IpseDixit wrote:A few days ago I started watching Lost and for the first time in my life I heard entire dialogs in Korean (before that I had never heard more than a few words in isolation and the gangnam song), and - maybe I'm going to sound blasphemous to people who are more expert in these languages than I am - I found it very similar to Japanese, so I started wondering what phonological cues I should pay attention to in order to tell the two languages apart. Any suggestions?
It's Korean if...
...it has syllable-final non-nasal consonants.
...you hear anything lateral that isn't a tap/flap.
...there's Chinese-level aspiration in consonants.
...it has rounded front~central vowels.
...there are consonants followed by /w/.
...there are front vowels preceded by /w/.
...you hear lots of [pj], [bj], [mj] and /ŋj/.
...if it sounds like the speakers have a cold.
...if everyone says "nigga" all the time.