Lengthening Of The Vowels

Question 1

Explain?

Answer 1

There are some couples of words which are identical in writing (“omophones”) but they are pronounced differently: in one of these the vowel is very stressed / elongated and in the other it is pronounced very fast.

Question 2

How are the differences in “omophones” recognised?

Answer 2

In addition to the knowledge of the context - in dictionaries, after the longer syllable the symbol “:” is added to show the difference.

eg.
밤 → Night
밤: → Chestnut
공 → Zero, Empty
공: → Ball
눈 → Eye 
눈: → Snow
말 → Horse  
말: → Word