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by agumonkey 3992 days ago
Is the 'e' skipped [soul] ? almost silent [s_oul] ? or a transition like [s~woul] ?

ps: forgot about https://translate.google.com/#en/ko/seoul, according to them it's not entirely silent.

2 comments

어 (transliterated as either "eo" or "uh") is a vowel that I would describe as like the "u" sound in the word "fun" but with the mouth open a bit wider.

It's nothing like any of the sounds an "e" can represent in English.

Europeans tend to pronounce it "See-OOL" which is just completely wrong.

It's a bit longer, always morphemic version of a schwa I believe.
In International Phonetic Alphabet it's [sʰʌ.ul].

The vowel ʌ is described as "between pearl and pull, with spread lips"