Do Koreans pronounce 색연필 as /새견필/ or /생년필/?

ANSWER: They pronounce 색연필 as /생년필/. Why? Because they think it is easier to add an ㄴ sound to the word and say /생년필/ than attaching the ㄱ in 색 to the 연 and saying /새견필/. And /생년필/ does seem to roll off the tongue a little easier than /새견필/. By the way, 색연필 means "a colored pencil."

So, when do Koreans add a ㄴ sound to the pronunciation of their words?

First, the word has to be a Sino-Korean word, a derived word (파생어), or a compound word (합성어). A derived word is a base word with something added to it to make a new word, so, for example "salt" is the base word of "salty," which is a derived word. Or it must be a compound word, which is a word made up of two or more words, such as "sunflower."

Second, the syllable of the word just before the syllable where the ㄴ sound is added must end in a consonant, and the syllable to which the ㄴ sound is added must start with one of the following vowel sounds: 이, 야, 여, 요, or 유. That means that a ㄴ sound is not added to a syllable that starts with 아, 어, 오, 우, 으, or any of the other vowel sounds. And then after the ㄴ sound is added, you must then follow the other rules of Korean pronunciation to get the final sound of the word. So, for example, after you add a ㄴ sound to 색연필 to get 색년필, you then have to follow the rule that says that when a ㄱ is followed by a ㄴ, the ㄱ sound changes to a ㅇ sound, resulting in 색년필 being pronounced as /생년필/. So, the process for 색연필 is 색연필 to /색년필/ to /생년필/.

But sometimes Koreans permit two pronunciations for a word. For example, the Sino-Korean word 금융 (金融), which means "finance," can be pronounced as either /그뮹/ or /금늉/.

So, some of you may now be thinking. "Wow! Korean pronunciation is harder than I first thought." Why do I say that? Because that is what I am thinking.