For our lessons we have been doing a lot of reviewing over the Korean alphabet and words to solidify my foundation. We’ve also gone over bottom characteristics which in Korean is 받침 [ba-t͡ɕim]. My instructor told me that 받침 [ba-t͡ɕim] means ‘support’ or ‘prop’ and it’s a consonant that is placed at the bottom and pronounced at the end in a Korean syllable block to support the other letters from below. For its pronunciation, something I realized is that it sounds like the end of the consonants name. For instance, the consonant “ㄱ” [ɢi-ək] as a 받침 [ba-t͡ɕim] sounds like [k]. My instructor never noticed this before and thought that was a very interesting and great observation which I was pretty excited about.
They are also used to help distinguish Korean words when reading. For example 깊이 [ɢip-i] and 기피 [ɢi-pi] both sound the same, but 깊이 [ɢip-i] means ‘deep’ or ‘depth’ and 기피 [ɢi-pi] means ‘avoid or ‘evade’. A rule my instructor told me is that if the next syllable block starts with the consonant “ㅇ” [i-ʉɴ], the 받침 [ba-t͡ɕim] keeps their own sound and connects to the next word block. This is seen in the aforementioned example in its pronunciation for the words 깊이 [ɢip-i] and 기피 [ɢi-pi]. Although the two words sound the same in general, the pronunciation for 깊이 [ɢip-i] could also be pronounced as [ɢi-pi].
There are also exceptions for the consonants “ㄷ” [di-ɢʉt] and “ㅌ” [ti-ʉt]. The consonant “ㄷ” [di-ɢʉt] is pronounced like the consonant “ㅈ” [d͡ʒi-ʉt] often with the vowel “ㅣ” [i]. The consonant “ㅌ” [ti-ʉt] is pronounced like the consonant “ㅊ” [t͡ɕi-ʉt] often with the vowel “ㅣ” [i]. For example, in the word 해돋이 [hæ-do-d͡ʒi] you can see the pronunciation for the last syllable is [d͡ʒ] because there’s a vowel “ㅣ” [i] in the next word block. In another example, in the word 같이 [ɢa-t͡ɕi] you can see the pronunciation for the last syllable is [t͡ɕ] because there’s a vowel “ㅣ” [i] in the next word block. Additionally, both the consonant exceptions incorporates the aforementioned 받침 [ba-t͡ɕim] rule.
Another important note she made is that in Korean grammar there are only two double consonants, “ㄲ” [saɴ-ɢi-ək] and “ㅆ” [saɴ-ʂi-ot], that are used as a 받침 [ba-t͡ɕim] and they effect the sound of the next syllable. The rule is, when the double consonant is followed by a consonant that isn’t “ㅇ” [i-ʉɴ], the next word block’s consonant is pronounced as its double consonant. However, when the double consonant is followed by the consonant “ㅇ” [i-ʉɴ], it takes the sound of the double consonant’s simple consonant. For example, if we take the syllable 꺾 [qɑk] and the next word block is 다 [da], then 꺾다 is pronounced [qɑk-ta]. If the next word block is “어”, then 꺾어 is pronounced [qɑk-ɢɑ] because the double consonant “ㄲ”’s [saɴ-ɢi-ək] counterpart is “ㄱ” [ɢi-ək].
The last rule she taught me was when there’s a 받침 [ba-t͡ɕim] before the consonant “ㅎ” [hi-ʉt], since the consonant makes a breath-out sound, it makes the other sounds stronger. Three important instances she told me about was these consonant combinations: (1) ㅂ+ㅎ = ㅍ[p];(2) ㅎ+ㅈ = ㅊ[t͡ɕ]; (3) ㄱ+ㅎ = ㅋ[k].
I’ve attached the document my instructor used to explain these concepts (final consonant), but all the aforementioned information I’ve written are my own notes I took during our lessons. In efforts to build on what I’ve learned, given the topic is fairly tricky, I took detailed notes so I can recall back on the information when needed.
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