The IPA diacritic ⟨ ◌͈⟩, resembling a subscript double straight quotation mark, shown here with a placeholder circle, is used to denote the tensed consonants /p͈/, /t͈/, /k͈/, /t͈ɕ/, /s͈/. It's more prevalent among older male speakers who have aspirated stops voiced in as much as 28% of cases. They generally don't undergo intervocalic voicing, but a 2020 study reports that it still occurs in around 10~15% of cases. pʰ, tʰ, tɕʰ, kʰ/ are strongly aspirated, more so than English voiceless stops. Among younger generations, they may be just as aspirated as /pʰ, tʰ, tɕʰ, kʰ/ in initial position the primary difference is that vowels following the plain consonants carry low tone. p, t, tɕ, k/ are voiced between sonorants (including all vowels and certain consonants) but voiceless elsewhere. Sequences of two consonants may occur between vowels. Any consonant except /ŋ/ may occur initially, but only /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ, l/ may occur finally. (There is a unique off-glide diphthong in the character 의 that combines the sounds and creating ). Korean syllable structure is maximally CGVC, where G is a glide /j, w, ɰ/.
![the silent age ipa the silent age ipa](https://img.pivo.by/bf/74/thumb_500_zagovor-brewery-radio-silence.jpeg)
The "aspirated" segments are characterized by aspiration, a burst of air accompanied by the delayed onset of voicing.As it was suggested from the Middle Korean spelling, the tense consonants came from the initial consonant clusters sC-, pC-, psC. In the Korean alphabet as well as all widely used romanization systems for Korean, they are represented as doubled plain segments: ㅃ pp, ㄸ tt, ㅉ jj, ㄲ kk. The "tense" segments, also referred to as "fortis," "hard," or "glottalized," have eluded precise description and have been the subject of considerable phonetic investigation.The "plain" segments are also distinguished from the tense and aspirated phonemes by changes in vowel quality, including a relatively lower pitch of the following vowel. The "plain" segments, sometimes referred to as "lax" or "lenis," are considered to be the more "basic" or unmarked members of the Korean obstruent series.For each stop and affricate, there is a three-way contrast between unvoiced segments, which are distinguished as plain, tense, and aspirated.