How to learn Korean letters. Interesting facts about the Korean language. Korean alphabet: vowels

Many people believe that Koreans write in some kind of “Korean characters.” This is wrong. In everyday life, Koreans, both northern and southern, use simple phonetic writing, which I personally was able to master on my own in a couple of days. Along with learning the rules of reading, this process lasted for a week, no more. Hieroglyphs (they came from China and are called “hanja” in Korean, that is, “Chinese characters”) were abolished in North Korea in the middle of the last century, and in the South, although they are still officially preserved, they are used mainly in specialized literature . Therefore, if you do not need to read scientific articles, you can easily get by with the Korean alphabet.

The Korean alphabet was invented in the 15th century by a group of scholars from the Chipyeongjong Court Academy on the orders of King Sejong the Great. Initially it was called “Hongmin Jeongum”, but then, already in the 20th century, it was renamed “Hangul” (“great letter”). The Korean alphabet still bears this name. The shape of the letters goes back to the style Chinese characters"zhuan".

Hangul consists of forty letters. We will study them gradually. Let's start with the consonants. Remember that the letter is written from left to right and from top to bottom.

You have already noticed that some letters can be read dull or loud. Their reading depends on their position in the word. At the beginning and end of words, paired consonants are always read unvoiced, for example in the words “param” (wind), “chip” (house), “pap” (boiled rice). In the middle of a word they are voiced between two vowels, for example in the words “kagyok” (price), “kaban” (bag), “kadzhok” (family) and after voiced consonants (n, m, r/l, nъ), for example “ namja" (man), "salda" (to live); "ange" (fog).

Letter r/l reads like l at the end of a word, for example “mal” (speech), “tal” (moon, month) and in the middle of a word before a consonant, for example “ulda” (cry), “alda” (know) or when condensing two r/l, for example “mollayo” (I don’t know). Between two vowels r/l reads like r, for example in the words “saram” (person), “kurym” (cloud). At the beginning of words r/l found only in borrowings from European languages and is always read as r, for example "radio" (radio), "raitho" (lighter).

Let's pay attention to the pronunciation of three letters. B/J in its voiced version (j) is read softly, like the English j for example in the word jeans. In the deaf version, it is also read softly, like the Russian “ch”. Letter nb reads like a nasal n in the word song. In transcription, this sound is usually designated “нъ”. Letter X reads like a faint aspiration.

Now let's move on to vowels. Let's study simple vowels first.

Perhaps the difference between the sounds designated by the letter “o” requires comment. These sounds do not exist in the Russian language. "O" with a diacritic on top (in transcription, will be further denoted as O) can be described as a sound between "o" and "e". To form it, move your tongue back and try to pronounce “o”. Do the same in order to pronounce the sound ё, the middle one between “e” and “e”.

The second of these sounds is the middle one between "o" and "u". You should pronounce "u" with slightly more open lips than you do when speaking Russian. Repeat the same with the sound “yo”, middle between “e” and “u”.

If you don't succeed, don't be discouraged. Many people, even fluent Korean speakers, pronounce these sounds as Russian “o” and “e”. That doesn’t prevent them from understanding each other with Koreans.

Sound s is the average between our “y” and “s”. But you can pronounce it simply as the Russian “y” if you do not strive to be mistaken for a purebred Korean when speaking.

However, it's not that simple. The fact is that the Korean letter is not alphabetic, like the Cyrillic or Latin alphabet, but alpha-syllabic. This means that the letters of Hangul are formed into syllabic signs according to certain rules. One syllable can have from two to four letters. We will not consider the last case for now. Let's focus on two- and three-letter signs.

Other names

Chosongul (조선글), “Joseon script” - used in North Korea, according to the self-name of Korea adopted there - “Joseon” (조선).

Urigul (우리글), "our script" - the name is used in both Northern and South Korea.

Gukso (국서 / 國書) and kunmun (국문 / 國文), "national script" - these names were used in the early 20th century, but are now considered obsolete.

There is also a legend that Hangul was invented by the Buddhist monk Seol Cheon. Buddhist literature was popular at the time, but was mostly written in Tibetan and Sanskrit, which were based on the ancient Indian Brahmi script. Hangul, like Indian varieties of writing, is phonetic (each sound has its own sign). The shape of the signs was developed independently from other alphabets, however some of them are similar to Devanagari signs.

The alphabet project was completed at the end of 1443 and the beginning of the year and was published in a document entitled "Hongming Chong" ("Instruction of the People on the Correct Sounds"). The alphabet was named after the title of this document. The release date of Hongmin Jeongeum, October 9, is celebrated as Hangul Day in South Korea. The North Korean equivalent is celebrated on January 15.

It was rumored that King Sejong came up with the general design of the signs after seeing an intricate fishing net. However, these speculations were refuted by the discovery of a document dated to the same year and entitled "Hongmin Jeongum Hare" ("Explanations and Examples of 'Hungmin Jeongum'"). This document explains the shape of letters representing consonants from the perspective of articulatory phonetics, and the shape of letters representing vowels from the perspective of yin and yang philosophy and vowel harmony.

King Sejong explained that he created a new script because the Korean language is different from Chinese, and the use of Chinese characters is very difficult for ordinary people to learn. At that time, only men belonging to the aristocratic stratum of society (“yangban”) were taught to read and write, and the majority of Koreans were illiterate. Hangeul met with serious resistance from the literary elite, who recognized only Hanja as a written language. A typical example of such resistance is the protest of Choe Malli and other Confucian philosophers in the year.

Subsequently, the country's government cooled towards Hangeul. Yongsangun, the tenth king of the Joseon Dynasty, banned the study of Hangul and banned the use of Hangul in documents, and King Chungjong abolished the Ministry of Onmun (vernacular script) in the year. Subsequently, Hangul was used mainly by women and semi-literate people.

Alphabet composition

The elements of Hangul are called chamo (cor. 자모 , 字母 , tracing paper with whale. zìmǔ - Zimu) or get into trouble (낱소리 ). Cha (Chinese 字 zi) means "letter" and mo (Chinese: 母 mu) translated as "mother". Chamo are the basic building blocks of Korean writing.

There are 51 Chamo in total, 24 of which are equivalent to letters of the regular alphabet. The remaining 27 chamo are combinations of two or three letters(digraphs and trigraphs). Of the 24 simple chamos, fourteen are consonants (chaim, cor. 자음 , 子音 “baby sounds”), and the remaining ten are vowels (my, cor. 모음 , 母音 "maternal sounds") Of the sixteen digraphs, five strong consonants are formed from doubled simple consonants (see below), and the remaining eleven are formed from different letters. The ten Chamo vowels combine to form eleven diphthongs. The following is the complete alphabet:

14 simple consonants: ㄱㄴㄷㄹㅁㅂㅅㅇㅈㅊㅋㅌㅍㅎ , plus outdated ㅿㆁㆆㅱㅸㆄ
5 double consonants: ㄲㄸㅃㅆㅉ, plus obsolete ㅥㆀㆅㅹ
11 digraphs: ㄳㄵㄶㄺㄻㄼㄽㄾㄿㅀㅄ , plus outdated ㅦㅧㅨㅪㅬㅭㅮㅯㅰㅲㅳㅶㅷㅺㅻㅼㅽㅾㆂㆃ and outdated trigraphs ㅩㅫㅴㅵ

10 simple vowels: ㅏㅓㅗㅜㅡㅣㅑㅕㅛㅠ , plus outdated ㆍ
11 diphthongs: ㅐㅒㅔㅖㅘㅙㅚㅝㅞㅟㅢ , plus outdated ㆎㆇㆈㆉㆊㆋㆌ

The consonants ㅊ (chhiyt), ㅋ (khiyk), ㅌ (thiyt), and ㅍ (phiyp) are aspirated derivatives of ㅈ (chiyt), ㄱ (kiyok), ㄷ (tigyt) and ㅂ (piyp), respectively.

Double letters: ㄲ (ssangiyok: piss-쌍 "double"), ㄸ (ssandigyt), ㅃ (ssanbiyp), ㅆ (ssansiot) and ㅉ (ssanjiit). Double chamos are used to denote not a double, but an amplified sound.

Written designation for chamo

The appearance of Hangul letters was designed on a scientific basis.

For example, the consonant chamo ㅌ (aspirated T, ) is built from three horizontal sticks, each of which has its own meaning: the top one shows that ㅌ is an explosive sound, like ㄱ (k / g), ㄷ (t / d), ㅂ (p / b), ㅈ (h /j), each of which has such a stick (the last letter is an affricate, a sequence of fricative and plosive); the middle stick shows that ㅌ is an aspirated consonant, like ㅎ (x), ㅋ (kh), ㅍ (ph), ㅊ (chh), which also have such a stick; the curved bottom stick shows that ㅌ is a coronal sound, as are ㄴ (n), ㄷ (t/d), and ㄹ (l/r). Two obsolete consonants, ᇰ and ᇢ, have a double pronunciation and consist of two elements written one above the other to represent the two pronunciations: back-lingual n([ŋ]) / silent sound for ᇰ and [m] / [w] for ᇢ.

For Chamo vowels, a short stick connected to the main line shows that the sound has a pair beginning with the sound th. If there are two such sticks, this means that the vowel begins with the sound th. The position of the stick shows to which beginning, according to the ideology of yin and yang, the vowel belongs: “light” (top or right) or “dark” (bottom or left). In modern chamo, an additional vertical stick shows the umlaut, separating ㅐ ([ε]), ㅔ ([e]), ㅚ ([ø]), ㅟ ([y]) from ㅏ ([a]), ㅓ ([ʌ] ), ㅗ ([o] ), ㅜ ([u] ). However, this is not a deliberate design, but rather natural development vowels from diphthongs ending in ㅣ ([i]). Indeed, in many Korean dialects, including the official Seoul dialect of Korean, some of them are diphthongs to this day.

In addition to Chamo, Hangul originally used a diacritic to indicate tone stress. A syllable with a rising tone stress was marked with a dot (·) to the left of it (when written vertically); a syllable with a falling tone accent was marked with a double dot (:). Now such signs are not used. Although vowel length was and remains phonemically significant in Korean, it is not shown in Hangul.

Although some features of Hangul reflect its relationship with the Mongolian alphabet and thus Indian phonology, other features reflect the influence of Chinese writing and phonology.

Written notation of consonants

The letters representing consonants fall into five groups, each with its own basic form. From this base, other letters of the group are obtained using additional sticks. In Hongmin Jeongum Hare, the basic shapes represent the articulation of the tongue, palate, teeth, and throat when pronouncing these sounds.

The group names are taken from Chinese phonetics:

Posterior palatal consonants (cor. 아음 , 牙音 aym - “root sound”)
- ㄱ ([k]), ㅋ ( )
- Basic form: ㄱ is a side view of the tongue raised towards the roof of the mouth. ㅋ is formed from ㄱ by adding a stick to indicate aspiration.
Coronal consonants (cor. 설음 , 舌音 sorym - “language sound”):
- ㄴ ([n]), ㄷ ([t]), ㅌ (), ㄹ (l/r)
- Basic shape: ㄴ is a side view of the tip of the tongue pressed against the gums. Letters formed from ㄴ are pronounced with similar articulation. The stick on top ㄷ represents the explosive nature of the sound. The middle stick ㅌ shows aspiration. The curled tip of ㄹ shows the curve of the tongue as it is spoken.
Labial consonants (cor. 순음 , 唇音 sunym - “labial sound”):
- ㅁ ([m]), ㅂ ([p]), ㅍ ()
- Basic shape: ㅁ represents the line of the lips as they come into contact with each other. The top of the letter ㅂ indicates the explosive nature of the sound. The top stick ㅍ indicates the aspirated nature of the sound.
Sibilant consonants (cor. 치음 , 齒音 chhiym - “tooth sound”):
- ㅅ ( ), ㅈ ([c] ), ㅊ ( )
- Basic shape: ㅅ was originally depicted as a wedge-shaped ʌ, without a serif at the top. It represents a side view of the tooth. The stick at the top of the letter ㅈ represents the explosive nature of the sound. The stick in ㅊ indicates the aspirated nature of the sound.

Laryngeal consonants (cor. 후음 , 喉音 khuym - “throat sound”):
- ㅇ ([ʔ, ŋ]), ㅎ ([h])
- Basic shape: ㅇ represents the throat line. Initially, ㅇ was written in two letters, a simple circle denoting silence (silent consonant), and a circle with a vertical stick ㆁ to denote back-lingual n. In addition, there previously existed the now obsolete letter ㆆ, representing a glottal stop, indicating a sound pronounced with the throat. From this letter comes the letter ㅎ, in which an additional stick indicates aspiration.

Modern phonetic theory indicates that the separation of the glottal stop ㆆ and the aspirate ㅎ from the silent stop ㅇ is closer to the truth than the widely held theory about the Chinese origin of these sounds.

Written notation for vowels

Writing vowels consists of three elements:

A horizontal line symbolizing the Earth as the quintessence of the beginning of yin.
A point symbolizing the Sun as the quintessence of the beginning of yang. When drawn with a brush, the dot turns into a short line.
A vertical line symbolizing man as an entity located between Earth and Heaven.

Dots (now short lines) were added to these basic elements in order to separate the simple Chamo vowels:

Simple vowels
- Horizontal: back and mixed vowels.
  - light ㅗ (o/u)
  - dark ㅜ (y)
  - dark ㅡ(s)
- Vertical: front vowels. (ㅓ (o) migrated towards the back row during the development of the tongue).
  - light ㅏ (a)
  - dark ㅓ (o/a)
  - neutral ㅣ (and)
Composite chamos. Sounds O or at before A or O become a short sound [w]. When forming compound vowels, vowel harmony must be present.
- ㅘ = ㅗ + ㅏ
- ㅝ = ㅜ + ㅓ
- ㅙ = ㅗ + ㅐ
- ㅞ = ㅜ + ㅔ

Chamo compounds ending in ㅣ (i) were originally diphthongs. However, gradually most of them became pure vowels:

- ㅐ = ㅏ + ㅣ
- ㅔ = ㅓ + ㅣ
- ㅙ = ㅘ + ㅣ
- ㅚ = ㅗ + ㅣ
- ㅞ = ㅝ + ㅣ
- ㅟ = ㅜ + ㅣ
- ㅢ = ㅡ + ㅣ

Vowels on th: Such sounds are represented by adding a second short stick to the vowel. Of the seven basic vowels, four can be used with the sound th ahead. (Due to the influence of Chinese calligraphy, dots began to be written close to the main line: ㅓㅏㅜㅗ.) The other three vowels are written with a single line: ㅡㆍㅣ.

Formation of vowels in th:

- ㅑ from ㅏ
- ㅕ from ㅓ
- ㅛ from ㅗ
- ㅠ from ㅜ

For diphthongs:

- ㅒ from ㅐ
- ㅖ from ㅔ

The system of vowel harmony in the Korean language of the century was more consistent than in modern language. Vowels in grammatical morphemes changed in accordance with adjacent sounds, breaking up into two groups that were in harmony with each other. This influenced the morphology of the language, and Korean phonology explained these two groups in terms of the division into yin and yang: if the root of the word had yang (light) vowels, then most of the suffixes that could be used with this root also had to have vowels yang; and vice versa, vowels yin (dark) were combined with suffixes also containing vowels yin. There was also a third group, which was intermediate ( neutral). Such vowels could be combined with other vowels from both groups.

The neutral vowel is ㅣ (i). Vowels yin- this is ㅡㅜㅓ (ы, у, о); (dot below or left - directions yin). Vowels yang- this is ㆍㅗㅏ (uh, oh, a) (the dot at the top or right - directions yang). The Hongmin Jeong Hare document states that letterforms without dots (ㅡㆍㅣ) should be chosen to symbolize the basic principles yin, yang and what is between them: Earth, Heaven and Man (the letter ㆍ (e) is not used now).

There is also a third parameter used in writing Hangeul vowels: using ㅡ as a graphical base for ㅜ and ㅗ, and ㅣ as a graphical base for ㅓ and ㅏ. The reason for the division is the sound of these letters in the century. Now there is uncertainty with the following three vowels: ㆍㅓㅏ. Some linguists insist on pronunciation *a, *ɤ, *e accordingly, others in pronunciation *ə, *e, *a. However, the horizontal vowels ㅡㅜㅗ are all back vowels [*ɯ, *u, *o] and thus form a homogeneous phonetic group.

Letter order

The alphabetical order of letters in Hangul does not allow for mixing of consonants and vowels. The order is similar to analogues from Indian languages, first velar sounds, then coronals, labials, sibilants, and so on. However, unlike Indian languages, vowels follow consonants rather than precede them.

The modern alphabetical order was established by Choi Sejin in the year. This was before they appeared double letters, representing strong consonants, and before separating the letters ㅇ and ㆁ. Thus, when the South Korean and North Korean governments made Hangul official, they placed the letters differently.

South Korean order

South Korean Chamo consonant order:

ㄱ ㄲ ㄴ ㄷ ㄸ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅃ ㅅ ㅆ ㅇ ㅈ ㅉ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ

Double chamos are located directly after their single chamos. There is no difference between mute and nasal ㅇ.

Chamo vowel order:

ㅏ ㅐ ㅑ ㅒ ㅓ ㅔ ㅕ ㅖ ㅗ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅛ ㅜ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅠ ㅡ ㅢ ㅣ

North Korean order

North Korea has adopted a more traditional order:

ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ (nasal posterior lingual n) ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ ㅇ (mute)

The first ㅇ is a nasal sound ㅇ, which can only come at the end of a syllable. ㅇ, which is used at the beginning, is the last letter in the alphabet, since it always precedes a vowel.

The new letters, double chamo, are placed at the end of the consonant series, before the silent ㅇ, in order not to disrupt the order of the traditional alphabet.

Vowel order:

ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ ㅐ ㅒ ㅔ ㅖ ㅚ ㅟ ㅢ ㅘ ㅝ ㅙ ㅞ

Without the obsolete Chamo, there are 11,172 possible syllables in Hangul.

Linear Hangul

In the 20th century a Hangeul reform project was considered, which would involve writing letters in linear order, as in Western alphabets: ㄱㅡㄴ (kyn). However, the reform was not implemented.

Spelling

Until the 20th century, Hangul had no official spelling rules. Due to the binding of the final consonant to the initial vowel of the next word, dialect differences and other reasons, pronunciation korean words could potentially have multiple options. King Sejong preferred morphological spelling to phonetic one. However, phonemic voicing predominated in Hangul. Over time, spelling became partially morphophonemic, first affecting nouns, then verbs.

Pronunciation and translation:

a person who cannot do this. (motkhanyn sarami)

Phonetic spelling:

/mo.tʰa.nɯn.sa.la.mi/ 모타는사라미

Morphological spelling:

|mos.ha.nɯn.sa.lam.i | 못하는사람이

Morphemic analysis:

In the year morphophonemic orthography was adopted. The document regulating spelling is called “Hangul machhumbop”. In the year, the Korean Ministry of Education released its latest at the moment editorial office

Style

Hangul can be written from top to bottom or left to right. The traditional style, which comes from China, is top-to-bottom notation. Horizontal recording was proposed by Chu Xigyong, becoming today almost standard.

Over time, a calligraphic style of writing Hangul was developed, which had many similarities with Chinese calligraphy. This style is called "myeonjo" and is currently used in fine art, books and magazines. In addition, some computer fonts for the Korean language are also designed in the Myeonjo style.

This lesson is about the characters of the Korean alphabet

1.2 Basics

The Korean alphabet is called "Hangul"
Hangeul – phonetic alphabet
Hangeul is a syllabary alphabet. Hangul elements are combined into syllables
Elements of Hangul are called "chamo"

1.3 Chamo vowels

Basic vowels: ㅏㅓㅗㅜㅡㅣ

Chamo are divided into light (ㅏ, ㅗ), dark (ㅓ, ㅜ) and neutral (ㅡ, ㅣ).

Chamo ㅓ and ㅗ are pronounced almost the same. The difference is that when pronouncing ㅗ the lips are curled up, while when pronouncing ㅓ the lips are relaxed.

Chamo can be combined into diphthongs. In this case:

Light Chamos can only team up with Light or Neutral Chamos
Dark Chamo can only team up with Dark or Neutral Chamo

Association	Diphthong	Pronunciation
ㅏ + ㅣ	ㅐ	E
ㅓ + ㅣ	ㅔ	E
ㅗ + ㅏ	ㅘ	UA
ㅜ + ㅓ	ㅝ	UO
ㅗ + ㅣ	ㅚ	YuE
ㅜ + ㅣ	ㅟ	UI
ㅗ + ㅐ	ㅙ	UE
ㅜ + ㅔ	ㅞ	UE
ㅡ + ㅣ	ㅢ	YY

The pronunciation of ㅐ and ㅔ is no different.

There are also iotized chamos. These chamos differ only by adding one more dash:

1.4 Chamo consonants

Some consonants have different pronunciations depending on whether they are voiced or not.

If a consonant is found after a vowel or after a voiced consonant (for example, after M, N), it is voiced. If a consonant is at the beginning of a word or at the junction of two voiceless consonants, it is not voiced.

Basic consonants:

The four basic Chamo consonants have similar Chamo aspirates:

In addition, the five basic consonants have similar double consonants. They are always deaf. They are pronounced the same way as the basic chamo, only harder and longer:

1.5 Combining chamo into a syllable

1.5.1 Types of joins

The syllable always begins with a chamo consonant.

Chamo can be combined into a syllable in the following combinations:

Consonant + Vowel
Consonant + Vowel + Consonant
Consonant + Vowel + Digraph (two consonants)

1.5.2 Consonant + Vowel

If the vowel is written vertically (ㅏㅐㅑㅒㅓㅔㅕㅖㅣ), then the syllable is written from left to right:

For example:

ㅅ + ㅜ = 수
ㅇ + ㅡ = 으
ㄷ + ㅗ = 도

If a vowel occupies two cells (ㅘㅙㅚㅝㅞㅟㅢ), then the syllable is written from top to bottom to the right:

For example:

ㅅ + ㅏ + ㅁ = 삼
ㅂ + ㅓ + ㄴ = 번
ㅊ + ㅣ + ㄹ = 칠

CONSONANT

VOWEL

PATCHING

For example:

ㄱ + ㅜ + ㄱ = 국
ㄱ + ㅡ + ㅁ = 금
ㄷ + ㅗ + ㄹ = 돌

CONSONANT	VOWEL
VOWEL
PATCHING

For example:

ㅅ +ᅱ + ㄴ = 쉰
ㄱ +ᅪ + ㄴ = 관
ㅇ +ᅯ + ㄴ = 원

1.5.4 Consonant + Vowel + Digraph (two consonants)

Some Chamo consonants can form pairs. Such pairs are placed only in the patch. There can only be one chamo consonant at the beginning of a syllable (including the double consonants ㄲㄸㅃㅆㅉ).

The following combinations of digraphs are possible: ㄳㄵㄶㄺㄻㄼㄽㄾㄿㅀㅄ. There are no other combinations of consonants.

For example:

ㅇ + ㅣ + ㄹ + ㄱ = 읽
ㅇ + ㅓ + ㅂ + ㅅ = 없
ㅇ + ㅏ + ㄴ + ㅎ = 않
ㅇ + ㅗ + ㄹ + ㅁ = 옮
ㅇ + ㅡ + ㄹ + ㅍ = 읊
ㄱ + ㅜ + ㄹ + ㄱ = 굵

Other names

Chosongul (조선글), “Joseon script” - used in North Korea, according to the self-name of Korea adopted there - “Joseon” (조선).

Urigul (우리글), "our script" - the name is used in both North and South Korea.

Gukso (국서 / 國書) and kunmun (국문 / 國文), "national script" - these names were used in the early 20th century, but are now considered obsolete.

Alphabet composition

There are 51 chamos in total, 24 of which are equivalent to letters of the regular alphabet. The remaining 27 chamos are combinations of two or three letters (digraphs and trigraphs). Of the 24 simple chamos, fourteen are consonants (chaim, cor. 자음 , 子音 “baby sounds”), and the remaining ten are vowels (my, cor. 모음 , 母音 "maternal sounds") Of the sixteen digraphs, five strong consonants are formed from doubled simple consonants (see below), and the remaining eleven are formed from different letters. Ten Chamo vowels combine to form eleven diphthongs. The following is the complete alphabet:

14 simple consonants: ㄱㄴㄷㄹㅁㅂㅅㅇㅈㅊㅋㅌㅍㅎ , plus outdated ㅿㆁㆆㅱㅸㆄ
5 double consonants: ㄲㄸㅃㅆㅉ, plus obsolete ㅥㆀㆅㅹ
11 digraphs: ㄳㄵㄶㄺㄻㄼㄽㄾㄿㅀㅄ , plus outdated ㅦㅧㅨㅪㅬㅭㅮㅯㅰㅲㅳㅶㅷㅺㅻㅼㅽㅾㆂㆃ and outdated trigraphs ㅩㅫㅴㅵ

10 simple vowels: ㅏㅓㅗㅜㅡㅣㅑㅕㅛㅠ , plus outdated ㆍ
11 diphthongs: ㅐㅒㅔㅖㅘㅙㅚㅝㅞㅟㅢ , plus outdated ㆎㆇㆈㆉㆊㆋㆌ

The consonants ㅊ (chhiyt), ㅋ (khiyk), ㅌ (thiyt), and ㅍ (phiyp) are aspirated derivatives of ㅈ (chiyt), ㄱ (kiyok), ㄷ (tigyt) and ㅂ (piyp), respectively.

Double letters: ㄲ (ssangiyok: piss-쌍 "double"), ㄸ (ssandigyt), ㅃ (ssanbiyp), ㅆ (ssansiot) and ㅉ (ssanjiit). Double chamos are used to denote not a double, but an amplified sound.

Written designation for chamo

The appearance of Hangul letters was designed on a scientific basis.

For Chamo vowels, a short stick connected to the main line shows that the sound has a pair beginning with the sound th. If there are two such sticks, this means that the vowel begins with the sound th. The position of the stick shows which principle, according to the ideology of yin and yang, the vowel belongs to: “light” (top or right) or “dark” (bottom or left). In modern chamo, an additional vertical stick shows the umlaut, separating ㅐ ([ε]), ㅔ ([e]), ㅚ ([ø]), ㅟ ([y]) from ㅏ ([a]), ㅓ ([ʌ] ), ㅗ ([o] ), ㅜ ([u] ). However, this is not a deliberate design, but rather a natural development of vowels from diphthongs ending in ㅣ ([i]). Indeed, in many Korean dialects, including the official Seoul dialect of Korean, some of them are diphthongs to this day.

Although some features of Hangul reflect its relationship with the Mongolian alphabet and thus Indian phonology, other features reflect the influence of Chinese writing and phonology.

Written notation of consonants

The group names are taken from Chinese phonetics:

Posterior palatal consonants (cor. 아음 , 牙音 aym - “root sound”)
- ㄱ ([k]), ㅋ ( )
- Basic form: ㄱ is a side view of the tongue raised towards the roof of the mouth. ㅋ is formed from ㄱ by adding a stick to indicate aspiration.
Coronal consonants (cor. 설음 , 舌音 sorym - “language sound”):
- ㄴ ([n]), ㄷ ([t]), ㅌ (), ㄹ (l/r)
- Basic shape: ㄴ is a side view of the tip of the tongue pressed against the gums. Letters formed from ㄴ are pronounced with similar articulation. The stick on top ㄷ represents the explosive nature of the sound. The middle stick ㅌ shows aspiration. The curled tip of ㄹ shows the curve of the tongue as it is spoken.
Labial consonants (cor. 순음 , 唇音 sunym - “labial sound”):
- ㅁ ([m]), ㅂ ([p]), ㅍ ()
- Basic shape: ㅁ represents the line of the lips as they come into contact with each other. The top of the letter ㅂ indicates the explosive nature of the sound. The top stick ㅍ indicates the aspirated nature of the sound.
Sibilant consonants (cor. 치음 , 齒音 chhiym - “tooth sound”):
- ㅅ ( ), ㅈ ([c] ), ㅊ ( )
- Basic shape: ㅅ was originally depicted as a wedge-shaped ʌ, without a serif at the top. It represents a side view of the tooth. The stick at the top of the letter ㅈ represents the explosive nature of the sound. The stick in ㅊ indicates the aspirated nature of the sound.

Laryngeal consonants (cor. 후음 , 喉音 khuym - “throat sound”):
- ㅇ ([ʔ, ŋ]), ㅎ ([h])
- Basic shape: ㅇ represents the throat line. Initially, ㅇ was written in two letters, a simple circle denoting silence (silent consonant), and a circle with a vertical stick ㆁ to denote back-lingual n. In addition, there previously existed the now obsolete letter ㆆ, representing a glottal stop, indicating a sound pronounced with the throat. From this letter comes the letter ㅎ, in which an additional stick indicates aspiration.

Written notation for vowels

Writing vowels consists of three elements:

A horizontal line symbolizing the Earth as the quintessence of the beginning of yin.
A point symbolizing the Sun as the quintessence of the beginning of yang. When drawn with a brush, the dot turns into a short line.
A vertical line symbolizing man as an entity located between Earth and Heaven.

Dots (now short lines) were added to these basic elements in order to separate the simple Chamo vowels:

Simple vowels
- Horizontal: back and mixed vowels.
  - light ㅗ (o/u)
  - dark ㅜ (y)
  - dark ㅡ(s)
- Vertical: front vowels. (ㅓ (o) migrated towards the back row during the development of the tongue).
  - light ㅏ (a)
  - dark ㅓ (o/a)
  - neutral ㅣ (and)
Composite chamos. Sounds O or at before A or O become a short sound [w]. When forming compound vowels, vowel harmony must be present.
- ㅘ = ㅗ + ㅏ
- ㅝ = ㅜ + ㅓ
- ㅙ = ㅗ + ㅐ
- ㅞ = ㅜ + ㅔ

Chamo compounds ending in ㅣ (i) were originally diphthongs. However, gradually most of them became pure vowels:

- ㅐ = ㅏ + ㅣ
- ㅔ = ㅓ + ㅣ
- ㅙ = ㅘ + ㅣ
- ㅚ = ㅗ + ㅣ
- ㅞ = ㅝ + ㅣ
- ㅟ = ㅜ + ㅣ
- ㅢ = ㅡ + ㅣ

Vowels on th: Such sounds are represented by adding a second short stick to the vowel. Of the seven basic vowels, four can be used with the sound th ahead. (Due to the influence of Chinese calligraphy, dots began to be written close to the main line: ㅓㅏㅜㅗ.) The other three vowels are written with a single line: ㅡㆍㅣ.

Formation of vowels in th:

- ㅑ from ㅏ
- ㅕ from ㅓ
- ㅛ from ㅗ
- ㅠ from ㅜ

For diphthongs:

- ㅒ from ㅐ
- ㅖ from ㅔ

The system of vowel harmony in the Korean language of the century was more consistent than in the modern language. Vowels in grammatical morphemes changed in accordance with adjacent sounds, breaking up into two groups that were in harmony with each other. This influenced the morphology of the language, and Korean phonology explained these two groups in terms of the division into yin and yang: if the root of the word had yang (light) vowels, then most of the suffixes that could be used with this root also had to have vowels yang; and vice versa, vowels yin (dark) were combined with suffixes also containing vowels yin. There was also a third group, which was intermediate ( neutral). Such vowels could be combined with other vowels from both groups.

Letter order

The modern alphabetical order was established by Choi Sejin in the year. This was before the introduction of double letters representing strong consonants, and before the separation of the letters ㅇ and ㆁ. Thus, when the South Korean and North Korean governments made Hangul official, they placed the letters differently.

South Korean order

South Korean Chamo consonant order:

ㄱ ㄲ ㄴ ㄷ ㄸ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅃ ㅅ ㅆ ㅇ ㅈ ㅉ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ

Double chamos are located directly after their single chamos. There is no difference between mute and nasal ㅇ.

Chamo vowel order:

ㅏ ㅐ ㅑ ㅒ ㅓ ㅔ ㅕ ㅖ ㅗ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅛ ㅜ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅠ ㅡ ㅢ ㅣ

North Korean order

North Korea has adopted a more traditional order:

ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ (nasal posterior lingual n) ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ ㅇ (mute)

The first ㅇ is a nasal sound ㅇ, which can only come at the end of a syllable. ㅇ, which is used at the beginning, is the last letter in the alphabet, since it always precedes a vowel.

The new letters, double chamo, are placed at the end of the consonant series, before the silent ㅇ, in order not to disrupt the order of the traditional alphabet.

Vowel order:

ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ ㅐ ㅒ ㅔ ㅖ ㅚ ㅟ ㅢ ㅘ ㅝ ㅙ ㅞ

Without the obsolete Chamo, there are 11,172 possible syllables in Hangul.

Linear Hangul

In the 20th century a project was considered to reform Hangeul, which would involve writing letters in a linear order, as in Western alphabets: ㄱㅡㄴ (keun). However, the reform was not implemented.

Spelling

Until the 20th century, Hangul had no official spelling rules. Due to the binding of the final consonant to the initial vowel of the next word, dialect differences, and other reasons, the pronunciation of Korean words can potentially have multiple variations. King Sejong preferred morphological spelling to phonetic one. However, phonemic voicing predominated in Hangul. Over time, spelling became partially morphophonemic, first affecting nouns, then verbs.

Pronunciation and translation:

a person who cannot do this. (motkhanyn sarami)

Phonetic spelling:

/mo.tʰa.nɯn.sa.la.mi/ 모타는사라미

Morphological spelling:

|mos.ha.nɯn.sa.lam.i | 못하는사람이

Morphemic analysis:

In the year morphophonemic orthography was adopted. The document regulating spelling is called “Hangul machhumbop”. This year, the Korean Ministry of Education released its latest edition.

Style

Hangul can be written from top to bottom or left to right. The traditional style, which comes from China, is top-to-bottom notation. Horizontal recording was proposed by Chu Sigyong, becoming almost a standard today.

Until some time, the Korean language was not of particular interest to those who love learning languages. But that was before many of the Korean trends that piqued the interest of people around the world. We're talking about Hallyu (Korean Wave) - dramas, K-pop, the funny dance style "gangnam sithail" created by PSY (Park Chaesang) that has taken the whole world by storm.

And this is not to mention smartphones, cars, and household appliances produced by South Korean companies.

Since the time of King Sejong the Great, it has been believed that anyone can learn Hangul in just an hour and learn to read Korean within a day. Hangul, created by the king and a group of court scholars, was promulgated in 1446 so that ordinary Koreans could easily learn to read and write. In those days, only rich people could attend schools that taught hancha or Chinese characters.

The origin of the Korean language is not exactly known. Some linguists believe that it is in "Altai" language group. Finnish linguist Gustav Ramstedt was the first to propose a genetic relationship between Korean and Altaic languages (Manchu, Mongolian, Tungusic and Turkish) through systematic comparison. The languages have some grammatical similarities, such as agglutinative morphology. But there is no reliable evidence of a genetic relationship, and this theory is now largely discredited. Instead, it is increasingly being classified as a language isolate, which means it shows no significant connection with any other living language on Earth.

Korea, like Japan, thanks to its long historical ties and the strong cultural influence exerted by China, shares not only a common sociocultural heritage, but also a common linguistic heritage. This is represented in the lexicons of Korean and Japanese language. Up to 60% of Korean words are of Chinese origin. But structurally the two languages are absolutely unrelated. About 35% are native words, 5% are borrowings from other languages. Chinese has a strict word order (subject-verb-object) and does not have grammatical particles like those found in Korean and Japanese (both languages have the same particle system). However, the belonging of both languages to the same family is controversial. Word order in Korean (and Japanese) is subject-object-verb (rule: the verb always comes last in the sentence and comes after the object) with particles connecting the words in the sentence.

엄마가(omma-ga) + 계란빵을(keranppang-eul) + 샀어요(sasso-yo). [Mom + bought egg bread]. 형제는 집을 짓는다 – Brother is building a house (brother + house + building).
お母さんが(okosan-ga) + どら焼きを(dorayaki-wo) + 買った(katta). [Mom + dorayaki+ bought].

What is Hangul? First of all, learning the Korean language from scratch on your own should start with Hangul. KoreanWikiProject

It is almost entirely phonetic and helps form correct pronunciation. 한글 – Korean alphabet: han means Korean, gul means letter. Learning to read and write Korean is not difficult. Learning Hangul is much easier than trying to learn the Romanized alphabet of Korean (while learning, you come across many resources that use the Romanized alphabet).

The letters of the Korean alphabet are called chamo (자모). The modern alphabet uses 19 consonants and 21 vowels; vowels are written with ㅇ (iyn). Korean has more vowels, which makes it easier to understand the structure of the language. Many meanings of phrases and sentences come from the use of various particles added to the end of words. Hangul letters are stacked in blocks to form a syllable. For example, ㅎ, ㅏ and ㄴ are separate characters. But since they form one syllable, then ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ = 한 (han). And another example is ㄱ + ㅡ + ㄹ = 글 (kyl). We combine the syllables into a word: 한 글 = 한글 (two syllables and six letters).

*letter ㄹ (riul) is read as p or l depending on its placement in the syllable; at the beginning of a syllable and between two vowels like p, at the end like l; voiceless consonants are voiced if they are between vowels, so the letter ㄱ (kiyok) will be read as g in the Hangul word 한글.

In Korean, a consonant begins each syllable and is always followed by a vowel and is either to the right of it or below it; if a syllable begins with a vowel, then it is written with an unpronounceable ㅇ (iyn). A syllable can have 2, 3, and in rare cases 4 letters. 한 is one of the main ways of addition, when the vowel is to the right of the first consonant, the third character is below them. 글 is another basic way of addition, where the vowel is under the first consonant and the third symbol is under it.

Letter	Title (South Korean)	International phonetic transcription	Romanization
ㅏ	A(아)	/a/	A
ㅐ	uh(애)	/ɛ/	Ae
ㅑ	I(야)	/ja/	Ya
ㅒ	e(얘)	/jɛ/	Yae
ㅓ	O(어)	/ʌ/	Eo
ㅔ	uh(에)	/e/	E
ㅕ	e(여)	/jʌ/	Yeo
ㅖ	e(예)	/je/	Yes
ㅗ	O(오)	/o/	O
ㅘ	wow(와)	/wa/	Wa
ㅙ	uh(왜)	/wɛ/	Wae
ㅚ	uh(외)	/ø/ ~	Oe
ㅛ	e(요)	/jo/	Yo
ㅜ	at(우)	/u/	U
ㅝ	woah(워)	/wʌ/	Wo
ㅞ	uh(웨)	/we/	We
ㅟ	ui(위)	/y/ ~ [ɥi]	Wi
ㅠ	yu(유)	/ju/	Yu
ㅡ	s(으)	/ɯ/	Eu
ㅢ	th(의)	/ɰi/	Ui
ㅣ	And(이)	/i/	I

Letter	Name	English name	IPA	Romanization
ㄱ	cue(기역)	giyeok	/k/	at the beginning of the syllable g; final – k
ㄴ	no(니은)	nieun	/n/	N
ㄷ	tigyt(디귿)	dieut	/t/	at the beginning of the syllable d; final – t
ㄹ	Ri-eul(리을)	rieul	/ɾ/	initial – r; final – l
ㅁ	miyim(미음)	mieum	/m/	M
ㅂ	peep(비읍)	bieup	/p/	initial – b; final – p
ㅅ	Siot(시옷)	siot	/s/	initial – s; final – t
ㅈ	chyyt(지읒)	jieut	/tɕ/	initial – j; final – t
ㅊ	chhiyt(치읓)	chieut	/tɕʰ/	initial – ch; final – t
ㅋ	khiyk(키읔)	ḳieuk	/kʰ/	K
ㅌ	thiyt(티읕)	ṭieut	/tʰ/	T
ㅍ	phiip(피읖)	p̣ieup	/pʰ/	P
ㅎ	hiyt(히읗)	hieuh	/h/	initial – h; final – t
ㅇ	iyn(이응)	'ieung	not pronounced at the beginning of a syllable; /ŋ/	initial –’; final –ng

Letter	Title (South Korean)	English name	IPA	Romanization
ㄲ	ssangiyok(쌍기역)	Ssangiyeok	/k͈/	kk
ㄸ	ssandigyt(쌍디귿)	Ssangdigeut	/t͈/	tt
ㅃ	ssanbiyp(쌍비읍)	Ssangbieup	/p͈/	pp
ㅆ	ssansiot(쌍시옷)	Ssangsiot	/s͈/	ss
ㅉ	ssanjiyt(쌍지읒)	Ssangjieut	/t͈ɕ/	jj

Motivation to learn

Korean is the 17th most spoken language in the world, with nearly 80 million speakers. It is spoken by the residents Korean Peninsula and its surrounding islands, more than 3 million speakers live around the world. Koreans are very friendly and respectful towards representatives of other cultures. They even invented "Konglish" - a hybrid of Korean and English language. If you speak English, then when learning Korean for beginners from scratch, you will find that many words and concepts are already quite familiar to you, their pronunciation is almost identical in the two languages.

South Korea is very beautiful and dynamic developing country. Learning Korean has benefits whether we do it for fun, for work, or to learn the basics while planning a trip. The number of foreigners who want to learn Korean from scratch has increased over recent years. There are several reasons for this. Some people want to understand Korean television dramas (K-drama) and the lyrics of their favorite pop music songs (K-pop) or other aspects of an interesting culture, while others plan to work in Korea in the near future.

Yes, Korean is not a major world language, but it is very important for Asian businesses due to Korea's growing trade volume. With major companies like Samsung, LG, Hyundai, South Korea is the 12th largest economy in the world. Many leading companies are seen as a bridge to East Asian markets. Employers and agents are looking for talented people with knowledge of languages, foreign cultures and markets.

There is one good reason if Korean is the first "Asian" language to learn. Among the “Asian” languages, Korean is one of the simplest. At the same time, it retains some similarities with Japanese and Chinese. In other words, it can become a kind of gateway to the big and complex world Asian languages in general. Starting to study something that is relatively easy and understandable is a good incentive. This motivates and inspires further learning, not only Korean, but also other languages.

How to choose a model for language learning?

As with any language, the Korean language starts from scratch by memorizing the alphabet. The unfamiliar Hangul characters may seem intimidating at first, but the Korean alphabet is actually an easy alphabet to learn. It is not an exaggeration to say that it only takes a few hours to memorize Hangul. The shape of consonants is based on the articulation of the tongue, throat, palate and teeth to create each sound.

Having mastered Hangul, you can begin to replenish vocabulary. Make a phrasebook for yourself, adding numbers, days of the week, time, and basic phrases.

Simple but important advice on how to learn Korean quickly - choose the right learning style for yourself. As you know, there are three main styles:

visual;
learning by ear;
kinesthetic.

Many programs offer a combination of the three approaches, but focusing on a specific learning style helps maximize learning and learn more effectively. A test (in English) to find out which method will work best for you.

Courses

Learn Korean from scratch on your own - exciting activity, but it is possible that after a while you can lose motivation. Finding a way to freshen up your routine may help group classes with other like-minded students. A Korean language course is generally more dynamic than a self-paced approach, with each lesson taking into account immediate feedback from the teacher and language interactions with other students. This is also a great opportunity to practice colloquial speech when studying important topics such as Korean grammar and pronunciation.

Self-study at home

First of all, you need to select a resource as the main one reference material: educational book, online course or application. The goal of popular textbooks from Yonsei University, Sogyong University, Kyung Hee University, and Seoul University is to deepen students' understanding of the Korean language through the necessary vocabulary and grammar, as well as Korean culture.

On the other hand, if you do not intend to teach or translate in the future high level, then many Internet resources and blogs that provide infinite number information in easy to understand terminology and all for free. For example, How to Study Korean, available in multiple languages.

How to learn Korean on your own? This will have to be done in the context of understanding the culture of the country. Staying in touch with cultural aspects offers topics for conversation, keeps you updated on changing trends, teaches jokes and phrases, and ultimately becomes a better resource for your own development and enables you to master each level with ease.

Test of Korean Proficiency (TOPIK), administered by the National Institute international education(NIIED), held six times a year, in January, April, May, July, October and November, only in South Korea (rarely outside the country). It is designed for people who are going to study at Korean universities or work in Korean companies. The test results are valid for two years after the announcement of the exam results.

Korean language levels:

TOPIK I includes two levels (A1-A2).
TOPIK II – four levels (B1-B2, C1-C2).

Level A1 provides the ability to conduct basic conversations related to everyday life (dating people, shopping, ordering food, etc.), navigate topics such as family, hobbies, weather, etc. The student should be able to create simple and useful sentences from 800 basic words and phrases and understand basic grammar.

Level A2 – ability to conduct conversations about everyday matters using from 1500 to 2000 words, correctly use special addresses depending on the situation.

Training with a tutor

Structured learning through private lessons from a qualified teacher can provide the extra push you need to really speed up your learning process. For those who are deciding how to learn Korean quickly, a tutor will be a good guide through difficult concepts and will also be someone who is able to teach but also be responsible for achieving the learner's goal.

Studying a language at a foreign language school

How to learn Korean? Fantastic option - language school Lexis, offering general courses, covering all levels, as well as preparatory courses for the Korean language test, and individual lessons. The best feature of Lexis is that anyone who wants to learn Korean can start on any Monday, even if they have an absolute zero in the language, and stay in school as long as they see fit. In addition, the language school helps with settling in Korea, offering various accommodation options nearby, including a home option (staying with a Korean family). Lexis recently opened a campus in Busan.

The best services for learning Korean

Udemy. Online course, covering the basics of communicating in Korean via video.
FluentU. Multimedia content offering music videos, commercials, news and dialogue for lessons.
Locsen. A free site that uses multimedia tools for learning.
Sogang Online. A program that will help you intensively master a university course. The free course is based on the principles of Korean language learning at Sogyong University, focusing on conversation.

How to learn speaking correctly

When you start speaking Korean, you are faced with a number of grammatical structures and rules that are difficult to remember right away. At this stage of learning, it is more important not to “get bogged down” in what is called speaking correctly. Of course, you will have to learn all the relevant grammatical structures, but this should not interfere with just trying to speak Korean. The goal of learning any language is to communicate, and Korean teachers agree that for levels 1-2 the key is to practice speaking as much as possible, even making grammatical mistakes. Everything will come in time.

The difficult aspect of the Korean language is that it is hierarchical. This means that different words and phrases are used depending on who you are talking to. Korean grammar uses an extensive system special appeals, expressing differences in social status and gender between interlocutors. In modern Korean culture addresses are used to differentiate formal and informal speech based on level of familiarity.

오빠 (oppa) = "elder brother"; used by a woman in relation to a brother or friend who is older than her정국 오빠, 사랑 해요! (Jungkook oppa, saranghaeyo!): Jungkook oppa, saranghaeyo! – Jungkook (brother), I love you!
언니(unni) = "elder sister"; used by a young woman when addressing an older sister or friend;
누나 (noona) = "elder sister"; used by a man when addressing a sister or older friend;
선배 (sunbae) = “senior”, “senior student”; by age in the organization or educational institution(this is how a beginner addresses a senior student);
후배 (hube) = “junior” in the organization, “junior student” (address of a senior student to a junior student);
동생 (dongsaeng/dongsaeng) = “younger” brother/sister (siblings); used by a man or woman in relation to a younger brother or sister, boyfriend or girlfriend. For example, the phrase: 아니야 는 내 여자 친구 가 아니야. 이야 아는 동생 이야.(aniya neun nae yeoja chingu ga aniya. iya aneun dongsaeng iya). Aniya now ne yocha chinku ka aniya. Iya anin dongsaeng iya. - No, she is not my girlfriend. This is my little sister.
여동생 (yodonsen) = “younger sister”; used by older brother: 내 여동생 소개할게; 이름은 김수진이야. 수진아, 인사해. (nae yeodongsaeng sogaehalge; ileum-eun gimsujin-iya. sujin-a, insahae). Ne yodonsen soge(h)alge; Ireumyn Kimsuchiniya. Bitch, insa(h)e. – Let me introduce my sister; her name is Kim Suchin. Suchin, say hi.
남동생(namdongsaeng) = “younger brother”; used by a man or woman in relation to a younger man;
A: 준철 이 어디 있어? (juncheol i eodi iss-eo?). Chunchul and Odi Isso? -Where is Chunchul? B: 아, 내 남동생? 있어 피씨방 에 있어. (a, nae namdongsaeng? Jigeum pissibange isseo). Ah, nae namdongsaeng’? Isso rissiban e isso. - Eh, my brother? He's in an internet cafe.
씨 (ssi/ssi) is used in a business environment to refer to someone who needs to be shown some respect: 소희 씨 (sohui ssi) sokhui cabbage soup – Mr. Sokhui.
님 (nim) – one level more respectful than 씨; 소연 님 안녕하세요 (soyeon nim annyeonghaseyo) Soyeon nim annyeonghaseyo. - Hello, Mr. Soyeon.
어머님 (homonym) = “mother”; respectful address to mother (mother-in-law or mother of a friend), used by men and women. Synonyms엄마 (omma) 어머니 (omoni);
아버님 (abonym) = “father”; a respectful address to a father (father-in-law or father of an acquaintance), used by men and women. Synonyms아빠 (appa), 아버지 (abochi);
아주머니 (achumoni)= middle-aged woman (40-60), aunt (but not in family relationships), a married woman. Synonyms: 아줌마 (achumma). The call is usually used in everyday life, but it may offend some women. Therefore, if you are not sure how to attract the attention of a middle-aged woman, you can say something like 죄송한데요...juesonghandeyo...sorry...
아저씨 (achossi) = middle-aged man (40-60), uncle 아저씨, 이거 얼마 예요? (Ajeossi, igeo eolmayeyo?) sir, how much does it cost?
할아버지 (harabochi) = “grandfather” (over 70 years old); 할아버지 편찮으세요? (Harabeoji pyeonchaneuseyo?) harabochi pyeonchaneuseyo - Grandpa, are you feeling well?
할머니 (halmoni) grandmother (over 70 years old);
아가씨 (agassi) = girl, young woman who is not yet married (miss); used when addressed by adults; 아가씨, 혈액형이 뭐예요? – Girl, what is your blood type?
이모님 (onym) = woman between 50 and 60; the address is used in a relaxed atmosphere; 이모(님)! 여기 소주 한 병 주세요! - Auntie, bring a bottle of soju!

Which language is easier to learn - Korean, Chinese or Japanese?

Foreign Service Institute, which compiles detailed training courses different languages for diplomats, believes that Korean is not an easy language to learn, but compared to Chinese it has huge advantages that make learning easier. For example, tones that can make learning more difficult; they are in Chinese, but they are not in Korean. Pronunciation in Korean is more difficult than in Japanese, but not as difficult as in Chinese. The grammar is very similar to Japanese. Koreans also use special addresses, but they may not be as extensive as Japanese ones.

We can say that if memorizing hieroglyphs is bad, then Chinese will be the most difficult to learn. If, on the contrary, the study of hieroglyphs seems interesting, but the grammar turns out to be a weak point, then in this case Japanese will be more difficult. Korean probably occupies a middle position.

Of course, the fact that one word has more than one meaning in Korean is confusing. For example, 어 can mean fish and a word, and several other meanings. But context clues in Korean will greatly speed up the learning process for beginners.

Verbs in Korean vary depending on factors such as tense (past, present and future) and level of politeness, but this is all predictable depending on whether the verb ends with a consonant or a vowel. Since there are a limited number of consonants and about five types irregular verbs, memorizing will not take much time. Moreover, verbs remain the same no matter what pronoun is used (I, you, he, they...).

In Korean, a lot of things are simplified. Pronouns are rarely used in spoken language, so often you can only say a verb, and the interlocutor will understand from the context who is being referred to. For plural only one letter needs to be added to a word, but this is usually omitted in conversation.

For nouns, counting words (counting suffixes) are used, similar to those used in Chinese and Japanese.

How to quickly learn Korean on your own? To do this you need:

Learn Hangul, read each letter of the Korean alphabet correctly; its name and how it should be pronounced. Spend some time writing while making sounds. Then move on to writing. simple words. Continue to write down words and phrases in Korean even after you have mastered all the sounds, thus training your memory.
Learn basic phrases and simple sentences.
Basic vocabulary for communication in everyday life.
Be able to form sentences using special addresses and particles (조사chosa).
Phrases for dating, shopping, lunch, congratulations.
Dates and times.

As you study, try to read sentences written in Hangul. Try changing the basic sentences you have learned using new words. By using particles (chosa), you can speak Korean fluently even if you haven't learned Korean grammar properly. In general, most of the difficulties in learning Korean are associated with special expressions and chosa. Even native Koreans sometimes confuse these things in oral conversations.