# Pronunciation of Hyundai



## JulianStuart

My first post in this forum but I'm looking for an audio link to the Korean pronunciation of this name (not found when I searched with that spelling).  

As far as I can find, the hyun is  close to h'yun where the un is like the vowel sound of young and the beginning is like the hy- sound at the beginning of the English word huge or human.  The dai is like day in English.
Is this close?

Thanks for any help!

I am not sure I believe the commercial that ran on US TV during the SuperBowl : "Hyundai - like Sunday"!  Put a little y sound between the H and the U and then perhaps?


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## ilydork

You got the hyun part right. Dai is pronounced "dae" - short, like the French è or even é as in bébé.


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## JulianStuart

Thank you so much.  So the dai sounds like a_ very _short version of day? Or perhaps the e of the English word bed or debt?  In any case it seems like it's a short syllable.


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## ilydork

The sound in "bed" is very close -  it would be "bed" without pronouncing the d. Actually, sorry, I shouldn't have said that the "dai" part is short - I meant it as relatively, and as you said, like a shorter version of day. The two syllables, 'hyun' and 'dai' have equal length.

---Add:
Here is a link to a Hyundai commercial. You can hear the Korean pronounciation at the end: <Please read the forum rules about video links!>


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## JulianStuart

Excellent - thanks for your help - the audio was just what I was looking for - clearly hyun not hun or hyoon.


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## Ben Jamin

Hello,
Can anybody give a phonetical transcription (IPA) of the name Hyundai as it is pronounced in Korean?


Moderator note: I merged this thread with the previous one about the same topic. Please, everyone, don't forget to search the forum before opening a thread, to avoid unnecessary repetitions. Thanks.


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## bomida

Two parts, Hyun [hyʌn] + dai [de].

1. Hyun [hyʌn]
You know the word 'hon', abbreviation of honey? It sounds similar.
Just put y in between and pronounce 'hyon' instead of 'hon'.

2. dai [de]
De as in 'demonstrate.'

Hope this helps.


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## Ben Jamin

Thank you very much!
But can you also explain why the single vowel /e/ or /ɛ/ (?) is represented by [ai]?
This is usually represented in English by [eh] not [ai].


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## Rance

In medieval Korean, "ㅐ" was originally pronounced as two syllables,"ㅏ"(a) + "ㅣ"(i) which got shortened into single syllable over time.
This was probably why "deh" part was first written with "dai" instead.
Also "deh" follows only one of many phonetic systems(adopted by world book encyclopedia for English users if i am not wrong) which may not work for other countries with other languages.
To minimize misinterpretation of Korean pronunciation by many different language users, there is a set of standard rules, called Revised Romanization of Korean, when you write Korean in alphabets.
If you were to write 현대 with those rules, it should be hyeondae.


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## Ben Jamin

Rance said:


> In medieval Korean, "ㅐ" was originally pronounced as two syllables,"ㅏ"(a) + "ㅣ"(i) which got shortened into single syllable over time.
> This was probably why "deh" part was first written with "dai" instead.
> Also "deh" follows only one of many phonetic systems(adopted by world book encyclopedia for English users if i am not wrong) which may not work for other countries with other languages.
> To minimize misinterpretation of Korean pronunciation by many different language users, there is a set of standard rules, called Revised Romanization of Korean, when you write Korean in alphabets.
> If you were to write 현대 with those rules, it should be hyeondae.


I'm afraid that both "eo" and "ae" are difficult to interpret for most people using Roman alphabet, and they don't look similar to [hyʌnde] either.
Are they diphtongs? The [hyʌnde] transcription does not indicate that.
Can you transcribe them using IPA code? Is it so that "eo" = /ʌ/ and "ae"= /e/?


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## Kross

In Korean, the ㅐ in 대 is not a diphthong, but a monophthong. In IPA, 현대 would be [hjəndæ] or [hjənde]. The ə sound can be replaced by the  ʌ  sound.


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## Ben Jamin

Kross said:


> In Korean, the ㅐ in 대 is not a diphthong, but a monophthong. In IPA, 현대 would be [hjəndæ] or [hjənde]. The ə sound can be replaced by the  ʌ  sound.


Thank you!


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