Blog Post 4

[Benjamin Reilman]

Sound is about the oral expression and pronunciation of words, spelling is about their written representation. This distinction is significant because it complicates the language learning process when a language’s spelling and pronunciation do not match. It can been seen easily in English with the professor’s Ghoti/fish example. Korean is phonetically spelled as far as I know and there are little to no words that are spelled one way and pronounced another way. Although certain sounds are often cut from words to make the pronunciation easier or quicker. Korean has a simple set of vowels that reflect the English vowel sounds fairly closely; however, Korea does have a set of diphthongs which act like a second set of vowels in Korean. Korean consonants also have plain versions, and then aspirated and tensed versions of those consonants which are written similarly to their plain counterparts. The Korean consonants are often difficult to pronounce and distinguish because they appear to be between sounds we use in english. Such as ㄱ being between a g and k sound. In order to distinguish between the two I am trying to hear the sounds more often through consuming media. I am also practicing with words that are common and I have heard a lot before because I can relate how I sound to how I am used to hearing the word or phrase pronounced.