원문
해례본 초성해(初聲解) 산문 부분. 초성이 운서(韻書)의 자모와 같은 개념임을 밝히고, 각 초성이 중성과 결합해 음절을 이루는 예를 든다.
풀이
정음의 초성은 곧 운서의 자모이다. 소리가 이로 말미암아 생기므로 어미라 이른다. 어금닛소리인 군(君) 자의 초성은 ㄱ이니, ㄱ과 'ᅮᆫ'이 합하여 '군'이 된다. 쾌(快) 자의 초성은 ㅋ이니, ㅋ과 'ㅙ'가 합하여 '쾌'가 된다. 규(虯) 자의 초성은 ㄲ이니, ㄲ과 'ㅠ'가 합하여 '뀨'가 된다. 업(業) 자의 초성은 ㆁ이니, ㆁ과 'ᅥᆸ'이 합하여 '업'이 되는 것과 같다. 혓소리의 두(斗)·탄(呑)·담(覃)·나(那), 입술소리의 별(彆)·표(漂)·보(步)·미(彌), 잇소리의 즉(卽)·침(侵)·자(慈)·술(戌)·사(邪), 목구멍소리의 읍(挹)·허(虛)·홍(洪)·욕(欲), 반혓소리·반잇소리의 려(閭)·양(穰)이 모두 이와 같다.
The original
The prose portion of the Explanation of the Initials (chosunghae). It establishes that the initial is the same concept as the fanqie initial category of the Chinese rhyme dictionaries, and gives worked examples of each initial combining with a medial to form a syllable.
In English
The initial of the Correct Sounds is precisely the initial category of the rhyme books. Sound arises from it, and so it is called the mother. The initial of the molar-sound character 君 is ㄱ; ㄱ joined with 'un' becomes 'gun'. The initial of 快 is ㅋ; ㅋ joined with 'wae' becomes 'kwae'. The initial of 虯 is ㄲ; ㄲ joined with 'yu' becomes 'kkyu'. The initial of 業 is ㆁ; ㆁ joined with 'eop' becomes 'eop'. The lingual characters 斗, 呑, 覃, 那; the labial characters 彆, 漂, 步, 彌; the dental characters 卽, 侵, 慈, 戌, 邪; the guttural characters 挹, 虛, 洪, 欲; and the semi-lingual and semi-dental characters 閭 and 穰 all work in the same way.
[On the text] This is the shortest section of the Haerye, and it is doing a particular kind of work. Chinese phonology had a long, sophisticated tradition of analysing a syllable into an initial and a rhyme, catalogued in the rhyme dictionaries every educated Korean knew. By stating that the new letters' initials are simply that same category, the authors place their invention inside an existing scientific vocabulary rather than beside it. The move is diplomatic as well as technical: a novel script is easier to defend when it can be shown to be doing, more precisely, what the received scholarship already did.