Posts tagged with "Pronunciation"

Celebrating the Year of the Dragon

Posted by Linda 2 Comments
Feb 4 2012

In Korea, Lunar New Year (설날; transliteration: “Sohl-nahl”) festivities have come and gone. It’s been more than a week since 설날, but since this traditional holiday’s essence is family and community, Koreans will continue to ask each other, “How did you celebrate Lunar New Year?” or, “How do you celebrate New Year’s Day?” (“당신은 어떻게 설날 기념하나요?”; transliteration: “Dangshin-eun eotteohge sohl-nahl ginyeomnayo?”)

당신은 어떻게 설날 기념하나요? I would love to hear how you celebrated 설날, especially if this was your first 설날 experience! I have heard from a lot of friendly Korean language enthusiasts via this blog and on Twitter. Specifically, last week, I received requests for how to say “Black Dragon” on our Twitter account (twitter.com/koreanlanguage). Also, I received requests for a list of Lunar New Year greetings and instructions for 윷놀이 (Yutnori) . Listed below are the answers to your questions:
  • Black dragon = 흑룡 (transliteration: heugl yong)
    Black dragon year = 흑룡 해 (transliteration: heugl yong hae)
  • A useful list of Korean Lunar New Year greetings is posted below and on my Scribd account: http://scr.bi/ApdZkF.
  • And, easy to follow directions for 윷놀이 are posted on my Scribd account: http://scr.bi/zVfWU0 . (Note: 윷놀이 is a traditional Korean game played on 설날. It is played with family, and is popular with kids and adults alike.  윷놀이 is played with four wooden sticks, four tokens, and a board. Playing this game ensures harmony with nature, as the sticks represent the four seasons.)

I hope you enjoyed 설날 as much as I did—I embed myself into as many 설날 activities as I could this year. On my quest to be “more Korean”, I did the following:

  • Cooked 떡만두국; duk mandu guk
    (Details & a recipe are listed in our previous blog article titled, Korean New Year: A Traditional Soup Recipe.)
  • Wore a new outfit
    (It is customary in Korea to wear a new outfit on 설날 for “new beginnings”!)
  • Cleaned my home
    (It is customary in Korea to clean your home on 설날 Eve.)
  • Brought my shoes indoors
    (Bringing shoes indoors on 설날 Eve prevents restless spirits from “filling shoes”.)
  • Played 윷놀이 with a group of adults and children!
  • Wore a Hanbok, i.e., tried one on!
    (Most modern South Koreans will not wear a Hanbok on 설날, but parents will often dress their young children in Hanboks on 설날.)

If you have any questions, or if you would like to share your thoughts or photographs with this community, please post them on this blog—or send me a “tweet” via Twitter. You might meet a new friend! : )

P.S.  Next week, I will write about Korean Calligraphy!

Spoken versus Written

Posted by Ginny No Comments
May 22 2009

A lot of people think that the Korean language is phonetic, meaning that words are pronounced exactly as they are written. This is true to some extent, but there are cases where there is a discrepancy between the way Korean is read and the way it’s written.

When a riul (리율) or ㄹis placed next to a ㄴor niun (니은) the ㄹis pronounced as a ㄴ. This means that a word like 전라도 (Jonlado is a province in Korea) is pronounced as 절라도 (Jollado), even though it’s written as 전라도. 연락 (yonlak) or contact is pronounced as yolak (열락) even though it’s written as 연락. The same goes for 편리 (punli) or convenience. It’s written as 편리 but pronounced as 펼리 (pulli).

When mium (미음) or ㅁ is next to a niun (니은) ㄴ the ㄴ will sound like a ㅁ. A word like shinmun (신문) or newspaper, is pronounced as shimmun (심문), even though it’s written as shinmun (신문). The same goes for anma (안마) or massage. It’s written as anma (안마) but it’s pronounced as amma (암마).

When biup (비웁) or ㅂ is next to a niun (니은) or ㄴ the ㅂ will make a mium (미음) or ㅁ sound. With a word like kamsahapnida (감사합니다) or “thank you”, the p turns into an m sound, making the word into kamsahamnida (감사함니다), even though it’s written as kamsahapnida (갑사합니다). The same thing happens to a word like komapsupnida (고맙습니다) which also means “thank you”. Even though it’s written as komapsupnida (고맙습니다) it’s pronounced as komapsumnida (고맙슴니다).

When kiyok (기역) or ㄱ is next to a mium (미음) or ㅁ  the ㄱ will make a iung (이응) or ㅇ sound. Kukmul (국물) or soup is pronounced as kungmul (궁물) and kukmo (국모) or queen is called kungmo (궁모).

 When kiyok (기역) or ㄱ is next to a hiut (히읏) or ㅎ the ㅎ will make a ㅋ or kiuk (키윽) sound. Bukhan (북한) or North Korea is pronounced as bukkan (부칸). Chakhan (착한) which means “kind” or “good-hearted” is pronounced as chakkan (차칸).

Korean Pronunciation for English Words

Posted by Transparent Language 24 Comments
May 22 2008

french fries fry potato fast foodI’ll have fries with that! “French fries 주세요 juseyo,” I said to the cashier at 버거 킹 beogeo king. Her only response was a confused look. I repeated myself. She tried to follow my line of vision to locate what I was looking at on the overhead menu. It was written in Korean, so I went ahead and sounded it out with Korean pronunciation: 후렌치후라이 hurenchi hurai. A look of relief as she rang up my order.
I had until then been avoiding saying any words borrowed from English (and there are thousands of them!) with Korean pronunciation because I was afraid I would sound like I was mocking their accent. This French fry experience helped me to realize that Koreans regard such words as Korean, not English. To put this into perspective, Americans pronounce hors d’oeuvres and fondue nothing like the original French, and trying to pronounce it like a Frenchman while speaking English just ends up sounding pretentious. The same is true in Korean for pronouncing loan words from English. Just keep that in mind when ordering a 라지 치즈 피자 raji chijeu pija*!
*large cheese pizza!

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