This study contrastively analyze Korean and Ndebele phonological systems to find out their differences and similarities. The analysis focussed on the vowels and consonants inventories, syllable structures and vowel and consonants related phonological ...
This study contrastively analyze Korean and Ndebele phonological systems to find out their differences and similarities. The analysis focussed on the vowels and consonants inventories, syllable structures and vowel and consonants related phonological processes found in each language. The obtained results are to be used in predicting pronunciation related difficulties likely to be faced by Ndebele speakers on learning Korean language, serve as a basis for formulating effective teaching measures and also provide a foundation for future Korean and Ndebele or other Bantu languages studies. The obtained results are as follows; Firstly, the comparison results reveal that Korean has a larger vowel inventory of 21 sounds, i.e. 10 monophthongs and 11 diphthongs. All diphthongs with the exception of ‘ㅢ’ /ɨy/ are rising. Ndebele on the hand, only has 5 basic monophthong vowels which are also part of Korean phonemic vowel inventory.
Secondly, the consonant system comparison results also indicate that Ndebele language has a large phonemic consonant system compared to Korean which has 21 sounds including glides. The former has 41 consonants including clicks, affricates, bilabial fricatives, velar fricatives and lateral fricatives which do not exist in Korean. Korean stops and affricates which are all voiceless are contrastively classified into plain, tensed and aspirated phonation features while a plain voiced, aspirate and tense (for voiceless sounds) contrastive system is used in Ndebele. Moreover, Korean consonants have phonetic environment conditioned realizations; plain obstruents assume voicing in between vocalic sounds, become tensed when co-occurring with other plain obstruents. Ndebele ones only become breathy voiced intervocalically. Sounds such as /pʰ, pʼ, tʰ, tʼ, kʰ, kʼ, ʦʰ, ʦʼ, sʼ,m, n, ŋ, l, w, j/ are part of the languages phonemic systems.
Thirdly, the Korean syllable structure include the V, CV, VC and CVC, forms and consists of both open and closed syllables, while Ndebele has a (V)C(V), open syllable and the exceptional syllabic nasal /m/.
Fourthly, coalescence, glide formation and deletion vowel hiatus resolution phonological processes are present in both languages and seem to show minimal differences. Notable differences lie in the fact that, Korean /o/ is subject to glide formation together with /i, u/, while in Ndebele only /i, u/ become glides. In case of consonant related processes, Korean has a number of assimilation forms including nasalization and lateralization, aspiration of plain obstruents and non assimilating palatalization and fortition. In case of palatalization, only /i/ results to the process in Korean, while /w-, a, i, y/ are the triggers, with bilabial sounds also subject to palatalization in Ndebele. As mentioned above, the two languages comparison results aim to offer an insight on the likely possible pronunciation learning difficulties for Ndebele and Bantu languages speaking Korean leaners in general and their causes. In light of the obtained results, since differences exceed similarities severe deviations are possible hence the need for prevention measures and useful teaching materials to be implemented. Furthermore, as the first comparative study on Korean and Ndebele, the study will also motivate more Bantu and Korean future studies in the field.
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