Korean Phonetics

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Phonetic System's Characteristics

Unlike previous English and Japanese Vocaloids, the Korean engine is only partially based on X-SAMPA notation. This is due to the nature of hangul, which already functions as a phonetic alphabet. The voicebank's coding uses romanized hangul for the consonants and X-SAMPA based coding for the vowels. A possible reason why romanization is used for the coding of the consonants is due to the Korean language's many allophones. Non-native speakers will find the Korean Phonetics are more complex then either English or Japanese to work with and it is essential that they study how to the Korean language works when using the engine.

In total, the Korean language has 26 initial consonants, 7 final consonants, and 16 vowel sounds of which the entire language is based upon.

Consonants

Non-Native Phonemes

Unlisted Phonemes

Within SeeU's voicebank are multiple phonemes that, while unlisted in the chart provided by SBS, produce audible results to some extent. It's speculated that these extra phonemes were originally intended to be included to expand the voicebank's language capabilities, but due to time restraint were never completely recorded. It is unknown if future Korean language voicebanks will include these phonemes.

[T]

Consonant. Produces audible results when placed after a vowel. V-C transitions were recorded, but the voicebank lacks C-V transitions for this phoneme. Most likely meant to be the same sound it represents in English voicebanks. Produces a more lisped sound similar to the [s] phoneme.

[D]

Consonant. Audible results vary; Some V-C and C-V transitions are present depending on the connecting vowel. Produces a shorter sound similar to the [Np] phoneme.

[dz]

Consonant. No audible sound. Produces the same results as the [N] phoneme or [Sil] in other voicebanks.

[lp]

Consonant. Audible results vary. Most likely intended to be the equivalent of [l] in english voicebanks, due to it already being used to represent a different sound in Korean.

[Q@] [e@] [I@] [O@] [U@]

Rhotic Vowels. Audible results very minimal. Only works when between two other phonemes. Most likely meant to be the same sounds each represents in English voicebanks. Produces very glitched noise.

Positional Allophones

Consonant Assimilation

When entering notes with hangul input, the Vocaloid 3 editor automatically detects and edits the phonetic values for cases in which consonant-to-consonant assimilation occurs. However, a flaw with this system is that the editor changes phonetic values regardless of the distance between notes. For example, "언어" (language) entered into the editor will produce [7][n 7]. However, when the two syllables are seperated with a pause inbetween, the correct pronunciation should be [7 np][7]

Vowel Assimilation

Like Japanese, consonants in Korean become palatalized before /i/ and /j/. However, unlike Japanese, Korean consonants also become labialized before /o/, /u/, and /w/ as well.

Table

Symbol	Classification	IPA Symbol / Name	Sample Hangul / RRoK	Notes	Related Phonemes
[a]	vowel	a	ㅏ (a)	Closer to /ɒ/, but /a/ is used for traditional notation
[ja]	vowel	ja	ㅑ (ya)
[7]	vowel	ɤ	ㅓ (eo)	Proper notation of ㅓ is frequently debated. More commonly it is transcribed as /ʌ̹/ or /ɔ̜/
[j7]	vowel	jɤ	ㅕ (yeo)
[e]	vowel	e	ㅐ(ae), ㅔ (e)	Younger speakers do not differentiate between ㅐ and ㅔ, which are more correctly pronounced /ɛ/ and /e/
[je]	vowel	je	ㅒ (yae), ㅖ (ye)
[o]	vowel	o	ㅗ (o)
[oa]	vowel	wa	ㅘ (wa)
[jo]	vowel	jo	ㅛ (yo)
[u]	vowel	ju	ㅜ (u)
[u7]	vowel	wɤ	ㅝ (weo)
[ue]	vowel	we	ㅙ (wae), ㅞ (we), ㅚ (oe)	ㅚ is traditionally pronounced /ø/ however in South Korean speech it has become /we/ or /e/
[ui]	vowel	wi~ɥi~y	ㅟ (wi)	Usually /y/ or /i/ before ㅅ ㅈ and ㅊ /wi/ or /ɥi/ elsewhere
[M]	vowel	ɯ close back unrounded vowel	ㅡ (eu)
[Mi]	vowel	ɰi	ㅢ (eui)
[i]	vowel	i close frount unrounded vowel	ㅣ (i)
[g]	initial consonant	g~k velar plosive	ㄱ (g)	Pronounced /k/ at the beginning of a sequence or after /k̚/ /t̚/ or /p̚/ pronounced /g/ elsewhere	[g'] [gp]
[g']	initial consonant	k͈	ㄲ (gg)	Tense /k/	[g] [gp]
[n]	initial consonant	n alveolar nasal	ㄴ (n)		[np]
[d]	initial consonant	d~t alveolar plosive	ㄷ (d)	Pronounced /t/ at the beginning of a sequence or after /k̚/ /t̚/ or /p̚/ Pronounced /d/ elsewhere	[d'] [dp]
[d']	initial consonant	t͈	ㄸ (dd)	Tense /t/
[r]	initial consonant	ɾ alveolar tap	ㄹ (r)	Intervocalic ㄹ
[l]	initial consonant	l lateral alveolar	ㄹ (l)	Occurs only when initial ㄹ follows ending ㄹ
[m]	initial consonant	m bilabial nasal	ㅁ (m)
[b]	initial consonant	b~p bilabial plosive	ㅂ (b)	Pronounced /p/ at the beginning of a sequence or after /k̚/ /t̚/ or /p̚/ pronounced /b/ elsewhere
[b']	initial consonant	p͈	ㅃ (bb)	Tense /p/
[s]	initial consonant	sʰ	ㅅ (s)	Laminal "s"
[sh]	initial consonant	ɕʰ	ㅅ (s)	Palatalized ㅅ. Only works before /i/ or /j/
[s']	initial consonant	s	ㅆ (ss)	Apical "s"
[sh']	initial consonant	ɕ voiceless alveolopalatal fricative	ㅆ (ss)	Palatalized ㅆ. Only works before /i/ or /j/
[N]	initial consonant	ʔ glottal stop	ㅇ(-)	Silent initial consonant. Glottal stop when between two vowels
[c]	initial consonant	dʑ~tɕ dz~ts	ㅈ (j)	Pronounced /tɕ/ or /ts/ at the beginning of a sequence or after /k̚/ /t̚/ or /p̚/. Pronounced /dʑ/ or /dz/ elsewhere
[c']	initial consonant	t͈ɕ ts	ㅉ (jj)	Tense /tɕ/ or /ts/
[ch]	initial consonant	tɕʰ tsʰ	ㅊ (ch)
[k]	initial consonant	kʰ	ㅋ (k)
[t]	initial consonant	tʰ	ㅌ (t)
[p]	initial consonant	pʰ	ㅍ (p)
[h]	initial consonant	h~ɦ voice(less) glottal fricative ç voiceless palatal fricative ɸ voiceless bilabial fricative x voiceless velar fricative	ㅎ (h)	Contains many allophones: /h/ at the begining of a sequence /ɦ/ intervocalically or after a voiced final consonant /ç/ before /i/ or /j/ /ɸ/ before /u/ /w/ or /o/ /x/ before /ɯ/ Presence of allophones vary greatly from speaker to speaker.
[@r]	vowel	ɚ rhotic schwa	singer, roller	Non-native to Korean
[C]	initial consonant	sʲ	sister, recieve	Works only before [i] While [C i] and [s i] are identical phoneme-wise, the first has smoother transition and the latter does not work at the begining of a sequence.
[z]	initial consonant	z voiced alveolar sibilant	zoo, zero	Non-native to Korean	[s] [C]
[f]	initial consonant	f voiceless labiodental fricative	father, family	Non-native to Korean
[v]	initial consonant	v voiced labiodental fricative	value, voice	Non-native to Korean	[b] [f]
[gp]	final consonant	k̚ unreleased velar plosive	ㄱ (k)	Unreleased plosive	[g] [g']
[np]	final consonant	n alveolar nasal	ㄴ (n)		[n]
[dp]	final consonant	t̚ unreleased alveolar plosive	ㄷ (t)	Unreleased plosive	[d] [d']
[rp]	final consonant	l	ㄹ (l)		[] []
[mp]	final consonant	m bilabial nasal	ㅁ (m)		[m]
[bp]	final consonant	p̚ unreleased bilabial plosive	ㅂ (p)	Unreleased plosive	[b] [b']
[Np]	final consonant	ŋ velar nasal	ㅇ (ng)

Gallery

Phonetic Symbol Table by SBS A&T

See also

Conversion Lists

• English - Korean
• Japanese - Korean

Interwiki articles

• Korean Phonology (Wikipedia)
• IPA for Korean (Wikipedia)

External links

• Korean Phonetic Symbol Table (Phoneme list of SeeU's Korean voicebank)