Hangul

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Korean alphabet
Chosŏn'gŭl written (top) for North Korean and Hangul written (bottom) for South Korean, when referring the alphabet
Script type	Featural alphabet
Creator	Sejong the Great
Time period	1443–present
Direction	Left to right, new line underneath Top to bottom, new line to the left or alternatively right to left with new line underneath (historical)
Languages	Unicode range	U+AC00–U+D7AF U+1100–U+11FF U+3130–U+318F U+A960–U+A97F U+D7B0–U+D7FF
North Korean name
Chosŏn'gŭl	조선글
Hancha	朝鮮글
Revised Romanization	Joseongeul
McCune–Reischauer	Chosŏn'gŭl
IPA	[tsʰo.sʰɔn.ɡɯɭ]
South Korean name
Hangul	한글
Revised Romanization	Hangeul
McCune–Reischauer	Han'gŭl[1]
IPA	[ha(ː)n.ɡɯɭ]
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Korean writing systems
Hangul
Chosŏn'gŭl (in North Korea) New Korean Orthography
Hanja
Gukja (Yakja) Gugyeol Idu (Hyangchal)
Mixed script
Braille
Transcription
McCune–Reischauer Romanization of Korean (North) Revised Romanization (South) Bok Moon Kim romanization [ko] Kontsevich (Cyrillic) Kholodovich system [ru] (Cyrillic)
Transliteration
Yale (scholar) ISO/TR 11941 (Unicode & ISO)
v t e

The Korean alphabet is the modern writing system for the Korean language. In North Korea, the alphabet is known as Chosŏn'gŭl^[a] (North Korean: 조선글), and in South Korea, it is known as Hangul^[b] (South Korean: 한글^[c]).^[3][4][5] The letters for the five basic consonants reflect the shape of the speech organs used to pronounce them. They are systematically modified to indicate phonetic features. The vowel letters are systematically modified for related sounds, making Hangul a featural writing system.^[6][7][8] It has been described as a syllabic alphabet as it combines the features of alphabetic and syllabic writing systems.^[9][7]

Hangul was created in 1443 by

Modern

As in traditional Chinese and Japanese writing, as well as many other texts in East and Southeast Asia, Korean texts were traditionally written top to bottom, right to left, as is occasionally still the way for stylistic purposes. However, Korean is now typically written from left to right with spaces between words serving as dividers, unlike in Japanese and Chinese.^[8] Hangul is the official writing system throughout both North and South Korea. It is a co-official writing system in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and Changbai Korean Autonomous County in Jilin Province, China. Hangul has also seen limited use by speakers of the Cia-Cia language in Buton, Indonesia.^[12]

The Korean alphabet was originally named Hunminjeongeum (훈민정음; 訓民正音) by King Sejong the Great in 1443.^[13] Hunminjeongeum is also the document that explained logic and science behind the script in 1446.^{[citation needed]}

The name hangeul (한글) was coined by Korean linguist

in multiple ways:

• Hangeul or Han-geul in the Revised Romanization of Korean, which the South Korean government uses in English publications and encourages for all purposes.
• Han'gŭl in the McCune–Reischauer system, is often capitalized and rendered without the diacritics when used as an English word, Hangul, as it appears in many English dictionaries.
• Hān kul in the Yale romanization, a system recommended for technical linguistic studies.^{[citation needed]}

After the

]

Other names

Until the mid-20th century, the Korean elite preferred to write using Chinese characters called Hanja. They referred to Hanja as jinseo (진서; 眞書) meaning true letters. Some accounts say the elite referred to the Korean alphabet derisively as amkeul (암클) meaning women's script, and ahaetgeul (아햇글) meaning children's script, though there is no written evidence of this.^[16]

Supporters of the Korean alphabet referred to it as jeongeum (정음; 正音) meaning correct pronunciation, gungmun (국문; 國文) meaning national script, and eonmun (언문; 諺文) meaning vernacular script.^[16]

Koreans primarily wrote using

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.^[16] The publication date of the Hunminjeongeum, October 9, became Hangul Day in South Korea. Its North Korean equivalent, Chosŏn'gŭl Day, is on January 15.^{[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.^[24] 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.^[25]

The Korean alphabet was designed so that people with little education could learn to read and write.^[26] 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."^[27][28]

The opening page of Hunminjeongeum Haerye and its printed form Hunminjeongeum Haeryebon contains King Sejong's foreword written in Literary Chinese, which reads:

ㄱ, and that its sound is the initial of the Sino-Korean pronunciation of 君 (Korean: 군; RR: gun; MR

: kun).

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。[k]
[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.^{[citation needed]}

The Korean alphabet faced opposition in the 1440s by the literary elite, including

Prince Yeonsan banned the study and publication of the Korean alphabet in 1504 during his kingship, after a document criticizing him was published.^[32] Similarly, King Jungjong abolished the Ministry of Eonmun, a governmental institution related to Hangul research, in 1506.^[33]

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.^[34] However, the use of the Korean alphabet had gone without orthographical standardization for so long that spelling had become quite irregular.^[31]

Jeong Cheol

, printed in 1768

In 1796, the

Thanks to growing

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.^[41]

The

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

The arae-a, in any case, begun to be merged with other vowels starting from the 15^th century and the merging process was mostly complete by the 16^th century.[42] In the 21^st century it only survives in the Jeju language which is mutually unintelligible with mainland South Korean varieties.^[43]

]

Japan banned the Korean language from schools and public offices in 1938 and excluded Korean courses from the elementary education in 1941 as part of a policy of cultural assimilation and genocide.^[44][45]

The definitive modern Korean alphabet orthography was published in 1946, just after

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.

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

A high proficiency in Hanja is also useful for understanding the etymology of Sino-Korean words as well as to enlarge one's Korean vocabulary.^[47]

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.^[48]

The Hunminjeong'eum Society in Seoul attempted to spread the use of Hangul to unwritten languages of Asia.^[52] In 2009, it was unofficially adopted by the town of Baubau, in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, to write the Cia-Cia language.^{[53][54][55][56]}

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.^[57]

Letters in the Korean alphabet are called jamo (자모; 字母). There are 14 consonants (자음; 子音) and 10 vowels (모음; 母音) used in the modern alphabet. They were first named in Hunmongjahoe [ko], a Hanja textbook written by Choe Sejin. Additionally, 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]}

In typography design and in IME automata, the letters that make up a block are called jaso (자소; 字素).

• 
  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).

Hangul		ㄱ	ㄲ	ㄴ	ㄷ	ㄸ	ㄹ	ㅁ	ㅂ	ㅃ	ㅅ	ㅆ	ㅇ	ㅈ	ㅉ	ㅊ	ㅋ	ㅌ	ㅍ	ㅎ
Initial	Romanization	g	kk	n	d	tt	r	m	b	pp	s	ss	' [l]	j	jj	ch	k	t	p	h
	IPA	/k/	/k͈/	/n/	/t/	/t͈/	/ɾ/	/m/	/p/	/p͈/	/s/	/s͈/	silent	/t͡ɕ/	/t͈͡ɕ͈/	/t͡ɕʰ/	/kʰ/	/tʰ/	/pʰ/	/h/
Final	Romanization	k	k	n	t	–	l	m	p	–	t	t	ng	t	–	t	k	t	p	t
		g	kk	n	d		l	m	b		s	ss	ng	j		ch	k	t	p	h
	IPA	/k̚/		/n/	/t̚/	–	/ɭ/	/m/	/p̚/	–	/t̚/		/ŋ/	/t̚/	–	/t̚/	/k̚/	/t̚/	/p̚/	/t̚/

ㅇ is silent syllable-initially and is used as a placeholder when the syllable starts with a vowel. ㄸ, ㅃ, and ㅉ are never used syllable-finally.

The consonants are broadly categorized into two categories:

• fricative
  ).
• sonorants: sounds produced when air flows out with little to no obstruction through the mouth, nose, or both.^[58]

The chart below lists the Korean consonants by their respective categories and subcategories.

Consonants in Standard Korean (orthography)^[59]

			Bilabial	Alveolar	Alveolo-palatal	Velar	Glottal
Obstruent	Stop (plosive)	Lax	p (ㅂ)	t (ㄷ)		k (ㄱ)
		Tense	p͈ (ㅃ)	t͈ (ㄸ)		k͈ (ㄲ)
		Aspirated	pʰ (ㅍ)	tʰ (ㅌ)		kʰ (ㅋ)
	Fricative	Lax		s (ㅅ)			h (ㅎ)
		Tense		s͈ (ㅆ)
	Affricate	Lax			t͡ɕ (ㅈ)
		Tense			t͈͡ɕ͈ (ㅉ)
		Aspirated			t͡ɕʰ (ㅊ)
Sonorant	Nasal		m (ㅁ)	n (ㄴ)		ŋ (ㅇ)
	Liquid (lateral approximant)			l (ㄹ)

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.^[58]

Korean sonorants are voiced.

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).

Hangul	ㅏ	ㅐ	ㅑ	ㅒ	ㅓ	ㅔ	ㅕ	ㅖ	ㅗ	ㅘ	ㅙ	ㅚ	ㅛ	ㅜ	ㅝ	ㅞ	ㅟ	ㅠ	ㅡ	ㅢ	ㅣ
Revised Romanization	a	ae	ya	yae	eo	e	yeo	ye	o	wa	wae	oe	yo	u	wo	we	wi	yu	eu	ui / yi	i
IPA	/a/	/ɛ/	/ja/	/jɛ/	/ʌ/	/e/	/jʌ/	/je/	/o/	/wa/	/wɛ/	/ø/ ~ [we]	/jo/	/u/	/wʌ/	/we/	/y/ ~ /ɥi/	/ju/	/ɯ/	/ɰi/	/i/

The vowels are generally separated into two categories:

Alphabetic order

Alphabetic order in the Korean alphabet is called the ganada order (가나다순), after the first three letters of the alphabet. The alphabetical order of the Korean alphabet does not mix consonants and vowels. Rather, first are velar consonants, then coronals, labials, sibilants, etc. The vowels come after the consonants.^[61]

The collation order of Korean in Unicode is based on the South Korean order.

The order from the Hunminjeongeum in 1446 was:^[62]

ㄱ ㄲ ㅋ ㆁ ㄷ ㄸ ㅌ ㄴ ㅥ ㅂ ㅃ ㅍ ㅁ ㅈ ㅉ ㅊ ㅅ ㅆ ㆆ ㅎ ㆅ ㅇ ㄹ ㅿ

ㆍ ㅡ ㅣ ㅗ ㅏ ㅜ ㅓ ㅛ ㅑ ㅠ ㅕ

This is the basis of the modern alphabetic orders. It was before the development of the Korean tense consonants and the double letters that represent them, and before the conflation of the letters ㅇ (null) and ㆁ (ng). Thus, when the North Korean and South Korean governments implemented full use of the Korean alphabet, they ordered these letters differently, with North Korea placing new letters at the end of the alphabet and South Korea grouping similar letters together.^[63][64]

The double letters are placed after all the single letters (except the null initial ㅇ, which goes at the end).

ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ ㅇ

ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ ㅐ ㅒ ㅔ ㅖ ㅚ ㅟ ㅢ ㅘ ㅝ ㅙ ㅞ

All digraphs and trigraphs, including the old diphthongs ㅐ and ㅔ, are placed after the simple vowels, again maintaining Choe's alphabetic order.

The order of the final letters (받침) is:

(none) 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

(None means there is no final letter.)

Unlike when it is initial, this ㅇ is pronounced, as the nasal ㅇ ng, which occurs only as a final in the modern language. The double letters are placed to the very end, as in the initial order, but the combined consonants are ordered immediately after their first element.^[63]

In the Southern order, double letters are placed immediately after their single counterparts:

ㄱ ㄲ ㄴ ㄷ ㄸ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅃ ㅅ ㅆ ㅇ ㅈ ㅉ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ

ㅏ ㅐ ㅑ ㅒ ㅓ ㅔ ㅕ ㅖ ㅗ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅛ ㅜ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅠ ㅡ ㅢ ㅣ

The modern monophthongal vowels come first, with the derived forms interspersed according to their form: i is added first, then iotated, then iotated with added i. Diphthongs beginning with w are ordered according to their spelling, as ㅗ or ㅜ plus a second vowel, not as separate digraphs.

The order of the final letters is:

(none) 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

Every syllable begins with a consonant (or the silent ㅇ) that is followed by a vowel (e.g. ㄷ + ㅏ = 다). Some syllables such as 달 and 닭 have a final consonant or final consonant cluster (받침). Thus, 399 combinations are possible for two-letter syllables and 10,773 possible combinations for syllables with more than two letters (27 possible final endings), for a total of 11,172 possible combinations of Korean alphabet letters to form syllables.^[63]

The sort order including archaic Hangul letters defined in the South Korean national standard KS X 1026-1 is:^[65]

• Initial consonants: ᄀ, ᄁ, ᅚ, ᄂ, ᄓ, ᄔ, ᄕ, ᄖ, ᅛ, ᅜ, ᅝ, ᄃ, ᄗ, ᄄ, ᅞ, ꥠ, ꥡ, ꥢ, ꥣ, ᄅ, ꥤ, ꥥ, ᄘ, ꥦ, ꥧ, ᄙ, ꥨ, ꥩ, ꥪ, ꥫ, ꥬ, ꥭ, ꥮ, ᄚ, ᄛ, ᄆ, ꥯ, ꥰ, ᄜ, ꥱ, ᄝ, ᄇ, ᄞ, ᄟ, ᄠ, ᄈ, ᄡ, ᄢ, ᄣ, ᄤ, ᄥ, ᄦ, ꥲ, ᄧ, ᄨ, ꥳ, ᄩ, ᄪ, ꥴ, ᄫ, ᄬ, ᄉ, ᄭ, ᄮ, ᄯ, ᄰ, ᄱ, ᄲ, ᄳ, ᄊ, ꥵ, ᄴ, ᄵ, ᄶ, ᄷ, ᄸ, ᄹ, ᄺ, ᄻ, ᄼ, ᄽ, ᄾ, ᄿ, ᅀ, ᄋ, ᅁ, ᅂ, ꥶ, ᅃ, ᅄ, ᅅ, ᅆ, ᅇ, ᅈ, ᅉ, ᅊ, ᅋ, ꥷ, ᅌ, ᄌ, ᅍ, ᄍ, ꥸ, ᅎ, ᅏ, ᅐ, ᅑ, ᄎ, ᅒ, ᅓ, ᅔ, ᅕ, ᄏ, ᄐ, ꥹ, ᄑ, ᅖ, ꥺ, ᅗ, ᄒ, ꥻ, ᅘ, ᅙ, ꥼ, (filler; U+115F)
• Medial vowels: (filler; U+1160), ᅡ, ᅶ, ᅷ, ᆣ, ᅢ, ᅣ, ᅸ, ᅹ, ᆤ, ᅤ, ᅥ, ᅺ, ᅻ, ᅼ, ᅦ, ᅧ, ᆥ, ᅽ, ᅾ, ᅨ, ᅩ, ᅪ, ᅫ, ᆦ, ᆧ, ᅿ, ᆀ, ힰ, ᆁ, ᆂ, ힱ, ᆃ, ᅬ, ᅭ, ힲ, ힳ, ᆄ, ᆅ, ힴ, ᆆ, ᆇ, ᆈ, ᅮ, ᆉ, ᆊ, ᅯ, ᆋ, ᅰ, ힵ, ᆌ, ᆍ, ᅱ, ힶ, ᅲ, ᆎ, ힷ, ᆏ, ᆐ, ᆑ, ᆒ, ힸ, ᆓ, ᆔ, ᅳ, ힹ, ힺ, ힻ, ힼ, ᆕ, ᆖ, ᅴ, ᆗ, ᅵ, ᆘ, ᆙ, ힽ, ힾ, ힿ, ퟀ, ᆚ, ퟁ, ퟂ, ᆛ, ퟃ, ᆜ, ퟄ, ᆝ, ᆞ, ퟅ, ᆟ, ퟆ, ᆠ, ᆡ, ᆢ
• Final consonants: (none), ᆨ, ᆩ, ᇺ, ᇃ, ᇻ, ᆪ, ᇄ, ᇼ, ᇽ, ᇾ, ᆫ, ᇅ, ᇿ, ᇆ, ퟋ, ᇇ, ᇈ, ᆬ, ퟌ, ᇉ, ᆭ, ᆮ, ᇊ, ퟍ, ퟎ, ᇋ, ퟏ, ퟐ, ퟑ, ퟒ, ퟓ, ퟔ, ᆯ, ᆰ, ퟕ, ᇌ, ퟖ, ᇍ, ᇎ, ᇏ, ᇐ, ퟗ, ᆱ, ᇑ, ᇒ, ퟘ, ᆲ, ퟙ, ᇓ, ퟚ, ᇔ, ᇕ, ᆳ, ᇖ, ᇗ, ퟛ, ᇘ, ᆴ, ᆵ, ᆶ, ᇙ, ퟜ, ퟝ, ᆷ, ᇚ, ퟞ, ퟟ, ᇛ, ퟠ, ᇜ, ퟡ, ᇝ, ᇞ, ᇟ, ퟢ, ᇠ, ᇡ, ᇢ, ᆸ, ퟣ, ᇣ, ퟤ, ퟥ, ퟦ, ᆹ, ퟧ, ퟨ, ퟩ, ᇤ, ᇥ, ᇦ, ᆺ, ᇧ, ᇨ, ᇩ, ퟪ, ᇪ, ퟫ, ᆻ, ퟬ, ퟭ, ퟮ, ퟯ, ퟰ, ퟱ, ퟲ, ᇫ, ퟳ, ퟴ, ᆼ, ᇰ, ᇬ, ᇭ, ퟵ, ᇱ, ᇲ, ᇮ, ᇯ, ퟶ, ᆽ, ퟷ, ퟸ, ퟹ, ᆾ, ᆿ, ᇀ, ᇁ, ᇳ, ퟺ, ퟻ, ᇴ, ᇂ, ᇵ, ᇶ, ᇷ, ᇸ, ᇹ

• 
  Sort order of Hangul consonants defined in the South Korean national standard KS X 1026-1
• 
  Sort order of Hangul vowels defined in the South Korean national standard KS X 1026-1

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Letters in the Korean alphabet were named by Korean linguist Choe Sejin in 1527. South Korea uses Choe's traditional names, most of which follow the format of letter + i + eu + letter. Choe described these names by listing Hanja characters with similar pronunciations. However, as the syllables 윽 euk, 읃 eut, and 읏 eut did not occur in Hanja, Choe gave those letters the modified names 기역 giyeok, 디귿 digeut, and 시옷 siot, using Hanja that did not fit the pattern (for 기역) or native Korean syllables (for 디귿 and 시옷).^[66]

Originally, Choe gave ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ, and ㅎ the irregular one-syllable names of ji, chi, ḳi, ṭi, p̣i, and hi, because they should not be used as final consonants, as specified in Hunminjeongeum. However, after establishment of the new orthography in 1933, which let all consonants be used as finals, the names changed to the present forms.

The chart below shows names used in North Korea for consonants in the Korean alphabet. The letters are arranged in North Korean alphabetic order, and the letter names are romanised with the McCune–Reischauer system, which is widely used in North Korea. The tense consonants are described with the word 된 toen meaning hard.

Consonant	ㄱ	ㄴ	ㄷ	ㄹ	ㅁ	ㅂ	ㅅ	ㅈ	ㅊ	ㅋ	ㅌ	ㅍ	ㅎ	ㄲ	ㄸ	ㅃ	ㅆ	ㅉ	ㅇ
Name	기윽	니은	디읃	리을	미음	비읍	시읏	지읒	치읓	키읔	티읕	피읖	히읗	된기윽	된디읃	된비읍	된시읏	된지읒	이응
McCR	kiŭk	niŭn	diŭt	riŭl	miŭm	piŭp	siŭt	jiŭt	chiŭt	ḳiŭk	ṭiŭt	p̣iŭp	hiŭt	toen'giŭk	toendiŭt	toenbiŭp	toensiŭt	toenjiŭt	'iŭng

In North Korea, an alternative way to refer to a consonant is letter + ŭ (ㅡ), for example, gŭ (그) for the letter ㄱ, and ssŭ (쓰) for the letter ㅆ.

As in South Korea, the names of vowels in the Korean alphabet are the same as the sound of each vowel.

The chart below shows names used in South Korea for consonants of the Korean alphabet. The letters are arranged in the South Korean alphabetic order, and the letter names are romanised in the Revised Romanization system, which is the official romanization system of South Korea. The tense consonants are described with the word 쌍 ssang meaning double.

Consonant	ㄱ	ㄲ	ㄴ	ㄷ	ㄸ	ㄹ	ㅁ	ㅂ	ㅃ	ㅅ	ㅆ	ㅇ	ㅈ	ㅉ	ㅊ	ㅋ	ㅌ	ㅍ	ㅎ
Name (Hangul)	기역	쌍기역	니은	디귿	쌍디귿	리을	미음	비읍	쌍비읍	시옷	쌍시옷	이응	지읒	쌍지읒	치읓	키읔	티읕	피읖	히읗
Name (romanised)	gi-yeok	ssang-giyeok	ni-eun	digeut	ssang-digeut	ri-eul	mi-eum	bi-eup	ssang-bi-eup	si-ot (shi-ot)	ssang-si-ot (ssang-shi-ot)	'i-eung	ji-eut	ssang-ji-eut	chi-eut	ḳi-euk	ṭi-eut	p̣i-eup	hi-eut

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.^[67][68]

• 
  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)

For the

vowels, which are not shown, the short stroke is simply doubled.

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Scripts typically transcribe languages at the level of

for vowels.

For instance, the consonant ㅌ ṭ [tʰ] is composed of three strokes, each one meaningful: the top stroke indicates ㅌ is a plosive, like ㆆ ʔ, ㄱ g, ㄷ d, ㅈ j, which have the same stroke (the last is an

affricate

, a plosive–fricative sequence); the middle stroke indicates that ㅌ is aspirated, like ㅎ h, ㅋ ḳ, ㅊ ch, which also have this stroke; and the bottom stroke indicates that ㅌ is alveolar, like ㄴ n, ㄷ d, and ㄹ l. (It is said to represent the shape of the tongue when pronouncing coronal consonants, though this is not certain.) Two obsolete consonants, ㆁ and ㅱ, have dual pronunciations, and appear to be composed of two elements corresponding to these two pronunciations: [ŋ]~silence for ㆁ and [m]~[w] for ㅱ.

With vowel letters, a short stroke connected to the main line of the letter indicates that this is one of the vowels that can be iotated; this stroke is then doubled when the vowel is iotated. The position of the stroke indicates which harmonic class the vowel belongs to,

dialect of Seoul

, some of these may still be diphthongs. For example, in the Seoul dialect, ㅚ may alternatively be pronounced [we̞], and ㅟ [ɥi]. (ㅔ [e] as a morpheme is ㅓ combined with ㅣ as a vertical stroke. As a phoneme, its sound is not by i mutation of ㅓ [ʌ].)

Beside the letters, the Korean alphabet originally employed

and is no longer written.

Consonant design

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The consonant letters fall into five

take when making these sounds.

	Simple	Aspirated	Tense
velar	ㄱ	ㅋ	ㄲ
fricatives	ㅅ		ㅆ
palatal	ㅈ	ㅊ	ㅉ
coronal	ㄷ	ㅌ	ㄸ
bilabial	ㅂ	ㅍ	ㅃ

• Velar consonants (아음; 牙音; aeum; lit. 'molar sounds')
  • ㄱ g [k], ㅋ ḳ [kʰ]
  • Basic shape: ㄱ is a side view of the back of the tongue raised toward the velum (soft palate). (For illustration, access the external link below.) ㅋ is derived from ㄱ with a stroke for the burst of aspiration.
• Sibilant consonants
  (fricative or palatal) (치음; 齒音; chieum; lit. 'dental sounds'):
  • ㅅ s [s], ㅈ j [tɕ], ㅊ ch [tɕʰ]
  • Basic shape: ㅅ was originally shaped like a wedge (∧), without the serif on top. It represents a side view of the teeth.^{[citation needed]} The line topping ㅈ represents firm contact with the roof of the mouth. The stroke topping ㅊ represents an additional burst of aspiration.
• Coronal consonants (설음; 舌音; seoreum; lit. 'lingual sounds'):
  • ㄴ n [n], ㄷ d [t], ㅌ ṭ [tʰ], ㄹ r [ɾ, ɭ]
  • Basic shape: ㄴ is a side view of the tip of the tongue raised toward the
    flap
    of the tongue.
• Bilabial consonants (순음; 唇音; suneum; lit. 'labial sounds'):
  • ㅁ m [m], ㅂ b [p], ㅍ p̣ [pʰ]
  • Basic shape: ㅁ represents the outline of the lips in contact with each other. The top of ㅂ represents the release burst of the b. The top stroke of ㅍ is for the burst of aspiration.
• Dorsal consonants (후음; 喉音; hueum; lit. 'throat sounds'):
  • ㅇ '/ng [ŋ], ㅎ h [h]
  • Basic shape: ㅇ is an outline of the throat. Originally ㅇ was two letters, a simple circle for silence (null consonant), and a circle topped by a vertical line, ㆁ, for the nasal ng. A now obsolete letter, ㆆ, represented a glottal stop, which is pronounced in the throat and had closure represented by the top line, like ㄱㄷㅈ. Derived from ㆆ is ㅎ, in which the extra stroke represents a burst of aspiration.

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Vowel letters are based on three elements:

• A horizontal line representing the flat Earth, the essence of yin.
• A point for the Sun in the heavens, the essence of yang. (This becomes a short stroke when written with a brush.)
• A vertical line for the upright Human, the neutral mediator between the Heaven and Earth.

Short strokes (dots in the earliest documents) were added to these three basic elements to derive the vowel letter:

• Horizontal letters: these are mid-high back vowels.
  • bright ㅗ o
  • dark ㅜ u
  • dark ㅡ eu (ŭ)
• Vertical letters: these were once low vowels.
  • bright ㅏ a
  • dark ㅓ eo (ŏ)
  • bright ㆍ
  • neutral ㅣ i

The Korean alphabet does not have a letter for w sound. Since an o or u before an a or eo became a [w] sound, and [w] occurred nowhere else, [w] could always be analyzed as a phonemic o or u, and no letter for [w] was needed. However, vowel harmony is observed: dark ㅜ u with dark ㅓ eo for ㅝ wo; bright ㅗ o with bright ㅏ a for ㅘ wa:

• ㅘ wa = ㅗ o + ㅏ a
• ㅝ wo = ㅜ u + ㅓ eo
• ㅙ wae = ㅗ o + ㅐ ae
• ㅞ we = ㅜ u + ㅔ e

The compound vowels ending in ㅣ i were originally diphthongs. However, several have since evolved into pure vowels:

• ㅐ ae = ㅏ a + ㅣ i (pronounced [ɛ])
• ㅔ e = ㅓ eo + ㅣ i (pronounced [e])
• ㅙ wae = ㅘ wa + ㅣ i
• ㅚ oe = ㅗ o + ㅣ i (formerly pronounced [ø], see Korean phonology)
• ㅞ we = ㅝ wo + ㅣ i
• ㅟ wi = ㅜ u + ㅣ i (formerly pronounced [y], see Korean phonology)
• ㅢ ui = ㅡ eu + ㅣ i

There is no letter for y. Instead, this sound is indicated by doubling the stroke attached to the baseline of the vowel letter. Of the seven basic vowels, four could be preceded by a y sound, and these four were written as a dot next to a line. (Through the influence of Chinese calligraphy, the dots soon became connected to the line: ㅓㅏㅜㅗ.) A preceding y sound, called iotation, was indicated by doubling this dot: ㅕㅑㅠㅛ yeo, ya, yu, yo. The three vowels that could not be iotated were written with a single stroke: ㅡ, ㆍ, and ㅣ eu, (arae a), i.

Simple	Iotated
ㅏ	ㅑ
ㅓ	ㅕ
ㅗ	ㅛ
ㅜ	ㅠ
ㅡ
ㅣ

The simple iotated vowels are:

• ㅑ ya from ㅏ  a
• ㅕ yeo from ㅓ  eo
• ㅛ yo from ㅗ  o
• ㅠ yu from ㅜ  u

There are also two iotated diphthongs:

• ㅒ yae from ㅐ  ae
• ㅖ ye from ㅔ  e

The Korean language of the 15th century had vowel harmony to a greater extent than it does today. Vowels in grammatical morphemes changed according to their environment, falling into groups that "harmonized" with each other. This affected the morphology of the language, and Korean phonology described it in terms of yin and yang: If a root word had yang ('bright') vowels, then most suffixes attached to it also had to have yang vowels; conversely, if the root had yin ('dark') vowels, the suffixes had to be yin as well. There was a third harmonic group called mediating (neutral in Western terminology) that could coexist with either yin or yang vowels.

The Korean neutral vowel was ㅣ i. The yin vowels were ㅡ, ㅜ, ㅓ eu, u, eo; the dots are in the yin directions of down and left. The yang vowels were ㆍㅗㅏ ə, o, a, with the dots in the yang directions of up and right. The Hunmin Jeong-eum Haerye states that the shapes of the non-dotted letters ㅡ, ㆍ, and ㅣ were chosen to represent the concepts of yin, yang, and mediation: Earth, Heaven, and Human. (The letter ㆍ ə is now obsolete except in the Jeju language.)

The third parameter in designing the vowel letters was choosing ㅡ as the graphic base of ㅜ and ㅗ, and ㅣ as the graphic base of ㅓ and ㅏ. A full understanding of what these horizontal and vertical groups had in common would require knowing the exact sound values these vowels had in the 15th century.

The uncertainty is primarily with the three letters ㆍㅓㅏ. Some linguists reconstruct these as *a, *ɤ, and *e, respectively; others as *ə, *e, and *a. A third reconstruction is to make them all middle vowels as *ʌ, *ɤ, and *a.^[70] With the third reconstruction, Middle Korean vowels line up in a vowel harmony pattern, but with only one front vowel and four middle vowels:

ㅣ *i	ㅡ *ɯ	ㅜ *u
	ㅓ *ɤ
	ㆍ *ʌ	ㅗ *o
	ㅏ *a

However, the horizontal letters ㅡㅜㅗ eu, u, o do all appear to have been mid to high back vowels, [*ɯ, *u, *o], and thus to have formed a coherent group phonetically in every reconstruction.

The traditionally accepted account^{[m][71][unreliable source?]} on the design of the letters is that the vowels are derived from various combinations of the following three components: ㆍ ㅡ ㅣ. Here, ㆍ symbolically stands for the (sun in) heaven, ㅡ stands for the (flat) earth, and ㅣ stands for an (upright) human. The original sequence of the Korean vowels, as stated in Hunminjeongeum, listed these three vowels first, followed by various combinations. Thus, the original order of the vowels was: ㆍ ㅡ ㅣ ㅗ ㅏ ㅜ ㅓ ㅛ ㅑ ㅠ ㅕ. Two positive vowels (ㅗ ㅏ) including one ㆍ are followed by two negative vowels including one ㆍ, then by two positive vowels each including two of ㆍ, and then by two negative vowels each including two of ㆍ.

The same theory provides the most simple explanation of the shapes of the consonants as an approximation of the shapes of the most representative organ needed to form that sound. The original order of the consonants in Hunminjeong'eum was: ㄱ ㅋ ㆁ ㄷ ㅌ ㄴ ㅂ ㅍ ㅁ ㅈ ㅊ ㅅ ㆆ ㅎ ㅇ ㄹ ㅿ.

1. ㄱ representing the [k] sound geometrically describes its tongue back raised.
2. ㅋ representing the [kʰ] sound is derived from ㄱ by adding another stroke.
3. ㆁ representing the [ŋ] sound may have been derived from ㅇ by addition of a stroke.
4. ㄷ representing the [t] sound is derived from ㄴ by adding a stroke.
5. ㅌ representing the [tʰ] sound is derived from ㄷ by adding another stroke.
6. ㄴ representing the [n] sound geometrically describes a tongue making contact with an upper palate.
7. ㅂ representing the [p] sound is derived from ㅁ by adding a stroke.
8. ㅍ representing the [pʰ] sound is a variant of ㅂ by adding another stroke.
9. ㅁ representing the [m] sound geometrically describes a closed mouth.
10. ㅈ representing the [t͡ɕ] sound is derived from ㅅ by adding a stroke.
11. ㅊ representing the [t͡ɕʰ] sound is derived from ㅈ by adding another stroke.
12. ㅅ representing the [s] sound geometrically describes the sharp teeth.^{[citation needed]}
13. ㆆ representing the [ʔ] sound is derived from ㅇ by adding a stroke.
14. ㅎ representing the [h] sound is derived from ㆆ by adding another stroke.
15. ㅇ representing the absence of a consonant geometrically describes the throat.
16. ㄹ representing the [ɾ] and [ɭ] sounds geometrically describes the bending tongue.
17. ㅿ representing a weak ㅅ sound describes the sharp teeth, but has a different origin than ㅅ.^{[clarification needed]}

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Although the Hunminjeong'eum Haerye explains the design of the consonantal letters in terms of

. He, however, also believed that the role of 'Phags-pa script in the creation of the Korean alphabet was quite limited, stating it should not be assumed that Hangul was derived from 'Phags-pa script based on his theory:

It should be clear to any reader that in the total picture, that ['Phags-pa script's] role was quite limited ... Nothing would disturb me more, after this study is published, than to discover in a work on the history of writing a statement like the following: "According to recent investigations, the Korean alphabet was derived from the Mongol's

phags-pa script."^[72]

Ledyard posits that five of the Korean letters have shapes inspired by 'Phags-pa; a sixth basic letter, the null initial ㅇ, was invented by Sejong. The rest of the letters were derived internally from these six, essentially as described in the Hunmin Jeong-eum Haerye. However, the five borrowed consonants were not the graphically simplest letters considered basic by the Hunmin Jeong-eum Haerye, but instead the consonants basic to Chinese phonology: ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, ㅈ, and ㄹ.^[citation needed]

The Hunmin Jeong-eum states that King Sejong adapted the 古篆 (gojeon, Gǔ Seal Script) in creating the Korean alphabet. The 古篆 has never been identified. The primary meaning of 古 gǔ is old (Old Seal Script), frustrating philologists because the Korean alphabet bears no functional similarity to Chinese 篆字 zhuànzì seal scripts. However, Ledyard believes 古 gǔ may be a pun on 蒙古 Měnggǔ "Mongol", and that 古篆 is an abbreviation of 蒙古篆字 "Mongol Seal Script", that is, the formal variant of the 'Phags-pa alphabet written to look like the Chinese seal script. There were 'Phags-pa manuscripts in the Korean palace library, including some in the seal-script form, and several of Sejong's ministers knew the script well. If this was the case, Sejong's evasion on the Mongol connection can be understood in light of Korea's relationship with Ming China after the fall of the Mongol Yuan dynasty, and of the literati's contempt for the Mongols.^{[citation needed]}

According to Ledyard, the five borrowed letters were graphically simplified, which allowed for consonant clusters and left room to add a stroke to derive the aspirate plosives, ㅋㅌㅍㅊ. But in contrast to the traditional account, the non-plosives (ㆁ ㄴ ㅁ ㅅ) were derived by removing the top of the basic letters. He points out that while it is easy to derive ㅁ from ㅂ by removing the top, it is not clear how to derive ㅂ from ㅁ in the traditional account, since the shape of ㅂ is not analogous to those of the other plosives.^{[citation needed]}

The explanation of the letter ng also differs from the traditional account. Many Chinese words began with ng, but by King Sejong's day, initial ng was either silent or pronounced [ŋ] in China, and was silent when these words were borrowed into Korean. Also, the expected shape of ng (the short vertical line left by removing the top stroke of ㄱ) would have looked almost identical to the vowel ㅣ [i]. Sejong's solution solved both problems: The vertical stroke left from ㄱ was added to the null symbol ㅇ to create ㆁ (a circle with a vertical line on top), iconically capturing both the pronunciation [ŋ] in the middle or end of a word, and the usual silence at the beginning. (The graphic distinction between null ㅇ and ng ㆁ was eventually lost.)

Another letter composed of two elements to represent two regional pronunciations was ㅱ, which transcribed the Chinese

微. This represented either m or w in various Chinese dialects, and was composed of ㅁ [m] plus ㅇ (from 'Phags-pa [w]). In 'Phags-pa, a loop under a letter represented w after vowels, and Ledyard hypothesized that this became the loop at the bottom of ㅱ. In 'Phags-pa the Chinese initial 微 is also transcribed as a compound with w, but in its case the w is placed under an h. Actually, the Chinese consonant series 微非敷 w, v, f is transcribed in 'Phags-pa by the addition of a w under three graphic variants of the letter for h, and the Korean alphabet parallels this convention by adding the w loop to the labial series ㅁㅂㅍ m, b, p, producing now-obsolete ㅱㅸㆄ w, v, f. (Phonetic values in Korean are uncertain, as these consonants were only used to transcribe Chinese.)

As a final piece of evidence, Ledyard notes that most of the borrowed Korean letters were simple geometric shapes, at least originally, but that ㄷ d [t] always had a small lip protruding from the upper left corner, just as the 'Phags-pa ꡊ d [t] did. This lip can be traced back to the Tibetan letter ད d.^{[citation needed]}

There is also the argument that the original theory, which stated the Hangul consonants to have been derived from the shape of the speaker's lips and tongue during the pronunciation of the consonants (initially, at least), slightly strains credulity.^[73]

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Numerous obsolete Korean letters and sequences are no longer used in Korean. Some of these letters were only used to represent the sounds of Chinese rime tables. Some of the Korean sounds represented by these obsolete letters still exist in dialects.

13 obsolete consonants (IPA)		Soft consonants
Jamo		ᄛ	ㅱ	ㅸ	ᄼ	ᄾ	ㅿ	ㆁ	ㅇ	ᅎ	ᅐ	ᅔ	ᅕ	ㆄ	ㆆ
IPA		/ ɾ /	first:/ɱ/ last:/w/	/β/	/s/	/ ɕ /	/z/	/ ŋ /	/∅/	/ t͡s /	/t͡ɕ/	/t͡sʰ/	/t͡ɕʰ/	/f/	/ʔ/
Identified Chinese character ( Hanzi )			微(미) / ɱ /	非(비) /f/	心(심) /s/	審(심) / ɕ /	日 (ᅀᅵᇙ>일) /z/	final position: 業 / ŋ /	initial position: 欲 /∅/	精(정) / t͡s /	照(조) /t͡ɕ/	淸(청) /t͡sʰ/	穿(천) /t͡ɕʰ/	敷(부) /fʰ/	挹(읍) /ʔ/
Toneme		falling	mid to falling	mid to falling	mid	mid to falling	dipping/ mid			mid	mid to falling	mid (aspirated)	high (aspirated)	mid to falling (aspirated)	high/mid
Remark										voiced dental affricate	lenis voiceless retroflex affricate/ voiced retroflex affricate	aspirated / t͡s /	aspirated /t͡ɕ/		glottal stop
Equivalents							Standard Chinese Pinyin: 子 z [tsɨ]; English: z in zoo or zebra; strong z in English zip	identical to the initial position of ng in Cantonese						German pf	"읗" = "euh" in pronunciation

10 obsolete double consonants (IPA)	Hard consonants
Jamo	ㅥ	ᄙ	ㅹ	ᄽ	ᄿ	ᅇ	ᇮ	ᅏ	ᅑ	ㆅ
IPA	/nː/		/v/	/sˁ/	/ɕˁ/	/j/	/ŋː/	/t͡s/	/t͡ɕˁ/	/hˁ/
Middle Chinese	hn/nn	hl/ll	bh, bhh	sh	zh	hngw/gh or gr	hng	dz, ds	dzh	hh or xh
Identified Chinese character (Hanzi)				邪(사) /z/	禪(선) /ʑ/			從(종) / d͡z /	牀(상) /d͡ʑ/	洪(홍) /ɦ/
Remark				aspirated	aspirated			unaspirated voiceless dental affricate	unaspirated fortis voiceless retroflex affricate	guttural

• 66 obsolete clusters of two consonants: ᇃ, ᄓ /ng/ (like English think), ㅦ /nd/ (as English Monday), ᄖ, ㅧ /ns/ (as English Pennsylvania), ㅨ, ᇉ /tʰ/ (as ㅌ; nt in the language Esperanto), ᄗ /dg/ (similar to ㄲ; equivalent to the word 밖 in Korean), ᇋ /dr/ (like English in drive), ᄘ /ɭ/ (similar to French Belle), ㅪ, ㅬ /lz/ (similar to English tall zebra), ᇘ, ㅭ /t͡ɬ/ (tl or ll; as in Nahuatl), ᇚ /ṃ/ (mh or mg, mm in English hammer, Middle Korean: pronounced as 목 mog with the ㄱ in the word almost silent), ᇛ, ㅮ, ㅯ (similar to ㅂ in Korean 없다), ㅰ, ᇠ, ᇡ, ㅲ, ᄟ, ㅳ bd (assimilated later into ㄸ), ᇣ, ㅶ bj (assimilated later into ㅉ), ᄨ /bj/ (similar to 비추 in Korean verb 비추다 bit-chu-da but without the vowel), ㅷ, ᄪ, ᇥ /ph/ (pha similar to Korean word 돌입하지 dol ip-haji), ㅺ sk (assimilated later into ㄲ; English: pick), ㅻ sn (assimilated later into nn in English annal), ㅼ sd (initial position; assimilated later into ㄸ), ᄰ, ᄱ sm (assimilated later into nm), ㅽ sb (initial position; similar sound to ㅃ), ᄵ, ㅾ assimilated later into ㅉ), ᄷ, ᄸ, ᄹ /θ/, ᄺ/ɸ/, ᄻ, ᅁ, ᅂ /ð/, ᅃ, ᅄ /v/, ᅅ (assimilated later into ㅿ; English z), ᅆ, ᅈ, ᅉ, ᅊ, ᅋ, ᇬ, ᇭ, ㆂ, ㆃ, ᇯ, ᅍ, ᅒ, ᅓ, ᅖ, ᇵ, ᇶ, ᇷ, ᇸ
• 17 obsolete clusters of three consonants: ᇄ, ㅩ /rgs/ (similar to "rx" in English name Marx), ᇏ, ᇑ /lmg/ (similar to English Pullman), ᇒ, ㅫ, ᇔ, ᇕ, ᇖ, ᇞ, ㅴ, ㅵ, ᄤ, ᄥ, ᄦ, ᄳ, ᄴ

1 obsolete vowel (IPA)	Extremely soft vowel
Jamo	ㆍ
IPA	/ʌ/ (also commonly found in the Jeju language: /ɒ/, closely similar to vowel:ㅓeo)
Letter name	아래아 (arae-a)
Remarks	formerly the base vowel ㅡ eu in the early development of Hangul when it was considered vowelless, later development into different base vowels for clarification; acts also as a mark that indicates the consonant is pronounced on its own, e.g. s-va-ha → ᄉᆞᄫᅡ 하
Toneme	low

• 44 obsolete diphthongs and vowel sequences: ᆜ (/
  ɥi; yu.i; like German Jürgen), ᆕ, ᆖ (the same as ᆜ in pronunciation, since there is no distinction due to it extreme similarity in pronunciation), ᆗ ɰju (ehyu or eyyu; like English news), ᆘ, ᆙ /ià/ (like Chinese: 墊 diàn), ᆚ, ᆛ, ᆟ, ᆠ (/ʔ
  u/), ㆎ (ʌj; oi or oy, similar to English boy).

In the original Korean alphabet system, double letters were used to represent Chinese

) consonants of Korean.

The sibilant (dental) consonants were modified to represent the two series of Chinese sibilants, alveolar and retroflex, a round vs. sharp distinction (analogous to s vs sh) which was never made in Korean, and was even being lost from southern Chinese. The alveolar letters had longer left stems, while retroflexes had longer right stems:

5 Place of Articulation (오음, 五音) in Chinese Rime Table		Tenuis 전청 (全淸)	Aspirate 차청 (次淸)	Voiced 전탁 (全濁)	Sonorant 차탁 (次濁)
Sibilants 치음 (齒音)	치두음 (齒頭音) "tooth-head"	ᅎ 精(정) / t͡s /	ᅔ 淸(청) /t͡sʰ/	ᅏ 從(종) / d͡z /
		ᄼ 心(심) /s/		ᄽ 邪(사) /z/
	정치음 (正齒音) "true front-tooth"	ᅐ 照(조) /t͡ɕ/	ᅕ 穿(천) /t͡ɕʰ/	ᅑ 牀(상) /d͡ʑ/
		ᄾ 審(심) / ɕ /		ᄿ 禪(선) /ʑ/
Coronals 설음 (舌音)	설상음 (舌上音) "tongue up"	ᅐ 知(지) / ʈ /	ᅕ 徹(철) / ʈ ʰ/	ᅑ 澄(징) / ɖ /	ㄴ 娘(낭) /ɳ/

• Jeju language, where it is pronounced [ɒ
  ]. The ə formed a medial of its own, or was found in the diphthong ㆎ əy, written with the dot under the consonant and ㅣ (i) to its right, in the same fashion as ㅚ or ㅢ.
• nasalized palatal fricative
  ). Modern Korean words previously spelled with ㅿ substitute ㅅ or ㅇ.
• ㆆ ʔ (yeorinhieut 여린히읗 "light hieut" or doenieung 된이응 "strong ieung"): A glottal stop, lighter than ㅎ and harsher than ㅇ.
• ㆁ ŋ (yedieung 옛이응) "old ieung" : The original letter for [ŋ]; now conflated with ㅇ ieung. (With some computer fonts such as Arial Unicode MS, yesieung is shown as a flattened version of ieung, but the correct form is with a long peak, longer than what one would see on a serif version of ieung.)
• ㅸ β (gabyeounbieup 가벼운비읍, sungyeongeumbieup 순경음비읍): IPA [f]. This letter appears to be a digraph of bieup and ieung, but it may be more complicated than that—the circle appears to be only coincidentally similar to ieung. There were three other, less-common letters for sounds in this section of the Chinese rime tables, ㅱ w ([w] or [m]), ㆄ f, and ㅹ ff [v̤]. It operates slightly like a following h in the Latin alphabet (one may think of these letters as bh, mh, ph, and pph respectively). Koreans do not distinguish these sounds now, if they ever did, conflating the fricatives with the corresponding plosives.

To make the Korean alphabet a better

Two obsolete letters were restored: ⟨ㅿ⟩ (리읃), which was used to indicate an alternation in pronunciation between initial /l/ and final /d/; and ⟨ㆆ⟩ (히으), which was only pronounced between vowels.

Two modifications of the letter ㄹ were introduced, one which was silent finally, and one which doubled between vowels. A hybrid ㅂ-ㅜ letter was introduced for words that alternated between those two sounds (that is, a /b/, which became /w/ before a vowel).

Finally, a vowel ⟨1⟩ was introduced for variable iotation.

Letter	Pronunciation
	before a vowel	before a consonant
	/l/	—α
	/l.l/	/ɾ/
ㅿ	/l/	/t/
ㆆ	—α	/◌͈/β
	/w/γ	/p/
	/j/δ	/i/

^ ^α Silence

^β Makes the following consonant tense, as a final ㅅ does

^γ In standard orthography, combines with a following vowel as ㅘ, ㅙ, ㅚ, ㅝ, ㅞ, ㅟ

^δ In standard orthography, combines with a following vowel as ㅑ, ㅒ, ㅕ, ㅖ, ㅛ, ㅠ

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.^[75]

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 1.^ As of Unicode version 16.0 2. ᄀ: Hangul jamo with a green background are modern-usage characters which can be converted into Unicode normalization form NFC. Hangul jamo with a white background are used for archaic Korean only, and there are no corresponding precomposed Hangul syllables. "Conjoining Jamo Behavior" (PDF). The Unicode Standard. March 2020.

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 1.^ As of Unicode version 16.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

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 1.^ As of Unicode version 16.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

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 1.^ As of Unicode version 16.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

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 1.^ As of Unicode version 16.0 2.^ Grey area indicates non-assigned code point

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 1.^ As of Unicode version 16.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

The Korean alphabet in other Unicode blocks:

• Tone marks for Middle Korean^[76][77][78] 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)

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

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.[79]

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:

A final consonant, if present, is always written at the bottom, under the vowel. This is called 받침 batchim "supporting floor":

A complex final is written left to right:

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.

Normally the resulting block is written within a square. Some recent fonts (for example Eun,^[80] 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 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 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.

You can help expand this section with text translated from the corresponding article in Korean. (September 2020) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Korean article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Korean Wikipedia article at [[:ko:풀어쓰기]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|ko|풀어쓰기}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

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).^[81] 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.^[82]

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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:

After the

by Japan in 1910.

The

The

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.

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).^[86] 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.^[87] 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.^[88] 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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The Korean alphabet may be written either vertically or horizontally. The traditional direction is from top to bottom, right to left. Horizontal writing is also used.^[89]

In

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), which means Palace Style because the style was mostly developed and used by the maidservants (궁녀; 宮女; gungnyeo) of the Joseon court.

Modern styles that are more suited for printed media were developed in the 20th century. In 1993, new names for both

.

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 (u).

• Cyrillization of Korean (Kontsevich System)
• Hangul consonant and vowel tables
• Hangul orthography
• Korean Braille
• Korean language and computers – methods to type the language
• Korean manual alphabet
• Korean mixed script
• Debate on mixed script and Hangul exclusivity
• Korean phonology
• Korean spelling alphabet
• Myongjo
• Romanization of Korean
• Yale romanization of Korean

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External links

Look up Appendix:List of modern Hangul syllabic blocks by strokes in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hangul.

• Korean alphabet and pronunciation by Omniglot
• Online Hangul tutorial at Langintro.com
• Hangul table with Audio Slideshow
• Technical information on Hangul and Unicode
• Hangul Sound Keyboard Archived 21 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine at Kmaru.com
• Learn Hangul at Korean Wiki Project