Korean: to AquaDemon (was Re: Alphabets)

On Tuesday, November 6, 2001, at 05:19 , Aquamarine Demon wrote:

> Well, yes and no. I can kinda guess on the easy ones, like the box (m),
> and the L-shaped one (n), but doesn't one of them (or more than one??)
> change pronunciation depending on whether it's at the beginning or end?
>
Yeah--unfortunately.  One of the other sites I posted earlier did have a
list of mutations/modifications.  I just know them from almost becoming a
native speaker.  <helpless shrug>  If you're interested I could try and
find it again for you.  (I can produce the forms in speech, but my
spelling's godawful because it's phonetic.)

> Also, when I'm guessing what they sound like, I have no idea what I'm
> reading... kind of like when I practice my French pronunciation with
> words I don't know...only worse ;)
>
http://www.rosettastone.com

There's a free week of online trial language lessons in *any* language,
and Korean's one of them.  You might give it a shot if you've got a
browser that handles the Flash plug-in.  I went through 10 of their
Japanese lessons (hana wa kiiroi desu...)--you don't learn anything
*really* useful to start, but it's actually pretty fun.

> Hehe... I've been there before... that's where I learned what I did...
> but I could st! ! and to go again. ;) Tensified stops... are those
> romanized as double letters? (mm, jj...). Yeah. I think I've heard
> examples of them, but I haven't
> tried to reproduce them yet..Well, you could try explaining it...
Yes, that's how they're romanized.  One Korean textbook I have says
they're produce like the "normal" nonaspirated stops, but you tense up
your speech organs.  I honestly can't think of a *better* explanation than
that, though I would've described it as making the sound more "tightly."
:-/

Yoon Ha Lee [requiescat@cityofveils.com]
http://pegasus.cityofveils.com

It's bad luck to be superstitious.