Help:IPA/Korean

This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Korean on Wikipedia.

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Korean in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.

For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Korean language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. It is based on the standard dialect of South Korea and may not represent some of the sounds in the North Korean dialect or in other dialects. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Template:IPA and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

See Korean phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Korean.

Korean consonants
IPA	Hangul	Example		English approximation
IPA	Hangul	Hangul	Revised Romanization	English approximation
b^[1]	ㅂ	아버지	abeoji	ball
βʷ^[2]^[3]	ㅎ	오후	ohu	roughly like upvote
ç^[4]	ㅎ	힘, 효도	him, hyodo	human
ɕ^[5]	ㅅ	시작	sijak	roughly like she
ɕ͈^[5]	ㅆ	씨	ssi	seen
d^[1]	ㄷ	구도	gudo	doll
dz^[6]	ㅈ	지반	jiban	beds
dʑ^[1]	ㅈ	아직	ajik	roughly like gee
ɸʷ^[3]	ㅎ	후손, 화물	huson, hwamul	roughly like who
ɡ^[1]	ㄱ	베개	begae	gall
ɣ^[2]^[7]	ㅎ	암흑	amheuk	Spanish amigo or again, but without the tongue touching the roof of the mouth
h	ㅎ	하늘	haneul	hall
ɦ^[2]	ㅎ	여행	yeohaeng	RP behind
j	[ㅛ, ㅠ,ㅑ,ㅕ, ㅖ, ㅒ]^[8]	야	ya	you
ʝ^[2]^[4]	ㅎ	감히	gamhi	roughly like you
k	ㄱ	강	gang	sky
k̚	ㄱ ㅋ^[9]	음악	eumak	lock
k͈	ㄲ	까마귀	kkamagwi	skin
kʰ	ㅋ [ㄱㅎ] [ㅎㄱ]	크기, 박하, 않기	keugi, baka, anki	cup
ɭ	ㄹ [ㄴ]^[10]	알, 신라	al, Silla	hall
m	ㅁ [ㅂ]^[11]	말, 압력	mal, amnyeok	mall
n	ㄴ [ㄹ, ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅈ]^[12]	나, 나뭇잎	na, namunnip	not
ŋ	ㅇ [ㄱ]^[13]	왕, 악마	wang, angma	king
p	ㅂ	바람	baram	spa
p̚	ㅂ ㅍ ^[14]	집	jip	clip
p͈	ㅃ	빨강	ppalgang	spit
pʰ	ㅍ [ㅂㅎ] [ㅎㅂ]	파랑, 접하다	parang, jeopada	paint
ɾ	ㄹ	사람	saram	Scottish great or American atom
s	ㅅ	사	sa	like see, but aspirated (with more breath)
s͈	ㅆ	쌀	ssal	saw
t	ㄷ	달	dal	star
t̚	ㄷ, ㅌ, ㅅ, ㅈ, ㅊ^[15]	곧, 끝, 맛, 곶, 꽃	got, kkeut, mat, got, kkot	let
t͈	ㄸ	뜨다	tteuda	stall
tʰ	ㅌ [ㄷㅎ] [ㅎㄷ]	타다, 맏형, 않다	tada, matyeong, anta	tall
ts^[6]	ㅈ		j	cats
ts͈^[6]	ㅉ		jj	cats
tsʰ^[6]	ㅊ [ㅈㅎ] [ㅎㅈ]		ch	let's have
tɕ	ㅈ	장	jang	roughly like patch
tɕ͈	ㅉ	짜다	jjada	roughly like patch
tɕʰ	ㅊ [ㅈㅎ] [ㅎㅈ]	관찰, 앉히다, 않지	gwanchal, anchida, anchi	roughly like cheek
w	[ㅜ, ㅗ]^[16]	왜	wae	wall
x^[7]	ㅎ	흙	heuk	loch

Korean vowels and diphthongs^[17]
IPA	Hangul	Example		English approximation
IPA	Hangul	Hangul	Revised Romanization^[18]	English approximation
a	ㅏ	사랑	sarang	up
aː	ㅏ	사건	sageon	spa
ʌ	ㅓ	억	eok	Conservative up
əː	ㅓ	선물	seonmul	RP herd
ɛ	ㅐ	배	bae	bet
ɛː	ㅐ	개	gae	GA bed
e	ㅔ	베개	begae	rate
eː	ㅔ	세상	sesang	raid
i	ㅣ	키	ki	beat
iː	ㅣ	시설	siseol	bead
o	ㅗ	오늘	oneul	sort
oː	ㅗ	오후	ohu	sword
ø	ㅚ^[16]	외톨이	oetori	wet
øː	ㅚ^[16]	외국	oeguk	wed
u	ㅜ	구슬	guseul	root
uː	ㅜ	웃다	utda	rude
ɯ	ㅡ	음악	eumak	foot
ɯː	ㅡ	음식	eumsik	good
ɰi	ㅢ	의사	uisa	somewhat like we
y	ㅟ^[16]	위험	wiheom	somewhat like sweet
yː	ㅟ^[16]	뒤	dwi	somewhat like swede

Korean suprasegmentals
IPA	Hangul	Explanation
ː	^[19]	geminated consonant
ˈ		primary stress
ˌ		secondary stress

Notes edit

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d The plain stops and affricate /p t tɕ k/ are voiced to [b d dʑ ɡ] respectively between voiced sounds.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ㅎ is voiced between voiced sounds.
^ ^a ^b [ɸʷ] is the allophone of /h/ before /u/ or /w/.
^ ^a ^b [ç] is the allophone of /h/ before /i/ or /j/.
^ ^a ^b [ɕ ɕ͈] are the allophones of /s s͈/ before /i/ and /j/.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d [ts ts͈ tsʰ dz] occur before back vowels.
^ ^a ^b [x] is the allophone of /h/ before /ɯ/.
^ /j/ cannot be spelled by itself, but by doubling the short line on the vowel which it phonetically precedes.
^ ㄱ and ㅋ are k̚ and RR k at the end of a syllable.
^ ㄹ is [ɭ] at the end of a syllable. ㄹㄴ and ㄴㄹ may be [ɭː].
^ ㅂ is [m] before /n/ or /m/.
^ ㄹ may be [n] at the start of a word. ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅈ are [n] before /n/ or /m/.
^ ㅇ is [ŋ] at the end of a syllable. ㄱ is [ŋ] before /n/, /m/, or /ɾ/.
^ ㅂ and ㅍ are [p̚] and RR p at the end of a syllable.
^ ㄷ, ㅌ, ㅅ, ㅈ, ㅊ are t̚ and RR t at the end of a syllable.
^ ^a ^b ^c /w/ is spelled ㅜ before /ʌ/, /e/, /i/ (the latter combination producing /y/~[ɥi]) and ㅗ before /ɛ/, /a/; ㅚ /ø/ can also be pronounced [we].
^ In Standard Korean, vowel length is contrastive, but this has mostly been lost in the spoken language.
^ Vowel length is not reflected in the romanization.
^ Resulting from various sequences of consonants (and their relative transcriptions) in regressive assimilation.

References edit

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. 36–21). 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.

External links edit

Hangul–IPA Converter at Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of Pusan National University

[between_voiced-1] The plain stops and affricate /p t tɕ k/ are voiced to [b d dʑ ɡ] respectively between voiced sounds.

[h_between_voiced-2] ㅎ is voiced between voiced sounds.

[labialized_h-3] [ɸʷ] is the allophone of /h/ before /u/ or /w/.

[palatalized_h-4] [ç] is the allophone of /h/ before /i/ or /j/.

[palatalized_s-5] [ɕ ɕ͈] are the allophones of /s s͈/ before /i/ and /j/.

[back_affricates-6] [ts ts͈ tsʰ dz] occur before back vowels.

[velarized_h-7] [x] is the allophone of /h/ before /ɯ/.

[8] /j/ cannot be spelled by itself, but by doubling the short line on the vowel which it phonetically precedes.

[9] ㄱ and ㅋ are k̚ and RR k at the end of a syllable.

[10] ㄹ is [ɭ] at the end of a syllable. ㄹㄴ and ㄴㄹ may be [ɭː].

[11] ㅂ is [m] before /n/ or /m/.

[12] ㄹ may be [n] at the start of a word. ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅈ are [n] before /n/ or /m/.

[13] ㅇ is [ŋ] at the end of a syllable. ㄱ is [ŋ] before /n/, /m/, or /ɾ/.

[14] ㅂ and ㅍ are [p̚] and RR p at the end of a syllable.

[15] ㄷ, ㅌ, ㅅ, ㅈ, ㅊ are t̚ and RR t at the end of a syllable.

[w-16] /w/ is spelled ㅜ before /ʌ/, /e/, /i/ (the latter combination producing /y/~[ɥi]) and ㅗ before /ɛ/, /a/; ㅚ /ø/ can also be pronounced [we].

[17] In Standard Korean, vowel length is contrastive, but this has mostly been lost in the spoken language.

[18] Vowel length is not reflected in the romanization.

[19] Resulting from various sequences of consonants (and their relative transcriptions) in regressive assimilation.

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[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

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[19]

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Help:IPA/Korean

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