Basic & Stroke-addition Principle
The 5 basic consonants were created from the figures representing heaven, earth, and human.
The content written in the Haeryebon reads as follows.
ㄱ represents the shape of the root of the tongue blocking the throat.
ㄴ represents the shape of the tongue touching the upper gum.
ㅁ represents the shape of the closed mouth.
ㅅ represents the shape of the teeth.
ㅇ represents the shape of the throat’s hole.
The consonants of Hangul, which visualize sounds into letters, are the result of King Sejong’s outstanding insight.
King Sejong created the remaining consonants by adding strokes to the five basic consonants.
The letters derived from this stroke-addition method belong to the same phonetic group, resembling one another in appearance while also sharing common phonetic characteristics.
The feature of a letter formed by adding strokes to basic consonants is that it has the same sound characteristics, but the more strokes are added, the more air is expelled from the mouth.
When pronouncing, the key is to exhale more forcefully the air from the mouth for the consonants formed by adding strokes to the basic consonants.
The consonant ‘ㄹ‘ is not a letter to which the stroke-addition principle applies. It is a variant letter formed by the combination of ‘ㄱ‘ and ‘ㄷ‘.
When pronouncing double consonants, apply double the force on the lips and tongue,
and pronounce them loudly and shortly as if making a momentary sound.
