Help:IPA for Korean

The International Phonetic Alphabet for Korean is shown below in charts which shows concisely the most common way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is applied to represent the Korean language using the pronunciation of the Standard dialect of South Korea.

To help English speakers, this is a broad phonetic transcription, distinguishing many allophones which are written the same in hangul.

See Korean phonology for a more complete version.

[edit] Korean consonants
IPA	Hangul	RR trans.	English equivalent	Notes
[b]	ㅂ	b	ball	between voiced sounds
[ɕ]	ㅅ	s	she	before [i] or [j]
[d]	ㄷ	d	doll	between voiced sounds
[dʑ]	ㅈ	j	gee	between voiced sounds
[ɡ]	ㄱ	g	gall	between voiced sounds
[h]	ㅎ	h	hall
[j]	ㅖ, ㅒ, ㅑ, ㅛ, ㅠ, ㅕ	y	y’all	Spelled by doubling the dot on the vowel.
[k]	ㄱ, ㅋ	g, k	—	ㅋ is [k] at the end of a syllable.
[k͈]	ㄲ	kk	skin	tense [k]
[kʰ]	ㅋ, ㅎㄱ	k	call
[l]	ㄹ, ㄴ	l	call	ㄹ is [l] at the end of a syllable. ㄹㄴ and ㄴㄹ may be [ll].
[m]	ㅁ, ㅂ	m	mall	ㅂ is [m] before [n] or [m].
[n]	ㄴ, ㄹ, ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅈ	n	not	ㄹ may be [n] at the start of a word. ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅈ are [n] before [n] or [m].
[ŋ]	ㅇ, ㄱ	ng	king	ㅇ is only [ŋ] at the end of a syllable. ㄱ is [ŋ] before [n], [m] or [ɾ]
[p]	ㅂ, ㅍ	b, p	—	ㅍ is [p] at the end of a syllable.
[p͈]	ㅃ	pp	span	tense [p]
[pʰ]	ㅍ, ㅎㅂ	p	pall
[ɾ]	ㄹ	r	—	A flap, like Scots r or American ladder, between vowels
[s]	ㅅ	s	—	[s] with almost no sibilance
[s͈]	ㅆ	ss	Saul	tense [s]
[t]	ㄷ ㄷ, ㅌ, ㅅ, ㅈ, ㅊ	d t	—	All are [t] and RR t at the end of a syllable.
[t͈]	ㄸ	tt	stall	tense [t]
[tʰ]	ㅌ, ㅎㄷ	t	tall
[tɕ]	ㅈ	j	each
[tɕ͈]	ㅉ	jj	—	tense [tɕ]
[tɕʰ]	ㅊ, ㅎㅈ	ch	chin
[w]	ㅜ, ㅗ	w	wall	spelled ㅜ before [ʌ], [e], [i]; ㅗ before [ɛ], [e],* [a]
	*ㅚ is pronounced [we] by most, but as the rounded ö vowel [ø] by some older speakers.

[edit] Korean vowels
IPA	Hangul	RR trans.	Notes
[a]	ㅏ	a	spa
[aː]	ㅏ	a	spa
[e]	ㅔ	e	Similar to the beginning of the diphthong in main
[eː]	ㅔ	e	Similar to the beginning of the diphthong in main
[ɛ]	ㅐ	ae	met; similar to e for young speakers.
[ɛː]	ㅐ	ae	met; similar to e for young speakers.
[i]	ㅣ	i	mean
[iː]	ㅣ	i	mean
[o]	ㅗ	o	Spanish o or French eau
[oː]	ㅗ	o	Spanish o or French eau
[u]	ㅜ	u	moon
[uː]	ㅜ	u	moon
[ʌ]	ㅓ	eo	young (these are pronounced [ɔ], as in more, in North Korea)
[əː]	ㅓ	eo
[ɯ]	ㅡ	eu	Separate sound in Standard Korean; similar to eo for many dialects.
[ɯː]	ㅡ	eu

[edit] Korean diphthongs
IPA	Hangul	RR trans.	Notes
[ɯi]	ㅢ	ui
[ø], [we]	ㅚ	oe	ㅚ is pronounced [we] by most, but as the rounded ö vowel [ø] by some older speakers.

[edit] Sounds not written in hangul
IPA	Explanation
ː	Long vowel. Long [ʌ] is [əː]. Young speakers in Seoul do not use length consistently, if at all.
́	High tone, on any one syllable or the first two; used outside Seoul.

[edit] See also