Jamo
| Korean spelling | |
|---|---|
| Korean alphabet : | 자모 |
| Hanja : | 字母 |
| Revised Romanization : | jamo |
| McCune-Reischauer : | chamo |
The 51 jamo (literally "mothers of letters / characters", also called 낱자 natja ) are the letters of an alphabet font called Hangeul , created in the 15th century , which is now used to write Korean .
In the following, the words “consonant”, “vowel” and “syllable” are to be understood in (ortho-) graphical rather than phonetic terms.
For reasons of space, these imprecise terms replace more precise descriptions. In relation to the German script, the designation of the r as a consonant letter would be comparable despite the non-consonant pronunciation, for example in the word “er”.
inventory
In addition to 24 simple (non-compound) jamo , there are 27, which consists of two or three of these simple jamo - graphemes composed. Each simple or compound jamo represents a morphophoneme of 20th century language, although it should be noted that the compound jamo are often not pronounced simply as a sequence of their components.
The 24 simple jamo are:
- 14 consonants ( ja-eum ; 자음 ; 子音 ; literally "children's sounds ")
- 10 vowels ( mo-eum ; 모음 ; 母音 ; literally "mother sounds ").
Five of the simple consonants can be spelled doubled and then form another five double spellings ( ssangjamo ), while eleven complex consonants ( bokjamo ) are written from two different consonants side by side.
The basic vowels can further 11 Di - and Trigraphs be assembled, of which only ㅢ a diphthong is in the strictest sense, and the only word anlaut the default language.
In summary there are:
- 14 simple consonants,
- 5 double consonants,
- 11 complex consonants,
- 10 simple vowels,
- 11 compound vowels.
arrangement
Unlike the letters of the Latin alphabet , the jamo are not simply put together in a chain from left to right when they are written. Rather, the jamo of each (orthographic) syllable are grouped in a block. Each block is composed of the following parts in order of pronunciation:
- At the top, left or top left is a single or double consonant jamo (vowel-like morphemes are given the silent filling jamo ᄋ ), in English lead (L).
- Below and / or to the right of it is a simple or compound vocal jamo , in English vowel (V).
- At the bottom there may be a simple, double or complex consonant jamo , in English trail (T).
Whether the first jamo (black in the picture) of a block of syllables is written at the top, left or top left in the block depends on which vowel jamo (red in the picture) follows it and whether it is followed by a consonant jamo (yellow in the picture).
The finished LV (-T) blocks are then written one after the other from left to right; if a line is full, a new one running from left to right is started below.
Relationship between jamo and phonetic value
Jamo with similar sound values sometimes resemble each other graphically, for example a joted vowel is graphically similar both to its unjoted counterpart and to every other joted vowel: The long bars indicate the vowel sound value and the presence or absence of a preceding w sound. All joted jamo have two short dashes, where the jamo of the same vowel in non-jotted form has only one short dash (see picture).
While consonant quantity is reflected in the jamo spelling (e.g. the word 언니 eonni is pronounced with a long [n], which can be recognized by the two ᅟ ᅠ ᆫ ᄂ ᅠ ), vowel quantity is not expressed in writing, although it is in in some dialects determines the meaning of a word - in some dialects the difference is expressed by tone rather than quantity. From the high-level language, however, the vowel quantity as a meaningful characteristic has either disappeared or is in the process of disappearing.
variants
In North Korea a variant of the ㅌ is very common, which consists of a ㄷ with a horizontal line above it (rarely a short line placed on the ㄷ ). Overall, the appearance of the jamo has not changed significantly, neither in handwriting nor in print; When comparing the oldest printed documents with today's, only a greater similarity of the latter with manuscripts is noticeable, for example in jamo ㅈ .
The rules governing the graphic arrangement of the jamo into blocks of syllables have not been changed either; only the graph arrangement in the compound vowel jamo ㅝ and ㅞ, which is common in South Korean publications, but rarely used in North Korean ones, is to be mentioned here. It is true that there were attempts in Russia, especially at the beginning of the 20th century, to even abandon the groupings in blocks and instead simply write the individual jamo from left to right like the letters of the western alphabets; but such reforms could not prevail.
The arrangement of the blocks of syllables in lines running from left to right, on the other hand, is comparatively young. First they were arranged vertically, with the first column of a text on the right and the last on the left. In the course of the modernization of Korea, spaces and punctuation marks were found. Vertical script, which is rare today, was still very common during the first half of the 20th century.
From the 15th to the beginning of the 20th century, the lead part of syllables could consist of complex rather than single or double jamo . In the Trail, however, there was never more than a simple consonant for centuries because of the non-morphophonic spelling, which was finally changed in 1933 with a successful standardization of the spelling.
Since the first half of the 15th century when the jamo were created, some of them have fallen out of use, while no new creations have added to the grapheme inventory. In the middle of the 20th century, efforts were made in North Korea to use a series of new graphemes whose appearance was based on the existing jamo graphs to adapt the jamo character inventory even more closely to that of the Korean morphophonemes ( new jamo with example words ); But even this last major attempt at reform found little support and was abandoned, so that the jamo of a word today only give limited information about its inflection.
keyboard
Typewriters and computers
The 1969 South Korean standardization laid the foundation for a disagreement about the best jamo keyboard layout:
The assignments 3 [se] - , 4 [ne] - and 5 [daseot] -beolsik are now largely out of use.
With today's standard 2 [du] -beolsik assignment, the consonants are on the left-hand side of the keyboard, the vowels (vowel / jungseong) on the right. To enter a consonant in the final syllable (trail / jongseong) the same key is pressed as for its initial entry (lead / choseong) .
Some prefer the 3-beolsik assignment to the 2-beolsik assignment , as this puts less strain on the left hand, which is weaker in right-handed people, and thus prevents carpal tunnel syndrome ; With the 3-beolsik assignment, the initial consonants ( lead ) are on the right, the vowels ( vowel ) in the middle and the final consonants ( trail ) on the left. Using the mouse with the right hand compensates for the increased strain on the left hand caused by 2-beolsik .
Windows' IME supports 2-beolsik , 3-beolsik 390 and 3-beolsik Final ( 최종 3 벌식 ).
Cell phones
Cheonjiin
Samsung's Cheonjiin ( 천지인 ) input method is available for writing short messages with cell phone keypads, which only requires three keys to enter the 21 vowels ( jungseong ). The Cheonjiin input method takes advantage of the fact that all vowels are unambiguously reproduced with the writing order of their short strokes ( 천 cheon "heaven"), long horizontal strokes ( 지 ji "earth") and long vertical strokes ( 인 in "human") can. For example, the sequence “short line”, “horizontal line”, “vertical line” (or pressing the corresponding keys on the mobile phone) creates the vowel ㅚ oe .
This is possible without any problems, since the vowel ㆌ was given up in the 1930s , which otherwise, like ㅝ , would have to be entered using the sequence “horizontal line”, “short line”, “short line”, “vertical line”.
Others
Another input method allows some letters to be entered with just one press of a key, while others can be entered with a subsequent press of the key
- of the same letter,
- another letter,
- "Add line (s)" (left of the zero key) and / or
- "Doubling" (to the right of the zero key)
be generated. The vowels ㅏ a and ㅗ o (both are “light” or yang vowels) are entered with just one keystroke. To enter the corresponding “dark” or eum vowels ㅓ eo and ㅜ u ( axially symmetrical to the light vowels) , simply press the same key a second time.
- Examples
Consonants
For ㅎ h : ㅇ (ng) , "add line"
For ㅂ b : ㅁ m , "add line"
For ㅃ pp : ㅁ m , "add line", "double"
For ㅍ p : ㅁ m , 2 × " Add line "
Vowels
For ㅘ wa : ㅗ / ㅜ o / u , ㅏ / ㅓ a / eo
For ㅑ ya : ㅏ / ㅓ a / eo , “add a dash”
For ㅓ eo : 2 × ㅏ / ㅓ a / eo
For ㅕ yeo : 2 × ㅏ / ㅓ a / eo , "add line"
Entire CVC block
For 협 hyeop : ㅇ (ng) , "add line", 2 × ㅏ / ㅓ a / eo , "add line", ㅁ m , "add line"
LVT computer font
Usually, complete blocks of syllables are stored as the smallest units. In addition, Unicode provides the rarely used option of saving the jamo of a syllable individually in the following order:
- LV (-T) (- M)
L stands for a single or a sequence of several consonantic choseong jamo , V for a single or a sequence of several vowel jungseong jamo , T for a single or a sequence of several consonantic jongseong jamo (optional) and finally M for one of the two in the 15th Century used tone characters, which should appear as a point or two to the left of the syllable block in vertical writing (optional).
This structure is called 첫가 끝 in Korean (roughly “LVT”). In conjunction with a suitable font , the jamo -oriented LVT method enables a display of even old Korean texts that is comparatively similar to the original spelling, whereas storage in blocks of syllables is opposed to the sheer number of possible syllables, which can also be achieved with the support of jamo old Korean texts that have been disused Texts that would exceed the size of conventional fonts.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Picture of a Korean keyboard layout
- ↑ For example UnBatang font
