[KS] Long vs short vowels in verb and adjective conjugations

Ross King jrpking at interchange.ubc.ca
Sat Sep 22 18:53:41 EDT 2007


> Vowel length is no longer a distinctive feature in Korean in any position. ..

Everything you write is true, but I think if you re-read my original response, you will see that I wrote: 

>> >vowel length is only distinctive in _standard Korean_ in first syllables...

'Standard Korean' is a very slippery beast, and like any standard language, has no native speakers )standard languages are learned in schools). I believe Stefan Ewing was trying to ascertain the reasoning behind the indications for vowel length in dictionaries that purport to convey this 'standard Korean' state of affairs -- the way people 'should' speak as opposed to the way they actually 'do' speak. 

RK



--
Ross King
Professor of Korean, University of British Columbia
and 
Dean, Korean Language Village, Concordia Language Villages





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