Unit 1 basic korean Language PDF

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UNIT 1 Reading Hangul (the Korean alphabet)

The Korean writing system “Hangul” is one of the most scientific and systematic writing systems in the world. Hangul is made of an alphabet of 21 vowel and 19 consonant symbols. The system was invented in 1443 by the King Sejong the Great and his group of royal scholars during the Chosun dynasty of Korea (1392–1910). This unit introduces how to read Hangul. The unit introduces individual vowel and consonant symbols and discusses how each symbol is assembled into syllables to spell Korean words.

Vowels Hangul has a total of 21 vowel symbols. Among them are 11 basic vowel and ten double-vowel symbols. The basic vowel symbols include:

sound). Ten double-vowel symbols are made of either adding one more stroke to some of the above basic vowel symbols or combining some basic vowel symbols together. For instance, the following six double-vowel symbols are results of adding one more stroke (adding the y sound) to the first six

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Another four double-vowel symbols are made up of combining some

Notice that the above four double-vowel symbols have the w sound. You may wonder whether other vowel symbols can be combined. However, there are vowel symbols that cannot be combined together.

harmony principle. they sound sonorous to Korean native speakers. Since the vowel symbols ing a stroke or combining them together), these vowel symbols are also

“neutral vowels.” The vowel harmony principle prohibits the combination of bright and dark vowel symbols.

Consonants Hangul has 19 consonant symbols, as shown below:

Unit 1: Reading Hangul 3

How to combine consonant with vowel symbols The basic unit of a Korean letter is a syllable. In other words, a complete Korean written letter must have at least one consonant and a vowel symbol. The combinations of the vowel and consonant symbols are fivefold. First, a syllable consists of only one vowel sound (e.g., like English “a”). Although the letter pronunciation is consisted of only vowel pronunciation like “a” (without any spoken consonant), you still need to start the syllable with a consonant symbol to make the letter complete. For this purpose, you is used as zero-value consonant when it appears before a vowel. It functions as a place holder in a word-initial position, so that the letter “a”

although the letter begins with the vowel pronunciation “yo” (without any

Second, it can have a vowel but followed by a consonant (e.g., like

can have a consonant, followed by a vowel, and then a consonant (e.g.,

The position of the vowel symbols is either to the right of or below the

There are a few things to remember. First, a Korean syllable does not start with two consonants (e.g., unlike the English word “clip”). In addition,

4 Unit 1: Reading Hangul the syllable with three symbols (consonant-vowel-consonant(s)) seems to be more crowded and compacted than the one of two symbols (consonantvowel) formation. However, each syllable should look about the same size, no matter how many symbols it may contains. For instance, notice that the thing to remember is that Hangul follows the spelling convention, and consequently, Korean spellings do not change just because it reads a little differently from its symbol combinations. In other words, one should not write just as each word sounds (this is the same for English, where you cannot write just as you hear or speak).

Exercises Exercise 1.1 Among the following vowel symbols, circle the one that is pronounced differently from the others.

Among the following vowel symbols, circle the one that is pronounced differently from the others.

Among the following vowel symbols, circle the one that is not one of the “bright vowels.”

Among the following vowel symbols, circle the one that is not one of the “dark vowels.”

Unit 1: Reading Hangul 5

Exercise 1.5 The following Korean words are the English borrowed words used in Korean. Match each Korean word with one of the following English words (camera, jazz, taxi, romance, hot dog, Starbucks, quiz, coat, bus, sandwich, hamburger, and coffee):

The following are names of countries in Hangul. Make a guess and write the English name for each country.

The following are names of cities in Hangul. Make a guess and write the English name for each city.

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Match each English name of the country with the corresponding Korean name from the following list:

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Russia Egypt Portugal Hungary Saudi Arabia New Zealand Argentina India Australia Israel

Exercise 1.9 Match each English name of the city with the corresponding Korean name from the following list:

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Shanghai Cairo Rio de Janeiro Tokyo

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Moscow Helsinki Rome Oslo Bangkok Mexico City

Exercise 1.10 The following are the names of some world famous people. Make a guess and write their names in English.

The following English words are used as loanwords in Korean. Match the corresponding Korean words from the following list:

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monitor shampoo pizza ski television pen card cookie pop song knife banana orange...