EPTTable of Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Consonants
3. Vowels
4. Character sets
5. Pronounciation
6. Misc
Warning: You need the Korean language pack installed on your computer to read some of the content.
1. Introduction:
This is a guide on how to read the Korean language. It will not teach you to understand what you are reading but simply to read the characters. To teach the meaning of everything could take years of education and I can't simply condense it all into one small post so I have decided that I will atleast teach you to read the characters. Why is this useful? Many times I see stuff in Korean that is translated into English phonetically that is far from the true way to pronounce that particular word. This will allow everyone the insight into how to correctly pronounce most Korean words and names. Names is probably the biggest reason I am writing this because sometimes the English phonetics don't correctly capture it so for those that care, you can read it the proper way. :D
2. Consonants
I will first start off with the consonants. Korean is very easy to learn to read if you are accustomed to English because each letter has a sound attached to it. You simply put all the sounds of the letters together and viola, you have your word.
ㄱ - G when at beginning or end, K between vowels. [IPA: k]
ㄴ - N. [IPA: n]
ㄷ - T when at beginning or end, D between vowels. [IPA: t]
ㄹ - L when at beginning or end, R between vowels. [IPA: r]
ㅁ - M. [IPA: m]
ㅂ - P when at beginning or end, B between vowels. [IPA: p]
ㅅ - S if none of the follow: Sh if followed by ㅣㅒㅑㅕㅠㅛㅖㅚ. T at the end of word. [IPA: s]
ㅇ - Silent at beginning, Ng at the end. [IPA: ŋ]
ㅈ - Ch at beginning, J between vowels, T at the end. [IPA: ʨ]
ㅊ - Ch at beginning(a little stronger than ㅈ), T at the end. [IPA: ʨʰ]
ㅋ - K as in king at beginning, K at the end. [IPA: kʰ]
ㅌ - T as in terrace at beginning, T at the end. [IPA: tʰ]
ㅍ - P as in popstar at beginning, P at the end. [IPA: pʰ]
ㅎ - H as in hello. [IPA: h]
There is also the possibility you might see the same consonant together with itself such as ㄲㄸㅉㅃㅆ. These are pronounced similar to their originals but have a little more added force behind them. Later on we will learn to pronounce them out loud.
3. Vowels
Next we will learn the vowels. There are a few more in Korean than in English but I feel that you really only need to learn half of them and you can know the other half. You'll see what I mean.
ㅏ - ah (as in father) [IPA: a]
ㅑ - yah (as in yard) [IPA: ja]
ㅓ - uh (as in buck) [IPA: ʌ]
ㅕ - yuh (as in yuck) [IPA: jʌ]
ㅗ - oh (as in mow) [IPA: o]
ㅛ - yoh (as in Yo-Yo) [IPA: jo]
ㅜ - oo (as in boot) [IPA: u]
ㅠ - yoo (as in ukulele) [IPA: ju ]
ㅡ - eu (as in book) [IPA: ɯ]
ㅣ - ee (as in bee) [IPA: i]
ㅐ - ae (as in bear) [IPA: ɛ]
ㅒ - yae (as yeah) [IPA: jɛ]
ㅔ - eh (as in meh) [IPA: e]
ㅖ - yeh (as in Yale) [IPA: je]
(Note: ㅔ and ㅐ are very similar in pronunciation but more on that later.)
4. Character Sets
Korean characters are set up as a group of letters that are put into slots. Each Korean character set can have as many as 4 slots or as few as 2 slots.
![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/Colpan/2.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/Colpan/3.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/Colpan/4.jpg)
There are other variations as to the formation of each character but rather than have every single example it would be easiest to just teach the simple algorithm to follow. Reading the characters goes from left to right then top of bottom. It's like reading a book. All the examples are labeled in the other in which the characters would be pronounced. There are some odd exceptions to these rules but I will go into that later.
5. Pronunciation
Now I will go through the pronunciation of each of the vowels first. They are easier to learn and master. A good thing to practice is saying each character in order while writing them down if you care that much.
ㅏ
ㅑ
ㅓ
ㅕ
ㅗ
ㅛ
ㅜ
ㅠ
ㅡ
ㅣ
ㅐ
ㅒ
ㅔㅖ were omitted because they are very similar to ㅐㅒ. You can get away with pronouncing them the same.
Sorry if my pronunciations aren't perfect. I have a bit of a sore throat. =(
Now I will move onto the consonants. The way consonants are, it is hard to simply say the consonant by itself. Generally each consonant's sound is taught in conjunction with ㅏ(this is why vowels were taught first). All these pronunciations will end with "ah" so keep in mind that is the sound from the vowel, the consonant's sound will come from the sound you hear before that.
가
나
다
라
마
바
사
자
차
카
타
파
하
This is all the letters of the alphabet that carry a sound. You might notice that ㅇ was omitted from the list. The reason for this is that when it is in the first character slot, it carries no sound. However if it is in any other spot, it has the "ng" sound. Next I will put together some simple practice words for you try.
김 This is an easy and common last name.
+ Show Spoiler +
찬 A little harder I guess.
+ Show Spoiler +
방 This one is a little harder since I haven't taught the ㅇ sound. This is also one of the most misphoneticized word.
+ Show Spoiler +
Bang
Notice it's bong more than bang(like a gun). There is no long 'a' sound in Korean.
Notice it's bong more than bang(like a gun). There is no long 'a' sound in Korean.
Now I'll try some harder stuff for you. See if you get these right.
박재영
+ Show Spoiler +
This next one will be the final practice I will give you but you should go through the TLPD and try to read the names on there. This one is super hard.
황병영
+ Show Spoiler +
BarracksThis is the player's name, not the actual building.
6. Misc
This is my wrap up for this guide. I hope you found some use for it and enjoy it. If you have any questions or just want to talk you can always PM me or e-mail me at Colpanius@gmail.com.
I'm sorry for any errors. I did everything to the best of my ability.
For those that wonder my background in Korean: I am half Korean in heritage. My mom is full Korean and immigrated to America. I was born in America and raised here my whole life. I went to Korean language school from 1st grade til 6th grade to learn to speak, read, and write Korean. I am fairly proficient at all those areas. I love to watch Starcraft and Korean TV in my free time. I've been reading articles at TL for a while and decided I guess I could contribute this to the community. Also I realized how much it annoys me when people say stuff wrong because they don't know better. ^^
FAQ:
Any chance of adding a download link to korean language pack?
Have you tried going to Regional and Language options in your control panel, going to language, and checking Install Files for East Asian Languages. I believe that would allow you to read them.
Please leave comments on what I could improve or anything you think should be changed. Maybe if all goes well, I will expand this to include more! :D
-Colpan
Updates:
6-5-09: Added in IPA and expanded section 2 and 3 to be more comprehensive thanks to kaleidoscope.
