The Analysis of the Reasons and Aspects of Pronunciation of ‘ㄺ/ㄼ’

Abstract

This paper is designed to investigate the aspects of pronunciation of ‘ㄺ’ and ‘ㄼ’ in Korean verbal final position and research the reasons that which consonant is selected by Korean speakers in a real pronunciation. For this purpose, we research the frequency of the six verbs that contains ‘ㄺ’ and ‘ㄼ’ in final; there are ‘읽-’, ‘맑-’, ‘낡-’, ‘밟-’, ‘넓-’, ‘짧-’ according to the phonological circumstance dividing, and also proceed the experiment that record the real pronunciation of 20 standard Korean speakers. According to the Regulation of Standard Korean Pronunciation, the pronunciation of ‘ㄺ’ is /ㄱ/ when it precedes consonants without ‘ㄱ’ and the pronunciation of ‘ㄼ’ is /ㄹ/ except for Korean verb ‘밟-’, ‘넓적하-’, ‘넓죽하-’. But the result of experiment shows the different aspect of these consonant cluster's pronunciation. In the case of 'ㄺ', the rate of realization of ‘ㄹ’ is over 95% succeeding by Korean ending ‘-고’ and 65% succeeding by ‘-지’, and in the case of ‘ㄼ’, the rate of realization of ‘ㄹ’ is over 85% succeeding by ‘-고’ and 50% succeeding by ‘-지’. There is no crucial evidences that make some exceptional regulations in ‘ㄼ’. This study can be used as a fundamental reference or raw materials when make the regulations of pronunciation of Korean consonant clusters.