# 맛있어, 맛없어 pronunciation



## Jgon

Why is 맛있어 read as 마시써 but 맛없어 as 마텁서?


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## Kross

맛있어 can be pronounced as either [마디써] or [미시써] while 맛없어 should be uttered as [마덥써.]

source: 국립국어원


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## cherine

Jgon said:


> Why is 맛있어 read as 마시써 but 맛없어 as 마텁서?


It's about the relation between the sounds, if I may express it like this. There's a good explanation of this here (you can listen to the lesson here), and here's the relevant part:

The pronunciation of the last letter in *맛*, which is *ㅅ*, changes according to the word that follows it. When it is NOT followed by any word, it?s pronounced as [t], ending the word there. When it is followed by *있어요*, it becomes an [s ] sound, making 맛있어요 pronounced as [ma-si-sseo-yo]. When it is followed by 없어요, it becomes a [D] sound, making 맛없어요 pronounced as [ma-deop-seo-yo].



Kross said:


> 맛있어 can be pronounced as either [마디써] [...]


Does anyone really pronounce like that, or is it just a permissible thing?


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## yonh

Since 맛 [pronounced 맏], 있 [읻] and 없 [업] are all content morphemes that means they are not particles or endings, 맛있어 and 맛없어 might be pronounced as [마딛써] and [마덥써] respectively. In reality, however, most people have pronounced 맛있다 as [마싣따]. All of them are correct pronunciations because the pronunciation rules were made based on how people had pronounced the language. So it's not a chicken and egg. The same goes for 멋있다 [머딛따/머싣따].


Kross said:


> 맛있어 can be pronounced as either [마디써] or [미시써] while 맛없어 should be uttered as [마덥써.]
> 
> source: 국립국어원


Did they really say that? Isn't it [마딛써] and [마싣써]?


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## Environmentalist

A lot of people say 마시써, but the correct pronounciation was originally 마디써.
Honestly, I've never heard anyone say 마디써.


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## Rance

yonh said:


> Did they really say that? Isn't it [마딛써] and [마싣써]?



마딛써/마싣써 should be the correct or official pronunciations, but in practice the 받침 sound is quite weak.
I also use with ㅅ sound and rarely have heard people pronunciation otherwise except for few short tongued friends.


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## yonh

My guess is that the [마싣따] people have pronounced is a contraction of "맛이 있다" [마시-읻따] as they tend to pronounce the same vowels in a row as one. This also explains why then they don't pronounce 맛없다 as [마섭따].


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