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Emily
about thismetter in corean. in memrise.com i have seen two letters " r,l" who mean this letter ᄅ
what does it mean? is it that this letter ᄅ could be pronounced as "r" in some cases and "l" in others. i'm just begginer. does it have a rule? thank youplz, i'm waiting for native corean to respond my question, thank you :)
Aug 8, 2017 6:29 PM
Answers · 14
1
Yes, it means the letter ᄅ could be pronounced as "r" in some cases and "l" in others.
There is a basic rule, but it leaves some uncovered area. The rule is that:
1. if a (single) ㄹ is in the middle of a syllable and followed by a vowel sound, it sounds like "r".
2. if ㄹ is followed by a consonant(including another ㄹ) or comes at the end of a sentence, it sounds like "l".
3. if ㄹ comes at the beginning of a word, the pronunciation varies but "l" seems dominant.
Examples:
* case 1: 그렇다, 물에 들어갔다. These ㄹ's are followed by a vowel sound - "r".
* case 2: 열차, 물러서다. 밤길. ㄹ is followed by a consonant or comes at the end. - "l".
* case 3: 라디오. 로마에서는 로마인처럼 행동하라. ㄹ coming at the beginning - "l" or "r".
Rule 1 and 2 are clear and firm, with almost no exceptions.
Rule 3 is not so. Some people pronounce it like "r" and some like "l". The reason for this is rather involved, but it's mainly because Korean never had ㄹ coming in the beginning (i.e. the words starting with ㄹ are all foreign-originated words, like 라디오. But we don't consider whether the original word starts with "r" or "l" into account when pronouncing ㄹ).
In any case, both pronunciations are readily understood, so it's not a great issue.
August 8, 2017
Are you really asking a question about how to transliterate Korean into English, Emily? If so the answer is in that English we have both the "R" and the "L" sounds. I think that this causes confusion for many who come from various East Asian languages but have no actual knowledge of Korean, Japanese, etc. It's similar to an issue in English for Arabic speakers with "B" and "P" sounds. We have both in English.
August 8, 2017
Hi, I dont recognize the letter you are asking about in your question. Perhaps you typed the wrong thing? It looks like the number "2", in which case that is only a number and not associated with the sounds "e" or "i".
August 8, 2017
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Emily
Language Skills
Arabic, English, French, Korean, Spanish
Learning Language
English, French, Korean, Spanish
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