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Hangul
Native alphabet of the Korean language From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Korean alphabet is the modern writing system for the Korean language. It is known as Chosŏn'gŭl[a] in North Korea, Hangul internationally, and Hangeul[b] in South Korea. The script's original name was Hunminjeongeum.[c]
Before Hangul's creation, Korea had been using Hanja (Chinese characters) since antiquity. As Hanja was poorly suited for representing the Korean language, and because its difficulty contributed to high illiteracy, Joseon king Sejong the Great (r. 1418–1450) moved to create Hangul. The script was announced around late 1443 to early 1444 and officially published in 1446 via the text Hunminjeongeum and its companion commentary Hunminjeongeum Haerye. While Hangul saw gradual adoption among both the elite and commoners, it was looked down upon by the elite for centuries. It was only widely adopted in the late 19th century. It is now the predominant script for Korean in both Koreas and among the Korean diaspora. It is also used to write the Jeju language, and to a limited degree, the Cia-Cia language of Indonesia.
Hangul orthography has changed over time and differs between North and South Korea. Modern Korean-language orthographies use 24[d] basic letters, which are called jamo. These 14 consonants and 10 vowels can be combined to yield 27 additional letters; a total of 51. They are arranged in syllable blocks consisting of an initial consonant, a vowel, and an optional final consonant. The syllables can be arranged in vertical or horizontal rows, although the latter practice has become dominant. Hangul punctuation is now largely similar to Western punctuation, with some differences. Spaces between words or phrases are a modern feature of Hangul.
Hangul letters were designed to be graphically simple, and traditionally consisted of only straight lines, dots, and circles. The shapes of 5 basic consonants are based on those of human speech organs. Most of the other basic consonants, which are considered to correspond to "harsher" sounds than those 5, are derived by adding additional lines to those letters to indicate progressively harsher sounds. There are a number of other hypothesized inspirations for the letter shapes, but these are still debated.
The script has received significant praise from international linguists and historians. It is now a significant point of pride for Korean people.
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Names
The Korean alphabet has been referred to by various names since its invention. Its original name was Hunminjeongeum (훈민정음; 訓民正音; Hunmin chŏngŭm; 'Correct Sounds for the Instruction of People').[1]
Internationally, the script goes by Hangul. This spelling has been adopted as a word in the English language[2] and is used by organizations like the International Organization for Standardization.[3] Hangul is an ad-hoc romanization of the South Korean name for the script; South Korea's preferred Revised Romanization system renders this as Hangeul (한글). The name means script of Han, where Han is one of the names of Korea.[4] The name appeared some time around the early 1910s.[5][6][7]
In North Korea, the name Hangul was briefly used until it was replaced by Chosŏn'gŭl in 1949. This is in part due to differing preferences for names of Korea: North Korea refers to the whole of Korea as Chosŏn, while South Korea uses Hanguk.[8]
The script also historically went by a variety of other names, including ŏnmun (언문; 諺文; lit. vernacular script),[9] panjŏl (반절; 反切),[10] and kungmun (국문; 國文; 'national script').[11]
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Classifications
Summarize
Perspective
Hangul is a phonographic script: a writing system where graphemes represent the sounds of a language. It is also an alphabet.[12] The script is often described as "syllabic" because of how its letters are grouped into syllables ,[13][14] although linguist John DeFrancis is skeptical of this.[15] Several linguists have instead argued for calling it an "alphabetic syllabary", "syllabic alphabet", or "alpha-syllabary".[16][17] While Hangul was originally a more phonemic script (where spelling is strictly tied to pronunciation), modern Hangul is generally more morphophonemic (where some pronunciation changes are not reflected in spelling) .[18][19]
Hangul and mixed script are considered to have a property called ŏnmun ilch'i (언문일치; 言文一致; lit. spoken–written agreement): tight correspondence between pronunciation and text. By contrast, the Idu and Kugyŏl scripts for writing Korean do not have this property.[e][21][22] Pae, Winskel, and Kim argue this property was initially stronger but weakened over time due to changes in the language and script.[22]
Featural script
Some scholars argue that Hangul is what is called a "featural script": a writing system where the shapes of the symbols encode phonological features of the spoken language they represent. The term was coined by Sampson in a 1985 book, wherein he argued Hangul was featural. This argument is largely based on the Haerye's explanations for the derivations of the letter shapes.[23][24][25][26]
In a 1989 book, DeFrancis praises Hangul but questions Sampson's classification of Hangul as featural. He argues that Hangul encodes too few features of Korean and that most people literate in Hangul do not actively learn or process the featural principles used to construct the shapes of the letters.[27] In a 1997 book, Chin-Woo Kim rebuts DeFrancis's argument. He argues that DeFrancis relies on a count of Korean's features that is too high, and that other scholars provide lower counts. He also argues that, even if one accepts that most do not learn or perceive Hangul's featural aspects, that does not mean such aspects do not exist. Kim also claims that scholars argue Hangul is not a featural script because it does not neatly abide by Jakobsonian distinctive features.[28] In the same book, linguist Young-Key Kim-Renaud argues against a featural label. She argues it should be considered that the derivation rules are applied to varying quality and that some symbols represent or contribute to multiple significantly different sounds. Kim-Renaud gives the example of the dot: the dot is used as a vowel (ㆍ) and a component in other vowels (e.g. two of them in ㅑ). When used as a component, it does not carry the meaning of the dot vowel.[29] Linguists Pae, Winskel, and Kim argue that the featural designation is difficult to falsify, debatable, and uncertain.[30] Linguist Dimitrios Meletis feels that the label is given too much attention, and that the stroke addition rule and philosophical concepts behind the letters are not purely featural.[31]
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History
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Creation
Koreans primarily wrote using Literary Chinese alongside native phonetic writing systems that predate Hangul by hundreds of years, including Idu script, Hyangchal, Gugyeol and Gakpil.[32][33][34] However, much lower-class uneducated Koreans were illiterate due to the difficulty of learning the Korean and Chinese languages, as well as the large number of Chinese characters that are used.[35] To promote literacy among the common people, the fourth king of the Joseon dynasty, Sejong the Great, personally created and promulgated a new alphabet.[36][35][37] Although it is widely assumed that King Sejong ordered the Hall of Worthies to invent Hangul, contemporary records such as the Veritable Records of King Sejong and Chŏng Inji's preface to the Hunminjeongeum Haerye emphasize that he invented it himself.[38]
The project was completed sometime between December 1443 and January 1444, and described in a 1446 document titled Hunminjeongeum (The Proper Sounds for the Education of the People), after which the alphabet itself was originally named.[39] The publication date of the Hunminjeongeum, 9 October, became Hangul Day in South Korea. Its North Korean equivalent, Chosŏn'gŭl Day, is on 15 January.[citation needed]
Another document published in 1446 and titled Hunminjeongeum Haerye (Hunminjeongeum Explanation and Examples) was discovered in 1940. This document explains that the design of the consonant letters is based on articulatory phonetics and the design of the vowel letters is based on the principles of yin and yang and vowel harmony.[40] After the creation of Hangul, people from the lower class or the commoners had a chance to be literate. They learned how to read and write Korean, not just the upper classes and literary elite. They learn Hangul independently without formal schooling or such.[41]
The Korean alphabet was designed so that people with little education could learn to read and write.[42] According to Hunminjeongeum Haerye, King Sejong expressed his intention to understand the language of the people in his country and to express their meanings more conveniently in writing. He noted that the shapes of the traditional Chinese characters, as well as factors such as the thickness, stroke count, and order of strokes in calligraphy, were extremely complex, making it difficult for people to recognize and understand them individually. A popular saying about the alphabet is, "A wise man can acquaint himself with them before the morning is over; even a stupid man can learn them in the space of ten days."[43][44]
The opening page of Hunminjeongeum Haerye and its printed form, Hunminjeongeum Haeryebon, contains King Sejong's foreword written in Literary Chinese, which reads:
國之語音。異乎中國。與文字不相流通。故愚民。有所欲言而終不得伸其情者。多矣。予。爲此憫然。新制二十八字。欲使人人易習。便於日用矣。[f]
[Because] the spoken language of this country is different from that of China, it does not flow well with [Chinese] characters. Therefore, even if the ignorant want to communicate, many of them in the end cannot state their concerns. Saddened by this, I have [had] 28 letters newly made. It is my wish that all the people may easily learn these letters and that [they] be convenient for daily use.
Another document titled Dongguk Jeongun was published on September 1446, which is a rhyme dictionary that sets out standard phonetics for the Sino-Korean pronunciations of Chinese characters.[45][46]
Opposition
The Korean alphabet faced opposition in the 1440s by the literary elite, including Choe Manri and other Korean Confucian scholars. They believed Hanja was the only legitimate writing system. They also saw the circulation of the Korean alphabet as a road to break away from the Sinosphere as well as a threat to their status.[35][47][48] However, the Korean alphabet entered popular culture as King Sejong had intended, used especially by women and writers of popular fiction.[49]
Prince Yeonsan banned the study and publication of the Korean alphabet in 1504 during his kingship, after a document criticizing him was published.[50] Similarly, King Jungjong abolished the Ministry of Eonmun, a governmental institution related to Hangul research, in 1506.[51]
Revival
The late 16th century, however, saw a revival of the Korean alphabet as gasa and sijo poetry flourished. In the 17th century, the Korean alphabet novels became a major genre.[52] However, the use of the Korean alphabet had gone without orthographical standardization for so long that spelling had become quite irregular.[49]
In 1796, the Dutch scholar Isaac Titsingh became the first person to bring a book written in Korean to the Western world. His collection of books included the Japanese book Sangoku Tsūran Zusetsu (An Illustrated Description of Three Countries) by Hayashi Shihei.[53] This book, which was published in 1785, described the Joseon Kingdom[54] and the Korean alphabet.[55] In 1832, the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland supported the posthumous abridged publication of Titsingh's French translation.[56]
Thanks to growing Korean nationalism, the Kabo Reformists' push, and Western missionaries' promotion of the Korean alphabet in schools and literature,[57] the Hangul Korean alphabet was adopted in official documents for the first time in 1894.[50] Elementary school texts began using the Korean alphabet in 1895, and Tongnip sinmun, established in 1896, was the first newspaper printed in both Korean and English.[58]
Reforms and suppression under Japanese rule
After the Japanese annexation, which occurred in 1910, Japanese was made the official language of Korea. However, the Korean alphabet was still taught in Korean-established schools built after the annexation and Korean was written in a mixed Hanja-Hangul script, where most lexical roots were written in Hanja and grammatical forms in the Korean alphabet. Japan banned earlier Korean literature from public schooling, which became mandatory for children.[59]
The orthography of the Korean alphabet was partially standardized in 1912, when the vowel arae-a (ㆍ) — was restricted to Sino-Korean roots: the emphatic consonants were standardized to ㅺ, ㅼ, ㅽ, ㅆ, ㅾ, and final consonants restricted to ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅇ, ㄺ, ㄻ, and ㄼ. Long vowels were marked by a diacritic dot to the left of the syllable, but this was dropped in 1921.[49]
A second colonial reform occurred in 1930. The arae-a was abolished: the emphatic consonants were changed to ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ, and more final consonants ㄷ, ㅈ, ㅌ, ㅊ, ㅍ, ㄲ, ㄳ, ㄵ, ㄾ, ㄿ, and ㅄ were allowed, making the orthography more morphophonemic. The double consonant ㅆ was written alone (without a vowel) when it occurred between nouns, and the nominative particle 가 was introduced after vowels, replacing 이.[49]
The arae-a, in any case, began to be merged with other vowels starting from the 15th century and the merging process was mostly complete by the 16th century.[60] In the 21st century it only survives in the Jeju language which is mutually unintelligible with mainland South Korean varieties.[61]
Ju Si-gyeong, the linguist who had coined the term Hangul to replace Eonmun or Vulgar Script in 1912, established the Korean Language Research Society (later renamed the Hangul Society), which further reformed orthography with the Standardized System of Hangul in 1933. The principal change was to make the Korean alphabet as morphophonemically practical as possible given the existing letters.[49] A system for transliterating foreign orthographies was published in 1940.[citation needed]
Japan banned the Korean language from schools and public offices in 1938 and excluded Korean courses from elementary education in 1941 as part of a policy of cultural assimilation and genocide.[62][63]
Further reforms
The definitive modern Korean alphabet orthography was published in 1946, just after Korean independence from Japanese rule. In 1948, North Korea attempted to make the script perfectly morphophonemic through the addition of new letters, and, in 1953, Syngman Rhee in South Korea attempted to simplify the orthography by returning to the colonial orthography of 1921, but both reforms were abandoned after only a few years.[49]
Both North Korea and South Korea have used the Korean alphabet or mixed script as their official writing system, with ever-decreasing use of Hanja especially in the North.
In South Korea
Beginning in the 1970s, Hanja began to experience a gradual decline in commercial or unofficial writing in the South due to government intervention, chiefly with President Park Chung Hee's 5 Year Plan for Hangul Exclusivity,[64] with some South Korean newspapers now only using Hanja as abbreviations or disambiguation of homonyms. However, as Korean documents, history, literature and records throughout its history until the contemporary period were written primarily in Literary Chinese using Hanja as its primary script, a good working knowledge of Chinese characters especially in academia is still important for anyone who wishes to interpret and study older texts from Korea, or anyone who wishes to read scholarly texts in the humanities.[65]
A high proficiency in Hanja is also useful for understanding the etymology of Sino-Korean words as well as for enlarging one's Korean vocabulary.[65]
In North Korea
North Korea instated Hangul as its exclusive writing system in 1949 on the orders of Kim Il Sung of the Workers' Party of Korea, and officially banned the use of Hanja.[66]
Non-Korean languages
Systems that employed Hangul letters with modified rules were attempted by linguists such as Hsu Tsao-te and Ang Ui-jin to transcribe Taiwanese Hokkien, a Sinitic language, but the usage of Chinese characters ultimately ended up being the most practical solution and was endorsed by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan.[67][68][69]
The Hunminjeong'eum Society in Seoul attempted to spread the use of Hangul to unwritten languages of Asia.[70] In 2009, it was unofficially adopted by the town of Baubau, in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, to write the Cia-Cia language.[71][72][73][74]
A number of Indonesian Cia-Cia speakers who visited Seoul generated large media attention in South Korea, and they were greeted on their arrival by Oh Se-hoon, the mayor of Seoul.[75]
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Letters
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Perspective
Letters in the Korean alphabet are called jamo (자모; 字母). There are 14 consonants (자음; 子音; jaeum) and 10 vowels (모음; 母音; moeum) used in the modern alphabet. There are 27 complex letters that are formed by combining the basic letters: 5 tense consonant letters, 11 complex consonant letters, and 11 complex vowel letters.[citation needed]
Consonants
The shape of tongue when pronouncing ㄱ (g, k)
The shape of tongue when pronouncing ㄴ (n)
The shape of teeth and tongue when pronouncing ㅅ (s)
ㅇ (ng) is similar to the throat hole.
ㅁ (m) is similar to a closed mouth.
The chart below shows all 19 consonants in South Korean alphabetic order with Revised Romanization equivalents for each letter and pronunciation in IPA (see Korean phonology for more).
The consonants are broadly categorized into two categories:
- obstruents: sounds produced when airflow either completely stops (i.e., a plosive consonant) or passes through a narrow opening (i.e., a fricative).
- sonorants: sounds produced when air flows out with little to no obstruction through the mouth, nose, or both.[76]
The chart below lists the Korean consonants by their respective categories and subcategories.
All Korean obstruents are voiceless in that the larynx does not vibrate when producing those sounds and are further distinguished by degree of aspiration and tenseness. The tensed consonants are produced by constricting the vocal cords while heavily aspirated consonants (such as the Korean ㅍ, /pʰ/) are produced by opening them.[76]
Korean sonorants are voiced.
Vowels
The chart below shows the 21 vowels used in the modern Korean alphabet in South Korean alphabetic order with Revised Romanization equivalents for each letter and pronunciation in IPA (see Korean phonology for more).
The vowels are generally separated into two categories: monophthongs and diphthongs. Monophthongs are produced with a single articulatory movement (hence the prefix mono), while diphthongs feature an articulatory change. Diphthongs have two constituents: a glide (or a semivowel) and a monophthong. There is some disagreement about exactly how many vowels are considered Korean's monophthongs;[citation needed] the largest inventory features ten, while some scholars[who?] have proposed eight or nine. This divergence reveals two issues: whether Korean has two front rounded vowels (i.e. /ø/ and /y/); and, secondly, whether Korean has three levels of front vowels in terms of vowel height (i.e. whether /e/ and /ɛ/ are distinctive).[77] Actual phonological studies done by studying formant data show that current speakers of Standard Korean do not differentiate between the vowels ㅔ and ㅐ in pronunciation.[78]
Letter names
The names of the consonants have varied across time and now between North and South Korea.[79] South Korea uses consonant letter names that were decided in the 1933 Unified Hangul Orthography, which were in turn based on letter names used since the 16th century.[80][81] North Korea's consonant letter names have been regularized to follow a ㅣ으 spelling pattern. For example, while South Korea follows the traditional spelling of ㄱ's name, giyeok (기역), North Korea uses gieuk (기윽; kiŭk). In addition, North Korea uses toen (된; lit. hard, referring to the harder pronunciation) instead of ssang (쌍; 雙; lit. double, referring to letter shapes) for the duplicated consonants (e.g. the name of ㄲ is 된기윽; toen'giŭk).[8][82][83] One reason for doing this was that ssang is a Sino-Korean word, which North Korea sometimes discourages in favor of native Korean vocabulary.[8]
Since at latest the 16th century, vowels have been consistently named after the sound they produce, for example ㅑ is named ya.[84][85][83]
Alphabetic order
The ordering of the letters has varied across time and now between North and South Korea.
The 11,172 characters in the Hangul Syllables Unicode character block follow a sort order specified in the South Korean national standard KS X 1026-1. That order accounts for the various Hangul Unicode code points, including obsolete letters.[86]
North Korean order
North Korea uses the following orders:
- Initial consonants: ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ ㅇ[h]
- Vowels: ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ ㅐ ㅒ ㅔ ㅖ ㅚ ㅟ ㅢ ㅘ ㅝ ㅙ ㅞ[88]
- Final consonants: ∅ ㄱ ㄳ ㄴ ㄵ ㄶ ㄷ ㄹ ㄺ ㄻ ㄼ ㄽ ㄾ ㄿ ㅀ ㅁ ㅂ ㅄ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ ㄲ ㅆ[92][87]
Modifications and combinations of initial consonants and vowels are placed at the end of the order. Final consonants follow the same order as initial, but combinations of consonants are inserted into that order and are sorted by the second consonant.[93]
South Korean order
South Korea uses the following orders:[94][95]
- Initial consonants: ㄱ ㄲ ㄴ ㄷ ㄸ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅃ ㅅ ㅆ ㅇ ㅈ ㅉ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ
- Vowels: ㅏ ㅐ ㅑ ㅒ ㅓ ㅔ ㅕ ㅖ ㅗ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅛ ㅜ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅠ ㅡ ㅢ ㅣ
- Final consonants: ∅ ㄱ ㄲ ㄳ ㄴ ㄵ ㄶ ㄷ ㄹ ㄺ ㄻ ㄼ ㄽ ㄾ ㄿ ㅀ ㅁ ㅂ ㅄ ㅅ ㅆ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ
Modifications and combinations of letters are placed just after the primary or initial parent letter. Such modifications and combinations are then sorted according to the previously established orderings. E.g. ㄱ is followed by ㄲ and ㅘ by ㅙ.[93]
Stroke order
Letters in the Korean alphabet have adopted certain rules of Chinese calligraphy, although ㅇ and ㅎ use a circle, which is not used in printed Chinese characters.[96][97]
ㄱ (giyeok 기역)
ㄴ (nieun 니은)
ㄷ (digeut 디귿)
ㄹ (rieul 리을)
ㅁ (mieum 미음)
ㅂ (bieup 비읍)
ㅅ (siot 시옷)
ㅇ (ieung 이응)
ㅈ (jieut 지읒)
ㅊ (chieut 치읓)
ㅋ (ḳieuk 키읔)
ㅌ (ṭieut 티읕)
ㅍ (p̣ieup 피읖)
ㅎ (hieut 히읗)
ㅏ (a)
ㅐ (ae)
ㅓ (eo)
ㅔ (e)
ㅗ (o)
ㅜ (u)
ㅡ (eu)
ㅣ (i)
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For the iotated vowels, which are not shown, the short stroke is simply doubled.
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Orthography
Summarize
Perspective
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (February 2025) |
Until the 20th century, no official orthography of the Korean alphabet had been established. Due to liaison, heavy consonant assimilation, dialectal variants and other reasons, a Korean word can potentially be spelled in multiple ways. Sejong seemed to prefer morphophonemic spelling (representing the underlying root forms) rather than a phonemic one (representing the actual sounds). However, early in its history the Korean alphabet was dominated by phonemic spelling. Over the centuries the orthography became partially morphophonemic, first in nouns and later in verbs. The modern Korean alphabet is as morphophonemic as is practical. The difference between phonetic romanization, phonemic orthography and morphophonemic orthography can be illustrated with the phrase motaneun sarami:
- Phonetic transcription and translation:
motaneun sarami
[mo.tʰa.nɯn.sa.ɾa.mi]
a person who cannot do it - Phonemic transcription:
모타는사라미
/mo.tʰa.nɯn.sa.la.mi/ - Morphophonemic transcription:
못하는사람이
|mot-ha-nɯn-sa.lam-i| - Morpheme-by-morpheme gloss:
못–하–는 사람=이 mot-ha-neun saram=i cannot-do-[attributive] person=[subject]
After the Kabo Reform in 1894, Joseon and later the Korean Empire started to write all official documents in the Korean alphabet. Under the government's management, proper usage of the Korean alphabet and Hanja, including orthography, was discussed, until the Korean Empire was annexed by Japan in 1910.
The Government-General of Korea popularised a writing style that mixed Hanja and the Korean alphabet, and was used in the later Joseon dynasty. The government revised the spelling rules in 1912 with ''Orthographic Rules for Vernacular Writing for Normal Schools'' (普通學校用諺文綴字法), 1921 with Summary of Orthographic Rules for Vernacular Writing for Normal Schools (普通學校用諺文綴字法大要), and again in 1930 with Orthographic Rules for Vernacular Writing (諺文綴字法), to be relatively phonemic.[98]
The Hangul Society, founded by Ju Si-gyeong, announced a proposal for a new, strongly morphophonemic orthography in 1933, titled ''Proposal for a Unified Hangul Orthography'' (한글 맞춤법 통일안),[99] which became the prototype of the contemporary orthographies in both North and South Korea.[how?] After Korea was divided, the North and South revised orthographies separately. The guiding text for orthography of the Korean alphabet is called Hangeul Matchumbeop (Spelling System of Hangul/The Rules of Korean Spelling), whose last South Korean enactment was published in 1988 by the Ministry of Education and whose last revision was published in 2017 by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.[100]
Mixed scripts
Since the late Joseon period, various Hanja–Hangul mixed systems were used. In these systems, Hanja were used for lexical roots, and the Korean alphabet for grammatical words and inflections, much as kanji and kana are used in Japanese. Hanja have been almost entirely phased out of daily use in North Korea, and in South Korea they are mostly restricted to parenthetical glosses for proper names and for disambiguating homonyms.
Indo-Arabic numerals are mixed in with the Korean alphabet, e.g. Korean: 2007년 3월 22일; Hanja: 2007年 3月 22日; lit. 22 March 2007.
Morpho-syllabic blocks
Except for a few grammatical morphemes prior to the twentieth century, no letter stands alone to represent elements of the Korean language. Instead, letters are grouped into syllabic or morphemic blocks of at least two and often three: a consonant or a doubled consonant called the initial (초성; 初聲; choseong syllable onset), a vowel or diphthong called the medial (중성; 中聲; jungseong syllable nucleus), and, optionally, a consonant or consonant cluster at the end of the syllable, called the final (종성; 終聲; jongseong syllable coda). When a syllable has no actual initial consonant, the null initial ㅇ ieung is used as a placeholder. (In the modern Korean alphabet, placeholders are not used for the final position.) Thus, a block contains a minimum of two letters, an initial and a medial. Although the Korean alphabet had historically been organized into syllables, in the modern orthography it is first organized into morphemes, and only secondarily into syllables within those morphemes, with the exception that single-consonant morphemes may not be written alone.
The sets of initial and final consonants are not the same. For instance, ㅇ ng only occurs in final position, while the doubled letters that can occur in final position are limited to ㅆ ss and ㄲ kk.
Not including obsolete letters, 11,172 blocks are possible in the Korean alphabet.[101]
Letter placement within a block
The placement or stacking of letters in the block follows set patterns based on the shape of the medial.
Consonant and vowel sequences such as ㅄ bs, ㅝ wo, or obsolete ㅵ bsd, ㆋ üye are written left to right.
Vowels (medials) are written under the initial consonant, to the right, or wrap around the initial from bottom to right, depending on their shape: If the vowel has a horizontal axis like ㅡ eu, then it is written under the initial; if it has a vertical axis like ㅣ i, then it is written to the right of the initial; and if it combines both orientations, like ㅢ ui, then it wraps around the initial from the bottom to the right:
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A final consonant, if present, is always written at the bottom, under the vowel. This is called 받침 batchim "supporting floor":
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A complex final is written left to right:
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Blocks are always written in phonetic order, initial-medial-final. Therefore:
- Syllables with a horizontal medial are written downward: 읍 eup;
- Syllables with a vertical medial and simple final are written clockwise: 쌍 ssang;
- Syllables with a wrapping medial switch direction (down-right-down): 된 doen;
- Syllables with a complex final are written left to right at the bottom: 밟 balp.
Block shape
Normally the resulting block is written within a square. Some recent fonts (for example Eun,[102] HY깊은샘물M,[citation needed] and UnJamo[citation needed]) move towards the European practice of letters whose relative size is fixed, and use whitespace to fill letter positions not used in a particular block, and away from the East Asian tradition of square block characters (方块字). They break one or more of the traditional rules:[clarification needed]
- Do not stretch the initial consonant vertically, but leave whitespace below if no lower vowel or no final consonant.
- Do not stretch right-hand vowel vertically, but leave whitespace below if no final consonant. (Often the right-hand vowel extends farther down than the left-hand consonant, like a descender in European typography.)
- Do not stretch the final consonant horizontally, but leave whitespace to its left.
- Do not stretch or pad each block to a fixed width, but allow kerning (variable width) where syllable blocks with no right-hand vowel and no double final consonant can be narrower than blocks that do have a right-hand vowel or double final consonant.
In Korean, typefaces that do not have a fixed block boundary size are called 탈네모 글꼴 (tallemo geulkkol, 'out of square typeface'). If horizontal text in the typeface ends up looking top-aligned with a ragged bottom edge, the typeface can be called 빨랫줄 글꼴 (ppallaetjul geulkkol, 'clothesline typeface').[citation needed]
These fonts have been used as design accents on signs or headings, rather than for typesetting large volumes of body text.
Linear Korean
 | You can help expand this section with text translated from the corresponding article in Korean. (September 2020) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
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There was a minor and unsuccessful movement in the early twentieth century to abolish syllabic blocks and write the letters individually and in a row, in the fashion of writing the Latin alphabets, instead of the standard convention of 모아쓰기 (moa-sseugi 'assembled writing'). For example, ㅎㅏㄴㄱㅡㄹ would be written for 한글 (Hangeul).[103] It is called 풀어쓰기 (pureo-sseugi 'unassembled writing').
Avant-garde typographer Ahn Sang-soo created a font for the Hangul Dada exposition that disassembled the syllable blocks; but while it strings out the letters horizontally, it retains the distinctive vertical position each letter would normally have within a block, unlike the older linear writing proposals.[104]
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Readability
Summarize
Perspective
Because of syllable clustering, words are shorter on the page than their linear counterparts would be, and the boundaries between syllables are easily visible (which may aid reading, if segmenting words into syllables is more natural for the reader than dividing them into phonemes).[105] Because the component parts of the syllable are relatively simple phonemic characters, the number of strokes per character on average is lower than in Chinese characters. Unlike syllabaries, such as Japanese kana, or Chinese logographs, none of which encode the constituent phonemes within a syllable, the graphic complexity of Korean syllabic blocks varies in direct proportion with the phonemic complexity of the syllable.[105] Like Japanese kana or Chinese characters, and unlike linear alphabets such as those derived from Latin, Korean orthography allows the reader to utilize both the horizontal and vertical visual fields.[105] Since Korean syllables are represented both as collections of phonemes and as unique-looking graphs, they may allow for both visual and aural retrieval of words from the lexicon. Similar syllabic blocks, when written in small size, can be hard to distinguish from, and therefore sometimes confused with, each other. Examples include 홋/훗/흣 (hot/hut/heut), 퀼/퀄 (kwil/kwol), 홍/흥 (hong/heung), and 핥/핣/핢 (halt/halp/halm).
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Style
Summarize
Perspective
In Hunminjeongeum, the Korean alphabet was printed in sans-serif angular lines of even thickness. This style is found in books published before about 1900, and can be found in stone carvings (on statues, for example).[106] Over the centuries, an ink-brush style of calligraphy developed, employing the same style of lines and angles as traditional Korean calligraphy. This brush style is called gungche (궁체; 宮體), meaning "palace style", because the style was mostly developed and used by the maidservants (궁녀; 宮女; gungnyeo) of the Joseon court.[107]
Modern styles that are more suited for printed media were developed in the 20th century. In 1993, new names for both Myeongjo (明朝) and Gothic styles were introduced when Ministry of Culture initiated an effort to standardize typographic terms, and the names Batang (바탕, meaning background) and Dotum (돋움, meaning "stand out") replaced Myeongjo and Gothic respectively. These names are also used in Microsoft Windows. A sans-serif style with lines of equal width is popular with pencil and pen writing and is often the default typeface of Web browsers. A minor advantage of this style is that it makes it easier to distinguish -eung from -ung even in small or untidy print, as the jongseong ieung (ㅇ) of such fonts usually lacks a serif that could be mistaken for the short vertical line of the letter ㅜ.[108]
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Unicode
Summarize
Perspective
Hangul Jamo (U+1100–U+11FF) and Hangul Compatibility Jamo (U+3130–U+318F) blocks were added to the Unicode Standard in June 1993 with the release of version 1.1. A separate Hangul Syllables block (not shown below due to its length) contains pre-composed syllable block characters, which were first added at the same time, although they were relocated to their present locations in July 1996 with the release of version 2.0.[109]
Hangul Jamo Extended-A (U+A960–U+A97F) and Hangul Jamo Extended-B (U+D7B0–U+D7FF) blocks were added to the Unicode Standard in October 2009 with the release of version 5.2.
| Hangul Jamo[1] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+110x | ᄀ | ᄁ | ᄂ | ᄃ | ᄄ | ᄅ | ᄆ | ᄇ | ᄈ | ᄉ | ᄊ | ᄋ | ᄌ | ᄍ | ᄎ | ᄏ |
| U+111x | ᄐ | ᄑ | ᄒ | ᄓ | ᄔ | ᄕ | ᄖ | ᄗ | ᄘ | ᄙ | ᄚ | ᄛ | ᄜ | ᄝ | ᄞ | ᄟ |
| U+112x | ᄠ | ᄡ | ᄢ | ᄣ | ᄤ | ᄥ | ᄦ | ᄧ | ᄨ | ᄩ | ᄪ | ᄫ | ᄬ | ᄭ | ᄮ | ᄯ |
| U+113x | ᄰ | ᄱ | ᄲ | ᄳ | ᄴ | ᄵ | ᄶ | ᄷ | ᄸ | ᄹ | ᄺ | ᄻ | ᄼ | ᄽ | ᄾ | ᄿ |
| U+114x | ᅀ | ᅁ | ᅂ | ᅃ | ᅄ | ᅅ | ᅆ | ᅇ | ᅈ | ᅉ | ᅊ | ᅋ | ᅌ | ᅍ | ᅎ | ᅏ |
| U+115x | ᅐ | ᅑ | ᅒ | ᅓ | ᅔ | ᅕ | ᅖ | ᅗ | ᅘ | ᅙ | ᅚ | ᅛ | ᅜ | ᅝ | ᅞ | HC F |
| U+116x | HJ F |
ᅡ | ᅢ | ᅣ | ᅤ | ᅥ | ᅦ | ᅧ | ᅨ | ᅩ | ᅪ | ᅫ | ᅬ | ᅭ | ᅮ | ᅯ |
| U+117x | ᅰ | ᅱ | ᅲ | ᅳ | ᅴ | ᅵ | ᅶ | ᅷ | ᅸ | ᅹ | ᅺ | ᅻ | ᅼ | ᅽ | ᅾ | ᅿ |
| U+118x | ᆀ | ᆁ | ᆂ | ᆃ | ᆄ | ᆅ | ᆆ | ᆇ | ᆈ | ᆉ | ᆊ | ᆋ | ᆌ | ᆍ | ᆎ | ᆏ |
| U+119x | ᆐ | ᆑ | ᆒ | ᆓ | ᆔ | ᆕ | ᆖ | ᆗ | ᆘ | ᆙ | ᆚ | ᆛ | ᆜ | ᆝ | ᆞ | ᆟ |
| U+11Ax | ᆠ | ᆡ | ᆢ | ᆣ | ᆤ | ᆥ | ᆦ | ᆧ | ᆨ | ᆩ | ᆪ | ᆫ | ᆬ | ᆭ | ᆮ | ᆯ |
| U+11Bx | ᆰ | ᆱ | ᆲ | ᆳ | ᆴ | ᆵ | ᆶ | ᆷ | ᆸ | ᆹ | ᆺ | ᆻ | ᆼ | ᆽ | ᆾ | ᆿ |
| U+11Cx | ᇀ | ᇁ | ᇂ | ᇃ | ᇄ | ᇅ | ᇆ | ᇇ | ᇈ | ᇉ | ᇊ | ᇋ | ᇌ | ᇍ | ᇎ | ᇏ |
| U+11Dx | ᇐ | ᇑ | ᇒ | ᇓ | ᇔ | ᇕ | ᇖ | ᇗ | ᇘ | ᇙ | ᇚ | ᇛ | ᇜ | ᇝ | ᇞ | ᇟ |
| U+11Ex | ᇠ | ᇡ | ᇢ | ᇣ | ᇤ | ᇥ | ᇦ | ᇧ | ᇨ | ᇩ | ᇪ | ᇫ | ᇬ | ᇭ | ᇮ | ᇯ |
| U+11Fx | ᇰ | ᇱ | ᇲ | ᇳ | ᇴ | ᇵ | ᇶ | ᇷ | ᇸ | ᇹ | ᇺ | ᇻ | ᇼ | ᇽ | ᇾ | ᇿ |
Notes
| ||||||||||||||||
| Hangul Jamo Extended-A[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+A96x | ꥠ | ꥡ | ꥢ | ꥣ | ꥤ | ꥥ | ꥦ | ꥧ | ꥨ | ꥩ | ꥪ | ꥫ | ꥬ | ꥭ | ꥮ | ꥯ |
| U+A97x | ꥰ | ꥱ | ꥲ | ꥳ | ꥴ | ꥵ | ꥶ | ꥷ | ꥸ | ꥹ | ꥺ | ꥻ | ꥼ | |||
| Notes | ||||||||||||||||
| Hangul Jamo Extended-B[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+D7Bx | ힰ | ힱ | ힲ | ힳ | ힴ | ힵ | ힶ | ힷ | ힸ | ힹ | ힺ | ힻ | ힼ | ힽ | ힾ | ힿ |
| U+D7Cx | ퟀ | ퟁ | ퟂ | ퟃ | ퟄ | ퟅ | ퟆ | ퟋ | ퟌ | ퟍ | ퟎ | ퟏ | ||||
| U+D7Dx | ퟐ | ퟑ | ퟒ | ퟓ | ퟔ | ퟕ | ퟖ | ퟗ | ퟘ | ퟙ | ퟚ | ퟛ | ퟜ | ퟝ | ퟞ | ퟟ |
| U+D7Ex | ퟠ | ퟡ | ퟢ | ퟣ | ퟤ | ퟥ | ퟦ | ퟧ | ퟨ | ퟩ | ퟪ | ퟫ | ퟬ | ퟭ | ퟮ | ퟯ |
| U+D7Fx | ퟰ | ퟱ | ퟲ | ퟳ | ퟴ | ퟵ | ퟶ | ퟷ | ퟸ | ퟹ | ퟺ | ퟻ | ||||
| Notes | ||||||||||||||||
| Hangul Compatibility Jamo[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+313x | ㄱ | ㄲ | ㄳ | ㄴ | ㄵ | ㄶ | ㄷ | ㄸ | ㄹ | ㄺ | ㄻ | ㄼ | ㄽ | ㄾ | ㄿ | |
| U+314x | ㅀ | ㅁ | ㅂ | ㅃ | ㅄ | ㅅ | ㅆ | ㅇ | ㅈ | ㅉ | ㅊ | ㅋ | ㅌ | ㅍ | ㅎ | ㅏ |
| U+315x | ㅐ | ㅑ | ㅒ | ㅓ | ㅔ | ㅕ | ㅖ | ㅗ | ㅘ | ㅙ | ㅚ | ㅛ | ㅜ | ㅝ | ㅞ | ㅟ |
| U+316x | ㅠ | ㅡ | ㅢ | ㅣ | HF | ㅥ | ㅦ | ㅧ | ㅨ | ㅩ | ㅪ | ㅫ | ㅬ | ㅭ | ㅮ | ㅯ |
| U+317x | ㅰ | ㅱ | ㅲ | ㅳ | ㅴ | ㅵ | ㅶ | ㅷ | ㅸ | ㅹ | ㅺ | ㅻ | ㅼ | ㅽ | ㅾ | ㅿ |
| U+318x | ㆀ | ㆁ | ㆂ | ㆃ | ㆄ | ㆅ | ㆆ | ㆇ | ㆈ | ㆉ | ㆊ | ㆋ | ㆌ | ㆍ | ㆎ | |
| Notes | ||||||||||||||||
Parenthesised (U+3200–U+321E) and circled (U+3260–U+327E) Hangul compatibility characters are in the Enclosed CJK Letters and Months block:
| Hangul subset of Enclosed CJK Letters and Months[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+320x | ㈀ | ㈁ | ㈂ | ㈃ | ㈄ | ㈅ | ㈆ | ㈇ | ㈈ | ㈉ | ㈊ | ㈋ | ㈌ | ㈍ | ㈎ | ㈏ |
| U+321x | ㈐ | ㈑ | ㈒ | ㈓ | ㈔ | ㈕ | ㈖ | ㈗ | ㈘ | ㈙ | ㈚ | ㈛ | ㈜ | ㈝ | ㈞ | |
| ... | (U+3220–U+325F omitted) | |||||||||||||||
| U+326x | ㉠ | ㉡ | ㉢ | ㉣ | ㉤ | ㉥ | ㉦ | ㉧ | ㉨ | ㉩ | ㉪ | ㉫ | ㉬ | ㉭ | ㉮ | ㉯ |
| U+327x | ㉰ | ㉱ | ㉲ | ㉳ | ㉴ | ㉵ | ㉶ | ㉷ | ㉸ | ㉹ | ㉺ | ㉻ | ㉼ | ㉽ | ㉾ | |
| ... | (U+3280–U+32FF omitted) | |||||||||||||||
| Notes | ||||||||||||||||
Half-width Hangul compatibility characters (U+FFA0–U+FFDC) are in the Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms block:
| Hangul subset of Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| ... | (U+FF00–U+FF9F omitted) | |||||||||||||||
| U+FFAx | HW HF |
ﾡ | ﾢ | ﾣ | ﾤ | ﾥ | ﾦ | ﾧ | ﾨ | ﾩ | ﾪ | ﾫ | ﾬ | ﾭ | ﾮ | ﾯ |
| U+FFBx | ﾰ | ﾱ | ﾲ | ﾳ | ﾴ | ﾵ | ﾶ | ﾷ | ﾸ | ﾹ | ﾺ | ﾻ | ﾼ | ﾽ | ﾾ | |
| U+FFCx | ￂ | ￃ | ￄ | ￅ | ￆ | ￇ | ￊ | ￋ | ￌ | ￍ | ￎ | ￏ | ||||
| U+FFDx | ￒ | ￓ | ￔ | ￕ | ￖ | ￗ | ￚ | ￛ | ￜ | |||||||
| ... | (U+FFE0–U+FFEF omitted) | |||||||||||||||
| Notes | ||||||||||||||||
The Korean alphabet in other Unicode blocks:
- Tone marks for Middle Korean[110][111][112] are in the CJK Symbols and Punctuation block: 〮 (
U+302E), 〯 (U+302F) - 11,172 precomposed syllables in the Korean alphabet make up the Hangul Syllables block (
U+AC00–U+D7A3)
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See also
Notes
- Korean: 조선글; pronounced [tsʰo.sʰɔn.ɡɯɭ]
- 한글; English: /ˈhɑːnɡuːl/ ⓘ HAHN-gool
- 훈민정음; 訓民正音
- 24 is the letter count used by international and South Korean scholars. North Korea considers the alphabet to have 40 letters, although both Koreas use the same set of letters.
- In this last line, some digital transcriptions including the one by the Academy of Korean Studies replaces 矣 with 耳.[43]
- The initial ㅇ is introduced in North Korea's official Compendium of Korean Language Norms after ㅅ.[87] Some non–North Korean scholarly sources also use that ordering.[88][89] This ordering places ㅇ at the end because, when it is an initial, it does not produce its own sound.[8][90] In 1999, North Korea submitted a proposal to Unicode and ISO (that was eventually rejected) that places ㅇ at the end of the order for initial consonants.[91]
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References
External links
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