'Put' Sounds #@!... But, 'But' Sounds $&!...

Abstract

In English, Put sounds #@!... But, But sounds $&!... ; The sounds or pronunciations of the two words are different not just because of the difference in the first syllable; even though the writing of the two words has much in common. This is in stark contrast to Korean or Indian Languages, where nothing or (or very little) is lost between writing and reading (pronunciation) as discussed below. Sounds and Syllables: Korean and Indian Languages (Figure [fig:Korean-and-Kannada] shows the mapping between Korean and Sanskrit / Hindi and Kannada syllables) have similar pronunciation or sounds. More importantly they have identical structure in terms of having the feature of being able to combine vowels and consonants to produce a wider range of sounds. Korean has 40 basic syllables (10 11 vowels; 14 5 consonants). Indian Languages have 51 or 52 basic syllables depending on who you ask (13 2 1 vowels; 25 11 consonants). Each consonant in either of the languages can be combined with each of the vowels. In Korean this becomes 21*19 = 399 sounds. In Sanskrit or Kannada this becomes 16*36 = 576 sounds. This approach ensures that nothing (or very little) is lost between writing and reading (pronunciation) in Korean and Indian languages. The real question is whether it requires a lot more effort to remember more syllables; though the extra syllables are only a handful (14 more in Korean and 26 more in Kannada). The key innovation that simplifies learning is the combination of vowels and syllables in set patterns. Curios to know which other languages have a similar structure.