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− | Rangyan does not differentiate between count and mass nouns. A small number of nouns have collectives formed by reduplication, for example, ''oro'' ({{Dl_lang||人||ɔ.ɾɔ}}) "person" and ''orooro'' ({{Dl_lang||人々||ɔ.ɾɔ.ɔ.ɾɔ}}) "people". However, reduplication is not productive. Words in Rangyan referring to more than one of something are collectives, not plurals. ''Orooro'', for example, means "a lot of people" or "people in general". It is never used to mean "two people". A phrase like ''rangya ke orooro'' ({{Dl_lang||琅 |
+ | Rangyan does not differentiate between count and mass nouns. A small number of nouns have collectives formed by reduplication, for example, ''oro'' ({{Dl_lang||人||ɔ.ɾɔ}}) "person" and ''orooro'' ({{Dl_lang||人々||ɔ.ɾɔ.ɔ.ɾɔ}}) "people". However, reduplication is not productive. Words in Rangyan referring to more than one of something are collectives, not plurals. ''Orooro'', for example, means "a lot of people" or "people in general". It is never used to mean "two people". A phrase like ''rangya ke orooro'' ({{Dl_lang||琅野거人々||ɾaŋ.ja.kɛ.ɔ.ɾɔ.ɔ.ɾɔ}}) would be taken to mean "the people of Rangya", or "the population of Rangya", not "two people from Rangya" or even "a few people from Rangya". |
− | Lacking grammatical number, the noun '' |
+ | Lacking grammatical number, the noun ''haya'' ({{Dl_lang||鳥||ha.ja}}) may refer to a single bird or several birds. Where number is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word). For example, ''haya ho ik'' ({{Dl_lang||鳥八翼||ha.ja.hɔ.ɪk̚}}) means eight birds. |
===Pronouns=== |
===Pronouns=== |
Revision as of 21:40, 28 January 2011
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Name: Rangyayo
Type: Agglutinative Alignment: Nominative-Accusative Head Direction: Final Number of genders: 0 Declensions: No Conjugations: Yes
|
Gender | Cases | Numbers | Tenses | Persons | Moods | Voices | Aspects | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Verb | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Nouns | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Adjectives | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Numbers | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Participles | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Adverb | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Pronouns | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No |
Adpositions | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Article | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Particle | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Phonology
Consonants
The following are phonemic transcriptions of Rangyan consonants.
Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ŋ1 | |||
Plosive | plain | p b | t d | k g | ||
aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | |||
Fricative | s z2 | h3 | ||||
Affricate | plain | ts dz4 | ||||
aspirated | tsʰ4 | |||||
Liquid | ɾ~l5 | |||||
Approximant | w | j |
- /ŋ/ appears only in the syllable coda.
- /s, z/ are palatalised [ɕ, ʑ] before /i, j/
- /h/ is palatalised [ç] before /i, j/; and is bilabialised [ɸ] before /u, w/
- /ts, dz, tsʰ/ are palatalised [tɕ, dʑ, tɕʰ] before /i, j/
- /ɾ/ is an alveolar flap [ɾ] in the syllable onset; and is [l] in the syllable coda which can only be found in foreign loanwords.
Vowels
Monophthongs
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i1 | ɨ | u2 |
Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
Open | a |
- /i/ is pronounced /ɪ/ before velar codas /ŋ, k̚/
- /u/ is /ʊ/ before velar codas /ŋ, k̚/
Diphthongs
In the Rangyan language, because semivowels /j/ and /w/ may follow consonants in initial position in a word, which no other consonant can do, and perhaps due also to yenmun orthography, which transcribes them as vowels, they are sometimes considered to be elements of diphthongs and triphthongs rather than separate consonant phonemes.
j- | w- | -i |
---|---|---|
ja | wa | aɪ |
jɛ | wɛ | eɪ |
jɔ | ɔɪ | |
ju1 | uɪ~wi2 |
- /ju/ is pronounced /jʊ/ before velar codas /ŋ, k̚/
- /uɪ/ is a falling diphthong [uɪ] after a consonant in an open syllable; and is a rising diphthong [wi] when it is a syllable of its own or in a closed syllable.
Triphthongs
j- | w- |
---|---|
jaɪ | waɪ |
jeɪ | weɪ |
Positional allophones
Rangyan consonants have two principal positional allophones: initial and final. The initial form is found at the beginning of a syllable and the final form is found at the end of a syllable.
Phoneme | p | t | k | ɾ |
---|---|---|---|---|
Initial allophone | p | t | k | ɾ |
Final allophone | p̚ | t̚ | k̚ | l |
All plosives [p, t, k] are unreleased [p̚, t̚, k̚] at the end of a syllable. Final [ɾ] is a liquid [l] which can only be found in foreign loanwords.
Phonotactics
Rangyan syllable structure is maximally CgVC, where the first C is the initial consonant; g is a semivowel glide /j/ or /w/; V is a vowel; the second C is a coda. Any consonant but /ŋ/ may occur initially, whereas only /m, n, ŋ, p, t, k/ may occur finally in non-foreign words, and /s, l/ in foreign words.
Below is the table of all syllable finals (gVC) in Rangyan.
Finals | Codas | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(none) | m | n | ŋ | p | t | k | ||
Monophthong nuclei |
a | a | am | an | aŋ | ap | at | ak |
ɛ | ɛ | ɛm | ɛn | ɛŋ | ɛp | ɛt | ɛk | |
ɔ | ɔ | ɔm | ɔn | ɔŋ | ɔp | ɔt | ɔk | |
u | u | um | un | ʊŋ | up | ut | ʊk | |
ɨ | ɨ | ɨm | ɨn | ɨŋ | ɨp | ɨt | ɨk | |
i | i | im | in | ɪŋ | ip | it | ɪk | |
Diphthong nuclei |
ja | ja | jam | jan | jaŋ | jap | jat | jak |
jɛ | jɛ | jɛm | jɛn | jɛŋ | jɛp | jɛt | jɛk | |
jɔ | jɔ | jɔm | jɔn | jɔŋ | jɔp | jɔt | jɔk | |
ju | ju | jum | jun | jʊŋ | jup | jut | jʊk | |
wa | wa | wan | waŋ | wat | wak | |||
wɛ | wɛ | wɛn | wɛŋ | wɛt | wɛk | |||
wi | wi1 | win | wɪŋ | wit | wɪk | |||
aɪ | aɪ | |||||||
eɪ | eɪ | |||||||
ɔɪ | ɔɪ | |||||||
uɪ | uɪ2 | |||||||
Triphthong nuclei |
jaɪ | jaɪ | ||||||
jeɪ | jeɪ | |||||||
waɪ | waɪ | |||||||
weɪ | weɪ |
- pronounced [wi] when it is a syllable of its own or before codas /n, t̚, s, l/; and pronounced [wɪ] before codas /ŋ, k̚/
- pronounced [uɪ] after an onset in an open syllable.
Additional finals /wam/, /wɛm/, /wim/, /wap/, /wɛp/, /wip/ can be found in foreign loanwords.
Vowel harmony
Traditionally, the Rangyan language has had strong vowel harmony; that is, in pre-modern Rangyan, not only did the inflectional and derivational affixes change in accordance to the main root vowel, but native words also adhered to vowel harmony. However, this rule is no longer observed strictly in modern Rangyan. In modern Rangyan, it is only applied in certain cases such as onomatopoeia and interjections.
There are three classes of vowels in Rangyan: positive, negative and neutral. The vowel classes loosely follow the vowel heights. Exchanging positive vowels with negative vowels usually creates different nuances of meaning, with positive vowels sounding fast, hot, dry, hard, solid, focused or aggressive, and negative vowels sounding slow, cold, wet, soft, insubstantial, diffuse or tranquil.
Monophthongs | Diphthongs | Triphthongs | |
---|---|---|---|
Positive | a, ɔ | ja, wa, aɪ, jɔ, ɔɪ | jaɪ, waɪ |
Negative | ɛ, u | jɛ, wɛ, eɪ, ju, uɪ~wɪ | jeɪ, weɪ |
Neutral | i, ɨ |
Pitch accent
Rangyan pitch accent can be presented with a two-pitch-level model. In this representation, each syllable is either high (H) or low (L) in pitch.
- If the accent is on the first syllable, then the first syllable is high-pitched and the others are low: HLL...
- If the accent is on a syllable other than the first, then the first syllable is low, the following syllables up to and including the accented one are high, and the rest are low: LHLL..., LHHLL..., LHHHLL...
- If the word does not have an accent, the first syllable is low and the others are high: LHH... This high pitch spreads to unaccented grammatical particles that attach to the end of the word, whereas these would have a low pitch when attached to an accented word.
Examples are given in the table below. The number before each pitch pattern tells you the syllable where the last high pitch is.
Pitch pattern | Sample word | Meaning | |
---|---|---|---|
(0) LHH... | kigomi | 기꼬미 | I |
(1) HLL... | yunü | 유느 | do; perform |
(2) LHLL... | jin'ai | 찐애 | dust |
(3) LHHLL... | asobeda | 아소뻐따 | he/she/it |
(4) LHHHLL... | aneruminün | 아너루미는 | you |
Grammar
Nouns
Rangyan has no grammatical number, gender or articles. Thus, Rangyan nouns are non-inflecting. The noun iku (犬; /i.ku/) can be translated as "dog", "dogs", "a dog", "the dog", "some dogs" and so forth, depending on context. However, as part of the extensive pair of grammatical systems that Rangyan possesses for honorification and politeness, nouns too can be modified. Nouns take politeness prefix a- (아; /a/) to produce their respectful forms. A few examples are given in the following table.
Plain | Honorific | Meaning |
---|---|---|
kao (夫; /ka.ɔ/) | a-kao (아夫; /a.ka.ɔ/) | husband |
nori (名; /nɔ.ɾi/) | a-nori (아名; /a.nɔ.ɾi/) | name |
bu (目; /bu/) | a-bu (아目; /a.bu/) | eye |
hiku (毛; /çi.ku/) | a-hiku (아毛; /a.çi.ku/) | hair (on body) |
Rangyan does not differentiate between count and mass nouns. A small number of nouns have collectives formed by reduplication, for example, oro (人; /ɔ.ɾɔ/) "person" and orooro (人々; /ɔ.ɾɔ.ɔ.ɾɔ/) "people". However, reduplication is not productive. Words in Rangyan referring to more than one of something are collectives, not plurals. Orooro, for example, means "a lot of people" or "people in general". It is never used to mean "two people". A phrase like rangya ke orooro (琅野거人々; /ɾaŋ.ja.kɛ.ɔ.ɾɔ.ɔ.ɾɔ/) would be taken to mean "the people of Rangya", or "the population of Rangya", not "two people from Rangya" or even "a few people from Rangya".
Lacking grammatical number, the noun haya (鳥; /ha.ja/) may refer to a single bird or several birds. Where number is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word). For example, haya ho ik (鳥八翼; /ha.ja.hɔ.ɪk̚/) means eight birds.
Pronouns
First person | Speaker | Speech | Note |
---|---|---|---|
khi 我; 키 | both | plain | often written in yenmun by women |
mora 吾 | male | plain | |
kigomi 기꼬미 | both | humble | |
otto 僕 | male | humble | |
ube 奴; 우뻐 | female | humble | sometimes written in yenmun for a more feminine feel |
Second person | Speaker | Speech | Note |
---|---|---|---|
one 尓 | both | plain | |
ebi 汝; 어삐 | both | plain | female singular you |
ane 아너 | both | respectful | |
anemi 아너미 | both | very respectful | |
anerumi 아너루미 | both | very respectful | the most formal polite version |
soka 君 | both | respectful | male singular you |
imme 임머; 媛 | both | respectful | female singular you; often written in yenmun |
Third person | Speaker | Speech | Note |
---|---|---|---|
hoda 彼 | both | plain | |
oda 오따 | male | plain | slang version of hoda; used by men; rarely used in written language |
suki 伊; 수기 | both | plain | she; sometimes written in yenmun for a more feminine feel |
asoda 아소따 | both | respectful | |
asobeda 아소뻐따 | both | very respectful |
Suffixes are added to pronouns to make them collective, for example, kigomi-te (기꼬미더; /ki.gɔ.mi.tɛ/) "we" and asobeda-nün (아소뻐따는; /a.sɔ.bɛ.da.nɨn/) "they".
Suffix | Speaker | Speech | Note |
---|---|---|---|
te 더; 等 | both | plain humble |
added to plain or humble forms of pronouns usually written in yenmun (khite 我더); sometimes in hanji if appended to pronouns written in hanji (morate 吾等); almost never in hanji for pronouns in yenmun (kigomite 기꼬미더) |
nün 는; 輩 | both | respectful | added to respectful forms of pronouns usually in hanji (sokanün 君輩) unless appended to pronouns written in yenmun (aneruminün 아너루미는) |
Reflexive Pronouns
Rangyan has three reflexive pronouns jishin, jiki and osu, all meaning "self". However, there are subtle differences in usage among the three reflexive pronouns.
- jishin (自身; /dʑi.ɕin/) tends to take a local antecedent and is used more often for first person antecedents;
- jiki (自己; /dʑi.ki/) takes long-distance antecedents much more than local ones;
- osu (己; /ɔ.su/) is less used than the other two and takes local and long-distance antecedents equally well. The antecedent to which it refers can be inferred by context, which is generally the subject of the sentence.
Verbs
Verbs are the most complex lexical category in Rangyan. Their structure when used as the predicate of a clause is prefix + verb stem + up to five suffixes, and can be illustrated with this table.
Honorific | Verb stem | Modality | Voice | Aspect | Polarity | Tense |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
- plain |
yab- eat |
- indicative |
- active |
- simple |
- affirmative |
-ü present |
a- polite |
yon- drink |
-ukin- conditional |
-it- passive |
-an- progressive |
-om- negative |
-ushi past |
nin- give |
-eor- subjunctive |
-ets- perfect |
-arai future | |||
hakk- laugh |
-isek- imperative |
|||||
hont- fly |
-iyuk- optative |
|||||
ter- fall |
-uyog- desiderative |
|||||
khitj- hunt |
-imos- potential |
|||||
khen- kill |
-iwar- dubitative |
This is a conjugation table for the verb yabü (食쁘; /ja.bɨ/) "eat". Honorific and modality are not included to keep the table shorter.
Verb stem + Conjugation | Meaning | ||
---|---|---|---|
present | yabü | 食쁘 | eat |
past | yabushi | 食뿌시 | ate |
future | yabarai | 食빠래 | will eat |
present progressive | yabanü | 食빠느 | is eating |
past progressive | yabanushi | 食빠누시 | was eating |
future progressive | yabanarai | 食빠나래 | will be eating |
present perfect | yabetsü | 食뻐즈 | have eaten |
past perfect | yabetsushi | 食뻐주시 | had eaten |
future perfect | yabetsarai | 食뻐자래 | will have eaten |
passive present | yabitü | 食삐드 | is eaten |
passive past | yabitushi | 食삐두시 | was eaten |
passive future | yabitarai | 食삐다래 | will be eaten |
passive present progressive | yabitanü | 食삐다느 | is being eaten |
passive past progressive | yabitanushi | 食삐다누시 | was being eaten |
passive future progressive | yabitanarai | 食삐다나래 | will be being eaten |
passive present perfect | yabitetsü | 食삐더즈 | have been eaten |
passive past perfect | yabitetsushi | 食삐더주시 | had been eaten |
passive future perfect | yabitetsarai | 食삐더자래 | will have been eaten |
negative present | yabomü | 食뽀므 | do not eat |
negative past | yabomushi | 食뽀무시 | did not eat |
negative future | yabomarai | 食뽀마래 | will not eat |
negative present progressive | yabanomü | 食빠노므 | is not eating |
negative past progressive | yabanomushi | 食빠노무시 | was not eating |
negative future progressive | yabanomarai | 食빠노마래 | will not be eating |
negative present perfect | yabetsomü | 食뻐조므 | have not eaten |
negative past perfect | yabetsomushi | 食뻐조무시 | had not eaten |
negative future perfect | yabetsomarai | 食뻐조마래 | will not have eaten |
negative passive present | yabitomü | 食삐도므 | is not eaten |
negative passive past | yabitomushi | 食삐도무시 | was not eaten |
negative passive future | yabitomarai | 食삐도마래 | will not be eaten |
negative passive present progressive | yabitanomü | 食삐다노므 | is not being eaten |
negative passive past progressive | yabitanomushi | 食삐다노무시 | was not being eaten |
negative passive future progressive | yabitanomarai | 食삐다노마래 | will not be being eaten |
negative passive present perfect | yabitetsomü | 食삐더조므 | have not been eaten |
negative passive past perfect | yabitetsomushi | 食삐더조무시 | had not been eaten |
negative passive future perfect | yabitetsomarai | 食삐더조마래 | will have not been eaten |
Demonstratives
Demonstratives occur in the i-, ne-, and ko- series. The i- (proximal) series refers to things closer to the speaker than the hearer, the ne- (mesial) series for things closer to the hearer, and the ko- (distal) series for things distant to both the speaker and the hearer. With ma-, demonstratives turn into the corresponding interrogative form.
Proximal (i-) | Mesial (ne-) | Distal (ko-) | Interrog. (ma-) | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Adjective | i 이 this |
ne 너 that |
ko 고 that over there |
ma 마 what |
Thing (-ko) | iko 이고 this one |
neko 너고 that one |
koko 고고 that one over there |
mako 마고 which one |
Person (-wa) | iwa 이와 this person |
newa 너와 that person |
kowa 고와 that person over there |
mawa 마와 who |
Place (-su) | isu 이수 here |
nesu 너수 there |
kosu 고수 over there |
masu 마수 where |
Demonstratives limit, and therefore precede, nouns; thus i maro (이石; /i.ma.ɾɔ/) for "this stone", ne maro (너石; /nɛ.ma.ɾɔ/) for "that stone", and ko maro (고石; /kɔ.ma.ɾɔ/) for "that stone over there".
Adjectives
All Rangyan adjectives end in -i, for example, ko'i (大이; /kɔ.i/) "big" and hyogi (重끼; /çjɔ.gi/) "heavy". Their syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or referent of pronoun. In Rangyan, adjectives form an open class of words, that is, it is relatively common for new adjectives to be formed via such processes as derivation.
A given occurrence of a Rangyan adjective can generally be classified into one of the two major kinds of uses:
- Attributive adjectives are part of the noun phrase headed by the noun they modify, for example, ko'i is an attributive adjective in ko'i fupi (大이熊; /kɔ.i.ɸu.pi/) "big bear". Since Rangyan is a head-final language, attributive adjectives always precede their nouns.
- Predicative adjectives are linked via a copula to the noun or pronoun they modify, for example, ko'i is a predicate adjective in fupi no ko'i karü (熊노大이가르; /ɸu.pi.nɔ.kɔ.i.ka.ɾɨ/) "bear is big".
Adjective order
In Rangyan language, attributive adjectives usually occur in this default order, with other orders being permissible:
- demonstrative
- intensifier (adverb of degree)
- opinion
- size
- age
- shape
- colour
- proper adjective (e.g. nationality, origin, material)
- noun adjunct (noun used as adjective)
- head noun
Example:
ne ya'i nitsi ugi hapi (너야이小지黒끼鳥; /nɛ.ja.i.ni.tsi.u.gi.ha.pi/)
"that good small black bird"
Dem. | Intensifier | Opinion | Size | Age | Shape | Colour | Proper adj. | Noun adjunct | Head noun |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ne that |
ya'i good |
nitsi small |
ugi black |
hapi bird |
Comparative
Rangyan adjectives, unlike their English counterparts, do not have a comparative form. To compare two things (NP1 and NP2), the noun phrase being compared (NP2), together with the postpositional comparative particle e, are placed between the subject noun phrase (NP1) and the predicative adjective in a sentence ended with a copula.
Example:
ne iku no i hapi e ko'i karü (너犬노이鳥어大이가르; /nɛ.i.ku.nɔ.i.ha.pi.ɛ.kɔ.i.ka.ɾɨ/)
"That dog is bigger than this bird."
NP1 | NP2 | Predicate | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
ne | iku-no | i | hapi-e | ko'i | karü |
that | dog-TOP | this | bird-COMP | big | COP |
Superlative
Rangyan adjectives also lack a superlative form. The adverb itban'in (一番인; /it̚.ban.in/) "most; lit. number one" is placed before adjectives for superlative degree of comparison.
Example:
ne iku no itban'in ko'i karü (너犬노一番인大이가르; /nɛ.i.ku.nɔ.it̚.ban.in.kɔ.i.ka.ɾɨ/)
"That dog is the biggest."
ne | iku-no | itban'in | ko'i | karü |
that | dog-TOP | most | big | COP |
Adverbs
An adverb is any word that modifies verbs, adjectives, clauses, sentenses and other adverbs. Not all but many Rangyan adverbs are formed by adding -n to adjectives. For example, khuki (狭기; /kʰu.ki/; "narrow") yields khukin (狭긴; /kʰu.kin/; "narrowly") and ya'i (良이; /ja.i/; "good") yields ya'in (良인; /ja.in/ "well"). This derviation is quite productive but there are a few adjectives from which adverbs may not be derived.
Particles
Particles in Rangyan are postpositional, as they immediately follow the modified component.
Particle | Function |
---|---|
no 노 | topic |
ye 여 | inclusive topic |
nu 누 | nominative case; identifier; subject |
ü 으 | accusative case; direct object |
ru 루 | dative case; indirect object |
ke 거 | genitive case; possession |
yo 요 | instrumental case; by means of |
kai 개 | locative case; location |
khu 쿠 | allative case; direction |
yu 유 | ablative case; from |
to 도 | up to; until; as far as; indicates a time or place as a limit |
e 어 | comparative |
o 오 | conjunction; and |
mo 모 | interrogation; question |
kho 코 | tag question; asks agreement or confirmation |
ra 라 | emphasis; certainty |
Writing system
The modern Rangyan writing system uses two main scripts:
- Hanji (漢字; /han.dʑi/), ideographs from Chinese characters, and
- Yenmun (諺文; 연문; /jɛn.mun/), a Korean phonemic alphabet organised into syllabic blocks that make up words.
To a lesser extent, modern written Rangyan also uses the Latin alphabet. Examples include abbreviations such as "CD" and "DVD".
Romanised Rangyan, called romaji (로마字; /ɾɔ.ma.dʑi/), is frequently used by foreign students of Rangyan, who have not yet mastered the two main scripts, and by native speakers for computer input.
Usage of scripts
Hanji
Yenmun
Yenmun is a phonemic alphabet organized into syllabic blocks. Each block consists of at least two of the 24 yenmun letters (jimo), with at least one each of the 14 consonants and 10 vowels. These syllabic blocks can be written horizontally from left to right as well as vertically from top to bottom in columns from right to left. Originally, the alphabet had several additional letters for pre-modern Korean, however, these letters have never been used in Rangyan.
Jimo
Jimo (字母; 찌모; /dʑi.mɔ/) are the units that make up the yenmun alphabet. Ji means letter or character, and mo means mother, so the name suggests that the jimo are the building-blocks of the script.
There are 39 jimo, of which 24 are equivalent to letters of the Latin alphabet. The other 15 jimo are clusters of two or sometimes three of these letters. Of the 24 simple jimo, 14 are consonants (tsiim; 子音; /tɕi.im/; "child sounds") and 10 are vowels (moim; 母音; /mɔ.im/; "mother sounds"). 5 of the simple consonant letters are doubled to form the five voiced consonants (see below). The 10 basic vowel jimo can be combined to form 10 more complex ones. Here is a summary:
- 14 simple consonant letters: ㄱ, ㅋ, ㅇ, ㄷ, ㅌ, ㄴ, ㅂ, ㅍ, ㅁ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅅ, ㅎ, ㄹ
- 5 double letters (voiced): ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅉ, ㅆ
- 6 simple vowel letters: ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅗ, ㅜ, ㅡ, ㅣ
- 4 simple iotized vowel letters (semi consonant-semi vowel): ㅑ, ㅕ, ㅛ, ㅠ
- 10 diphthongs: ㅐ, ㅒ, ㅔ, ㅖ, ㅘ, ㅙ, ㅚ, ㅝ, ㅞ, ㅟ
Four of the simple vowel jimo are derived by means of a short stroke to signify iotation (a preceding i sound): ㅑ /ja/, ㅕ /jɛ/, ㅛ /jɔ/, and ㅠ /ju/. These four are counted as part of the 24 simple jimo because the iotating stroke taken out of context does not represent /j/. In fact, there is no separate jimo for /j/.
Of the simple consonants, ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ, and ㅊ are aspirated derivatives of ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, and ㅈ, respectively, formed by combining the unaspirated letters with an extra stroke.
The doubled letters are ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅉ, ㅆ. Double jimo do not represent geminate consonants, but rather a voiced phonation.
Jimo order
The alphabetical order of yenmun does not mix consonants and vowels as Western alphabets do. Rather, the order is that of the Indic type, first velar consonants, then coronals, labials, sibilants, etc. However, the vowels come after the consonants rather than before them as in the Indic systems.
Historical order
The consonantal order of yenmun in 1446 in the document titled Funmintsengim (訓民正音; /ɸun.min.tsɛŋ.im/) "The Proper Sounds for the Instruction of the People" was,
ㄱ ㅋ ㆁ ㄷ ㅌ ㄴ ㅂ ㅍ ㅁ ㅈ ㅊ ㅅ ㆆ ㅎ ㅇ ㄹ ㅿ
and the order of vowels was,
ㆍ ㅡ ㅣ ㅗ ㅏ ㅜ ㅓ ㅛ ㅑ ㅠ ㅕ
Modern Rangyan order
In the Rangyan order, double jimo are placed immediately after their single counterparts. No distinction is made between silent and nasal ㅇ:
ㄱ ㄲ ㅋ ㅇ ㄷ ㄸ ㅌ ㄴ ㅂ ㅃ ㅍ ㅁ ㅈ ㅉ ㅊ ㅅ ㅆ ㅎ ㄹ ㅏ ㅐ ㅑ ㅒ ㅓ ㅔ ㅕ ㅖ ㅗ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅛ ㅜ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ
The modern monophthongal vowels come first, with the derived forms interspersed according to their form: first added i, then iotized, then iotized with added i. Diphthongs beginning with w are ordered according to their spelling, as ㅏ or ㅓ plus a second vowel, not as separate digraphs.
The order of the final jimo is,
(null) ㄱ ㅇ ㄷ ㄴ ㅂ ㅁ ㅅ ㄹ
"Null" stands for no final jimo, and the final jimo ㅅ and ㄹ can only be found in foreign loanwords.
Direction of writing
Written language reforms
Romanisation
There are a number of methods of rendering Rangyan in Roman letters. The Mackenzie method of romanisation, designed for English speakers, is a de facto standard widely used inside and outside Rangya.
Onset | ㄱ | ㄲ | ㅋ | ㅇ | ㄷ | ㄸ | ㅌ | ㄴ | ㅂ | ㅃ | ㅍ | ㅁ | ㅈ | ㅉ | ㅊ | ㅅ | ㅆ | ㅎ | ㄹ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mackenzie | k | g | kh | (null) | t | d | th | n | p | b | ph | m | ts | j | ch | s, sh | z, zh | h, f | r |
IPA | k | g | kʰ | (null) | t | d | tʰ | n | p | b | pʰ | m | ts~tɕ | dz~dʑ | tsʰ~tɕʰ | s~ɕ | z~ʑ | h~ç~ɸ | ɾ |
Nucleus | ㅏ | ㅐ | ㅑ | ㅒ | ㅓ | ㅔ | ㅕ | ㅖ | ㅗ | ㅘ | ㅙ | ㅚ | ㅛ | ㅜ | ㅝ | ㅞ | ㅟ | ㅠ | ㅡ | ㅣ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mackenzie | a | ai | ya | yai | e | ei | ye | yei | o | wa | wai | oi | yo | u | we | wei | ui, wi | yu | ü | i |
IPA | a | aɪ | ja | jaɪ | ɛ | eɪ | jɛ | jeɪ | ɔ | wa | waɪ | ɔɪ | jɔ | u~ʊ | wɛ | weɪ | uɪ~wi | ju~jʊ | ɨ | i~ɪ |
Coda | ㄱ | ㅇ | ㄷ | ㄴ | ㅂ | ㅁ | ㅅ | ㄹ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mackenzie | k | ng | t | n | p | m | s | l |
IPA | k̚ | ŋ | t̚ | n | p̚ | m | s | l |
Codas -s and -l can only be found in foreign loanwords.