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That noise Koreans make when they put emphasis
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chest rockwell



Joined: 16 May 2005
Location: Sanbon

PostPosted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 8:32 pm    Post subject: That noise Koreans make when they put emphasis Reply with quote

into their words.

Sounds funny first time you hear it doesnt it? Very Happy I still kinda chuckle to myself when somebody does it really strongly.
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periwinkle



Joined: 08 Feb 2003

PostPosted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 8:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oooh- I hate that. It's like nails on chalkboard. Well, coughing up a hairball is more like it. I wonder if they teach you how to do in advanced Korean classes... Laughing
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keithinkorea



Joined: 17 Mar 2004

PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 4:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It sounds weird to us weyggookin folks but once you get used to it it's an important means of expression.
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Qinella



Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib

PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 5:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've asked almost every Korean I know about that sound, and literally every person had no idea what I meant. Apparently, it's such a part of their speech that they don't typically notice it.

Over time, I've come to acknowledge it as a means of emphasis, as the thread title suggests. It's still sorta funny sounding, and definitely turns me off if I hear a girl do it. Kinda like hearing her fart or something.
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kermo



Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Location: Eating eggs, with a comb, out of a shoe.

PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Smile
I started a thread on this last year about a month after arrival, entitled:
Khkhkhkhkh: Hairball or Consonant?

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=28569&highlight=
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Bee Positive



Joined: 27 Oct 2005

PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 9:17 am    Post subject: �ѱ��� ����! Reply with quote

deleted by dave

Last edited by Bee Positive on Tue Jan 17, 2006 7:01 am; edited 1 time in total
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Mashimaro



Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: location, location

PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 6:04 pm    Post subject: Re: �ѱ��� ����! Reply with quote

Bee Positive wrote:
My language skills are not well developed (call me roughly intermediate level, nothing more), but I have noticed this:

The more highly educated Koreans are, the more dulcet-toned they are.

My current boss holds an advanced degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He's about as well-educated and refined as hakwon owners, anyway, come.

I listen to him speak Korean for extended periods of time during teachers' meetings. He never makes that hacking sound. He never shouts. Nothing in his speech is overly aspirated, overly guttural, or otherwise unpleasant to the ear.

I once sat through an extended interview between my boss and a parent who is, by profession, an anesthesiologist. AND the wife of a hospital director. Big-time upper-middle class.

They both spoke Korean so beautifully, in such sweet dulcet tones, that it almost lulled me to sleep.

I'm sorry to sound classist (whoops--what kind of Marxist am I?), but I think that it's among the "lower orders" that you'll hear the guttural, hawking-up-phlegm noises that make Korean at times sound like the ugliest language on earth.

Get among "a better class of people," and you might be surprised at how pleasant it can sound!

�ѱ��� ����!


BEE POSITIVE


How do the "upper classes" emphasise something then?
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some waygug-in



Joined: 25 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

With a hefty bribe........ Twisted Evil
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VanIslander



Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!

PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

that gutteral sound almost seems German
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xeno439



Joined: 30 Nov 2005

PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I too have asked several Koreans about the sound. They vehemently deny its existence. I have know idea why. The Russians have a letter for that sound in Cyrillic. It is romanized as 'kh', but most Russian language books tell you to make a clearing of the throat sound.
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Bee Positive



Joined: 27 Oct 2005

PostPosted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 2:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

deleted by dave

Last edited by Bee Positive on Tue Jan 17, 2006 7:01 am; edited 1 time in total
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EFLtrainer



Joined: 04 May 2005

PostPosted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I find it charming, really. I agree it is more common among the working class and in the southern provinces.
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Hollywoodaction



Joined: 02 Jul 2004

PostPosted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 5:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bee Positive wrote:
xeno439 wrote:
I too have asked several Koreans about the sound. They vehemently deny its existence. I have know idea why. The Russians have a letter for that sound in Cyrillic. It is romanized as 'kh', but most Russian language books tell you to make a clearing of the throat sound.



Ha, you've just invited me to put on my Russian hat. (Did four years of it at the University of Washington many ages ago.)

The Russian "x," which looks exactly like an English x in both majuscule and miniscule forms, is indeed an aspirated sound, roughly equivalent to the German or Scots Gaelic "ch."

Examples include "xlep," the Russian word for bread, a distant cognate of our own "loaf."

I've never heard it pronounced so emphatically as that really horrible, awful Korean sound which is under discussion here.


BEE POSITIVE


And don't forget the German 'ch' sound, as pronounced in the word 'auch'.

Many languages have phonemes that are 'guttural' aspirated sounds, although they are not necessarily used for emphasis as in Korean.

Have a look at the methods used to express emphasis in English. They are pretty odd, too--although they probably aren't as startling to the uninitiated as the Korean sound that we are discussing.
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Hollywoodaction



Joined: 02 Jul 2004

PostPosted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 5:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

EFLtrainer wrote:
I find it charming, really. I agree it is more common among the working class and in the southern provinces.


Yes, it seems to be more common within that register of the southern dialect.
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MeanyMichi



Joined: 03 Jun 2005
Location: SNOW!!!

PostPosted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 5:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hollywoodaction wrote:

And don't forget the German 'ch' sound, as pronounced in the word 'auch'.


This sound is not nearly as strong as the one Koreans make.
Maybe in some parts of Germany, or Switzerland
(or when said by non-native German speakers who overemphasize
the sound because they want to sound ike a native speaker),
but most Germans make a very soft sound that is not in the least
annoying.
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