Hangul consonant and vowel tables

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The following tables of consonants and vowels (jamo) of the Korean alphabet ( Hangul ) display (in blue) the basic forms in the first row and their derivatives in the following row(s). They are divided into initials (leading consonants), vowels (middle), and finals tables (trailing consonants).

Contents

The jamo shown below are individually romanized according to the Revised Romanization of Hangeul (RR Transliteration), which is a system of transliteration rules between the Korean and Roman alphabets, originating from South Korea. However, the tables below are not sufficient for normal transcription of the Korean language as the overarching Revised Romanization of Korean system takes contextual sound changes into account.

Leading consonants

Called choseong, or "initials", there are 19 initial consonants, whereof one (ㅇ) is silent, and five (ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ) are doubled:

Basic jamoHangul
Romang/kndr/lmbs-/ngjchktph
CompositeHangul
Romangg/kkttbb/ppssjj

Medial vowels

Called jungseong, or "vowels", there are 21 medial vowels:

Basic form+e/i
Basic jamoHangul
Romanaeooueuiaeeui
y+Hangul
Romanyayeoyoyuyaeye
w+Hangul
Romanwawooewiwaewe

Trailing consonants

Called jongseong, or "finals", there are 27 final consonants; with the additional case of no final consonant, there is a total of 28 possibilities:

Basic jamoHangul
Romangndr/lmbsngjchktph
CompositeHangul
Romankknjlgbsss
Hangul
Romangsnhlm
Hangul
Romanlb
Hangul
Romanls
Hangul
Romanlt
Hangul
Romanlp
Hangul
Romanlh

Collation

Several collation sequences are used to order words (like alphabetical sorting). The North and South differ on (a) the treatment of composite jamo consonants in syllable-leading (choseong) and -trailing (jongseong) position, and (b) on the treatment of composite jamo vowels in syllable-medial (jungseong) position.

This first sequence is official in South Korea (and is the basic binary order of codepoints in Unicode):

South Korean collation
PrincipleSort every composite jamo grouped after their leading single jamo
Initial consonants

ㄱ ㄲㄷ ㄸㅂ ㅃㅅ ㅆㅈ ㅉ

Vowels

ㅏ ㅐㅑ ㅒㅓ ㅔㅕ ㅖㅗ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚㅜ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟㅡ ㅢ

Final consonants

ㄱ ㄲ ㄳㄴ ㄵ ㄶㄹ ㄺ ㄻ ㄼ ㄽ ㄾ ㄿ ㅀㅂ ㅄㅅ ㅆ

Sequences of this second type are common in North Korea:

North Korean collation
PrincipleInitial consonants: All single jamo (except ieung ㅇ) before all doubled jamo; ieung after the doubled jamo
Vowels: All single jamo before all composite jamo; for composite jamo, all digraphs before all trigraphs; for digraphs, the ones ending in ㅣ precede others.
Final consonants: Doubled jamo after single and composite jamo
Initial consonants

ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ

Vowels

ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣㅐ ㅒ ㅔ ㅖ ㅚ ㅟ ㅢㅘ ㅝㅙ ㅞ

Final consonants

ㄱ ㄳ ㄴ ㄵ ㄶ ㄷ ㄹ ㄺ ㄻ ㄼ ㄽ ㄾ ㄿ ㅀ ㅁ ㅂ ㅄ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎㄲ ㅆ

Letter names

Consonants

ConsonantSouth Korean name
HangulRomanizedHangulRomanized
g기역giyeok
kk쌍기역ssanggiyeok
n니은nieun
d디귿digeut
tt쌍디귿ssangdigeut
r, l리을rieul
m미음mieum
b비읍bieup
pp쌍비읍ssangbieup
s시옷siot
ss쌍시옷ssangsiot
-, -ng이응ieung
j지읒jieut
jj쌍지읒ssangjieut
ch치읓chieut
k키읔kieuk
t티읕tieut
p피읖pieup
h히읗hieut

* Consonant names in the 15th century seem to have ended in a vowel (without adding the last consonant repeating a shortened version of the initial), judging from 1451 Hunmin Jeongeum Eonhae's forms such as "ㄱ는", which may have been pronounced geuneun.

Vowels

The "names" of the vowels are given according to the sound they make (their pronunciation). To be technical, the silent consonant would be added before the sound (e.g., ㅏ becomes 아).

Hangul syllables

With 19 possible initial consonants, 21 possible medial (one- or two-letter) vowels, and 28 possible final consonants (of which one corresponds to the case of no final consonant), there are a total of 19 × 21 × 28 = 11,172theoretically possible "Korean syllable letters" (Korean : 글자; RR : geulja;lit. letter) which are contiguously encoded in the 11,172 Unicode code points from U+AC00 (Decimal: 44,03210) through U+D7A3 (Decimal: 55,20310= 44,032 + 11,171) within the Hangul Syllables Unicode block. However, the majority of these theoretically possible syllables do not correspond to syllables found in actual Korean words or proper names.

Jump to tables with initial letter:

See also

References