Hunminjeongeum Phonetics (I): Phonetic and Phoniatric Consideration for Explanation of Designs of Middle Vowel Letters

Abstract

Hunminjeongeum was made by the Great King Sejong, and composed of 17 consonant and 11 vowel letters. All the 28 letters were made according to the shape of vocal organ or space at the point of articulation for each letters. This review article focused on phonetic and phoniatric consideration for explanation of the designs of the middle vowel letters, especially three main vowel letters [ • (天, heaven), ㅡ (地, earth), ㅣ (人, human)] using video-fluoroscopic evaluation as well as computed tomography scanning, etc. During articulating / • / sound, a ball-like space at frontal portion of the oral cavity was found, tongue was contracted, and sound was deep (舌 縮而聲深). During /ㅡ/ sound, a flat air space between oral tongue and hard palate was created. Tongue was slightly contacted neither deep nor shallow (舌小縮而聲不深不淺). During /ㅣ/ sound, tongue was not contacted and Sound is light (舌不縮而聲淺). Tongue was moved forward making longitudinal oro-pharyngeal air space. So, I’d like to suggest that we had better change the explanation drawing from a philosophical modeling to a more scientific modeling from real vocal tract space modeling during articulating middle vowels of Hunminjeongeum.