Korean Phonology: Aspiration

From UniLang Wiki

Aspiration (격�?�) is the burst of air which accompanies the Korean consonants ㅊ, ㅋ, ㅌ, �?, and ㅎ. Their unaspirated equivalents are ㅈ, ㄱ, ㄷ, and ㅂ respectively, with ㅎ having no equivalent. An example of aspirated vs. unaspirated are the English words stop and top, where the 't' in top is aspirated.

Examples:

• 보병 (infantry), �?�병 (artillery)
• 발 (foot), 팔 (arm)
• 전 (before), 천 (thousand)

If ㅎ comes at the end of a syllable and the initial consonant of the following syllable can be aspirated, it will be pronounced as such.

Examples:

• 않다 (negative verb) -> /안타/
• 넣다 (to put) -> /너타/
• 좋기 때문... (because it's good...) -> /조키 때문/

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