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Basic Hangeul 한글 characters and approximate sounds in English

ㅏ a

ㅓ eo

ㅗ o

ㅜ    u

ㅡ eu

ㅣ i

ㅑ ya

ㅕ yeo

ㅛ yo

ㅠ yu

ㅐ ae

ㅔ e

ㅒ yae

ㅖ ye

ㅘ wa

ㅙ wae

ㅝ weo

ㅞ we

ㅟ wi

ㅚ oe

ㅢ ui

ㅇ */ng2

ㄴ n

ㅁ m

ㅋ k

ㅌ t

ㅍ p

ㅊ ch

ㅎ h

ㅅ s

ㄱ k-g-k

ㄷ t-d-t

ㅂ p-b-p

ㅈ ch-j-t

ㄹ r/l-r-l

ㄲ g-kk-k

ㄸ d-tt-*

ㅃ b-pp-*

ㅆ ss-ss-t

ㅉ j-tch-*

Source:Lonely Planet Korean phrasebook

1 – showing initial-middle-final sound;
2 – the consonantㅇ is used as a placeholder and is silent at the start
while is pronounced as ng at the end of syllables;                                                                                         * - indicates no sound

A couple of months back, I got to thinking about the limitations of Hangeul when it comes to words and sounds not naturally occurring in Korean. I started thinking about Katakana, Japan’s alphabet used primarily for company names and non-Japanese words. I then thought about all the Korean characters, which were once part of Hangeul but have since been eliminated. There’s scores of them in all kinds of shapes and combinations on the scrap heap, located on Wikipedia at: Jamo & List of Hangeul Jamo. 

After reading more about all these now obsolete Jamo, I got thinking why doesn’t Korea reinstate some of these obsolete Hangeul characters and use them for foreign sounds and when transcribing foreign words? Believe or not, there exists now obsolete Hangeul characters for sounds such as ‘v’ and ‘w’. These characters were used in the past for non-Korean words and sounds, primarily Chinese back then, but are no longer part of the Korean alphabet. Why doesn’t Korea bring some of these obsolete Hangeul off the bench and use them for words and sounds of foreign origin?

It would have the advantage of introducing Koreans to these sounds at an earlier date and help their pronunciation of non-Korean words, bringing their pronunciation closer to the ‘true’ pronunciation of the non-Korean word. Whereas, nowadays Korean learners of English are often hamstrung by the rules in place in Korean when transliterating foreign words or sounds. A major issue is that in Korean, each syllable must contain a vowel, whereas in English (and other languages) there may be hundreds of consonant blends. For example, the word sandwich in English comes out as 산드위치 (sandeuwichi), which sounds like the speaker’s got a speech impediment to native English speakers’ ears. Another example is, night which comes out as 나이트 (naiteu).

There are other issues arise from sounds which occur in foreign langauages, yet not in Korean. The Korean alaphabet is perfect for speaking Korean as it is efficient, easy to learn and comprehensive for the Korean language. However, it is very limited when using it for foreign langauges as it doesn’t allocate characters for non-Korean sounds, of which there are many, such as: x, f, z, and v. Another issue with Korean is that it contains a character which is a cross between a k and a g and may sound like either depending on where it’s situated in a word, and likewise for p and b, and r and l. But, it doesn’t actually contain the consonants k, g, p, b, r, and l individually as they are pronounced in English. These are factors which impede a Korean student’s English learning particularly if they are learning English off a Korean native speaker who themselves are not able to correctly pronounce consonants which don’t occur in Korean such as v, x, f, and z. (- This situation is declining as time goes on as most young Koreans have studied with a native English speaker at at least one point in their lives so nowadays most under 20 year olds have quite good pronunciation. The average pronunciation ability detierates rapidly, the older the speaker is however).

Below are a few situations I thought of for re-instating existing, yet now obsolete, Jamo characters and re-incorporating them into Hangeul to aid in pronouncing and/or transcribing words and sounds of non-Korean origin.

• The word city comes out as shitty in Korean as the rule with Korean is that a sh sound always proceeds an ‘i (ee)’ vowel when the character ㅅ (s) is used. Instead, you could use the currently unused ᄼ(s) character for situations as above when using non-Korean words such as city.

• These characters which used to be used for sounds of non-Korean origin could be re-instated: ㅱ (w), ㅿ (z) and ㆅ (x) – but I personally prefer using ᄽ for (x).

• Some other characters that could be used for foreign sounds are: ᅅ (soft ‘th’ θ sound as in ‘thin’), ᅆ (hard ‘th’ ð sound as in ‘this’), ᄙ (‘English-sounding’ r as in ‘rooster’), ㅬ (‘English-sounding’ l as in ‘love’), ㅸ (English-sounding’ b as in ‘boy’), ㅹ (v), ᄤ (f).

• ㆍ – could be placed below words of foreign origin which end with consonant sounds, which are currently limited by Hangeul’s need for a vowel to follow the consonant as in ‘mart’ 마트 which comes out as ‘marteu’. Instead, have the dot below the final ㅌ so the word is pronounced ‘mart’, similar to in English.

I believe these, or similar, adjustments could be made into Hangeul to enhance the alphabet and assist its learners on getting an accurate grasp of non-Korean sounds at an early age in their own alphabet. Japan did so with their foreign langauge alphabet, Katakana, and I believe it would be beneficial for Koreans to consider doing so too. However, I imagine this would cause a lot of constentation from Hangeul purists who would see it as bastardizing the language. I believe, howver, that it would enhance the alphabet further rather than compromise the alphabet.