안녕하세요? Today you will learn about consonant assimilation. Yes, I know. It already doesn't sound very easy! But don't worry! As usual, I will try my best to help you understand things easily. I prepared the lessons for both beginners and more than beginner students. So, please follow me step-by-step! 준비됐나요? (Are you ready?) 시작해요! (Let's begin!)
<Table of Contents>
1. Consonant Assimilation
Some Korean words are hard to pronounce even for Koreans. So, over time, people have changed the sounds of words differently from how they are written. Consonant assimilation (자음동화) is one of these "changes" that happens to read things easier.
As you can assume from the word itself, the sounds of consonants become similar when they are close to each other! Mainly, there are two types. One is called nasalization (비음화) and the other is called liquidization (유음화). In this lesson, I'll show you about the nasalization.
2. What is Nasalization?
Nasalization is called 비음화 in Korean. 비 means 'nose', 음 means a 'sound', and 화 means 'become' in Sino-Korean. So, it means 'becoming nose sound'. You make the sounds by expelling air through the nose.
In Korean, there are three nasal sounds; ㄴ (n), ㅁ (m), and ㅇ(ng). They are very powerful consonants! Do you know why? They can turn the non-nasal sounds into nasal sounds if they meet other consonants. Just like zombies, these nasal sound changes others into one of them!
Here is a good example for you, 국물. It means soup or broth. When you read this word, you don't read syllables one by one like /국-물/. Instead, you will read it as /궁물/. Weird, right? It is because the nasal sound 'ㅁ' in 물 affects 'ㄱ' and turns it into another nasal sound 'ㅇ'.
Actually, if you write its sound in English, it will be easier for you to understand. If you write the word 국물 in English sound, it will be written as 'guk-mul'. Can you see it? The consonants 'k' and 'm' are right next to each other. That is how the ㅁ could show strength over ㄱ. So, in the end, you read this word as 'gung-mul.'
Okay, now, you understand that consonants can become similar to each other. The next question is what consonant becomes what? Thankfully, they follow the rules and are not be changed randomly!
If you are a beginner, it is okay just to know this thing happens in Korean. I'll provide you with pronunciation tips during my lessons! However, if you are curious or more than a beginner, please continue to the detailed rules!
3. Pronunciation Rules
A. Plosive (ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ)+ Nasal
This nasalization happens when ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ (so-called plosive consonants) are used as the final consonant and the nasal sound comes after them.
A final consonant of the front syllable | A first consonant of the next syllable | What it becomes | Examples |
ㄱ | ㅇ | 먹는 /멍는/ | |
ㄷ | + ㄴ, ㅁ | ㄴ | 걷는 /건는/ |
ㅂ | ㅁ | 읍내 /음내/ |
1. ㄱ → ㅇ
When the consonantㄱ or the related sound (ㄲ, ㅋ, ㄳ, ㄺ) is located in front of the nasal sound 'ㄴ' or 'ㅁ', it becomes the 'ㅇ ng'. The example above 국물 became /궁물/ because of this.
먹는 /멍는/
Here is one more example, 먹는. First, try to Romanize the word, you can do it either 'meok-neun' or 'meog-neun' depending on the teacher taught you. No matter what, you will see the ㄱ (g/k) is right next to the nasal sound ㄴ. Then, this ㄱ becomes ㅇ (ng)! So, even though, we write the word '먹는,' you have to read it as /멍는/ meong-neun. Does it make sense?
2. ㄷ → ㄴ
When the final consonant ㄷ or its family (ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅌ, ㅎ) comes in front of the ㄴ or ㅁ, it will become 'ㄴ'.
걷는 /건는/
The first syllable 걷 has the final consonant 'ㄷ'. The right next to it, we have 는 which starts with 'ㄴ'. So, this powerful ㄴ changes ㄷ into the same sound! Magic! So, even though we write it as 걷는 geot-neun, we have to pronounce it as 건는 [geon-neun].
걷는다 /건는다/
Let's see one more syllable in the example above. How we will read '걷는다'? If you see the second and third syllables we can see the consonant 'ㄴ' and 'ㄷ.' Will it be /geon-neun-da/ or /geon-neun-na/?
The answer is /geon-neun-da/. The third syllable 다 is not under the control of the nasal sound 'ㄴ'. This nasalization happens when ㄷ and ㄴ meet in 'd-n' order, not the other way around. If you are chased by a zombie, you can turn into one. If you are behind it, you are safe! As you see the order of the consonant is important in this consonant assimilation.
첫눈 /천눈/
Even though we can write many consonants in the final consonant spot, there are only 7 sounds that can be pronounced. Those are ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, and, ㅇ. The letters other than those will be changed into one of these sounds.
The first syllable '첫' has 'ㅅ' as the final consonant. ㅅ are supposed to become ㄷ, so it should be pronounced as /첟눈/. Now, the final consonant ㄷ is chased by ㄴ. The nasal sound ㄴ will make ㄷ into ㄴ. So, you will read this word as /천눈/ [cheon-nun].
3. ㅂ → ㅁ
If the final consonant ㅂ or its related letters (ㅍ, ㄼ, ㄿ, ㄽ) is placed in front of the nasal sound ㄴ or ㅁ, it will become 'ㅁ'.
읍내 /음내/
The first syllable of '읍내' is '읍'. The final consonant is ㅂ (b). After that, we can see the nasal sound 'ㄴ'. This ㄴ turn this ㅂ into ㅁ! We write this word as 읍내, but we will read it /음내/ [eum-nae].
앞문 /암문/
The final consonant of the first syllable is 'ㅍ'. It is not one of the sounds that can be pronounced in that spot! ㅍ came from ㅂ, so we have to change this first, 압문. Then, think about the nasalization, 암문 [am-mun]. Here is the diagram. 앞문 → 압문 → 암문
B. Nasalization of ㄹ
1. ㅁ(ㅇ) + ㄹ: ㄹ → ㄴ
When the final consonant 'ㅁ' or 'ㅇ' comes before the consonant 'ㄹ', this 'ㄹ' will turn into the nasal sound 'ㄴ'. This time the one change comes behind the nasal sound!
담력 /담녁/
This time the nasal sound comes at the front. After the nasal sound ㅁ, we can see the non-nasal consonant ㄹ. The ㅁ makes this ㄹ into ㄴ. So we will read it as 담녁 [dam-nyeok].
종로 /종노/
We have 'ㅇ' as the final consonant now. The ㄹ comes after. So, ㄹ becomes ㄴ. All these consonant assimilations are happening because it is hard to pronounce as they look. If you try to read 종로, you will understand what I mean. Try to speak it out! Reading /종-로/ is quite hard, so we change it to /종-노/.
2. ㄱ/ㄷ/ㅂ + ㄹ → ㅇ, ㄴ, ㅁ + ㄴ
This rule is a bit special. It takes two steps, forward and backward! So, please pay attention! When ㄹ comes after the final consonant ㄱ,ㄷ, or ㅂ, this ㄹ becomes the nasal sound 'ㄴ'. However, when it happens, now we have the zombie ㄴ after the ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ. Then, the first nasalization, a plosive sound with a nasal sound automatically happens again!
If you look at the example 협력, you can see this rule easily. First, the final consonant ㅂ attacked ㄹ and made it into ㄴ. Now, the ㄴ is chasing ㅂ, so ㅂ became ㅁ.
4. Wrap-up: Korean Pronunciation Lesson
In Korean, how a word looks and how people read can be different.
It happens to read a word easily.
Consonant assimilation: Some special consonants can affect each other and change the sounds to something else.
The nasal sounds ㄴ, ㅁ, ㅇ are strong enough to change other consonants.
Koreans learn how to read these words naturally as they grow up. I remember I studied these "Korean pronunciation rules" only to prepare for the test. Honestly, I forgot the most of grammatical parts of it until I studied again to become a Korean teacher. Haha.
But that is what we want, eventually! You will learn this grammar first to help you understand, but you will continue practicing until it becomes your natural 'habit'. It'll take a while, but don't give up. I'll continue helping you through my blog!
In the next lesson, you'll learn about the liquidization of Korean. You'll also see the comparison between nasalization and liquidization! So, please continue reading the next post!
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