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Hunminjeongeum Haerye

King Sejong, the fourth king of the Chosun Dynasty created Hangeul, the original letters of Korea and a phonetic language and announced it in 1446 under the title, Hunminjeongeum <The Right Sound To Teach People>. Haerye means 'Solve by Showing an Example' and is a manual describing the principles of Hangeul. Hunminjeongeum Haerye is a Korean cultural heritage assessed and recognized by the UNESCO. While there are about 6,000 languages and among them, only 250 provide writing structures, there are only 40 such languages still in use. Among these 40 languages, Hangeul is the only letters whose creator, date of proclamation and principles of its creation are known.

Composition of Hangeul

The principles of Hunminjeongeum, the original form of Hangeul are largely divided into two.

• -The shapes of letter are taken after vocal organs as well as Heaven, Earth and Human.
• -It is organized as the basic letters work as the foundation of creation of the rest.

Hangeul is a phonemic language and has consonants and vowels, separately. However, it is unique in that consonants and vowels are combined in the unit of syllable, which differs from the Roman letters. This also means that Hangeul has a few characteristics that are similar to those of syllable-based letters.

- An Excerpt From Hunminjeongeum Haerye-

Recognized as Memory of the World in 1997 by the UNESCO

In the creation of ‘Jeongeum (Right Sound)’ (Hunminjeongeum), it was not the knowledge or effort which led to the creation. It was just the vocal sound which provided the reason. The reason shall not be divided in principle. Will it not be equal to using the creation along with ‘Heaven, Earth, Spirit and God’? The 28 letters of ‘Jeongeum’ (Hunminjeongeum), hieroglyphic, were taken after the forms of their subjects... [omitted]

Currently, 24 letters are in use.

Consonant(Initial Sound)

Consonant : Sound heard as breath touches throat in its way out

Principles of Creating Consonants in Hunminjeongeum :

Velar, Lingual, Labial, Dental, Guttural and Semi-lingual Sounds-based

The letters contain shapes of vocal organs as well as the principles of vocalization.

The basic letters among those standing for consonant were taken after the forms of vocal organs playing the most important role when pronouncing the relevant constant. The rest of consonant were created based on these five basic letters. Consonants making stronger sounds were made with strokes added.

Vowel(Medial : Middle Sound)

Vowel : Sound made singly when your breath comes out of your throat without touching any part on the way out

Principles of Creation of Vowels in Hunminjeongeum :

Sky, Land and Human (Round Sky, Land and Human Standing)

Letters containing the harmony of all creatures of heaven and on earth

Vowels were made based on philosophic concepts as well as sound. Vowels are divided into basic vowels and others derived from the former and basic vowels were represented as ‘●’, ‘ㅡ’, and ‘ㅣ’. ‘●’ means the sky's round shape while ‘ㅡ’ symbolizes the even land and ‘ㅣ’ stands for a human standing upright. The oriental philosophy regard Heaven(sky), Earth(land) and Human as the three Foundations which are fundamental elements of all things. The concept was applied in the creation of vowels.

Positive vowel : Sky is placed exteriors or above (Sound is relatively light and bright.)

Negative vowel : Sky is placed interiors or below (Sound is relatively heavy and dull.)

Ligature

The three sounds of initial sound(consonant), medial(vowel) and final consonant(consonant) will be combined to make letters.

-Only two sounds, initial sound and medial make a letter.

Initial sound-consonant(19 letters) : Initial sound will be placed above or on the left of medial.

Medial(middle sound)-vowel(21 letters) : As for medials, if horizontal as ‘ㅡ’ (ㅡ, ㅜ, ㅠ, ㅗ, ㅛ), it will be placed under initial sound and if vertical as ‘ㅣ’ (ㅣ, ㅓ, ㅕ, ㅏ, ㅑ, ㅒ, ㅖ), it will be placed on the right from initial sound.

Final consonant(final sound)-consonant(27 letters) : Final consonants are consonants at the end of a Korean syllable. They are placed under initial and/or medial sounds and intial sound will be reapplied.

*If vowels are combined, use a combined sound.

The horizontal class (land) of ‘ㅡ, ㅗ, ㅛ, ㅜ, ㅠ’ is on the left and the vertical class (human) of ‘ㅣ, ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅐ, ㅔ, ㅒ, ㅖ’ is on the right.

*Cases where in a consonant, ‘ㅇ’ is a voiceless sound or pronounced ‘ng’

As for pronunciation of consonant ‘ㅇ’

If it is an initial sound, do not pronounce but if it is a final consonant, it will be pronounced ng(eung).

*Cases where the Romanization is applied to initial sound and final consonant

As for pronunication of consonant ‘ㄱ’, ‘ㄷ’, ‘ㄹ’, ‘ㅂ’

if it is an initial sound, apply‘g’,‘d’,‘r’,‘b’and if it is a final consonant, apply‘k’,‘t’,‘l’,‘p’.

Specifications

Korean Character Blocks (5cm x 5cm x 5cm, 24ea)

Manuscritp : For Learning the Korean HANGUL (Paper, English, Japanese and Chinese)
84.1cm x 59.4cm