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Korean Letters

The document summarizes key aspects of the Korean alphabet known as Hangul. It describes: 1) Hangul uses combinations of three basic strokes to represent vowels and consonants, modeled after heaven, earth, and humanity. 2) Vowels are represented by placing one or more basic strokes horizontally or vertically, and diphthongs are made by adding a stroke. 3) The 19 consonants depict speech organs like lips and tongue, with related sounds created by extra strokes. While most consonant sounds are similar to English, 'n' is pulled forward before 'i' or 'y'.

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Leymelynn Lanuza
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139 views10 pages

Korean Letters

The document summarizes key aspects of the Korean alphabet known as Hangul. It describes: 1) Hangul uses combinations of three basic strokes to represent vowels and consonants, modeled after heaven, earth, and humanity. 2) Vowels are represented by placing one or more basic strokes horizontally or vertically, and diphthongs are made by adding a stroke. 3) The 19 consonants depict speech organs like lips and tongue, with related sounds created by extra strokes. While most consonant sounds are similar to English, 'n' is pulled forward before 'i' or 'y'.

Uploaded by

Leymelynn Lanuza
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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HANGUL: THE KOREAN

ALPHABETS
(SHAPE AND SOUND)
VOWEL SHAPES
• All vowel letters are composed of one
or more of three kinds of strokes:
• a long vertical stroke ( ㅣ )
• a long horizontal stroke ( ㅡ )
• and a short horizontal or vertical
stroke ( ㅡ or ㅣ )
• The short stroke was originally a
round dot (·).
• The three basic strokes were modeled
after the cosmological philosophy of
heaven represented by dot (·), earth
represented by horizontal line ( ㅡ ),
and human being represented by
vertical line ( ㅣ ).
 한 글 (Hangeul) has six simple  The short stroke is placed horizontally
letters and two compound letters on a long vertical vowel stroke, as in ㅏ
to represent eight simple vowel and ㅓ and vertically on a long
sounds. horizontal stroke, as in ㅗ and ㅜ .
VOWEL The qualities of Korean vowels are not the same as those
PRONUNCIATIO of English vowels, although they can be approximated as
follows.
N
DIPHTHONG
(SEMIVOWEL +
Diphthongs with the semivowel y
VOWEL) LETTERS

• One additional short stroke makes


each of the six single-letter
vowels a diphthong with y, as
follows.
• Remember that stroke order is
top to bottom and left to right.
• The distinction between ㅐ and
ㅔ is lost in casual speech, both
being pronounced as , but is
retained in writing as well as in
extremely careful pronunciation.
DIPHTHONG
(SEMIVOWEL +
Diphthongs with the semivowel w and the diphthong ŭi
VOWEL) LETTERS

• There are six diphthongs


beginning with the sound of /w/.
• These are graphically expressed
by combining two simple vowel
letters.
• The letters ㅗ and ㅜ are used
to represent the semivowel sound
w.
• There is an idiosyncratic
diphthong which consists of ㅡ
and ㅣ .
CONSONANT k/g
SHAPES
n
• There are nineteen consonant letters.
• Consonant letters originally depicted the speech
organs that produce consonant sounds: the lips,
tooth, tongue, and throat.
• The shapes of these organs are associated with m
the following five consonant letters.
• The remaining fourteen consonants are produced
in the same general areas as the above five places
of articulation.
s
• Thus, the letters representing the sounds related
to the above five sounds are derived by adding
extra strokes to the basic letters.

ng
CONSONAN
T SOUNDS
• Of the nineteen consonant letters
given above, the sound qualities of
the four letters ㅁ , ㄴ , ㅇ , and ㅎ
are essentially the same as in English:
m (as in map, team), n (as in nose,
moon), ng (as in song, king), and h (as
in hit, hope), respectively.

• The only exception is that ㄴ is


pulled to the hard-palate position
before the palatal vowel i or the
semivowel y, as in 안니 and 안녕 .

• This pronunciation is called


palatalization, in that is assimilated to
the palatal vowel or semivowel.

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