Korean Phonology - Positional Allophones

Positional Allophones

Korean consonants have three principal positional allophones: initial, medial (voiced), and final (checked). The initial form is found at the beginning of phonological words. The medial form is found in voiced environments, intervocalically and after a voiced consonant such as n or l. The final form is found in checked environments, such as at the end of a phonological word or before an obstruent consonant such as t or k. Nasal consonants (m, n, ng) do not have noticeable positional allophones, though ng cannot appear in initial position.

The table below is out of alphabetical order in order to make the relationships between the consonants explicit.

All obstruents (plosives, affricates, fricatives) become plosives with no audible release at the end of a word: All coronals collapse to, all labials to, and all velars to . Final r is a liquid or .

ᄒ h does not occur in final position, though it does occur at the end of non-final syllables, where it affects the following consonant. (See below.) Intervocalically it is realized as voiced, and after voiced consonants it is either or silent.

ᄋ ng does not occur in initial position. In native Korean words, neither does ᄅ r, though it does in Chinese loans (Sino-Korean vocabulary), where in initial position it is silent before /i/ and /j/, pronounced before other vowels, and only pronounced in compound words after a vowel. The prohibition on word-initial r is called the "initial law" (두음법칙) in South Korea. Initial r is officially pronounced in North Korea. In both countries, initial r in words of foreign origin other than Chinese is pronounced .

• "labour" – North Korea: rodong (로동), South Korea: nodong (노동)
• "history" – North Korea: ryŏksa (력사), South Korea: yeoksa (역사)
• "female" – North Korea: nyŏja (녀자), South Korea: yeoja (여자)