Korean Language Theoretical Description

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2. Korean Language

South Korea people have their own national writing system named tangul. Hangul is original language from South Korea. Seeing from historical viewpoint, this language has a story. In the beginning, Korean people do not have letters, so that they apply Chinese letters in their writing. However, there are many people that do not understand the meaning of Chinese letters because they are too complicated. Knowing that, King Kim Sejong 1397-1450 tried to create simple letter Lee and Ramsey, 2011. Inspiring from the nature, Hangul has unique philosophy in each form of letter. The circle o is a depiction of heaven. Then, the diagonal line _ is a depiction of Earth. The last, the longitudinal line l is depiction of man. Korean language has nineteen consonants, ten vowels, and two semi- vowels phonemes Ho-min Sohn, 2000. Focusing on the consonant, there are three types of sound productions towards the nineteen sounds: the three way contrasts lax-aspirated-tense in stop consonant, two way contrasts lax-tense in the alveo-dental fricative, and no contrast only aspirated in the glottal fricative. First is lax or plain [p, t, k, c, k, s]. Then, aspirated [ph, th, ch, kh, h]. The last is tense [p’, t’, c’, k’, s’]. The rest consonant sounds are [l, m, n, ŋ]. Influencing dialectical variations, vowels system consists of five front vowels three unround: [ i e ɛ ]; two round: [ ö ü ] and five back vowels three unround: [i e a]; two round: [u, o]. The two semivowels are palatal [j] and the labial [w]. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 21 Figure 2.3 Korean Letters and Sounds Source: http:thinkzone.wlonk.comLanguageKorean.htm The Korean phonetic syllable structure is C G V C. Therefore, only one optional consonant C and one optional glide of semivowel G in the onset position, and one optional consonant in the coda position are allowed in Korean speech. The only obligatory element is the nucleus vowel V Young-key Kim, 2001. In Korean, there is no voicing contrast Lee and Ramsey, 2000. The position of the sound is affected the way how the sound to be produced. In the initial position there are two ways to pronounce, one is lax sound and one is aspirated. The lax, or plain consonants are produced with a slight puff of air and a PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 22 voicing delay of about 30 to 50 msec, whereas the aspirated one are produced with strong aspiration lasting about 100 msec. If there is any comparison with English, voiceless sound in English are produced in range about 70 to 85 msec. As the result, English speaker are often unable to hear the distinction between two ways of Koreans sound production. English speakers often label Korean reinforced consonants as voiced sounds though in reality reinforced sounds are voiceless sounds. In the medial position, between voiced sound, preceded and followed by vowel, the lax consonants are phonetically voiced. Therefore, the word 바 보 papo is pronounced as [ pʌbo ] and the word 고기 koki is pronounced as [kogi], etc. In Korean, the changing between voiceless and voiced sound does not affect the meaning. For Koreans b d j g are same to p t c k. Then, the consonants in final position are only pronounced as lax consonants or voiceless and unreleased ones. Reinforced consonants and aspirated consonants do not occur in final position. Among those consonants, there is one consonant which can be pronounced only in the final position, similar to English sound. The sound is ŋ. This sound has symbol in a form of circle o which has two functions. The first function is the preceding of vowel. In Korean, vowel can not stand by itself. Thus, the o is used to precede the vowel so that it sounds. Then, the second function is as the final consonants which sounds ŋ. This sound, the velar nasal sound, is never found in initial syllable. It only can be pronounced in the final position. It can PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 23 sound in the beginning of syllable only if the syllable is noninitial. On the other hand, the aspirated and reinforced sound, as well as the fricatives and affricates, can not appear in the end of syllable. Related to the length of the sound produced, there are two types in Korean, double consonants and simplified consonants. Double consonants or geminates are reinforced consonants because the consonants are produced longer. The example is the word 아빠. This word has pp like in appa. However, Koreans still has simplified sound or homorganic lax consonants. For example the word 앞 aph. The plosive will be sounded if the sound is followed by vowel. However, if both of the sounds are consonants the word will be pronounced as [ ʌp ]. Similar to Lee and Ramseys theory, Rogers 2005 stated that Korean, especially Hangul, has three classes of obstruents: plain, aspirated, and tense. Discussing the cross-language between Korean means discussing the effort of labeling the sounds. Though Korean and English have different way of sound production, there are many words in Korean are loaned from English Song, 2005. Besides, the accent for English loanwords which is used by Koreans is more likely to be British English than North American accent. Having English loanwords, Korean speakers face the problem about absent sounds. Foreign sounds which do not exist in Korean are substituted with native sounds having closest term in quality. In fact, Korean is not as rich as English in fricatives sounds. If English have nine fricatives, namely f, v, g , ð , s, z, ʃ , ʒ , PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 24 and h, Korean only has three, namely s, ss, and h. Thus, for English f and v, Koreans replace them with the variations of bilabial plosives.

3. Phonological Strategies