Tense Consonants 2

Korean Alphabet 2

Course 2 · Chapter 2 · Tense Consonants 2

ㅆ ㅉ — The Last Two Doubled Letters

Chapter 1 gave you ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ. Two tense letters remain: ㅆ and ㅉ, the doubled partners of ㅅ and ㅈ. When this chapter is done you will know all five doubled consonants and the whole consonant table. You will also see why the table has a gap where a tense ㅎ might have been.

Your Two Letters — ㅆ ㅉ

The Whole Table of Sets

Wikipedia's Korean phonology page says that for each plosive and affricate there is "a three-way contrast" between plain, tense and aspirated, and that in the Korean alphabet "as well as all widely used romanization systems for Korean" the tense ones are written as doubled plain letters. With ㅆ and ㅉ in place, here is the whole picture:

• The ㅅ row has no aspirated partner, and ㅎ has neither an aspirated nor a tense partner. The 51-letter count in Wikipedia's Hangul page lists the doubled consonants as exactly ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ, so there is no ㅎㅎ.
• The Korean phonology page gives a hint about why ㅅ and ㅎ sit outside the three-way pattern. It says the contrast applies to plosives and affricates; ㅅ and ㅎ are fricatives, and the two share traits (some aspiration at the start of a word, voicing between vowels, and a higher pitch on the next vowel). It adds that whether ㅅ is "phonologically plain or aspirated" has been "a source of controversy". The page does not say why there is no doubled ㅎ.
• The same page notes that "as it was suggested from the Middle Korean spelling, the tense consonants came from the initial consonant clusters sC-, pC-, and psC-". That is a point about the history of the sounds, and I only mention it here.
• The Gyeongsang dialect "is known for realization of tense ㅆ ss as plain ㅅ s", so some Korean speakers do not make the ㅅ / ㅆ difference.

ㅅ, ㅆ and the Vowel ㅣ

The Korean phonology page says the vowel ㅣ "palatalizes /s/ and /s͈/", which means ㅅ and ㅆ before ㅣ or a y-vowel are pronounced with a sound like English "sh" for most speakers. So 시 sounds like shi and 씨 like sshi, even though the usual romanisation writes si and ssi. ㅉ is written jj, and the page says that in Seoul the three ㅈ letters (ㅈ ㅊ ㅉ) are pronounced as palatal affricates.

The Block Table

ㅆ and ㅉ sit in a block like ㅅ and ㅈ, first, with the vowel to the right or below.

Compare one column: 사 (sa), 싸 (ssa); 자 (ja), 차 (cha), 짜 (jja). Same vowel, three different starts for the ㅈ set.

Look-Alike Warnings

• ㅆ and ㅅ. ㅆ is two ㅅ side by side; ㅅ is a single one.
• ㅉ, ㅈ and ㅊ. ㅉ is two ㅈ shapes; ㅈ is one; ㅊ is one ㅈ with a small line on top.
• ㅆ and ㅉ. The first looks like two roofs, the second like two hats on a line: the extra top stroke on each ㅈ is what separates them.

Read It — Words With All Five Tense Letters

These use only letters you know. Say each word aloud and keep the double letter tight.

Try It Yourself — 연습

Say each answer out loud first, then click to check.