Fillable Printable International Korean Phonetic Alphabet - Its Application in MS Word
Fillable Printable International Korean Phonetic Alphabet - Its Application in MS Word
International Korean Phonetic Alphabet - Its Application in MS Word
International Korean Phonetic Alphabet
- Its Application in MS Word -
H.B. Lee, CBE, Ph.D.
Prof. Emeritus, Seoul National University
D. Vautour, Dept. of Lin gui stics
Seoul National University
Preface
The aim of this paper is (1) to give a short introduction to the International Korean
Phonetic Alphabet (IKPA for short) and (2) to provide netizens around the world
user-friendly step-by-step instructions on how to use IKPA symbols on Microsoft
Word
1
by installing the IKPA font package.
I. What is the International Korean Phonetic Alphabet?
1.1 The International Korean Phonetic Alphabet (IKPA for short) is a set of
phonetic symbols which has been devised by Hyun Bok Lee, a Korean professor of
phonetics and linguistics to represent speech sounds of world languages systematically
and efficiently. First published in 1971 in Seoul after years of work carried out mainly
1
This font (ikpabatang.ttf) is a true type font, and as such will work on most
word processors and systems that support true type fonts. However due to the closed
nature of the Hangul series of word processors, IKPA Batang does not currently work
reliably within this program.
in London and revised on several occasions thereafter, the IKPA has been devised
mainly on the basis of the articulatory phonetic(organic) principles adopted by King
Sejong in creating "Hangeul", the Korean alphabet(originally "HunMinJeongEum" 訓
民正音) of 28 letters in 1443 for Koreans.
1.2 Lee has applied the phonetic principles much more extensively and
systematically in formulating the IKPA than King Sejong had done to make sure that
the IKPA symbols are just as systematic, scientific, and easy to learn and memorize as
the Korean alphabet. Furthermore, the IKPA symbols are clearly more systematic,
organic and mnemonic than the IPA counterparts which, having been derived mainly
from Roman and Greek letters, are mostly unsystematic mass of arbitrary symbols.
1.3 The basic principles embodied in the making of the IKPA may be
summarized as follows : 1) Using all Korean letters in current use, 2) Reviving the 4
extinct letters, 3) Deriving and designing new symbols, where necessary, by addition
and subtraction of one or more strokes of various forms to and from the basic letters, 4)
Using diacritical marks to represent minute differentiation of speech sounds.
1.4 The forms of the IKPA symbols represent or reflect the articulatory organs in
action, i.e., lips, tongue, teeth, throat, etc. For instance, velar sounds /k/, /g/, /x/ etc. are
all represented by the shape of the tongue touching or approaching the soft palate. In
other words, the IKPA symbols literally visualize or mirror the actual speech organs or
their movements and thus tell us exactly what kind of articulatory actions are involved
in producing sounds. It is in this sense that the IKPA is rightly called "A Universal
Visible Speech", which can be shared by all human beings irrespective of racial or
linguistic background.
1.5 The IKPA chart is printed in Malsori "Speech Sounds", the Journal of the
Korean Society of Phonetic Sciences and Speech Technology" together with an IKPA
illustration of world languages including Korean, English, French, Japanese, Chinese,
Italian, Russian, Polish etc. And in the "Manual of IPA", a Korean sample text is also
illustrated in IKPA symbols. It has also been used in books and articles on phonetics
and speech pathology.
1.6 Just like IPA, IKPA symbols can be utilized in many areas including
phonetics, linguistics, language teaching, speech therapy, speech sciences, dialect
studies, speech training, diction, singing, etc.
1.7 There is another important area in which the IKPA symbols can be utilized,
that is, as an alphabet for languages having no writing system. In 1996, Lee designed an
IKPA-based writing system for Lahu, which is spoken by a hill tribe in northern
Thailand, Myanmar and China.
In the IKPA chart below (see Table 1 attached,) IKPA symbol is matched by an
IPA counterpart.
II. The IKPA Font and its Application in Word Processing
2.1 The IKPA fonts were created for the first time in 1988 by Mr. Il-jin Jeong, a
former postgraduate student of mine in the Department of Linguistics, Seoul National
University. Despite the limitation that the first version of IKPA font was designed to be
used only on HWP97(Hangeul Word Processor), it was extensively used in books,
articles and in Malsori, the journal of the Phonetic Society of Korea for almost 20 years,
and is still in use today.
2.2 IKPA Font Creation for Macintosh, An anonymous Korean Font specialist
volunteered to create a Macintosh version of IKPA font around 1991 after consulting
my book entitled “International Phonetic Alphabet and Korean Phonetic Alphabet” in
which theory and practice of IKPA symbols were described in detail. The shapes of
the IKPA fonts for Macintosh were esthetically superior compared to those of the HWP
version. Regrettably though, the Macintosh IKPA fonts were hardly used due to the
printing difficulty and scarcity of Macintosh computers in Korea at that time.
2.3 True Type IKPA Font – "ikpabatang.ttf" In April, 2008, Mr. Douglas Vautour,
another postgraduate student of mine in Linguistics Department, Seoul National
University voluntarily started to create IKPA fonts. Following several trial versions, he
finally came up with the best possible final version before the end of 2009. It is called
“IKPA Batang” and because it is designed to True Type specifications can be used on
most modern systems and word processors. A notable exception to this is the Hangul
series of word processors. (see footnote 1 above)
III. Installation and Application of "ikpabatang.tff"
3.1 IKPA Batang (ikpabatang.ttf) has been designed to meet True Type
specifications, and as such installs easily onto most systems. For Windows, simply
extract the ikpabatang.ttf file from the most current release package, and copy it to a
temporary folder. In Windows Explorer, navigate to the directory "C:\Windows\Fonts"
directory. Click on "File" on the top of the screen, then "Install New Font" and in the
window that pops up, navigate to the directory with "ikpabatang.ttf" and select "IKPA
Batang (True Type)" and then click Install. OS X and Ubuntu require only that the font
file be placed into the fonts directory of the user's home directory. This is labeled
"Fonts" in OS X and ".fonts"
2
in Ubuntu.
3.2 Usage. When installed, select IKPA Batang in the font menu of any word
processor (except Hangul). Characters can be inserted using the system character map.
The font IKPA Batang must be selected, or else the characters will not appear on the
screen. There are currently plans to create a keyboard layout of IKPA and input editors
that will enable the user to type IKPA directly without using the character map for OS
X and Ubuntu, but there are no feasible methods for creation of input editors in
Windows XP or Vista at the moment.
3.3 IKPA Batang (ikpabatang.ttf) was created using FontForge which is available
for free from http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/. This program is quite capable of making
a commercial quality font, but the implementation of certain features, such as
2
".fonts" is a hidden directory. Before attempting to create the directory, use
Ctrl-h in Nautilus (or similar program) to view hidden directories to see if it is already
available for use.
customized spacing and uniform diacritic placement are difficult to use correctly. See
known problems below for a detailed account.
3.4 Font specifications. Characters are contained within the Unicode Private User
Area block, within the range starting from U+E000 to U+E08E and all characters are
listed in the following table (see Table 1 attached). Note that this table does not show all
IKPA characters that can be created with IKPA Batang, it merely shows the layout of
the font.
3.5 Known Problems. There are several known problems, which I will list below
in point form.
For Users
1. The font has problems with the Hangul Word Processor series, as mentioned above.
2. Characters do not display clearly on older computers unless the user zooms in to see
them, or the point size of the font is increased. This distortion is on the screen, and does
not affect anything printed.
3. Diacritics (combining marks) must be entered before the character they modify. (See
4). Also there are two sets of combining marks for vowels. Narrow vowels, such as
those resembling Hangeul ㅏ, ㅓ require a different set of diacritics from those
vowels that are wider, such as those resembling Hangeul ㅗ, ㅜ which is not optimal
but is a necessity until the problem can be fixed. The diacritics for narrow vowels are in
the Unicode range U+E06B – U+E074, while the wide vowel diacritics are in the range
U+E075 – U+E07E.
For Developers
4. Anchor marks (for the placement of diacritics) do not seem to work, so we have
removed them from the font. If anyone can help with this, any advice would be greatly
appreciated.
5. Customized kerning only worked in Text Edit in OS X and support has been
removed until such a time as it can be made to work on all systems. Again, any advice
would be appreciated.
3.5. Future Plans. Work is being done to make the input of IKPA characters more
efficient, without using the character map. Also, work is being done on the font file
itself to remove the problems listed in 3.4.
Table 1 - IKPA Batang Character Specification
Unicode IKPA IPA Unicode IKPA IPA Unicode IKPA IPA
E000
ɡ̊
E02B
ʐ
̥
E056
i
E001
ɟ̊
E02C
z
E057
j
E002
ɢ̊
E02D
ʐ
E058
E003
ɡ
E02E
s
E059
E004
ɟ
E02F
ʂ
E05A
E005
ɢ
E030
ŋ
E05B
E006
k
E031
ɴ
E05C
E007
c
E032
dʒ̊
E05D
E008
q
E033
ʤ
E05E
E009
kʰ
E034
tʃ
E05F
E00A
cʰ
E035
tʃʰ
E060
E00B
qʰ
E036
h
E061
E00C
n
E037
ɦ
E062
E00D
ɲ
E038
ʔ
E063
E00E
ɳ
E039
a
E064
E00F
E03A
ɛ
E065
E010
d̥
E03B
ja
E066
E011
ɖ
̥
E03C
ɑ
E067
E012
d
E03D
ʌ
E068
E013
ɖ
E03E
e
E069
E014
t
E03F
jʌ
E06A
E015
ʈ
E040
ɤ
E06B
E016
tʰ
E041
o
E06C
E017
ʈʰ
E042
wa
E06D
E018
r
E043
œ
E06E
E019
ʀ
E044
ɶ
E06F
E01A
r̃
E045
ø
E070
E01B
ɾ
E046
jo
E071
E01C
ʀ
E047
ɔ
E072
E01D
ɽ
E048
ɒ
E073
E01E
l
E049
u
E074
E01F
ʎ
E04A
wɛ
E075
E020
ɭ
E04B
wʌ
E076
E021
l
̃
E04C
we
E077
E022
m
E04D
y
E078
E023
ɱ
E04E
ə
E079
E024
b̥
E04F
ɐ
E07A
E025
b
E050
ɯ
E07B
E026
f
E051
ɥ
E07C
E027
v
E052
w
E07D
E028
p
E053
E07E
E029
pʰ
E054
ɪ
E02A
z̥
E055
ʊ
N
otes:
All diacritical marks have similar values to those of IPA.
*Narrow Vowel Marks from E06B-E074
*Wide Vowel Marks from E075-E07E
Bibliography
Lee, H.B. “The Korean Phonetic Alphabet”(in Korean), Proceedings of the
1
st
International Conference of Linguistics, Korean Language Society, Seoul 1971.
“International Phonetic Alphabet and Korean Phonetic Alphabet”, Theory and
Practice-, Gwahagsa, Seoul 1975.
“The Korean Phonetic Alphabet”, <Malsori>, Journal of the Phonetic
Society of Korea, Seoul, 1993
“In Search of a Universal Phonetic Alphabet”, Keynote Speech Paper and
included in the Proceedings of the International Conference on Spoken Language
Processing, Jeju, Korea, 2004.
The International Korean Phonetic Alphabet, The Korean-English Speech
Academy, Seoul 2004.
