Most Koreans find grammar difficult, including me who is studying Korean language as a major. It is difficult to learn Korean, but we take it for granted to learn English as a second language. Therefore, I will try to compare English and Korean. Also, I will briefly described the pruning property of the language to explain what is the most difficult part for a foreigner(non-native speaker) learning Korean and why, I will also deal with the phonemes, consonants, vowel and combination of phonemes.

Language can be divided into two main parts: an ideogram that contains the meaning of the character itself and a phonogram that contains the sound. Phonogram is divided into three parts: syllabary that corresponds with one character per syllable; phonograph that corresponds with one character per sound; and featural writing that corresponds with one character per phonetic feature. A typical example of each letter is shown in the table next to it.

*The featural writing was first proposed in Samson (Sampson, 1985). Samson is the only example of a featural writing, introducing the Hunminjeongeum, which was created by King Sejong in 1443. However, none of the letters used or used now in the history of mankind fully show the nature of featural writing.

Phonology is a theory that analyzes the Korean language based on 'phoneme'. What is this phoneme that is at the center of phonology? A phoneme is the smallest unit that distinguishes the meaning of a word. For example, in ¸»(Horse) and ¹ß(Foot), '¤Ô¤¿¤©' is common, but the meaning varies by ¤± and ¤². These are the smallest units that differentiate the meaning of a word but cannot be divided into smaller units, so they are the phonemes of the Korean language.

What criteria will consonants and vowels be divided into? The answer is presence or absence of an obstacle in vocalization. When you make a sound, and get disturbed in the throat or mouth, it is a consonant. Not being disturbed is a vowel.

1) Consonants

There are 26 consonants in English and 19 consonants in Korean. The consonants can be classified into tables according to articulation place and manner of articulation. First, let's find out what's an articulation place and manner of articulation of Korean.

- Articulation Place

English is divided into nine articulation places, while Korean is five.

First, the bilabial is the sounds on both lips. Second, the alveolar sound is the sound of the blade of the tongue touching or narrowing the alveola, which is the part of the gum where the back of the upper front teeth. Third, the palatal consonant is the sound of the front tongue acting on the palate. Forth, the soft palatal consonant is the sound of the back of the tongue and acting on the soft palatal. The last, the fifth, the guttural sound is the sound of a throat.

- Manner of Articulation

When referring to the table of consonants systems, the manner of articulation in the Korean language is slightly more detailed than that in English. In pronounciation, it is divided into obstruent, which is completely disturbed, and sympathetic sound which is less clogged and ringing.

Obstacles are divided into plosive(-stop) sounds, fricative, and affricate, depending on the degree to which they burst or are rubbed. First, plosive(-stop) sound is the sound of a sudden burst of air, blocking articulation with an articulation place. Second, fricative is the sound of friction as the air passes through a narrow part of the mouth. Lastly, affricate is the sound of fricative immediately after plosive(-stop) sound. These sounds are also divided into lax consonants, aspiration, and hard consonants, depending on the intensity of the sound. The sound gets stronger as it gets from lax consonants to hard consonants. Also, the sympathetic sound has a nasal aspect, which is the sound of air flowing through the nose, and liquid sound, which is the sound of letting slide by breathing.

It is easier to see the above explanation in a simple table.

2) Vowels

To define the vowel in more detail, the sound of the air rising from the lungs comes with the vibration of the vocal cords without being disturbed by closure or friction in the passageway of the mouth. A vowel can be classified into single vowels and diphthong, depending on whether or not the sound changes. When you make a sound of single vowel, your tongue or lips are fixed, so that making the same sound as the beginning and the end. Diphthong is when you make a sound, moving your tongue or lips, so that the beginning and end of the sound differ. English consists of 11 single vowels and 3 diphthongs, and Korean consists of 10 single vowels and 11 diphthongs.

In pronunciation, the vowels are divided into high vowel, mid vowel and low vowel according to the height of the tongue and front vowel and back vowel according to the position of the tongue. In addition, depending on the presence or absence of lip-shaped roundedness, it is divided into unrounded vowel and rounded vowel.

* Differences from vowels in English, central vowel exists in English where the position of the tongue comes in the middle, and the vowel system is not classified as a characteristic of roundedness.

3) Combination of Phoneme

The Korean and English language form a word by the combination of consonants and vowels discussed above. In English, consonants and vowels are parallel to form a word. For the Korean language, a combination of one phoneme is used for the initial consonant, medial and final consonant. An initial consonant must be a consonant and medial must be a vowel. In addition, a consonant shall be placed as a final consonant, but not necessarily. By applying these rules, we can make the word with a combination of consonants and vowel.

4) Similarity of Sound

It is said that the most difficult thing for a foreigner(non-native speaker) learning the Korean language is the distinction of pronunciation according to intensity. In fact, there is a difference in pronunciation, which the native speaker(Korean) feels

similar to English, because even if the consonant is the same, the pronunciation varies depending on the position. Let¡¯s take the example of plosive(-stop) sound, which is easy to compare with English. The consonants of ¤¡, ¤§ and ¤², which are the lax consonants of the plosive(-stop) sound, pronounced g, d, and b is placed in front of the vowel. However, it is pronounced k, t and p when it is placed in front of consonants or at the end of the word.

Also, the Romanization of Korean is a more confusing part because the sounds in front of the consonant or the end of the word are the same with aspiration.

+α Parseltongue

Parseltongue is the language of the snake in Harry Potter(J.K.Rowling). Different from human¡¯s oral structure, a snake has no lips and cannot touch its teeth with its tongue(Except it¡¯s canine which is to bite prey). Unlike the human, who has a broad tongue, a snake has very fine tongue. The sound produced by a snake is called 'hissing' and a person must use the guttural sound to imitate it. There are two ways to imitate hissing with the sound coming from our throat. One is the method of sending the air through the narrow passage with the tongue¡¯s roots close to the ceiling. The other method is to put the tip of the tongue on the front teeth and let air flow from each side of the tongue.

If you imitate the sound of a snake, you will not be able to communicate with a snake, and this is what it sounds like when a snake threatens an opponent, so just watch it for fun and don't actually try it with a snake:)

Chung Min Kyung  7carrot@naver.com

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