Korean pronunciation

[fej4955]

Hello,

after many confusing moments with the pronunciation with how Koreans speak, I have noticed some features that vary in the speech. I mean now, that there are several dialects, of which no one pronunces in the correct way i.e. how the word is really written in Hangul. Every dialect has thus special features regarding how consonants and vowels are pronunced.

So, I researched, I found that the official Korean pronunciation according to the National Institute of Korean Language is the one used in Seoul/Gyeonggi dialect. Thus, I in this thread want to know, how the correct spelling of Seoul dialect is.

Source for correct pronunciation:
http://www.arakorean.sg/korean-pronunci ... l-alphabet

First, vowels:

1.ㅓ->ㅗ andㅕ->ㅛ

저는-> 조는 (I)
너-> 노 (you)
It appears to me, that young people do not care anymore to pronunce 어 as 어, instead 어 is pronunced as 오 . I do not know the reason to this, but as foreigner I found it difficult to switch between 아 and 어 correctly when speaking fast.

When I have watched Korean drama, I have once heard 어디. The person, who said that, was a judo coach and he was, like, 40. However, in all the other cases the pronunciation is very near 오디.

I am not sure though of ㅕ->ㅛ.

exception:
선생님 -> 선생님 no change from ㅓ toㅜ takes place
Also, if ㅓ is the last character in a word, there is no consonant after ㅓe.g. a word ends in
-머 ,- 더,- 저, ㅓ seems in some cases to maintain its correct pronunciation.

2.ㅗ ->ㅜ
온일-> 우늘 (today)
돈 ->둔 (money)
도->두 (too, also)
일본 ->일분 (Japan)
곰부->굼부(study)

I have noticed that there is really no rule, how people pronunce 오 respectively우. It seems to depend greatly on the context, specific word and dialect. I have the impression, that Koreans do not really make that great difference between 오 and우.

Consonants

1.ㅁ-> ㅂ
미극-> 비극 (USA)
뭐->붜 (what)
This rule were to apply it the ㅁ is at the first consonant of the word.
Also, sometimes ㅁ is pronounced as “v”. I know this phenomena from Japanese, where to remember, oboeru(おぼえる), is actually pronunced as owoeru(おをえる), b becomes v. Since there seems to be some tendency to pronunce ㅁ as ㅂ, I can imagine b becoming v is possible.

2.ㄴ-> ㄸ
While watching Korean drama, I have noticed that people pronounce very often ㄴ as ㄸ, ifㄴ happens to be the first consonant of the word.

내가->때가 (I)
내->때 (yes)
너->떠, also with vowel 1 change -> 또
누구->두구 (who)

For a native speaker this might be difficult to notice, but Koreans tend to pronunce ㄴ as ㄸ, if ㄴ is the first consonant in the word. I have no idea why this happens. The same tendency is with ㅁ becoming ㅂ. Noticing this might be impossible for a native speaker. I know from experience with Japanese, they cannot hear the difference between the vowel-omitting forms of nouns and the not-omitting noun forms e.g. suki, ski, tsuki, tski etc.

Conclusion:
With the exception of ㅁ-> ㅂ, ㄴ-> ㄸ. The Korean language seems to drastically change. Young people do not really feel it that important to pronunce properly the Korean language. People simplify the pronunciation for their own convenience, such as to make speaking fast easier. On the other hand old persons are still using “proper, correct” pronunciation, the pronunciation young people have almost abandoned. Such an example is the difference between 에, 애 and 예, 얘. The tendency I see, is that young Korean people are gradually pronuncing 어 and 여 as 오 respectivelyㅛ.

Thank you in advance

[fej4955]

The case with the vowels 어 and 여 is solved but the question regarding the rest, the special features in Seoul accent, still remain. Does anyone have an idea why these changes happen?