Korean Phonology - Consonant Assimilation

Consonant Assimilation

As noted above, tenuis stops and /h/ are voiced after the voiced consonants /m, n, ŋ, l/, and the resulting voiced tends to be elided. Tenuis stops become fortis after obstruents (which, as noted above, are reduced to ); that is, /kt/ is pronounced . Fortis and nasal stops are unaffected by either environment, though /n/ assimilates to /l/ after an /l/. After /h/, tenuis stops become aspirated, /s/ becomes fortis, and /n/ is unaffected. /l/ is highly affected: it becomes after all consonants but /n/ (which assimilates to the /l/ instead) or another /l/. For example, underlying |tɕoŋlo| is pronounced /tɕoŋno/.

These are all progressive assimilation. Korean also has regressive (anticipatory) assimilation: a consonant tends to assimilate in manner but not in place of articulation: Obstruents become nasal stops before nasal stops (which, as just noted, includes underlying |l|), but do not change their position in the mouth. Velar stops (that is, all consonants pronounced in final position) become ; coronals become, and labials become . For example, |hankukmal| is pronounced /hankuŋmal/ (phonetically ).

Before the fricatives /s, s͈/, coronal obstruents assimilate to a fricative, resulting in a geminate. That is, |tʰs| is pronounced /ss͈/ . A final /h/ assimilates in both place and manner, so that |hC| is pronounced as a geminate (and, as noted above, aspirated if C is a stop). The two coronal sonorants, /n/ and /l/, in whichever order, assimilate to /l/, so that both |nl| and |ln| are pronounced .

There are lexical exceptions to these generalizations. For example, voiced consonants occasionally cause a following consonant to become fortis rather than voiced; this is especially common with |ls| and |ltɕ| as and, but is also occasionally seen with other sequences, such as |kjʌ.ulpaŋhak|, |tɕʰamtoŋan| and |wejaŋkanɯlo| .

1. Velar obstruents found in final position: ᆨ g, ᄁ kk, ᆿ k
2. Final coronal obstruents: ᆮ d, ᇀ t, ᆺ s, ᆻ ss, ᆽ j, ᆾ ch
3. Final labial obstruents: ᆸ b, ᇁ p

The resulting geminate obstruents, such as, and (that is, and ), tend to reduce (, ) in rapid conversation. Heterorganic obstruent sequences such as and may, less frequently, assimilate to geminates (, ) and also reduce (, ).

These sequences assimilate with following vowels the way single consonants do, so that for example |ts| and |hs| palatalize to (that is, ) before /i/ and /j/; |hk| and |lkʰ| affricate to and before /ɯ/; |ht|, |s͈h|, and |th| palatalize to and across morpheme boundaries, etc.

Hangul orthography does not generally reflect these assimilatory processes, but rather maintains the underlying morphology in most cases.