Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by qingcharles 577 days ago
It's amazing that something that can look so alien to Western eyes is actually pretty straightforward once you try to learn it. I did the same and learned Hangul so I can at least sound things out and do some basic Internet searches etc.

You can do exactly the same with other scripts, e.g. Japanese hirigana and katakana, which are fairly easy to learn, and also Arabic, which looks difficult, but is definitely learnable in an hour.
1 comments
mabster 576 days ago
I started learning Korean but never really got the far. But, straight after learning Hangul you get into sound mixing (https://www.missellykorean.com/korean-sound-change-rules-pdf...). Trust humans to invent something simple and then make it complicated over time!

Japanese has similar stuff with their u-dropping, but not as complicated as Korean.

link
soraminazuki 576 days ago
So this is why some words sound nothing like the romanized spelling. This has been confusing me to no end when learning Hangul with Duolingo.
link
Nadya 576 days ago
It's such a common aspect of languages too that many people don't even realize when they're doing it in their native language!

People get lazy - especially natives who don't get confused because it's how most natives will talk. For example, every word ending in "ing" in your comment could drop the "g" sound when spoken. Plenty of English speakers do that when speakin' and not many people would think anythin' of it until a frustrated person learnin' English asks why nobody is pronouncin' the endin' "g". Droppin', changin', and blendin' sounds is why learning a language by listenin' to natives speakin' is so important instead of crammin' textbooks all day.

Some might consider this a regional thing/accent and I'd argue that it both is and isn't. To the extent I tried to illustrate it would likely get seen as an accent but the occasional droppin' of it is somethin' I've heard across so many different English accents that I'd argue it isn't only an accent thing.

In the US it's mostly associated with a Southern accent and in England it would be the English Midlands like Brummie or Mancunian.

link