like swede
Korean suprasegmentals
IPA Hangul RR Explanation
ː [15] geminated consonant
ˈ primary stress
ˌ secondary stress

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 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. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 [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. ↑ 10.0 10.1 [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. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 /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.