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. Some keys are built on consensus more strongly than others; if the conventions of this key are already in wide use, any substantive change to it should be discussed on the talk page first as it would affect a large number of articles. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Shortcuts

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	cats
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	ㅏ	a	spa
e	ㅔ	e	sate
eː	ㅔ	e	say
ɛ	ㅐ	ae	bet
ɛː	ㅐ	ae	bed, RP bare
i	ㅣ	i	meat
iː	ㅣ	i	mean
o	ㅗ	o	American boat
oː	ㅗ	o	RP broad
ø	ㅚ^[12]	oe	weld
øː	ㅚ^[12]	oe	wave
u	ㅜ	u	bull
uː	ㅜ	u	rule
ʌ	ㅓ	eo	mud
əː	ㅓ	eo	RP pearl
ɯ	ㅡ	eu	somewhat like book
ɯː	ㅡ	eu	somewhat like rude
ɰi/ɥi	ㅢ	ui/yi	somewhat like we, year
y	ㅟ^[12]	wi	somewhat like sweet
yː	ㅟ^[12]	wi	somewhat like swede

Korean suprasegmentals
IPA	Hangul	Explanation
ː	^[15]	geminated consonant
ˈ		primary stress
ˌ		secondary stress

Notes

↑ ^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.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 [ts ts͈ tsʰ dz] occur before back vowels.
↑ /j/ cannot be spelled by itself, but by doubling the short line on the vowel which it phonetically precedes.
↑ ㅋ is [k] and RR k at the end of a syllable.
↑ ㄹ is [l] at the end of a syllable. ㄹㄴ and ㄴㄹ may be [lː].
↑ 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/.
↑ ㅍ is [p] and RR p at the end of a syllable.
↑ ^10.0 ^10.1 [ɕ ɕ͈] are the allophones of /s s͈/ before /i/ and /j/.
↑ ㅌ, ㅅ, ㅈ, ㅊ are [t] and RR t at the end of a syllable.
↑ ^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].
↑ [ʑ] is the allophone of /z/ before /i/ and /j/.
↑ In Standard Korean vowel length is contrastive, but this has mostly been lost in the spoken language.
↑ 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.

External links

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

[between_voiced-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.

[back_affricates-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.

[palatalized_s-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.

[w-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.

[1]

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