1.8 Putting Spelling and Sound Together — Epoché
What you will be able to do Get from a Korean spelling to a Korean sound by a fixed procedure of five steps, in the right order, without guessing. Read aloud a sentence you have never seen and be right about the sound changes in it, as in 저 케익 맛있어요. where the last word is said [ 마시써요 ]. Say why the order of the steps matters, and what goes wrong if you apply the tensing rule before the reduction of the bottom letters. Hear that three different spellings can be one sound at the end of a block and three different sounds when a vowel follows, as with 낫 and 낮 and 빛 . Name the two rules you personally are weakest on, and know which lesson to return to for each. Prerequisites : 1.7, and with it the whole of this volume. Every rule below has already been taught; nothing here is new except the order in which they are applied and the practice of applying them to running text rather than to single words. Seven lessons have each added one piece. This one does no adding. Korean spelling is not phonetic and was never meant to be: it writes the shape of the word, so that the same word looks the same wherever it stands, and leaves the sound to be worked out. Working it out is a procedure, and like most procedures it is easy once you stop applying the steps in whatever order they occur to you. What follows is that order, the reason for it, and enough running text to make it automatic. The rule Take one speech block at a time, that is, one stretch of writing between two spaces, and do this. Step one. Close the bottom letters. Any consonant written at the bottom of a block is reduced to one of seven sounds unless a vowel follows it. This is lesson 0.5. 밖 closes as [ 박 ], 닭 as [ 닥 ], 앞 as [ 압 ], 값 as [ 갑 ]. Do this first, because every later rule looks at the closed sound and not at the spelling. Step two. Move a bottom letter into a following vowel. If the next block or the next syllable begins with the silent circle, the bottom letter crosses over and is pronounced in full, not as one of the seven. This is lesson 1.3, and it undoes step one for that letter. 책을 is [ 채글 ], 밥을 is [ 바블 ], 한국어 is [ 한구거 ], 맛있어요 is [ 마시써요 ]. Step three. Change the closed sound if the next one demands it. This is lessons 1.4 and 1.5, and it is where most of the work is. A closed stop before a nasal becomes the matching nasal: 한국말 is [ 한궁말 ], 국물 is [ 궁물 ], 좁네요 is [ 좀네요 ], 있나요 is [ 인나요 ]. The liquid letter and the nasal at the teeth ridge merge into a long liquid in one direction, 한라산 as [ 할라산 ] and 신라 as [ 실라 ], and into a double nasal in the other, 종류 as [ 종뉴 ] and 대통령 as [ 대통녕 ]. A closed stop before a plain consonant makes that consonant tense: 학교 is [ 학꾜 ], 식당 is [ 식땅 ], 잡지 is [ 잡찌 ], 밥도 is [ 밥또 ]. Step four. Deal with the breathy letter. This is the second half of 1.5 and the first half of 1.6. Next to a plain consonant it merges with it into an aspirated one, so 좋다 is [ 조타 ], 놓고 is [ 노코 ], 축하 is [ 추카 ], 입학 is [ 이팍 ]. Between two voiced sounds it disappears, so 좋아요 is [ 조아요 ], 전화 is [ 저나 ], 은행 is [ 으냉 ], 천천히 is [ 천처니 ]. Step five. Palatalise before a grammatical vowel. This is the second half of 1.6, and it applies only when the vowel belongs to an ending and not to the word itself. 같이 is [ 가치 ], 굳이 is [ 구지 ], 해돋이 is [ 해도지 ], 붙이다 is [ 부치다 ]. The order is not a convenience. Take 없다 . If you tense the second consonant first you get nothing to work with, because the tensing rule needs a closed stop in front of it, and what is written in front of it is a cluster of two letters. Close the cluster first, by step one, and the block ends in a stop; then step three tenses what follows, and the result is [ 업따 ]. The same is true of 늦다 , which closes to a stop and then tenses, giving [ 늗따 ], and of 갔다 , which gives [ 갇따 ]. Every one of these is wrong if you take the rules in the order they appear on the page. Step Written Said one, close 닭 (chicken) [ 닥 ] two, move 책을 (a book, with the object particle) [ 채글 ] three, nasal 한국말 (the Korean language) [ 한궁말 ] three, liquid 한라산 (Mount Halla, on Jeju Island) [ 할라산 ] three, tense 식당 (a restaurant) [ 식땅 ] four, aspirate 축하 (congratulations) [ 추카 ] four, drop 은행 (a bank) [ 으냉 ] five, palatalise 같이 (together) [ 가치 ] Minimal pairs The clearest test of whether the procedure has become automatic is a set of words that are identical when closed and different when a vowel follows. Step one flattens them; step two brings the distinction back. If you can read both columns without hesitating, steps one and two are in place, and they are the two that everything else depends on. Alone With a following vowel What the bottom letter really is 낫 a sickle [ 낟 ] 낫이 [ 나시 ] the hissing letter 낮 daytime [ 낟 ] 낮이 [ 나지 ] the letter at the teeth ridge 빗 a comb [ 빋 ] 빗이 [ 비시 ] the hissing letter 빚 a debt [ 빋 ] 빚이 [ 비지 ] the letter at the teeth ridge 빛 light [ 빋 ] 빛이 [ 비치 ] the aspirated letter 입 a mouth [ 입 ] 입이 [ 이비 ] the plain lip letter 잎 a leaf [ 입 ] 잎이 [ 이피 ] the aspirated lip letter 목 a neck; a throat [ 목 ] 목이 [ 모기 ] a single letter 몫 a share [ 목 ] 몫이 [ 목씨 ] a cluster of two The last pair is the most instructive. A cluster keeps only one of its letters when the block closes, and the other is not lost: it reappears when a vowel follows, and it arrives tensed, because the letter that stayed behind is a closed stop and step three applies across the join. Three rules are visible in one word, and they are visible in the order this lesson has given them. Reading a sentence you have not seen Single words are where the rules are learned and sentences are where they are needed. Each sentence below is quoted from the corpus this course draws on, and in each one exactly one block requires a rule. Read the sentence, find the block, name the step, then check. Sentence The block that changes Step 나는 한국어를 공부해요. [1] I'm learning Korean. 한국어 [ 한구거 ] two 이 책을 읽으세요. [2] Read this book. 책을 [ 채글 ] two 우리 빵을 먹어요. [3] We eat bread. 먹어요 [ 머거요 ] two 저 케익 맛있어요. [4] That cake is delicious. 맛있어요 [ 마시써요 ] one, then two 세상 참 좁네요! [5] Such a