Dakuon and Handakuon (Voiced and Semi-voiced Sounds)

What You Will Learn in This Unit

In this unit, you will learn the structure of dakuon, formed by adding the voiced mark (゛) to plain sounds, and handakuon, formed by adding the semi-voiced mark (゜). You will check how plain and voiced sounds in the same row are related, and you will be able to read words whose meanings differ depending on whether the sound is plain or voiced. You will also understand why じ and ぢ, and ず and づ, are pronounced the same.

Structure of Dakuon

Dakuon are made by adding the voiced mark (゛) to plain sounds. The voiced mark is placed at the upper right of characters in the か, さ, た, and は rows, and it changes the consonant of a plain sound into a voiced sound, produced with vocal cord vibration. The plain sound か (ka) is produced without vocal cord vibration, whereas the dakuon が (ga) is produced with vocal cord vibration. The vowel does not change, so each row forms pairs according to the same principle.

The second column of the table shows plain sounds, and the third column shows dakuon. Korean does not commonly show the voiced plosives ㄱ, ㅈ, ㄷ, ㅂ at the beginning of words, so が, ぎ, ぐ, げ, ご are read with vocal cord vibration as [가·기·구·게·고]. In particular, ふ (fu) is read as [후].

Handakuon and the ぱ Row

Handakuon are made by adding the semi-voiced mark (゜) to characters in the は row. ぱ (pa) is a voiceless plosive [p] produced by pressing the two lips together and then releasing them, and it is close to the Korean ㅍ sound. The semi-voiced mark is attached only to characters in the は row, not to characters in the か or た rows.

The dakuon ば (ba) and the handakuon ぱ (pa) occupy the same position and differ only in the presence or absence of vocal cord vibration. Therefore, you can remember the ぱ row as the characters of the は row with ゜ added.