Re: Double letters in Han-geul.

On 5/3/05, Steven Williams <feurieaux@...> wrote:
> What are the function of/reason for the double finals
> in Han-geul (i.e., -lm, -ls, etc.)? As far as I can
> tell, they're not pronounced, but I still can't figure
> out why they're there. Are they the remnants of
> formerly-pronounced final clusters, or something else?
(with his native speaker of Korean hat on:)
No, they are pronounced, but only by liaison when followed by vowel.

For example, /kaps/ "price" is pronounced [kap], but when followed by
subject marker -i, /kaps i/ is pronounced [kap.si]. However, when followed
by commitative -kwa, /kaps kwa/ is pronounced [kap.k'wa], without [s].
(apostrophe in k' is to indicate this k is a tense sound. When two stops
run together, the second one become tense.)

Yes, it is the remnants of Middle Korean in some way. It is believed that
/kaps kwa/ was once pronounced [kap skwa], but phonotactics changed
to prevent syllable initial cluster, and [sk] turned to [k'].

Seo Sanghyeon