Just like English, Korean alphabets are categorized into vowels and consonants. The only difference is that Hangul has 19 consonants and 21 vowels. This unit introduces the Korean Hangul vowel and consonant symbols. To be able to understand well, individual vowel and consonant symbols had corresponding Romanization (the used of Latin letters to present Hangul script).
Vowels
Hangul has a total of 21 vowel symbols in which 8 is from the basic vowel symbols and the other 13 is from the double-vowel symbols. The 13 latter vowel symbols are made of either adding one more stroke to the basic vowel symbols producing y sound or combining some of the basic vowel symbols together producing w sound.
Basic Vowels
Symbol Romanization
ㅡ eu
ㅗ o
ㅜ u
ㅣ i
ㅏ a
ㅓ eo
ㅐ ae
ㅔ e
Y Double-Vowels (adding one more stroke to the basic vowel symbols)
Basic Vowel Double-Vowel Romanization
(Symbol) (Symbol)
ㅗ ㅛ yo
ㅜ ㅠ yu
ㅏ ㅑ ya
ㅓ ㅕ yeo
ㅐ ㅒ yae
ㅔ ㅖ ye
W Double-Vowels (combining some of the basic vowel symbols together)
Basic Vowel Double-Vowel Romanization
(Combination) (Symbol)
ㅗ+ㅔ ㅞ we
ㅗ+ㅐ ㅙ wae
ㅗ+ㅏ ㅘ wa
ㅜ+ㅓ ㅝ weo
ㅜ+ㅣ ㅟ wi
ㅗ+ㅣ ㅚ oe
ㅡ+ㅣ ㅢ ui
Notice that the last 2 W Double-Vowels does not start with w in Romanization but still its pronunciation starts with w sound.
Meanwhile, there are other vowels symbols that cannot be combined together. The reason is attributed to Korean vowel harmony principle. It disallows the combination of bright and dark vowel symbols.
Bright vowels are vowel symbols ㅏ and ㅗ since they sounds sonorous to native Korean speakers. Other vowel symbols such as ㅐ, ㅒ, ㅙ, ㅘ are also considered “bright vowels” since they were derived from ㅏ and ㅗ. On the other hand, “dark vowels” are vowel symbols ㅓand ㅜ along with their derived vowel symbols ㅝ, ㅞand ㅖ. Moreover, there are also “neutral vowels” which includes ㅣ and ㅡ.
Consonants
Hangul has a total of 19 consonant symbols. Among them are 10 basic consonant, 5 tense consonant and 4 aspirated consonant symbols.
Basic Consonants (also called as Plain Consonants)
Symbol Romanization
Symbol Romanization
ㅁ m
ㅂ b/p
ㄴ n
ㄹ r/l
ㄷ t/d
ㅅ s/sh
ㅈ ch/j
ㄱ k/g
ㅇ ng
ㅎ h
Tense Consonants
Tense (or Double) Consonants are visually the plain or basic consonant symbols written twice.
Plain Tense Romanization
ㅂ ㅃ pp
ㄷ ㄸ tt
ㅅ ㅆ ss
ㅈ ㅉ tch
ㄱ ㄲ kk
Aspirated Consonants
Aspirated (or Strong) Consonants are plain pairs that can be distinguished visually by an extra horizontal line except for ㅂ / ㅍ.
Plain Tense Romanization
ㅂ ㅍ p’
ㄷ ㅌ t’
ㅈ ㅊ ch’
ㄱ ㅋ k’
Some Basic Vowels Reviewed
Before became basic vowels, ㅐ andㅔ are actually double-vowels that made from a combination of two basic vowels. When Hangul was first created, the sounds of these two letters were actually did sound like combinations of 2 basic vowels. But over time, the 2 basic vowels had similar pronunciation in common conversation by young Korean speakers.
Basic Vowel Double-Vowel Romanization
(Combination) (Symbol)
ㅏ+ㅣ ㅐ ae
ㅓ+ㅣ ㅔ e
Korean Alphabetical Order
You may wonder if Hangul has alphabetical order just like English alphabets. Well, here is the actual alphabetical order of Korean Hangul which is separated into consonants and vowels.
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
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