# ㅆ in final position and 4-letters blocks



## cadarika

There are some things I don't quite get in Hangeul and I'd like someone to help me understanding it if possible:

1) Why does 있 end in ㅆ if Korean phonology doesn't allow /s͈/ in final position? (full word: 있어요)

2) Same goes with 없. It corrupts Korean phonology because /ʌps/ as a syllable shouldn't be possible at all. Also, if Hangeul only allows up to 3 characters in a single block, why does this one have 4? (full word: 없어요).


I'm sorry if I've made it seem that I'm saying that Hangeul is problematic; that's not my intention at all! I only meant to say that I'm having some issues to understand it ^^ 
thanks in advance!


----------



## Kross

cadarika said:


> 1) Why does 있 end in ㅆ if Korean phonology doesn't allow /s͈/ in final position? (full word: 있어요)


 Sorry, but there is almost nothing that I can tell about it. When I was a kid and started learning Korean at home and school, I once had the same curiosity like you. But after getting used to the spelling system of Korean, that curiosity just disappeared. And then later I found the same disparity between how to write a word and how to pronounce it in English like the word, through. See? I guess this kind of disparity exits in almost every language. 



cadarika said:


> 2) Same goes with 없. It corrupts Korean phonology because /ʌps/ as a syllable shouldn't be possible at all. Also, if Hangeul only allows up to 3 characters in a single block, why does this one have 4? (full word: 없어요).


 It looks so tricky? The 없 apparently looks made up of 4 letters, but the final two letters should be considered one, called 쌍받침. There are other examples like that: 묶다(tie), 넋(soul), 앉다(sit), etc...


----------



## Rance

Your question perhaps arises from misconception that Korean language is written in the same way as it is pronounced.
It's true to certain extent, but it's not always the case.



cadarika said:


> 1) Why does 있 end in ㅆ if Korean phonology doesn't allow /s͈/ in final position? (full word: 있어요)



Although you write with ㅆ, you do not pronounce with /s/ but with /d/.
That is true for 있 alone.
When it's followed by other syllables, the pronunciation may change.



cadarika said:


> 2) Same goes with 없. It corrupts Korean phonology because /ʌps/ as a  syllable shouldn't be possible at all. Also, if Hangeul only allows up  to 3 characters in a single block, why does this one have 4? (full word:  없어요).



We don't pronounce with double consonant.
Only one of them is pronounced. 
In Korean, only ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅇ are used for sound of 받침(we do use more variety when it comes to writing).
However  depending on the subsequent syllable, both consonants are used:  one for original and other for the subsequent syllable.

A  Korean syllable is composed either two or three components: 초성 and 중성  are a must and they are sometimes accompanied by 종성(aka 받침).
If we break down each syllable of 없어요:

없 = ㅇ(초성), ㅓ(중성), ㅂㅅ(받침)
어 = ㅇ(초성), ㅓ(중성)
요 = ㅇ(초성), ㅛ(중성)

As you can see, 초성 are always consonant and 중성 are always vowels.
받침 are also consonants, but they  behave slightly different than 초성 when it comes to pronunciation.
Depending  on the 초성 of next syllable, the sound of 받침 is carried on to next  syllable and pronunciation of next syllable becomes slurred.

*How you write -        How you pronounce*
있다 -                          읻따
있어요 -                        이써요
없다 -                          업따
없어요                        - 업서요.

Some 받침 uses complex consonant which are composed of two consonants and these are called 곁받침(ㄳ, ㄵ, ㄶ, ㄺ, ㄻ, ㄼ, ㄽ, ㄾ, ㄿ, ㅀ, ㅄ).
Some categorize 쌍받침(ㄲ,ㅆ) as 곁받침 as well.
Anyhow these complex consonants affect original syllable and subsequent syllable differently.

For example, 

*How you write        - How you pronounce
넋 -                             넉
넋이 -                          넉씨
앉다 -                          안따
앉아서 -                        안자서
닭 -                             닥
닭이 -                          달기

*As  you can see in 곁받침, when the slurring happens, one letter affects  original syllable and other letter affects subsequent syllable.
쌍받침 works differently, hence I would not categorize as 곁받침. (있어요 => 이써요.)

Anyhow there are more rules if you dig in deeper. I personally don't remember them all.
As  for reason why we do not write the same way we pronounce is not to  alter the root of the word so that meaning becomes more clear.
For example
*How you write -        How you pronounce
꽃이 -                           꼬치
꼬치                           - 꼬치

*You may not be able to differentiate those two words.


----------



## Yanky

This is the web site http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Tablas_de_Hangul


----------

