Letter Lab
Letter Lab.
Pick an initial, a medial and a final letter to build a syllable. For each letter you choose, the lab shows how the Haerye edition of Hunminjeongeum explains its design.
ㅎ, ㅏ, ㄴ: syllable 한
- ㅎ · glottal (throat) sounds · stroke addition
- ㅇ with added strokes. In the 15th century the letter ㆆ (yeorin hieut) stood between them (ㅇ → ㆆ → ㅎ). The basic letter of this group, ㅇ, imitates the throat.
- ㅏ · first-derived
- One heaven dot (ㆍ) placed on the outer side of the human (ㅣ). The round dot imitating heaven (ㆍ, arae-a) is no longer used as a vowel of its own; it survives as a short stroke inside other vowels (形之圓 象乎天).
- Block layout · vertical vowel
- A tall vowel sits to the right of the initial. The final takes the bottom row.
- How many syllables
- 19 initials × 21 medials × 28 finals (including none) = 11,172. Unicode lists every modern Hangeul syllable in exactly this order.