Korean Phonetics
Jul 12th 2010 21:29
안옝하십니까?
Hello everyone,
I am new to learning Korean, and cannot write this in Hangul. In fact have only been taking language classes here in Seoul for the past 2 weeks (almost two weeks). There is one thing that has really been on my mind, Korean phonetics. Here is the issue.
In class we were told, ㅂ+ㄴ=ㅁsound. 입니다 despite its spelling sounds like [임니다]. I have been trying to take it at face value and just accept the facts since all romanization writes the word, imnida. However, I cannot let this issue go. My problem and reason for sending this email is as follows.
If, ㅂ+ㄴ=ㅁ, then why is the ㄴ pronounced? If those consonants form an 'm' sound, then why is there a strong 'ni' right after? That is, if the 'p' sound is eliminated then why isn't the 'n' sound. After all, those two combined form the 'm' sound. It seems to me that the 'n' sound should be eliminated, but it is not.
I really want to know why the word sounds as it does and why it shouldn't be pronounced, [이미다] or [임이다]? Any explanation that you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Hello everyone,
I am new to learning Korean, and cannot write this in Hangul. In fact have only been taking language classes here in Seoul for the past 2 weeks (almost two weeks). There is one thing that has really been on my mind, Korean phonetics. Here is the issue.
In class we were told, ㅂ+ㄴ=ㅁsound. 입니다 despite its spelling sounds like [임니다]. I have been trying to take it at face value and just accept the facts since all romanization writes the word, imnida. However, I cannot let this issue go. My problem and reason for sending this email is as follows.
If, ㅂ+ㄴ=ㅁ, then why is the ㄴ pronounced? If those consonants form an 'm' sound, then why is there a strong 'ni' right after? That is, if the 'p' sound is eliminated then why isn't the 'n' sound. After all, those two combined form the 'm' sound. It seems to me that the 'n' sound should be eliminated, but it is not.
I really want to know why the word sounds as it does and why it shouldn't be pronounced, [이미다] or [임이다]? Any explanation that you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
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안녕하십니까?
When 입 followed by ㄴ, the two sounds are mixed, so its pronunciation is like
입미다, 임니다 or 임이다.
but this is just spelling
the second chracter is not strong 'ni', I think.
it's like ' i '
임ㅣ다
but we can't write ㅣseperately
so we he or she wrote 임니다 instead of 임ㅣ다.
I mean, when ㅂand ㄴ meet it's pronounced like ㅁ
(ㅂ+ㄴ-> ㅁ)
so it's ㅇ ㅣ ㅂ, ㄴ ㅣ, ㄷ ㅏ -> ㅇ ㅣ ㅁ, ㅣ, ㄷ ㅏ.
임e다
not ' ni '
--------
This is poor explanation. I just hope, It's helpful for u
this is just a prolonged pronunciation.
um..just..be familiar with it!
Thanks. Any explanation is better than no explanation. Though it does sound like ni to me. Part of the problem might be the teachers. In their attempts to teach a class they might have broken the word down to make it easier for non-native speakers to learn thus causing the confusion. I don't know though. It is just a thought. But again, thank you.
The nasalization is very important in Korean sound.
In this case "ㅇ ㅣㅂㄴㅣㄷㅏ" you can see that "ㅂ" by "ㄴ". It's not easy to sound. So, we can borrow the later sound "ㄴ" and sound like "ㅂ" to "ㅁ". The "ipnida" is more difficut than "imnida". Try that sounds. Which is more difficult?
입니다 -> 임니다
갑니다 -> 감니다
받는다 -> 반는다
십만 -> 심만
첫눈 -> 천눈
You will be hard to pronounce your example, because your tongue was adapt your
languge. Actually, Korean pronunciation rule's follow our tongue. In other words,
It is easy to pronounce to every Korean. Most of the foreigner found this problem most difficult . but, my friend( he is from canada) got over this problem by pronuncing every word repeatedly.
Sorry.. jess,,ㅠ.ㅠ I guess it will not be a answer what you want...
Thank you for the point about nasalization. It makes sense, but honestly, both variations are equal. I don't have a problem with either pronunciation, but I understand what you mean about it being difficult for native speakers to pronounce. I think because English has roots in German and French and has adopted a lot from Latin and Greek p+n combination is easier for us to say. But, again thank you.
Brandon,
Thank you. I appreciate all the assistance people are willing to offer and to explain. I do the same outside of class. For the first few days I had the hardest time saying, 안녕하십니까? I must have driven my roommate crazy, haha!!
tomo,
ありがとうございました。ハングルを勉強します。がんばります！
When you take the time to make the p sound before the n sound, there's a pause because you need to aspirate the p. In Korean, you never aspirate a final consonant.. It's swallowed, if that makes sense. When saying the syllable "입," for example, there is no aspiration of the ㅂ. It's just.. eep. With a swallowed p. If you were to aspirate it, it would be written 이브 (or 이프 if you're thinking of it as a p...).
Because there's no aspiration, these syllables all sound the same when isolated:
각, 갘, 갂, 갉
Same with these:
닫, 닽, 닱, 닷, 닸
And these:
밥, 밮, 밟
It takes a while to get used to this swallowed final consonant thing, but you're just going to have to adapt your ears and tongue to it.
And since the ㅂ in 입 of 입니다 is not aspirated, it's even harder to pronounce it smoothly when followed by the ㄴ in 니. So, the natural solution our tongues have developed is to soften the ㅂ to ㅁ.
I feel like this information might be a little redundant.. But it's a hard concept to explain. Just.. memorize the spelling vs. pronunciation rules (맞춤법).. It'll be second nature when you're further along with Korean =]