The Secret To Korean Pronunciation
at least, I think it is...
All right, yeah I’ve only been officially learning Korean for two weeks now but I think I figured out smth really important for pronouncing things right.
Wanna know the “secret”??
It’s your resting tongue position. What is that? Well, for native General American English speakers (I can’t speak on behalf of other English speakers), when we’re not talking (i.e., when our tongues are in their resting position), the tips of our tongues touch the back of our top front teeth.
But it seems to me that for Korean speakers, their tongues touch the back of their bottom front teeth.
This little change in position is what c r u c i a l l y changes pronunciation, believe me.
Your tongue’s resting position is its home base:
Before each set of sounds your mouth makes, your tongue is in that position. After each set of sounds your mouth makes, your tongue is in that position.
This means that the sounds you make will be different from the ones you’d make if your tongue had another home base, bc the journey to and from the sounds would be different.
Like I said, though, I’ve only just started learning Korean, so I don’t claim to be a Korean phonologist, but from my experience of experimenting with tongue positions for perfect pronunciation, I think I’ve got this right.
An example of how this new resting tongue postion improves pronunciation:
Say 사 and 시 while keeping your tongue in your normal position it would be to make an ‘s’ sound.
(for me, my tongue hovers behind my top front teeth, almost touching the alveolar ridge--the hard ridge right behind your teeth)
Both ㅅ’s sound around the same, don’t they? And you know they’re not supposed to--the second is supposed to have a sort of “sh” sound, according to all of the “Korean pronunciation” posts I’ve read. To make that “sh” sound you need, you’d have to make the “sh” sound instead of making the “s” sound, so your process to pronouncing 사 and 시 would be different.
But with the different tongue position, the process of making the “s” and the “sh”-y sounds are t h e s a m e.
Now say 사 and 시 while touching the back of your bottom teeth with the tip of your tongue, only trying to make an “s” sound for both
W-what was that?? Did you hear it too?? Was that a sort of “sh”-y sound while you only attempted to make an “s” sound??
Yes, yes it was. Rejoice.
That, my dear fellow Korean learners, is just one example of how tongue position matters in pronouncing Korean correctly and any language tbh, just different positions
If you are a native Korean speaker and this ISNT your tongue’s resting position or if that’s not the right way to pronounce 시, please let me know!! I’m just a beginner and don’t know anything so any corrections would be appreciated.
And if I got this right, let me know too! It would be nice to know if I did, so I wouldn’t have to doubt myself anymore lol
And to everyone else, I want to know all the “secrets” of Korean pronunciation so if you have any, send them my way!
