My target language is Korean and Korean is based on the X-SAMPA notation. Korean is based off of hangul which already is in phonetic alphabet form. The consonant phonemes are a contrast between invoice segments which follow the stop and affricate type. The Korean consonant has three principles positional allophones called initial, medial, and final. Korean speakers follow consonants in initial position in a word because the language is based on orthography which transcribes vowels and semivowels that are considered as elements of rising diphthongs.
The language Korean consist of 14 basic consonants (e.g., ㄱ,ㄴ,ㅇ,ㄹ,/k, n, t, l) and 10 vowels (e.g., ㅏ, ㅑ, ㅗ, ㅛ/a, ja, o, jo). The difference between English and Korean is that English is an stress-based language where the context dictates what word is emphasized in a sentence. But Korean maintains constant rhythm where each word is pronounced with the same prominence in a sentence. One thing I noticed was that when Korean students are learning or speaking in English, they have difficult time pronouncing the sound f or v. An example might be that a Korean student might pronounce phone as pone because they can’t quite get the f sound.
I think when I am learning Korean I will need to know how different sound works together and if it makes a difference by the speed of how it is used. I found it very fascinating while reading the article that there are so many details and research on how we produce the phones. For example stop has full closure or interruption while fricatives have narrow closure in the airstream to make the sounds. I think by knowing how the sounds of Korean was created it might be very useful for me to understand the basic background of the language. For example, there are tales where King Sejong the Great created hangul for his people based on how one shaped their mouth and tongue when pronouncing their language. This language was created with a purpose for commoners to communicate and project their voices since it was an era where only nobles were educated to read and write the Chinese characters.
I think one aspect I am very confident in the language is speaking. But I did find a challenge to the language when I was listening to rap music or people talking fast. When I try to speak fast like them I tend to get my tongue all twisted and can’t speak. The reason for this is probably because my Korean skills are not as advanced and mastered. So listening to the language in rapid tempo might confuse me even more. I think I will build on the skills of listening by first listening to the recording slowly but gradually increase the speed to help me analyze and understand people in Korea who talk really fast.
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