The Rat is the first animal of the Chinese Zodiac, which may be a result of its ambitious and energetic qualities. There are few with more energy than the Rat, as they are one of the few Chinese Zodiac signs that detest being idle. Those of the Rat sign are known to be quite intelligent, clever and charming, but above all, the greatest strength of the Rat may lie in its resourcefulness. There is never a challenge to great for a Rat to overcome and at times, the Rat's drive may straddle the line of selfishness. In this sense it may be difficult to fully gain the Rat's interest unless there is personal gain to be obtained.Socially, the Rat presents a social and fun-seeking personality. The Rat is at ease in groups and at social gatherings, partially because of their ability to hide their true emotions. A Rat will be hard-pressed to expose negative feelings, electing to keep these matters private. There may be times when the Rat's social concerns lead them down the path of gossip and judgement, but this is only because of an interest in sharing personal opinions. Those of the Rat sign may be the most sentimental of all the Chinese Zodiac signs. The Rat has a strong sense of responsibility to both elders and children, which makes them very attached and attentive. Members of the Rat sign will always be aware of their family's needs, as well as those of the home.In terms of fiscal sense, the Rat is one of the most well-equipped signs. It is true that there are few financially down trodden members of the Rat sign, because two of their primary concerns in life are financial security and saving money. In this sense, the Rat is not hesitant to display its bargain-seeking and frugal personality. The Rat often finds success in business, where their keen sense of opportunity and forthright nature can be dominant. Although shrewd, the Rat is not above being generous to those that they hold dear.Those that are born to rat sign have a natural pairing with the water element. The flowing qualities of water make the rat sign one of adaptation, creativity and innovation. In the same light, the Rat is not above being aggressive if it allows the job to be done correctly. The Rat is very comfortable giving out orders and often find themselves in leadership roles or positions of power. The Rat's most important organs are the kidneys and bladder.The Rat's natural pair is the Ox. The Rat appreciates the Ox's qualities of reliability and strength and in turn, the Ox has an innate appreciation for the Rat's dedication and loyalty. Similarly, the Rat also has a natural attraction to the strong and clever Monkey, as well as the Tiger, Dog and Pig. Amongst the Rat's more difficult pairings are the independent Horse and the non-practical Rooster.As an Earth Rat, it is possible to be overly self-concerned and cautious at times. Although prudence plays a pivotal role in future success, it should not cause a sacrifice in life experiences. Additionally, the Earth Rat may be overly concerned with public image and reputation.
The Earth Element helps to give stability and roundedness to the lively Rat. More so than those of other elemental influences, the Earth Rat is conservative and practical in their interests and pursuits. The Earth Rat always has the security and future of their family at the forefront of their mind, which explains for their cautious nature and aversion to risk-taking. In a similar sense, the Earth Rat may be able to forge some of the most long-standing and positive friendships of all the Rat signs, as they view friendships as a contributing factor to their emotional and social security.
As financial stability is also a paramount concern, the Earth Rat prefers to keep a stable and lifelong career path. Among the Earth Rat's most natural careers are those that require writing, communication, research and investigation. Earth Rats can do well in journalism, which was the case for Earth Rat Bryant Gumbel. In the same light, Earth Rats have been known to find happiness in dedicating their lives to bringing warmth and positivity to others, which was the case for Richard Simmons and singer Stevie Nicks, who were also born in 1948.
Those born between February 10, 1948 and January 28, 1949 are members of the Earth Rat Chinese Zodiac sign.
(hanja: 字) letter, character(hanja: 者): a person; a person who...(hanja: 子):fruit; seed of;rat (Chinese zodiac sign)
Of native Korean origin.
Noun
자 (ja)ruler, rule, straightedge
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/UA960.pdf
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/UD7B0.pdf
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U3130.pdf
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U3130.pdf
The Korean neutral vowel was ㅣ i. The yin vowels were ㅡㅜㅓ 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 ㅡㆍㅣ 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 dialect.)
There was yet a third parameter in designing the vowel letters, namely, 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.
Our uncertainty is primarily with the three letters ㆍㅓㅏ. Some linguists reconstruct these as *a, *ɤ, *e, respectively; others as *ə, *e, *a. A third reconstruction is to make them all middle vowels as *ʌ, *ɤ, *a.[30] With the third reconstruction, Middle Korean vowels actually line up in a tidy vowel harmony pattern, albeit 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.
Traditional account[edit]
See also: Origin of hangul
The generally accepted account[nb 4][31] 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 a various combinations. Thus, the original order for the vowels was: ㆍ ㅡ ㅣ ㅗ ㅏ ㅜ ㅓ ㅛ ㅑ ㅠ ㅕ. Note that 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 approximation of the shapes of the most representative organ needed to form that sound. The original order of the consonants in Hunmin Jeong-eum was: ㄱ ㅋ ㆁ ㄷ ㅌ ㄴ ㅂ ㅍ ㅁ ㅈ ㅊ ㅅ ㆆ ㅎ ㅇ ㄹ ㅿ.
ㄱ representing the "g" sound geometrically describes a tongue just before the moment of pronunciation as the tongue blocks the passage of air.
ㅋ representing the "k" sound is derived from ㄱ by adding another stroke.
ㆁ representing the "ŋ" sound may have been derived from ㅇ by addition of a stroke.
ㄷ representing the "d" sound is derived from ㄴ by addition of a stroke.
ㅌ representing the "t" sound is derived from ㄷ by adding another stroke.
ㄴ representing the "n" sound geometrically describes a tongue making contact with an upper palate just before making the "n" sound.
ㅂ representing the "b" sound is derived from ㅁ by adding strokes.
ㅍ representing the "p" sound is a variant of ㅂ, which is obtained by a 90 degree rotation and extension the horizontal strokes.
ㅁ representing the "m" sound geometrically describes a closed mouth before opening the lips.
ㅈ representing the "dʒ" sound is derived from the shape of ㅅ by adding strokes.
ㅊ representing the "ch" sound is derived from ㅈ by adding another stroke.
ㅅ representing the "s" sound geometrically describes a near contact between the tongue and the teeth.[citation needed]
ㆆ representing a weak "h" sound geometrically describes an open throat with a bar to indicate that there is an aspiration.
ㅎ representing the "h" sound is derived from ㆆ with the extra stroke representing a stronger flow of the aspiration.
ㅇ representing the absence of a consonant geometrically describes an open mouth, which necessarily accompanies the following vowel.
ㄹ representing a sound between "r" and "l" geometrically describes a backward-bending tongue.
ㅿ representing a weak "s" sound is also derived from the shape of the teeth, but has a different origin than ㅅ[clarification needed] and is not derived from ㅅ by addition of a stroke.
Ledyard's theory of consonant design[edit]
A close-up of the inscription on the statue of King Sejong above. It reads Sejong Daewang 세종대왕 and illustrates the forms of the letters originally promulgated by Sejong. Note the dots on the vowels, the geometric symmetry of s and j in the first two syllables, the asymmetrical lip at the top-left of the d in the third, and the distinction between initial and final ieung in the last.
(Top) Phagspa letters [k, t, p, s, l], and their supposed Hangul derivatives [k, t, p, ts, l]. Note the lip on both Phagspa [t] and Hangul ㄷ.
(Bottom) Derivation of Phagspa w, v, f from variants of the letter [h] (left) plus a subscript [w], and analogous composition of Hangul w, v, f from variants of the basic letter [p] plus a circle.
Although the Hunmin Jeong-eum Haerye explains the design of the consonantal letters in terms of articulatory phonetics, as a purely innovative creation, there are several theories as to which external sources may have inspired or influenced King Sejong's creation. Professor Gari Ledyard of Columbia University studied on possible connections between Hangul and the Mongol Phagspa script of the Yuan dynasty. He believed that the role of Phags-pa script in the creation of Hangul was quite limited:
It should be clear to any reader that in the total picture, that [Phagspa 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 'phags-pa script..."[32]
Ledyard posits that five of the Hangul 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.
The Hunmin Jeong-eum states that King Sejong adapted the 古篆 ("Gǔ Seal Script") in creating Hangul. The 古篆 has never been identified. The primary meaning of 古 gǔ is "old" ("Old Seal Script"), frustrating philologists because Hangul bears no functional similarity to Chinese 篆字 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 Phagspa alphabet written to look like the Chinese seal script. There were Phagspa 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 as "barbarians".
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 (ng ㄴㅁ and ㅅ) were derived by removing the top of the basic letters. He points out that while it's easy to derive ㅁ from ㅂ by removing the top, it's 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.
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 eng ㆁ was eventually lost.)
Another letter composed of two elements to represent two regional pronunciations was ㅱ, which transcribed the Chinese initial 微. This represented either m or w in various Chinese dialects, and was composed of ㅁ [m] plus ㅇ (from Phagspa [w]). In Phagspa, a loop under a letter represented w after vowels, and Ledyard proposes this became the loop at the bottom of ㅱ. Now, in Phagspa 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 Phagspa by the addition of a w under three graphic variants of the letter for h, and Hangul 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 Hangul 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 Phagspa d [t] did. This lip can be traced back to the Tibetan letter d, ད.
Sorting order[edit]
The alphabetical order of Hangul does not mix consonants and vowels as the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek alphabets do. Rather, the order is that of the Indic type, first velar consonants, then coronals, labials, sibilants, etc. However, the vowels come after the consonants rather than before them as in the Indic systems.
Historical orders[edit]
The consonantal order of the Hunmin Jeongeum in 1446 was,
ㄱ ㅋ ㆁ ㄷ ㅌ ㄴ ㅂ ㅍ ㅁ ㅈ ㅊ ㅅ ㆆ ㅎ ㅇ ㄹ ㅿ
and the order of vowels was,
ㆍ ㅡ ㅣ ㅗ ㅏ ㅜ ㅓ ㅛ ㅑ ㅠ ㅕ
In 1527, Choe Sejin reorganized the alphabet:
ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㆁ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅈ ㅊ ㅿ ㅇ ㅎ
ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ ㆍ
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 South Korean and North Korean governments implemented full use of Hangul, they ordered these letters differently, with South Korea grouping similar letters together, and North Korea placing new letters at the end of the alphabet.
South Korean order[edit]
In the Southern order, double letters are placed immediately after their single counterparts. No distinction is made between silent and nasal ㅇ:
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: first added i, then iotized, then iotized 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
("None" means there is no final letter.)
North Korean order[edit]
North Korea maintains a more traditional order:
ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ ㅇ
ㅇ used as an initial, goes at the very end, as it is a placeholder for the vowels which follow. (A syllable with no final is ordered before all syllables with finals, however, not with null ㅇ.)
The new, double, letters are placed at the end of the consonants, just before the null ㅇ, so as not to alter the traditional order of the rest of the alphabet.
The order of the vowel letters is,
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 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
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.
Letter names[edit]
The hangul arrangement is called the ganada order, (가나다 순) which is basically an alphabetical order named after the first three letters (g, n, d) affixed to the first vowel (a). The letters were named by Choe Sejin in 1527. North Korea regularized the names when it made Hangul its official orthography.
Consonant names[edit]
The modern consonants have two-syllable names, with the consonant coming both at the beginning and end of the name, as follows:
Consonant Name
ㄱ giyeok (기역), or kiŭk (기윽) in North Korea
ㄴ nieun/niŭn (니은)
ㄷ digeut (디귿), or tiŭt (디읃) in North Korea
ㄹ rieul/riŭl (리을)
ㅁ mieum/miŭm (미음)
ㅂ bieup/piŭp (비읍)
ㅅ siot (시옷), or siŭt (시읏) in North Korea
ㅇ ieung/iŭng (이응)
ㅈ jieut/chiŭt (지읒)
ㅊ chieut/ch'iŭt (치읓)
ㅋ kieuk/k'iŭk (키읔)
ㅌ tieut/t'iŭt (티읕)
ㅍ pieup/p'iŭp (피읖)
ㅎ hieut/hiŭt (히읗)
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Korean consonants
All consonants in North Korea, and all but three in the more traditional nomenclature used in South Korea, have names of the format of letter + i + eu + letter. For example, Choe wrote bieup with the hanja 非 bi 邑 eup. The names of g, d, and s are exceptions because there were no hanja for euk, eut, and eus. 役 yeok is used in place of euk. Since there is no hanja that ends in t or s, Choi chose two hanja to be read in their Korean gloss, 末 kkeut "end" and 衣 ot "clothes".
Originally, Choi gave j, ch, k, t, p, and h the irregular one-syllable names of ji, chi, ki, ti, pi, and hi, because they should not be used as final consonants, as specified in Hunmin jeong-eum. But after the establishment of the new orthography in 1933, which allowed all consonants to be used as finals, the names were changed to the present forms.
The double consonants are named with the word 쌍/雙 ssang, meaning "twin" or "double", or with 된 doen in North Korea, meaning "strong". Thus:
Letter South Korean Name North Korean name
ㄲ ssanggiyeok (쌍기역) toen'giŭk (된기윽)
ㄸ ssangdigeut (쌍디귿) toendiŭt (된디읃)
ㅃ ssangbieup (쌍비읍) toenbiŭp (된비읍)
ㅆ ssangsiot (쌍시옷) toensiŭt (된시읏)
ㅉ ssangjieut (쌍지읒) toenjiŭt (된지읒)
In North Korea, an alternate way to refer to a consonant is by the name letter + ŭ (ㅡ), for example, 그 kŭ for the letter ㄱ, 쓰 ssŭ for the letter ㅆ, etc.
Vowel names[edit]
The names of the vowel letters are simply the vowel itself, written with the null initial ㅇ ieung and the vowel being named. Thus:
Letter Name Letter Name
ㅏ a (아) ㅐ ae (애)
ㅑ ya (야) ㅒ yae (얘)
ㅓ eo (어) ㅔ e (에)
ㅕ yeo (여) ㅖ ye (예)
ㅗ o (오) ㅘ wa (와)
ㅛ yo (요) ㅙ wae (왜)
ㅚ oe (외)
ㅜ u (우) ㅝ wo (워)
ㅠ yu (유) ㅞ we (웨)
ㅟ wi (위)
ㅡ eu (으) ㅢ ui (의)
ㅣ i (이)
In the Seoul dialect of Modern Korean, e(ㅔ) and ae(ㅐ) have no distinction in pronunciation. For this reason they are denoted as eo-i(어-이) for e(ㅔ) and a-i(아-이) for ae(ㅐ) when giving the spelling of a word or name in spoken conversation.
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Korean vowels
Obsolete letters[edit]
A brand name, Hankido, using the obsolete vowel arae-a (top)
Several letters are obsolete. These include several that represent Korean sounds that have since disappeared from the standard language, as well as a larger number used to represent the sounds of the Chinese rime tables. The most frequently encountered of these archaic letters are:
ㆍ (transcribed ə (arae-a 아래아 "lower a"): Presumably pronounced [ʌ], similar to modern ㅓ eo. It is written as a dot, positioned beneath (Korean for "beneath" is arae) the consonant. The arae-a is not entirely obsolete, as it can be found in various brand names.
The ə formed a medial of its own, or was found in the diphthong ㆎ arae-ae, written with the dot under the consonant and ㅣ (transcribed i) to its right – in the same fashion as ㅚ or ㅢ.
ㅿ z (bansiot 반시옷): A rather unusual sound, perhaps IPA [ʝ̃] (a nasalized palatal fricative). Modern Korean words previously spelled with ㅿ substitute ㅅ or ㅇ.
ㆆ ʔ (yeorinhieut 여린히읗 "light hieut" or doenieung 된 이응 "strong ieung"): A glottal stop, "lighter than ㅎ and harsher than ㅇ".
ㆁ ŋ (yesieung 옛이응): 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): IPA [f]. This letter appears to be a digraph of bieup and ieung, but it may be more complicated than that. There were three other, less-common letters for sounds in this section of the Chinese rime tables, ㅱ w ([w] or [m]), a theoretical ㆄ f, and ㅹ ff [v̤]; the bottom element appears to be only coincidentally similar to ieung. However its exact shape, it operates somewhat 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.
There were two other now-obsolete double letters,
ㆅ x (ssanghieut 쌍히읗 "double hieut"): IPA [ɣ̈ʲ] or [ɣ̈].
ᅇ (ssang-ieung 쌍이응 "double ieung"): Another letter used in the Chinese rime table.
In the original Hangul system, double letters were used to represent Chinese voiced (濁音) consonants, which survive in the Shanghainese slack consonants, and were not used for Korean words. It was only later that a similar convention was used to represent the modern "tense" (faucalized) 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 which was even being lost from southern Chinese. The alveolar letters had longer left stems, while retroflexes had longer right stems:
Original consonants ㅅ ㅆ ㅈ ㅉ ㅊ
Chidueum (alveolar sibilant) ᄼ ᄽ ᅎ ᅏ ᅔ
Jeongchieum (retroflex sibilant) ᄾ ᄿ ᅐ ᅑ ᅕ
There were also consonant clusters that have since dropped out of the language, such as the finals ㅴ bsg and ㅵ bsd, as well as diphthongs that were used to represent Chinese medials, such as ㆇ, ㆈ, ㆊ, ㆋ.
Some of the Korean sounds represented by these obsolete letters still exist in some dialects.
Unicode[edit]
See also: List of Hangul Jamo
Main articles: Hangul Syllables (Unicode block), Hangul Jamo (Unicode block), Hangul Jamo Extended-A (Unicode block), Hangul Jamo Extended-B (Unicode block), and Hangul Compatibility Jamo (Unicode block)
Hangul Jamo (U+1100—U+11FF) and Hangul Compatibility Jamo (U+3130—U+318F) were added to the Unicode Standard in June 1993 with the release of version 1.1.
Hangul Jamo Extended-A (U+A960—U+A97F) and Hangul Jamo Extended-B (U+D7B0—U+D7FF) were added to the Unicode Standard in October 2009 with the release of version 5.2.
Hangul Jamo[1]
Unicode.org 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 ᅟ
U+116x ᅠ 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 6.3
2. ᄀ: Hangul jamo with a green background are modern-usage characters which can be converted into precomposed Hangul syllables under 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". The Unicode Standard (version 6.0.0). Retrieved 2012-02-03.
Hangul Jamo Extended-A[1]
Unicode.org 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 6.3
Hangul Jamo Extended-B[1]
Unicode.org 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 6.3
Hangul Compatibility Jamo[1]
Unicode.org 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 ㅤ 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 6.3
Hangul in other Unicode blocks:
Tone marks for Middle Korean: 〮 (U+302E), 〯 (U+302F)
11,172 precomposed Hangul syllables (U+AC00—U+D7A3)
Parenthesised (U+3200—U+321E) and circled (U+3260—U+327E) Hangul compatibility characters in the CJK Enclosed Letters and Months block
Halfwidth (U+FFDC—U+FFA0) Hangul compatibility characters in the Halfwidth and fullwidth forms block
Restored letters[edit]
The words 놉니다, 흘렀다, 깨달으니, 지어, 고와, 왕, 가져서 written in New Orthography.
To make Hangul a perfect morphophonological fit to the Korean language, North Korea introduced six new letters, which were published in the New Orthography for the Korean Language and used officially from 1948 to 1954.
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 for a ㄹ which is silent finally, and one for a ㄹ which doubled between vowels. A hybrid ㅂ-ㅜ letter was introduced for words which alternated between those two sounds (that is, a /b/ which became /w/ before a vowel). Finally, a vowel <1> was introduced for variable iotation.
Morpho-syllabic blocks[edit]
Except for a few grammatical morphemes prior to the twentieth century, no letter may stand alone to represent elements of the Korean language. Instead, letters are grouped into syllabic or morphemic blocks of at least two and often three: (1) a consonant or a doubled consonant called the initial (초성, 初聲 choseong syllable onset), (2) a vowel or diphthong called the medial (중성, 中聲 jungseong syllable nucleus), and, optionally, (3) 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 modern Hangul, placeholders are not used for the final position.) Thus, a block contains a minimum of two letters, an initial and a medial. Although the Hangul 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. (See Orthography.)
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. For a list of initials, medials, and finals, see Hangul consonant and vowel tables.
Not including obsolete letters, there are 11,172 possible Hangul blocks.
Letter placement within a block[edit]
History of the alphabet[show]
v t e
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:
initial medial
initial
medial
initial med.
2
med. 1
A final consonant, if there is one, is always written at the bottom, under the vowel. This is called 받침 batchim "supporting floor":
initial medial
final
initial
medial
final
initial med.
2
med.
final
A complex final is written left to right:
initial medial
final 1 final 2
initial
medial
final 1 final 2
initial med.
2
med.
fin. 1 fin. 2
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[edit]
Normally the resulting block is written within a square of the same size and shape as a hanja (Chinese character) by compressing or stretching the letters to fill the bounds of the block; therefore someone not familiar with the scripts may mistake Hangul text for hanja or Chinese text.
However, some recent fonts (for example Eun, HY깊은샘물M, UnJamo) move towards the European practice of letters whose relative size is fixed, and the use of 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:
Do not stretch initial consonant vertically, but leave white space below it if no lower vowel and/or no final consonant.
Do not stretch right-hand vowel vertically, but leave white space below it 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 white space to left of it.
Do not stretch or pad each block to be a fixed width, but allow variable width (kerning) 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.
So far, these fonts have been used as design accents on signs or headings, rather than for typesetting large volumes of body text.
Linear hangul[edit]
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 the European alphabets: e.g. ㅎㅏㄴㄱㅡㄹ for 한글 hangeul.[33]
Avant-garde typographer Ahn Sangsu made a font for the "Hangul Dada" exposition that exploded 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 century-old linear writing proposals.[34]
While Koreans have largely accepted the European-derived conventions of writing successive syllables left-to-right in horizontal lines instead of in vertical columns, adding spaces between words, and European-style punctuation, they have completely resisted getting rid of syllabic blocks,[citation needed] the most distinctive feature of this writing system.
Orthography[edit]
Until the 20th century, no official orthography of hangul had been established. Due to liaison, heavy consonant assimilation, dialectical variants and other reasons, a Korean word can potentially be spelled in various ways. King 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, Hangul was dominated by phonemic spelling. Over the centuries the orthography became partially morphophonemic, first in nouns, and later in verbs. Today it is as morphophonemic as is practical. The difference between phonetic Romanization, phonemic orthography, and morpho-phonemic 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]
Comparison of phonemic and modern morpho-phonemic orthographies:
모타는사라미
못하는 사람이
After the Gabo Reform in 1894, the Joseon Dynasty and later the Korean Empire started to write all official documents in Hangul. Under the government's management, proper usage of Hangul and hanja, including orthography, was discussed, until Korean Empire was annexed by Japan in 1910.
The Government-General of Korea popularized the writing style of a mixture of hanja and Hangul which was used in later Joseon dynasty. The government revised the spelling rules in 1912, 1921 and 1930, which were relatively phonemic.
The Hangul Society, originally founded by Ju Si-gyeong, announced a proposal for a new, strongly morphophonemic orthography in 1933, which became the prototype of the contemporary orthographies in both North and South Korea. After Korea was divided, the North and South revised orthographies separately. The guiding text for hangul orthography is called Hangeul Machumbeop, whose last South Korean revision was published in 1988 by the Ministry of Education.
Mixed scripts[edit]
The U.S. city of Gardena in hangul, with the [ɡ] written as Latin ⟨G⟩. (Compare this large ⟨G⟩ with the smaller ⟨G⟩ in all-Latin Gardena below: The large ⟨G⟩ is fused (at bottom-right) with the hangul ⟨ㄱ⟩ that would normally be used to transcribe Gardena.)
Since the Late Joseon dynasty period, various hanja-Hangul mixed systems were used. In these systems, hanja was used for lexical roots, and hangul for grammatical words and inflections, much as kanji and kana are used in Japanese. Today however, hanja have been almost entirely phased out of daily use in North Korea, and in South Korea they are now mostly restricted to parenthetical glosses for proper names and for disambiguating homonyms.
Indo-Arabic numerals are also mixed in with Hangul, as in 2007년 3월 22일 (22 March 2007). In Korean pop-culture Indo-Arabic words may be mixed in for artistic purposes as well.
The Latin script, and occasionally other scripts, may be sprinkled within Korean texts for illustrative purposes, or for unassimilated loanwords. Very occasionally non-hangul letters may be mixed into hangul syllabic blocks, as Gㅏ Ga at right.
Readability[edit]
Because of the clustering of syllables, 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 up into phonemes).[35] 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.[36] Unlike linear alphabets such as Latin-derived ones, the Korean orthography allows the reader to "utilize both the horizontal and vertical visual fields";[37] finally, since Hangul 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.
Style[edit]
Hangul may be written either vertically or horizontally. The traditional direction is from top to bottom, right to left. Horizontal writing in the style of the Latin script was promoted by Ju Si-gyeong, and has become overwhelmingly prevalent.
In Hunmin Jeongeum, hangul was printed in sans-serif angular lines of even thickness. This style is found in books published before about 1900, and can be found today in stone carvings (on statues, for example).
Three Korean type styles (gungche, batang, dotum) next to analogous Latin type styles
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 (gungnyeo, 궁녀 宮女) of the court in Joseon dynasty.
Modern styles that are more suited for printed media were developed in the 20th century. In 1993, new names for both Myeongjo 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 (u).
See also[edit]
Portal icon Korea portal
Portal icon Languages portal
Hangul consonant and vowel tables
Korean language and computers
Korean mixed script
Korean romanization
Korean braille
Korean manual alphabet
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ Pronounced /ˈhɑːn.ɡʊl/ or /ˈhɑːŋɡʊl/.
Jump up ^ Korean: 한글 Han-geul/Han'gŭl [haːn.ɡɯl] ( listen) or 조선글 Chosŏn'gŭl/Joseongeul [tɕosʌnɡɯl].
