한글

Letter shapes

• 한글consists of vowel and consonant letters corresponding to vowel and consonant

sounds in Korean speech.

• All vowel letters are composed of one or more of three kinds of strokes: a long vertical
stroke ( ㅣ), a long horizontal stroke ( ㅡ ), and a short horizontal or vertical stroke ( ㅡ
or ㅣ ).

• The short stroke was originally a round dot (·). The three basic strokes were modeled
after the cosmological philosophy of heaven (·), earth ( ㅡ), and human being (ㅣ ).
• 한글 has six simple letters and two compound letters to represent eight
simple vowel sounds.

• Is the combination of ㅏ and ㅣ, and ㅔ is the combination of ㅓ and ㅣ.

• In fact, when 한글 was created, ㅐwas pronounced as ay and ㅔ as ŏy.
• They have subsequently evolved into the simple vowels ae and e, respectively.
 Letter shapes
• The short stroke is placed horizontally on a long vertical vowel stroke, as in ㅏand ㅓ
and vertically on a long horizontal stroke, as in ㅗ and ㅜ.

• The vowel sounds with a short stroke on the right or above a long stroke ( ㅏand ㅗ ) are
called “bright” vowels, whereas the vowels with a short stroke on the left or below a
long stroke ( ㅓ and ㅜ ) are called “dark” vowels, because the former sounds are
perceived as brighter or more sonorous to native speakers than the latter.

• The vowels represented by ㅡ and ㅣ are neutral vowels.

• A bright vowel and a dark vowel are not combined

in a single syllable block in making a diphthong.
 Letter shapes
• The short stroke is placed horizontally on a long vertical vowel stroke, as in ㅏand ㅓ
and vertically on a long horizontal stroke, as in ㅗ and ㅜ.

• The vowel sounds with a short stroke on the right or above a long stroke ( ㅏand ㅗ ) are
called “bright” vowels, whereas the vowels with a short stroke on the left or below a
long stroke ( ㅓ and ㅜ ) are called “dark” vowels, because the former sounds are
perceived as brighter or more sonorous to native speakers than the latter.

• The vowels represented by ㅡ and ㅣ are neutral vowels.

• A bright vowel and a dark vowel are not combined

in a single syllable block in making a diphthong.
Vowel Pronunciation

• The qualities of Korean vowels are not the same as those of English vowels, although
they can be approximated as follows.
Vowel Pronunciation

• The eight simple vowels of Korean may be arranged in box form as follows.

• Each vowel is located at the approximate place where it is articulated in the mouth.
 Diphthongs with the semivowel y
• One additional short stroke makes each of the six single-letter vowels a diphthong with
y, as follows.
• Remember that stroke order is top to bottom and left to right.

• The distinction between ㅐ and ㅔ is lost in casual speech, both being pronounced as ,
but is retained in writing as well as in extremely careful pronunciation.
 Letter shapes
• There are nineteen consonant letters.
• Consonant letters originally depicted the speech organs that produce consonant
sounds: the lips, tooth, tongue, and throat.
• The shapes of these organs are associated with the following five consonant letters.

• The remaining fourteen consonants are produced in the same general areas as the
above five places of articulation.
• Thus, the letters representing the sounds related to the above five sounds are derived
by adding extra strokes to the basic letters.
Lip sounds
 Consonant pronunciation
• Of the nineteen consonant letters given above, the sound qualities of the four letters ㅁ,
ㄴ, ㅇ, and ㅎ are essentially the same as in English: m (as in map, team), n (as in nose,
moon), ng (as in song, king), and h (as in hit, hope), respectively.

• The only exception is that ㄴ is pulled to the hard-palate position before the palatal
vowel i or the semivowel y, as in 안니 and 안녕 .

• This pronunciation is called palatalization, in that is assimilated to the palatal vowel or

semivowel.
Consonant pronunciation
• The sound quality of ㄹ is very different from that of either English l or
English r, although ㄹ is romanized as r/l.
• In word-initial position, between two vowels, or between a vowel and the
consonant ㅎ, is pronounced as a socalled flap r like the Japanese or
Spanish r.
• Examples: 라디오 radio, 나라 nara, and 말한다 maranda.
• In word-final position, between a vowel and a consonant, or when adjacent
to another ㄹ, it is pronounced like the so-called English light l that appears
before a vowel (e.g., lung, slope).
• Example: 말 mal, 말과mal.gwa, and 빨리ppal.li.
• In 나를na.rŭl, for example, the first ㄹ in 를 is pronounced as a flap r
and the second ㄹ as a light l.
Consonant pronunciation

• In no situation does a so-called dark l (e.g., milk, bill) appear in Korean.

• This is the reason Koreans have difficulty pronouncing English words with a
dark l occurring in syllable-final position, and English speakers have
difficulty producing Korean light l when it occurs after a vowel.

• When the consonants ㅁ, ㄴ, or ㄹ occur in sequence, each ㅁ, ㄴ, or ㄹ is

• pronounced distinctly, as in 가미 kam.mi, 반날pan.nal, and 불량pul.lyang.
Consonant pronunciation

• Korean has two distinctive kinds of s-sounds: plain ㅅ and tensed ㅆ, which
is tense in the sense that the speech organs involved become tensed for its
articulation.

• The tense ㅆ has the sound quality similar to the initial s in English words
like sun and sea, where s is followed by a vowel, whereas the plain is
similar in sound quality to the s in words like strong, spoil, and steam,
where s is followed by a consonant.
Consonant pronunciation

• While English s is pronounced with the tip of the tongue approaching the
gum-ridge area, the Korean ㅅ and ㅆ are produced with the top of the
tongue approaching the gum ridge and front part of the hard palate and
the tongue tip touching the lower teeth.

• Bothㅅ and ㅆ are pronounced in the back part of the hard palate when
they are followed by the palatal vowel i or semivowel y, as in 시, 쉬, 씨,
and 샤씨.
• 한를 letters are combined into syllable blocks. As has been observed, a
square syllable block has one initial consonant position (C) followed by one
vowel or diphthong position.

• In the final consonant ( 받침 pat’ch’im) position, one or two consonant

may occur.
• If a syllable does not have an initial consonant, the syllable block must have
• the letter in the initial consonant position, as in 안 an or 위 wi. is silent and
functions as a zero consonant in the initial position of a syllable block.

• If the vowel letter in the syllable block contains only one or two long
vertical strokes, it is written to the right of the initial consonant letter.
• If the vowel letter in the syllable block contains only a long horizontal
• stroke, the vowel letter is written below the initial consonant letter.
• If a diphthong letter contains a long horizontal stroke and a long vertical
• stroke, the initial consonant letter occurs in the upper left corner
• When a syllable has one or two final consonants ( 받침), they follow one of
• the following three models:
• 한글letters are alphabetically ordered for dictionary entries, directories,
word lists, and indexes (as in this book). Each letter has a name. In the
following tables, boldface letters are relatively more basic than the other
letters.