By:Kee Man Chang & Eun Ju Lee

The old writing systems of Korean, Chinese and Japanese were read from right to left and top to the bottom. The recognition of each syllable for these languages was clear; even spacing was not used at all. This is because a visual syllable acts as a morpheme, and each one is equally articulated in most cases. A combination of initial consonant ( C ) and vowel ( V ) makes a syllable ( C V ). For the Romanization of C V languages like Chinese and Japanese, syllables are found easily. However, Korean requires another syllabic consonant ( C V C ). It is difficult to identify syllables in multi-syllable words in Korean language. To solve this problem, small spacing or hyphen is utilized. Because the sound values between syllabic consonant and following initial consonant vary in accordance with their linguistic environment, the phonologic values (allophones) are emphasized for non-native speakers and singers. In general, vowels have the properties of simple vowels.For consonants, stops ( light, strong and acute ) contribute to a majority of sounds. For the ears of all different languages, this method is reorganized with simplicity and clarity for non-native Korean speakers and singers.

Vowels with emphasis on the properties as simple vowels.
In general, vowels are produced by relatively unimpeded passage of air through the mouth, altering in quality due to the shape of the resonance cavity; characterized by the tongue ( high, mid, low ), the place of articulation ( front, central, back ), the tension of the tongue muscles ( tense, lax ) and the presence of lip rounding ( rounded, spread ). Among others, the presence of lip rounding is the most influencing property for modified vowel sounds. Other properties are rather clear, except the shape of the tongue, which is relatively flat in contrast to the more curved one in American English. Five basic simple vowels ( a, e, i, o, u ) and modified simple vowels ( @, e*, i*, o^, u^) are discussed in this section.

[a] is like the back vowel sound [a] in father.
[@] is like [a] in apple and bat.
[e] is like [e] in egg and bet.
[e*] is like [e] with rounded lips.
[i] is like [ee] in see, sheep and beet.
[i*] is like [i] with rounded lips.
[o] is like pure [o] sound in Italian.
[o^] is like [o] with spread lips; as the first [o] in opinion.
[u] is like [oo] in boot and moon.
[u^] is like [u] with spread lips.
[u^i] is the only diphthong; [u^] and [i] are equally articulated quickly.