Many Koreans distinguish words by pronouncing a vowel as long or short: 일 il one, 일 il (i.e., with a long vowel) affair, work. But even for those speakers, vowel length is often suppressed, especially when not at the beginning of a phrase, so that you will often hear short vowels in words that have basically long vowels.
Modern Korean spelling does not indicate the long vowels, and we do not show them in the body of this textbook. But you should at least be aware of this contrast. Here are some examples:
| SHORT VOWELS | LONG VOWELS |
|---|---|
| 밤 evening | 밤 chestnut |
| 굴 oyster | 굴 cave |
| 말 horse | 말 words, speech |
| 눈 eye | 눈 snow |
In the case of long and short 어, many speakers pronounce the long 어 with the tongue in a considerably higher position than it is in for the short 어, as something resembling English uh in uh-oh. Many speakers hollow the back of the tongue to make the short 어 so that it sounds rounded like the vowel sound that many people use in English saw, song, dawn.
| SHORT VOWELS | LONG VOWELS |
|---|---|
| 거리 street | 거리 distance |
| 연기 postponement | 연기 performance |