Korean phonology

The phonology of the Korean language has a few traits English speakers may find troublesome, most notably unaspirated consonants and tense consonants.

Inbox

• According to some speaker on Reddit, vowels are shortened before tense consonants, and tense consonants are pitched up.

Aspiration

Aspiration is phonemic in Korean.

• ㅂ /p/ vs. ㅍ /pʰ/ vs. ㅃ /p͈/

• ㄱ /k/ vs. ㅋ /kʰ/ vs. ㄲ /k͈/

• ㄷ /t/ vs. ㅌ /tʰ/ vs. ㄸ /t͈/

• ㅈ /t‿ɕ/ vs. ㅊ /t‿ɕʰ/ vs. ㅉ /t‿ɕ͈/

Aspiration is contrasted in three ways:

• Plain:Also called "lax" or "lenis." ㄱ ㄷ ㅂ ㅈ (/k/, /t/, /p/, /t͜ɕ/ with short VOT)

• Aspirated: ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅊ (/kʰ/, /tʰ/, /pʰ/, /t͜ɕʰ/ — clearly aspirated)

• Tense:Also called "fortis," "hard," or "glottalised." ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅉ (/k͈/, /t͈/, /p͈/, /t͜ɕ͈/)

The tense consonants are "not well described," but they should be

• more exaggerated, less centralised, more fronting or backing;

• geminated (of longer duration);

• articulated with a narrower mouth width.

References

• [cite:@KoreanPhonology2025]