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Araea (letter)
Archaic letter of the Korean alphabet Hangul From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Araea (letter: ㆍ; name: 아래아) is an archaic vowel letter of the Korean alphabet, Hangul. It was associated with either an open-mid back unrounded vowel ([ʌ]), an open back rounded vowel ([ɒ]), or an open-mid back rounded vowel ([ɔ]). While the letter is no longer used in modern orthographies for the Korean language, it is used for the Jeju language.[1][2]
Its name, araea (아래아; lit. lower a), is derived from the fact that it is an a-like sound (like ㅏ) but came later in alphabetical order than ㅏ, and thus placed on the bottom of charts for the learning of Hangul (panjŏl).[3]
The letter disappeared from use in two stages: first with its merger into ㅡ in non-initial syllables around by the 16th century, and second with the merger of ㅡ with ㅏ in initial syllables by the 18th century.[4][5] Still, it continued to be a part of orthography even into the 20th century, long after its sound had disappeared from the language.[1] The colonial government's 1912 Hangul Orthography for Use in Elementary Schools and 1921 Summary of the Hangul Orthography for Use in Elementary Schools allowed its continued use for Sino-Korean vocabulary. However, the 1930 Hangul Orthography prohibited it.[6] The Korean Language Society's 1933 Unified Hangul Orthography also called for its prohibition; its use largely ended with this orthography.[7][1][8] Its role has since been replaced with either ㅡ or ㅏ. Still, even into the 1960s, there were stores in South Korea that advertised cigarettes (now spelled "담배") as "담ᄇᆡ".[1] The letter is still used for the Jeju language, where it is pronounced [ɔ] or [ʌ].[2]
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