Korean Art Song Learning Center

Tag: gagok

  • IPA- 산유화 (Wild Flowers in the Mountains)

    Please set the playback speed using the video settings button







    In the mountains,
    flowers bloom
    without regard to autumn, spring, or summer
    flowers bloom

    In the mountains,
    in the mountains,
    the flowers that bloom
    bloom all alone in the distance

    Little bird crying in the mountains,
    loving the flowers,
    in the mountains,
    it lives

    In the mountains, flowers fall
    flowers fall
    without regard to autumn, spring, or summer
    flowers fall






    1. No resyllabification: 산’s coda ㄴ is followed by 유, whose null onset carries a glide (ʲu). The glide itself blocks resyllabification the same way a true consonant onset would, so ㄴ stays put rather than shifting onto 유.
    2. Resyllabification with palatalization: 꽃’s coda (representative [t]) resyllabifies onto 이, keeping its original identity, and palatalizes to [tʃ] since true ㅣ follows — contrast 꽃은 below, where the following vowel is a pure vowel with no glide.
    3. No resyllabification across the word boundary: 봄’s coda ㅁ is followed by a space, then 여름 (a separate word beginning with a glide, itself also blocking as in note 1).
    4. Resyllabification, alveolar this time: 꽃’s coda resyllabifies onto 은, but since 은’s vowel ㅡ (ʉ) is one of the five pure vowels with no glide, the result stays alveolar [ts] rather than palatalizing — contrast 꽃이 above.
    5. Nasalization: 있’s coda (representative [t], from ㅆ) meets 네’s onset ㄴ and nasalizes to [n], the same pattern as 뗏목 or 왔네.
    6. ㅎ-deletion, not aspiration: 좋’s coda ㅎ is followed by a vowel-initial syllable (아), not a consonant, so there is nothing for it to aspirate into — it simply drops, leaving no residue and no resyllabification, the same pattern confirmed elsewhere in this project (e.g. 놓아).
    7. 지: onset ㅈ before true ㅣ palatalizes to [dʒ], the same unified principle as 꽃이’s ㅊ→[tʃ].

  • IPA- 시간에 기대어(Leaning on Time)

    Please set the playback speed using the video settings button







    Somewhere beyond that hill
    I wonder if you are living there
    Upon the bonus of time embroidered by the seasons
    You and I are vulnerable people

    Somewhere here where the wind reaches
    I wonder if we still remain
    As heavy as the weight of years with no rehearsal
    You and I are lonely people

    Somewhere here where sorrow reaches
    I wonder if we are still living
    As heavy as the years lived full of regret
    You and I are lonely people

    I remember, I reminisce
    Even our relationship that has grown distant
    I love you, your changed appearance
    Missing you and yet having to forget again

    We, leaning on that time

    I love you, even as the world fades to white
    The repeated days lived as a bonus

    I remember, I reminisce
    Even our relationship that has grown distant
    I love you, your changed appearance
    Missing you and yet having to forget again

    We, leaning on that time
    We, leaning on that time





  • IPA- 꽃구름 속에(Inside the Flower Clouds)

    Please set the playback speed using the video settings button















    Flower wind, flower wind,
    blow warmly through every village

    Peach and apricot blossoms
    in a radiant glow

    like clouds, clouds of blossoms
    in a radiant glow

    Scatter pollen,
    spread the deep fragrance of flowers
    through every village

    People who suffered in cold and hunger,
    curled up and trembling all winter long

    Sorrowful stories, sorrowful stories
    Ah,forgetting them completely

    Intoxicated by the fragrance of flowers,
    let them sink inside the dreamlike flower clouds

    Let them sink
    like butterflies
















    1. Resyllabification: 속 (coda ㄱ) + 에 (vowel-initial, same word) → ㄱ shifts to become the onset of 에.
    2. Tensification (rule 23): 꽃’s coda (representative [t]) meets plain onset ㅂ → tensifies to [p͈]. The same pattern recurs on every 꽃+consonant boundary in this song (꽃가루, 꽃구름, 꽃향).
    3. Resyllabification: 불 (coda ㄹ) + 어 (vowel-initial, same word) → ㄹ shifts to become the onset of 어.
    4. Tensification (rule 23): 복사’s coda ㄱ tensifies the following plain ㅅ to [s͈], a lexicalized instance of the same obstruent-coda-plus-plain-onset pattern.
    5. Tensification (rule 23): 꽃’s coda (representative [t]) meets plain onset ㄱ → tensifies to [k͈].
    6. Aspiration: 꽃’s coda (representative [t]) meets 향’s onset ㅎ. Unlike the ㅈ-specific exception (which fully absorbs with no residue), this direction keeps 꽃’s own subscript [t] in place while 향’s onset becomes the aspirated result, written as plain [t] with the glide carried over. This exact word recurs later as 꽃향에.
    7. Aspiration: 맣’s coda ㅎ meets 게’s onset ㄱ and the two fully merge into aspirated [k], with no residual coda left behind. This differs from the ㄱ/ㄷ/ㅂ/ㅈ(+representative t)+ㅎ direction, which keeps its own subscript placeholder since a real stop closure remains; ㅎ itself has no oral closure to leave a trace of.
    8. Tensification (rule 23): 잊’s coda (representative [t]) meets plain onset ㄱ → tensifies to [k͈].
    9. Glide priority: 취 = [tʃʷi], not [tsʷi], since a glide always wins the dʒ/tʃ choice even though 추 alone would fall in the [ts] exception group.
    10. Aspiration: 득’s coda ㄱ meets 하’s onset ㅎ and merges into aspirated [k], with 득’s own subscript ɡ kept as a placeholder.

  • IPA- 시소타기(Seesawing)

    Please set the playback speed using the video settings button

    You and I walking through
    an empty alley at dusk

    A little playground we found
    from childhood memories

    One streetlight shining on us,
    riding a little seesaw

    Higher than the clouds,
    we go up

    If you fetch the stars,
    and I’ll carry this darkness

    Let your stars shine inside you

    if your smile ascends brightly,
    becoming the moon

    embracing you,
    my breast should become night


  • IPA- 눈 (Snow)

    Please set the playback speed using the video settings button.




















    On a little mountain path,
    when white snow gently piles up,
    I wish to leave my small footprints forever


    Until my little heart is dyed white,
    I wish to wander
    the snow-white mountain path


    When a lonely winter bird’s cry is heard from afar,
    ripples arise in my reverie and I forget the path

    I will engrave in my heart your pure voice

    Is it coming, carried on the wind?
    It comes as white snow

    Far away, my heart runs through the forest

    Ah, the winter bird is not seen,
    only a white trace remains

    Closing my eyes,
    I will listen to your endless song

    I imperceptibly become white snow
    and walk along the mountain path



















    1. Aspiration: 하얗’s coda ㅎ fully merges with 게’s onset ㄱ into aspirated [k], with no residual coda left behind, since ㅎ has no oral closure of its own to leave a trace of. This differs from the ㄱ/ㄷ/ㅂ/ㅈ(+representative t)+ㅎ direction, which keeps its own subscript placeholder because a real stop closure remains.

    2. 온다: the ㄴ belongs to the present-tense ending -ㄴ다 attaching to the vowel-final stem 오-, not to a stem-final consonant, so rule 24’s tensification doesn’t apply; the plain ㄷ onset voices after the sonorant ㄴ instead: [dɑ]. Recurs at 걸어간다오.

    3. Aspiration: 않의 cluster ㄶ (ㄴ+ㅎ) leaves ㄴ in coda, and its ㅎ merges with 고’s onset ㄱ to aspirate it: [ko], not tensified [k͈o].

    4. 끝없는: 끝’s coda ㅌ resyllabifies onto 없 (null onset) and voices to [d] in this weak position, the same exception confirmed for 끝없이. From there the two words diverge: 없이 has a vowel-initial ending, so its cluster’s ㅅ moves onward and tensifies; 없는 has a consonant-initial ending (ㄴ), so there’s nowhere for ㅅ to move — the cluster instead simplifies (ㅅ drops) and the remaining ㅂ nasalizes to [m] before ㄴ, the same pattern as 없다→[엄따]-type nasalization.

  • IPA- 마중 (Greeting)

    Please set the playback speed using the video settings button.
















    Love is too far,
    if you cannot come, I will go

    An evening longing for a word,
    sitting face to face,

    Gently listening to your dreams,
    and telling you my love

    Perhaps longing is a fragrance
    lost long ago

    What living is,
    on the day when it grows content
    and longing rises,

    my dear,
    I’ll run ahead
    and stand there as a flower.















    1. Tensification: 갈게’s -ㄹ게 is the same fused sentence-final ending confirmed with 있을게, always tensified: [k͈e].
    2. Rule 14 on the cluster ㄵ: 앉’s cluster is ㄴ(first)+ㅈ(second). Before the vowel-initial 아, the second consonant ㅈ moves onward as 아’s onset, keeping its own identity (alveolar [dz], since ɑ is a pure vowel); ㄴ stays behind in coda.
    3. Tensification (rule 23): 립’s coda ㅂ meets 다’s plain onset ㄷ → tensifies to [t͈].
    4. No resyllabification across the word boundary: 전’s coda ㄴ is followed by a space, then 잃어버린 (a separate word beginning with a vowel), so it stays in coda rather than reaching across.
    5. 잃어: the cluster ㅀ’s ㅎ drops and ㄹ resyllabifies onto 어, the same confirmed pattern established earlier in this project.

  • IPA- 내 맘의 강물 (The River of My Heart)

    Please set the playback speed using the video settings button.
















    Though countless days have gone away,
    the river of my heart flows endlessly
    Though that day and time are gone now,
    the river of my heart flows endlessly

    The deep blue sky far away,
    the clouds drift softly away
    Harsh storm and frost,
    though every trace gone by
    still hurts my heart

    Beautiful pearls formed one by one,
    gleaming, ever more bright
    Though that day and time are gone now,
    the river of my heart flows endlessly

    Refrain

    The deep blue sky far away,
    the clouds drift softly away
    Harsh storm and frost,
    though every trace gone by
    still hurts my heart

    Beautiful pearls formed one by one,
    gleaming, ever more bright
    Though that day and time are gone now,
    the river of my heart flows endlessly

    Flows endlessly













    1. 맘의: 맘’s coda ㅁ resyllabifies onto 의 as its onset, marked with ͜ like any resyllabification. The ㅢ itself still keeps the full superscript ʉ+i treatment rather than simplifying to plain [i]; the consonant-onset-simplifies-to-[i] rule is understood to apply to syllables lexically spelled with a consonant before ㅢ (like 희), not to a onset arriving via resyllabification.
    2. 많은: the ㅎ of the cluster ㄶ drops before the vowel-initial ending, leaving ㄴ to resyllabify onto 은 as its onset, giving the well-known [마는] reading rather than a literal two-consonant transfer.
    3. 맺힌: ㅈ+ㅎ fully merge with no residual coda (the ㅈ-specific exception to the aspiration pattern), giving [tʃin].
    4. ㅇ(ŋ) resyllabification exception: 롱+아 (vowel-initial, same word) yet ŋ does not move onto 아; it stays in place, matching every other ŋ case in this project.
    5. Nasalization: 빛’s coda (representative [t]) meets 나’s onset ㄴ and nasalizes to [n], the same pattern as 뗏목 or 왔네.
    6. 뭇’s coda is the [t] representative of ㅅ, and 하’s onset is ㅎ, following the same pattern already established for ㄱ/ㄷ/ㅂ/ㅈ codas meeting a following ㅎ: the coda keeps its own subscript marker and the next onset aspirates, giving [tɑ] rather than a separate [h].
    7. Tensification: 있을게’s -을게 is a fused sentence-final ending (“I will…”), not the adnominal -을 modifying a following noun. Confirmed tensified, the same pattern as “할게” → [할께]: [k͈e], not plain [ɡe].

  • IPA- 고향의 노래 (Song of Hometown)

    Please set the playback speed using the video settings button.















    1st Verse


    In the winter garden
    where the chrysanthemum has withered

    when I open the window,
    white early frost drifts down


    The blue-winged wild goose
    flies toward the north

    Ah, now stand at the quiet,
    empty fields

    On the snowy road hometown
    the flower lantern will glow

    On the snowy road hometown
    the flower lantern will glow

    2nd Verse

    Moon and sun are gone,
    stars are far away

    In the deep mountain valley, 
    at a thatched-roof village

    When spring comes, every branch 
    will burst with joyful blossoms

    Ah, now with hands together,
    close your eyes

    On the wattle fence of hometown house,
    large snowflakes are piling up

    On the wattle fence of hometown house,
    large snowflakes are piling up















    1. 고향의: 향’s ŋ coda meets 의 (null onset, vowel-initial), but ŋ never resyllabifies, so it stays put and 의 takes the superscript ʉ+i treatment as a null-onset ㅢ. (This superscript was missing in an earlier pass of this file; corrected here.)

    2. Aspiration: 국’s coda ㄱ meets 화’s onset ㅎ and the two merge into an aspirated [kʷ]. The coda keeps its own subscript ɡ as a placeholder.

    3. Glide priority: 져 = [dʒʲʌ], not [dzʲʌ], since a glide always wins the dʒ/tʃ choice regardless of base vowel.

    4. 하얗게: ㅎ meets the following ㄱ and the two fully merge into aspirated [k] with no residual coda left behind, unlike the ㄱ/ㄷ/ㅂ/ㅈ+ㅎ direction, which keeps a placeholder.

    5. 북녘을: two things stack. First, 북’s coda ㄱ nasalizes to [ŋ] before 녘’s onset ㄴ. Second, 녘’s own coda ㅋ resyllabifies onto 을; phonologically this should stay voiceless [kʉl], but by confirmed convention (matching actual usage in weak/resyllabified position, not just a singing convenience) it voices to [ɡʉl]. This is the project’s Three-Layer Model example word.

    6. Aspiration: 적’s coda ㄱ meets 한’s onset ㅎ and merges into aspirated [k], with 적’s own subscript ɡ kept as a placeholder.

    7. Three-step chain: 꽃’s coda (representative [t]) tensifies 등’s onset to [t͈]; 등’s own coda ŋ then tensifies 불’s onset to [p͈] (compound tensification, resonant coda + plain onset); 불’s own coda ㄹ finally resyllabifies onto 이.

    8. Nasalization: 겠’s coda ㅆ (representative [t]) meets 네’s onset ㄴ and nasalizes to [n], the same pattern as 뗏목 or 왔네.

    9. Compound tensification (rule 28): 산+골 is a modifying compound (mountain + valley), resonant coda + plain onset, so 골’s ㄱ tensifies to [k͈].

    10. Resyllabification keeps the original consonant: 깊’s coda ㅍ moves onto 은 as a full aspirated onset, not the neutralized coda form.

    11. 초 is in the ㅊ exception group (초/추/처/차/츠) alongside 조/주/저/자/즈 for ㅈ, so it stays [ts] rather than [tʃ].

    12. Compound tensification (rule 28): 고향+집 is a modifying compound, resonant coda (ŋ) + plain onset (ㅈ), so 집’s onset tensifies to [ts͈].

    13. ㅎ-deletion: 쌓’s coda ㅎ is followed by a vowel-initial syllable (이), so it simply disappears with no trace, rather than triggering aspiration.

  • IPA- 뱃노래 (Boat song)

    Please set the playback speed using the video settings button.
















    1st Verse


    A water bird dances
    in the blue sky

    Eya-deya, row quickly
    let’s go find my beloved

    Set the boat afloat,
    gently carrying youth

    Here by the Hwangpo River,
    red with the sunset

    Eya-deya, row quickly
    let’s go find my beloved

    Faraway across the endless blue sea
    where is my beloved?

    2nd Verse

    Bright moonlight dances
    upon the water

    Eya-deya, row quickly
    let’s go to my hometown

    with a fair wind raising the sail,
    cutting through the waves

    When I gaze afar,
    even the sky feels distant

    Eya-deya, row quickly
    let’s go to my hometown

    Faraway across the endless waterways
    where are the mountains and rivers of home?










    1. Nasalization (rule 30, 사이시옷): 뱃’s coda (representative [t] from 사이시옷) meets 노’s onset ㄴ and nasalizes to [n], the same confirmed 사이시옷 pattern already established for this word.
    2. Tensification (rule 28): 물 (sonorant coda ㄹ) + 새 (plain onset ㅅ), a compound noun (“waterbird”), tensifies to [s͈].
    3. 춘다: the ㄴ belongs to the present-tense ending -ㄴ다 attaching to the vowel-final stem 춤추-, not to a stem-final consonant (춤추다 is not a ㄴ/ㅁ-stem verb), so rule 24’s tensification doesn’t apply; the plain ㄷ onset voices after the sonorant ㄴ instead: [dɑ], the same pattern confirmed for 온다.
    4. 저어라: 젓다 (“to row”) is a ㅅ-irregular verb. Before a vowel-initial ending, the stem’s ㅅ drops entirely rather than resyllabifying, giving two plain adjoining vowel syllables with no consonant or tie mark between them — unlike a regular ㅅ-final stem, which would resyllabify the ㅅ as an onset. Compare regular resyllabification (날아→[nɑ͜.ɾɑ]) against this full deletion (저어→[dzʌ.ʌ]).
    5. 띄워: 띄’s onset is the real consonant ㄸ, not a null onset, so by rule 5 the following ㅢ simplifies to plain [i] rather than taking the null-onset superscript treatment.
    6. Tensification (rule 23): 싣’s coda, spelled with an actual ㄷ (not a representative-neutralized letter), keeps its own subscript [d] while tensifying 고’s onset to [k͈].
    7. Rule 11 exception (다만) plus tensification: 붉’s cluster ㄺ before a verb-ending onset ㄱ drops the ㄱ and keeps ㄹ as the coda; that surviving ㄹ still tensifies the following 고’s onset to [k͈], the same confirmed pattern as 붉고.
    8. Liquidization (rule 20): 만’s coda ㄴ meets 리’s onset ㄹ and assimilates to [l], giving [ll], the same confirmed pattern as 만리 elsewhere in this project.
    9. Rule 14 on the cluster ㄺ: before the vowel-initial 은, the second consonant ㄱ moves onward as 은’s onset; ㄹ stays behind in coda. The tie mark is placed under the surviving subscript consonant (ㄹ) rather than the vowel, per the established convention for cluster resyllabification.
    10. Tensification (rule 28) then resyllabification with palatalization: 달 (sonorant coda ㄹ) + 빛 (plain onset ㅂ), a compound, tensifies to [p͈]; 빛’s own coda ㅊ then resyllabifies onto 이, keeping its original identity, and palatalizes to [tʃ] since true ㅣ follows.
    11. No resyllabification across the word boundary: 물’s coda ㄹ is followed by a space, then 위 (a separate word beginning with a glide), so it stays in coda.
    12. ㅇ(ŋ) resyllabification exception: 향 (coda ŋ) + 에 (vowel-initial, same word) — ŋ does not move onto 에; it stays in place, matching every other ŋ case in this project.
    13. Tensification (rule 23): 돛’s coda (representative [t]) meets 달’s plain onset ㄷ → tensifies to [t͈].

  • IPA- 얼굴 (The face)

    Please set the playback speed using the video settings button.

    1st Verse


    About to draw a circle,
    unconsciously drew a face

    The white dreams of that time,
    blooming along with my heart

    Eyes that shone like blooming dew
    on the grass

    Round and round,
    The face that spins and fades away

    2nd Verse

    About to draw a circle,
    unconsciously drew a face

    Under the multicolored sky,
    I rose along the rainbow

    The past days when I fluttered
    like a butterfly in the clouds

    Round and round,
    the face that kept circling