Georgian → Korean
Korean uses 34 sounds. You already own 14 of them from Georgian. The other 20 are the work — and 17 of those are the dangerous kind: close enough to something you already say that you will substitute them without hearing yourself do it.
The silent swaps
Your mouth has something close enough to reach for. These survive for years precisely because they sound right to you — the fix is hearing the difference first, not trying harder.
the move: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal
Korean: very · written "ㅈ (between vowels)"
Your /d͡ʒ/ is the one in ჯარი (army).
the move: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal
Korean: tea; car · written "ㅊ"
Your /t͡ʃʰ/ is the one in ჩაი (tea).
the move: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal
Korean: time · written "ㅅ before i, y-vowels"
The sh of Japanese shi, not the sh of English ship — tongue flat.
Your /ʃ/ is the one in შვილი (child (son/daughter)).
the move: without the aspirated part
Korean: cooked rice; a meal · written "ㅂ (initial)", "ㅂ ㅍ (final)"
Plain ㅂ: voiceless and lightly aspirated at the start of a word, voiced /b/ between voiced sounds (바보 pabo). As a final, unreleased — the lips close and stay closed.
Your /pʰ/ is the one in ფული (money).
the move: without the aspirated part
Korean: to close · written "ㄷ (initial)", "ㄷ ㅅ ㅆ ㅈ ㅊ ㅌ ㅎ (final)"
Plain ㄷ. As a FINAL, seven different letters all come out as this one unreleased t: 옷 ot, 낮 nat, 꽃 k͈ot, 밭 pat.
Your /tʰ/ is the one in თევზი (fish).
the move: without the aspirated part
Korean: soup · written "ㄱ (initial)", "ㄱ ㄲ ㅋ (final)"
Plain ㄱ, voiceless at the start of a word. As a final, unreleased — the back of the tongue closes and stays closed.
Your /kʰ/ is the one in ქალი (woman).
the move: close, but not identical
Korean: uncooked rice · written "ㅆ"
Tense s: longer, harder, no breath. 살 sal 'flesh; to live' against 쌀 s͈al 'rice'.
Your /s/ is the one in სახლი (house).
the move: unrounded
Korean: Seoul · written "ㅓ"
An unrounded open o — the vowel of English 'cut' but further back. Romanised eo, which misleads everyone; it is one vowel.
Your /ɔ/ is the one in ორი (two).
the move: unrounded
Korean: that; he · written "ㅡ"
Say /u/ and spread the lips. Romanised eu. The same vowel as Japanese u and Vietnamese ư.
Your /u/ is the one in ღამე (night).
the move: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal, without the aspirated part
Korean: house · written "ㅈ (initial)"
Plain ㅈ — between English ch and j, with the tongue flat. Voiced to /d͡ʑ/ between vowels.
Your /t͡ʃʰ/ is the one in ჩაი (tea).
the move: open-mid → close-mid
Korean: today · written "ㅗ"
Rounded, closed. Keep it apart from ㅓ: 손 son 'hand' against 선 sʌn 'line'.
Your /ɔ/ is the one in ორი (two).
the move: open-mid → close-mid
Korean: yes · written "ㅔ", "ㅐ"
Two letters, one sound: ㅐ was the more open of the pair and Seoul has merged them. 개 'dog' and 게 'crab' are now homophones, and the spelling is memorised.
Your /ɛ/ is the one in ერთი (one).
the move: without the aspirated part
Korean: bread · written "ㅃ"
Tense: the throat stiffens, the release is sharp and there is no puff at all. The third kind of p. Also what plain ㅂ becomes after an obstruent (입구 ipk͈u).
Your /pʰ/ is the one in ფული (money).
the move: without the aspirated part
Korean: strawberry · written "ㄸ"
Tense t. 달 tal 'moon', 탈 tʰal 'mask', 딸 t͈al 'daughter' — one triplet to hear the three-way contrast on.
Your /tʰ/ is the one in თევზი (fish).
the move: without the aspirated part
Korean: flower · written "ㄲ"
Tense k. Also what plain ㄱ becomes after an obstruent: 학교 hakk͈jo.
Your /kʰ/ is the one in ქალი (woman).
the move: plosive → nasal
Korean: river · written "ㅇ (final)"
ㅇ is /ŋ/ at the END of a syllable and silent at the start — a placeholder that lets a vowel have a block to itself (아, 이, 오).
Your /ɡ/ is the one in გული (heart).
Words you may say identically
Two or more Korean sounds landing on one sound of yours. Until the ear separates them, the mouth cannot — which is what the ear trainer is for.
- p = pʰ = p͈ → your pʰ vs vs train this pair →
- t = tʰ = t͈ → your tʰ vs vs train this pair →
- k = kʰ = k͈ → your kʰ vs vs train this pair →
- ɡ = ŋ → your ɡ vs
- t͡ɕ = t͡ɕʰ → your t͡ʃʰ vs
- s = s͈ → your s vs train this pair →
- ʌ = o → your ɔ vs train this pair →
- u = ɯ → your u vs train this pair →
Genuinely new
Nothing in Georgian sits close to these. They sound foreign in your mouth — which is the good news: you can hear that you are not saying them yet.
to be salty
Tense ㅈ.
Closest thing you own: — but postalveolar → alveolo-palatal, without the aspirated part.
woman
The y-vowels are a glide plus the plain vowel: ㅕ = j + ʌ. The extra stroke on the letter is the glide.
Closest thing you own: — but plosive → approximant, velar → palatal.
why
The w-vowels are written as two vowel letters stacked: ㅘ = ㅗ + ㅏ. ㅚ and ㅙ and ㅞ have all become /we/.
Closest thing you own: — but plosive → approximant.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Georgian | Korean | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Syllable-timed, heavy clusters | Syllable-timed, phrase melody |
| Stress | Weak and non-contrastive. Two-syllable words take it on the first syllable; longer words tend toward the third-from-last. No pair of Georgian words is distinguished by stress alone, which is why dictionaries do not mark it. To an English ear Georgian can sound evenly stressed, almost flat — that is correct, not a lack of expression. | None at word level. No syllable is reduced and no vowel becomes a schwa; every syllable is said in full. What an English ear hears as stress is the phrase-initial rise. |
What you have that Korean doesn't
19 sounds with no job in Korean. They are not mistakes — but they are where an accent leaks in, because a sound you own is easy to use when a hard one is due.
The honest caveat
This is a prediction from the shape of two sound systems, not a recording of you. It says what your inventory makes likely — it cannot know that your Georgian has a regional variety that already owns one of these, or that you learned Korean from someone whose accent you copied. A teacher listening to you beats it. Use it to know what to listen for.
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