Why 맛없다 is Pronounced [마덥따] and NOT [마섭따]

[@GoBillyKorean]

Nice explanation~!

[@ElPita17]

thank you for addressing my question with such depth! i really understand it now. great audio quality btw ;)

[@painval1517]

Perfect explanation. Sometimes it can be a bit unsatisfying to be told that it's "just an exception" or "that's the way it is now" but knowing that it SHOULD be following the rules but that over time things changed in the language is honestly a good explanation. Languages change and evolve over time and although it can be frustrating for beginners to see these rules they were just taught be broken, it is very interesting regardless! Thank you again for the explanation. I'm very satisfied with the information!

[@amaryliz2067]

Wow I'm always blown away by how in depth you go! Great explanation. I didn't know about the particle/verb ending/suffix vs word rule. Do you have more examples of word combinations like 맛없다 where the 받침 keeps the "altered" pronunciation even though it's followed by ㅇ?

[@YourKoreanSaem]

Amaryliz hm not much comes immediately to mind but how about: 못 움직이다 (can’t move) which is pronounced 모둠지기다? Or does it have to be in the same word ^^

[@amaryliz2067]

@@YourKoreanSaem Ah yeah I can think of multiple examples with the space. I was wondering if there were other cases of two words combined into one (without spacing) where this rule applies. I was going to say 꽃잎 but that's another pronunciation altogether haha. Before this video, I assumed that when there's a space (so it can't be a particle/verb ending/suffix), then it retains the "altered" pronunciation of the 받침 even though you still carry it over to the ㅇ. It seems like it's less about spacing but more about morpheme vs not morpheme. So I was wondering if there were more examples like 맛없다.

[@YourKoreanSaem]

Amaryliz hm how about 헛웃음 [허두슴]? The thing with 꽃잎 is it’s a compound noun. And in compound words if a 받침 is followed by a vowel sound that is one of 이 야 여 여 유 then a ㄴ sound is inserted. That’s why it is pronounced 꼳닙->꼰닙. There are just so many rules regarding pronunciation :X

[@amaryliz2067]

@@YourKoreanSaem thank you for that other example! And yes so many rules haha

[@yihyosang]

It is not an exception of the rule. Rather it is due to the change of the language. 맛있다 used to be pronounced as [마딛따], just like 맛없다 [마덥따]. I remember one of my aunts saying [마딛따] when I was young in the 60's. Some old folks may still pronounce 맛있다 as [마딛따]. The reason why now people say [마싣따] is because of sheer frequency of it and thereby language change. The narrator is correct that the basic rule for whether 받침 carries over to the next syllable that begins with a vowel or not has to do with whether the following element is a grammatical morpheme/function word or a content/lexical word. Since 있다 and 없다 both are content/lexical words, the ㅅ 받침 in 맛 in both 맛있다 and 맏없다 should be pronounced as [ㄷ] as 맛 is pronounced in isolation. That's how it used to be, probably up until 60's. It should be noted here that the reason why 받침 carries into the next syllable when the following element is a grammatical form is there is no or a weak if any boundary between the two. When two separate lexical words are combined as in 맛있다 and 맛없다, on the other hand, there is a word boundary, even though we write them as if it is one word. Keep in mind we are dealing with sounds, and there is no physical space in sounds as in writing, and so it is all conceptual. Let's use a little notation here to distinguish the cases of combining grammatical elements and lexical words. When a grammatical morpheme is attached to a word as in 맛이, we can say the conceptual distance between the content word (맛) and the grammatical morpheme (이) is weak, as the grammatical morpheme is bound to the lexical word, that is, it is always attached to a lexical word. We can notate it as 맛-이. The combination is still perceived as a single word, because there is only one single lexical word in the combination. On the other hand, when two independent lexical words are combined, there is a word boundary between the two, because both can stand by themselves. Let's notate that as 맛#있다/없다. Now the more the speakers utter these compounds, the more the speakers tend to automatize the pronunciation, erasing the boundary between the two. Comparing the sheer frequency of 맛있다 and 맛없다, 맛있다 is overwhelmingly more frequently used than 맛없다. So the initial word boundary between 맛 and 있다 has become weaker and weaker as speakers utter the compound more and more, and now the compound gets to be perceived as a single word rather than a compound. When the speakers perceive no boundary between 맛 and 있다, there is no reason to pronounce 맛 as [맏], and so the ㅅ 받침 is allowed to carry over to the next syllable. Meanwhile, 맛없다 is not as frequent as 맛있다, and the automatization process hasn't started yet. The automatization process may not happen to 맛없다, however, for another reason. Because 없다 denotes negative, which is marked while positive meaning is default, the speakers may be reluctant to ease the boundary because if so, the negative sense of 없다 may get bleached.

[@illakiya8842]

Wow 🙏

[@낯설게하기-u1q]

한국어 영상들 참 좋습니다. 보통 채널들에서 한국어 문법에 따르기보다 영어 사용자가 이해하기 편하게 적당히 설명하는 경우가 많던데요... 제대로 짚어주시는 부분이 아주 좋네요 ^^ 어떤 채널에서 닿은 - [단는]으로 발음되는 것을 I don't know 하고 넘어가는 걸 보고 이 채널은 그냥 한국어 문법을 몰라서 제대로 못 가르쳐주는 거구나... 하고 넘겼던 생각이 나네요 ㅎ

[@WonderfulLife35]

Thanks. You clarified the two scenarios which is not explained clearly elsewhere

[@dominickmarciano8217]

I love these breakdowns of the rules. Like the sound change rule video explaining the 3 "classes" of character.

[@lovefanye]

Thank you! No wonder my Korean teacher said 맛있다 can be said as 마싣따 or 마딛따!

[@jewelling8291]

You have just got a new subscriber here because this video totally cleared my doubt. Love the way you explained it so clearly. Thank you so much!

[@Zoehere]

This video is so so amazing! You are so informative and I really really love learn why and how grammar rules/anomalies came to be!!

[@camillekoistinen7422]

Thank you so much for this explanation! It was very thorough!

[@kokorea1865]

Thank you so much. Your video helps me alot 💙🙆🏻‍♀️

[@tranhien1951]

Thank you❤❤

[@nicklei369]

I am simply a fan of your videos. Again...Ur video is the answer to all my questions! 😊

[@loveingbot]

This is a very clarifying video!

[@luizamendes9529]

thank you so much !! it was a amazing explanation

[@andy52308]

Thanks for the great video!

[@jun97]

Would you have any recommendations of books/materials when it comes to korean phonetics? I'm very interested in studying it further so I can have a better understanding of it

[@heydaralizada5161]

Thank you so much, i love your videos, they are very useful and informative.

[@pauloroberto7875]

감사합니다 !

[@lilacfairies]

Thank you 쌤! ♥ Very helpful :)

[@maximilianosanchezguntin3108]

Wooooooo thank you soooooo much!!!!!!!!!!

[@abursot]

Thanks for this lesson :)

[@danielspivak3926]

I like to pronounce double consonants by reading them in English and adding a silent S to the beginning (stemming your "빠 as in spa" example, e.g. 께 as in ske, but then I don't voice the s). How similar is this to the mouth tensing you refer to (especially for ㅉ)? Also, you gloss over the fact that the last syllable of 맛있다 and 맛없다 is pronounced as 따. Is it the same idea, applying after any ㅅ?

[@YourKoreanSaem]

Not applying after any ㅅ but after a stop consonant sound. 있 is pronounced 읻 so 다 is following a ㄷ sound and is therefore tensed. And so forth.

[@buncheeks192]

Everybody says 맛없다 sounds strange but it was 맛있다 all along.

[@hasagishiro]

0.o *MINDBLOWN*

[@gabriellacomito5918]

What is the difference between 마치 and 처럼?

[@whatno5090]

Could you explain why 깻잎쌈 is pronounced kkaedipssam instead of kkaennipssam?

[@andrewandrewandrewandrewandrew]

Very important follow-up. Is 바나나맛 우유 pronounced [바나나마수유] or [바나나마두유]?

[@aldrinalipio9808]

Hi! I just wanna ask. A lot of Koreans said that when batchim comes before ㅇ then that batchim consonant will replace the ㅇ like "맞아" as "마자". Then how about when the ㅇ is at batchim and it's followed by ㅇ like "정연" then it is pronounced as "jeo-ngyeon" and not "jeong-yeon"? I hope you notice my comment😅

[@xilencist]

It's because (probably) your mother tongue allows NG sound to be the first sound of a syllable(e.g. Filipino languages) unlike Korean and English. So it sounds like 'jeo-ngyeon' to your ears that aren't trained in Korean sounds. This phenomenon isn't occurred for not-NG-first-allowing-language speakers

[@aldrinalipio9808]

@@xilencist So in short it's pronounced like 정연(jeong-yeon), 생일 as (Saeng-il), 가방이 as (Ga-bang-i) and etc. right?

[@xilencist]

@@aldrinalipio9808 korek

[@aldrinalipio9808]

@@xilencist salamat sa iyo kapatid✊

[@brokeAK]

so 맛있다 is the only exception with 있다?

[@YourKoreanSaem]

brokeAK there is also 멋있다 :) other than that I can’t think of any

[@gold_friday]

맛이다 is just pronounce like that.

[@mayi4403]

Same rule as your video of 깻잎 ?

[@YourKoreanSaem]

It’s a little different. The ㅅ in 맛 is supposed to be there. :D

[@miguelrico9924]

한국어는 어렵습니다 :(

[@YourKoreanSaem]

Miguel Rico 배울수록 어렵죠 ^^ 그래도 할 수 있어요!