Tricky Pronunciations of the Consonant ㄹ (Rieul)
In Korean, the pronunciation of ㄹ and consonants preceding or following it, such as ㄱ (기억, giyeok), ㅂ (비읍, bieup) or ㅁ, differs from the 한글 reading. Because of rules of assimilation of ㄹ to ㄴ after nasal consonants, the pronunciation of ㄱ, ㄹ, and ㅂ needs to be accounted for these changes. This post lists some of these uncommon pronunciation transformations; comprehensive pronunciation rules can be found in Korean: A Comprehensive Grammar by Jaehoon Yeon and Lucien Brown (Routledge Edition).
ㄱ followed by ㄹ → ㅇ followed by ㄴ
When a character ends either with a ㄱ sound, and the next character starts with a ㄹ sound, the ㄱ transforms into ㅇ and the ㄹ transforms into ㄴ. While words with this combination are not necessarily common, it could potentially be found in compound words or complex Sino-Korean words.
The table below lists all the words that show the pattern ㄱ followed by ㄹ among the 5000 most frequent Korean words (according to A Frequency Dictionary of Korean). While the list is short, be careful of compound words that may exhibit the same pattern.
Word | Intermediate Step | Final Pronunciation | Meaning |
---|---|---|---|
국립 | (→ 국닙) | → 궁닙 | national |
독립 | (→ 독닙) | → 동닙 | independent |
목록 | (→ 목녹) | → 몽녹 | a list |
식량 | (→식냥) | →싱냥 | provisions (food) |
폭력 | (→폭녁) | →퐁녁 | violence |
See more transformations and examples of the pronunciation of ㄹ.