Korean Phonology - Vowel Assimilation

Vowel Assimilation

The vowel which most affects consonants is i /i/ which, along with its semivowel homologue y /j/, palatalizes s /s/ and ss /s͈/ to alveolo-palatal and for most speakers (but see differences in the language between North Korea and South Korea). As noted above, initial r is silent in this palatalizing environment, at least in South Korea. Similarly, an underlying d |t| or t |tʰ| at the end of a morpheme becomes a phonemically palatalized affricate /tɕʰ/ when followed by a word or suffix beginning with /i/ or /j/, though this does not happen within a word root such as /ʌti/ "where?".

K /kʰ/ is more affected by vowels, often becoming an affricate when followed by either i /i/ or eu /ɯ/: ki, keu . The most variable consonant is h /h/, which becomes a palatal before /i/ or /j/, a velar before /ɯ/, and a bilabial before o /o/, u /u/, and w /w/.

before:	ㅣ /i, j/	ㅡ /ɯ/	ㅗ /o/ ㅜ /u, w/	ㅏ /a/ ㅓ /ʌ/
ᄉ /s/ and ᄊ /s͈/	,	,
ᄃ /t/ + suffix	-	-
ᄐ /tʰ/ + suffix	-	-
ᄏ /kʰ/
ᄒ /h/

In many morphological processes, a vowel |i| before another vowel may become the semivowel /j/. Likewise, |u| and |o| before another vowel may reduce to /w/. In some dialects and speech registers, the semivowel /w/ assimilates into a following /e/ or /i/ to produce the front rounded vowels and .