Let's learn Korean language 1: Primitive vowels and consonants
Hi, everyone who wants to learn Korean language.
Nowadays, there are many people who want to learn Korean language, and if you are one of them, I hope these writings help you. I am not good at English because I'm learning it from teachers and my friends still. So please forgive many syntax erros and strange expressions. If you find them, let me know the right expressions. :)
Are you ready? Ok, let's begin.
Korea is in east Asia, near China and Japan. If you don't know the location of Korea, please find its exact location from your map. Do you find it? Ok, as you see, there are many countries aroud China, therefore they have been influnced from Chinese character environment. Chinese characters are like these: 天, 地, 黃, 玄... Yes, these characters are very complex and hard to remember, read and write. Many countries in east asia such as Taiwan, Vientnam, Japan(Japan uses their own character, but it is based on chinese characters) use these characters because there are no options. Nowadays even China does use the simplified characters instead of the their original chracters, but they are still not easy to learn. Korea was not different with these countries in the past, but a wise King 'SeJong' invented the unique character system called '한글'/Han Geul/. I believe that it is the most scientific and reasonable character system in the world.
Korean alphabet is consisted of vowels and consonants like many other languages. These are all Korean consonants:
ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅇ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ, ㅎ
If your system don't have the code page for Hangeul, these characters will be broken. Here is a picture:
These characters has its own name but it does not mean that it is the way which they are prounciated. That is, they have its own name, not sound. You may surprised each characters have their own name. The reason is that, the inventor of 한글/HanGeul/ is obivious. He is King SeJong, in 조선/JoSeon/ dynasty. Do you know 'SeJong Literacy Prize' by UNESCO? Yes, that's it. SeJong is him. Anyway, if you are anxious to their sound, here are. You need to Adobe flash to play them. Its order is from left to right, and from top to bottom. Be careful again. They are just only their name, not its sound. They can be prouniciated only when they are combinated with vowels.
In addition, If you are a beginner entirely, pelase remember how to they are writed. If you remember the order, you will be able to write them quickly and beautifully.
Ok, Next is vowels. Primitive Korean vowles are 'ㅏ, ㅑ, ㅓ, ㅕ, ㅗ, ㅛ, ㅜ, ㅠ, ㅡ, ㅣ'. Here is the picture for the people who can't see these characters.
They are primitive vowels. Of course, there are more complex vowels called double-vowels such as 'ㅚ, ㅙ, ㅟ, ㅞ, ...'. But don't worry. They are just only combinated with primitive sounds. If you become to be familiar to them, you will be able to prounciate them soon.
The complete one Korean character is always consisted of one consonants and one vowels. That is, even though vowels can't be prounciated alone. They always need consonants. I will prounciate these vowels using 'ㅇ' consonants. 'ㅇ' is similar to English alphabet 'o', and it mimics inside shape of your throat when it is prounciated. The order is same to above.
Please remember these prounciation is the result of combination with consonants 'ㅇ'. Yes, in this notation, 'ㅏ' is '아', consonants 'ㅇ' is omitted for conveninent. All reference books for Korean use this notation.
Of course, English notation is not exact, but I think they are quite similar. You can see double-vowels in this picture, but don't worry about them now. But for people who are interested in them, I will prounciate them with 'ㅇ' consonants.
That's all basic for learning Korean language. It's true. Of course, you need to learn the other combinated prounication with 'ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ...'. But don't worry. Korean consonants and vowels always have same sound. I mean, for instance, English alphabet 'a' is sometimes /a/, and sometimes /e/ and so on. But Korean vowels '아' is always /a/.
Ok, 1st lecture is over. How about you? still confusing? Don't worry. If you think there are many vowels and consonants, but they are all. And evey Korean characters are derived from their combination. Think about Chinese characters. Every character is different. Of course, they have their own combination way, but it is very limited and not regular. But In Korean alphabet, every character can be combinated except for 1 ~ 2 exceptions. This is the most important feature of Korean alphabet. Very easy to learn.
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See you next time. :)