Appendix · Additional Notes

8. The number of sounds in Hangul



    39.8 billion sounds

    The base consonants of Jeongeum are composed of five
    individual characters, while the base vowels consist of three
    characters. These basic characters expand through additional
    strokes (Deotgeueum) and combinations (Eouleum).
    The core characters of Jeongeum include 17 initial
    consonants, 11 medial vowels. The initial sound, medial
    sound, and final sound can each be combined with up to
    three characters. According to the creation principles of
    Jeongeum, this structure enables the formation of about 39.8
    billion complete syllables (온글자 Ongulja). This enormous
    number shows that Hangul is designed to capture every
    possible sound in nature.
    When calculating the number of initial sounds, we consider
    cases where a single consonant is used, where two
    consonants are combined, and where three consonants are
    combined. This gives us 17 + 17×17 + 17×17×17,
    resulting in 5,219 unique initial units. The same number
    applies to final sounds. For medial vowels, the calculation is
    11 + 11×11 + 11×11×11, which gives 1,463 units.



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