Re: CHAT: Blandness (was: Uusisuom's influences)

On Mon, 2 Apr 2001, Fabian wrote:

> btw Yoon Ha, do you have a romanisation scheme for Korean?
On the off chance that others want to know what the heck I'm "saying"
when I mention Korean examples, given in Korean alphabet order:

Caveat lector: The Korean system of mutations and whatnots is
sufficiently complicated that I haven't really explicated it here; I can
read the mutations, but I don't know the principles a priori well enough
to explain it generally.  Any inaccuracies are my fault for not paying
enough attention to my mom's lessons.

CONSONANTS:

k (or g before a vowel, these days: [k] ([g]?]
n (or in one mutation? before r, l): [n] ([l])
t (or d before a vowel): [t] ([d]?)
  You may see this for ch'ieut or chieut or siot as a bach'im, or the
  "bottom" or end of a syllable as written in Korean, because those sounds
  mutate to [t] in that position
r [r] (alveolar tap) or [l] in some situations (usually you'll see those
  transcribed as l)
m [m]
p (or b before a vowel) [p] ([b]?)
s [s], but [S] before [i]
ng [N] (this is the "circle" character that also functions as a "null"
  placeholder in vowel-based syllables, but which has the value [N] as a
  bach'im or when written as the "bottom" or end of a syllable)
ch [dZ]
ch' [tS] (notably aspirated)
k' [k] (aspirated)
t' [t] (aspirated)
p' [p] (aspirated)
h  [h]

kk or perhaps gg [k] (tensified)
tt or perhaps dd [t] (tensified)
pp or perhaps bb [p] (tensified)
ss [s]
tch [dZ] (tensified)

NOTE: What's the difference between s and ss?  I would describe ss as
what one might hear in "see" in American English (and possibly also
British English), while s has a wider opening between the tongue and the
roof of the mouth and sounds "softer."  I apologize for my ignorance of
sound production in not being able to pin it down further, but my
observation is that Americans learning Korean invariably conflate s and
ss by pronouncing both as ss.

VOWELS:
a [a]
ya [ja]
eo (you may also see o-breve) [@]
yeo (you may also see y + o-breve) [j@]
o [o]
yo [jo]
u [u]
yu [ju]
eu (you may also see u-breve) [i"] (barred i--hey, I wonder if that's how
  the dotless i in Turkish is to be pronounced?)
i [i]
ae [E]
yae [jE]
e [e]
ye [je]
wa [wa]
wae [wE]
oe [we], [wE]? (the book has o-umlaut as in German schön, but I think that's
  mainly older speakers, and the umlaut shuffled off into a [w] and a [e] or
  [E]
weo (you may also see w + o-breve) [w@]
we [we]
wi [wi]
eui (you may also see u-breve + i) [i"i] (i-bar followed by [i], though
  younger speakers, sometimes including myself, may mangle this into [wi])

Er...if you have any further questions, I can try to help; hope this is
sufficient for your purposes.

YHL

P.S. There's apparently another system, the Yale system, but I have
*never* seen it outside the appendix in _The Korean Alphabet_ and I am
guessing that your average Korean hasn't either.