The vowels are commonly divided into two categories: monophthongs and diphthongs. Monophthongs are made with one articulatory movement (therefore the prefix mono), even though diphthongs aspect an articulatory alter. Diphthongs have two constituents: a glide (or even a semivowel) and also a monophthong. There is some disagreement about precisely the amount of vowels are viewed as Korean's monophthongs; the most important inventory attributes ten, while some scholars have proposed 8 or 9.

South Korea has two volcanic islandsJeju, off the peninsulas southern tip, and Ulleung, about eighty 분양 five miles (a hundred and forty km) east of the mainland inside the East Seaand a little-scale lava plateau in Gangwon province.

Lax consonants are tensed when next other obstruents on account of The truth that the main obstruent's articulation just isn't released. Tensing might be seen in terms like 구 ('entrance') /ipku/ which is pronounced as [ipku].