훈민정음 해례본 ⑦ 합자해와 용자례 — 글자를 합치는 법, 그리고 실제 낱말들Haerye ⑦ Combining Letters and Examples — how the blocks are built, with real words

The original

Excerpts from the Explanation of Combining Letters (hapjahae) and the Examples of Letter Use (yongjarye). The former gives the rules for assembling initial, medial and final into a single square block and for marking the four tones; the latter lists real native Korean words in which each letter occurs. The original supplies two words for every letter, ninety-four examples in all; roughly half are given here.

In English

The three sounds — initial, medial and final — combine to form a letter block. The initial sits either above the medial or to its left, as ㄱ of 君 sits above ㅜ and ㆁ of 業 sits to the left of ㅓ.

Among the medials, those that are round or horizontal sit beneath the initial: ㆍ ㅡ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ. Those that are vertical sit to its right: ㅣ ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ. Thus ㆍ of 呑 sits beneath ㅌ, ㅡ of 卽 sits beneath ㅈ, and ㅣ of 侵 sits to the right of ㅊ.

The final sits beneath the initial and medial, as ㄴ of 君 sits beneath 'gu' and ㅂ of 業 sits beneath 'eo'.

As for the level, rising, departing and checked tones in our language: 'hwal' for bow is level in tone; 'dol' for stone is rising; 'gal' for knife is departing; 'but' for brush is checked. One dot added to the left of a letter gives the departing tone, two give the rising tone, and no dot gives the level tone; the checked tone in Chinese resembles the departing.

Examples for the initial ㄱ: 'gam', a persimmon; 'gal', a reed. For ㅋ: 'uke', unhulled rice; 'kong', a soybean. For ㄷ: 'dwi', thatch grass; 'dam', a wall. For ㄴ: 'noro', a roe deer; 'nap', a monkey. For ㅂ: 'bol', an arm; 'beol', a bee. For ㅁ: 'moe', a mountain; 'ma', a yam. For ㅈ: 'ja', a ruler; 'jyohui', paper. For ㅅ: 'son', a hand; 'syeom', an island. For ㅎ: 'buheong', an owl; 'him', sinew. For ㅇ: 'biyuk', a chick; 'bayam', a snake. For ㄹ: 'muroe', hail; 'eoreum', ice.

Examples for the medial ㆍ: 'teok', a chin; 'pat', a red bean. For ㅡ: 'meul', water; 'geuryeok', a wild goose. For ㅣ: 'git', a nest; 'pi', millet. For ㅗ: 'non', a paddy field; 'byeoro', an inkstone. For ㅏ: 'bap', cooked rice; 'sasam', a deer. For ㅜ: 'sut', charcoal; 'guri', copper. For ㅓ: 'neol', a plank; 'beodeul', a willow.

Examples for the final ㄱ: 'dak', the paper mulberry; 'dok', a jar. For ㄴ: 'sin', a shoe; 'bandoe', a firefly. For ㅁ: 'beom', a tiger; 'saem', a spring. For ㅅ: 'jat', a pine nut; 'mot', a pond. For ㄹ: 'dal', the moon; 'byeol', a star.

[On the text] The word lists are here to demonstrate that the letters work, and they have turned into something their authors did not intend. Because the examples are native Korean words rather than Sino-Korean vocabulary, and because they were written down in a phonetic script, they are the oldest reliable record we have of how ordinary fifteenth-century Korean actually sounded. A persimmon, a reed, an owl, hail, a paddy field, a firefly, the moon, a star: a small inventory of the world as it was to hand, preserved because somebody needed sample words.