Halfwidth Hangul Letter U

It is ㅜ in a compatibility form for older narrow-cell text systems. The Korean vowel value is the same; the extra information is width and compatibility, not a different sound.

A Unicode proposal traced the arrangement to Annex 4 of KS C 5601 / KS X 1001 (1987 and later) and noted a near-identical Xerox set referring to KS C 5601-1982. Mixed-width systems needed one-cell and two-cell forms that could round-trip between older encodings and fixed-grid displays.

In 2017, a Unicode proposal described the halfwidth Hangul jamo as almost never used and proposed deprecating them. Their role had shifted from representing a code-page layout to preserving older data; the vowel’s Korean value stayed the same.

Why is ￓ so narrow?

Halfwidth is a layout class, not a promise about one font’s pixels. The font and layout engine determine the displayed width, so a fallback font can change the spacing or proportions without changing the character.

On Windows, Microsoft’s Korean IME guide, updated 2024-06-20, describes ordinary jamo entry as automatic composition into syllable blocks. A standard Korean keyboard is therefore not a dependable way to enter this isolated compatibility form; use an editor’s character map or Unicode input instead.

The related conjoining vowel ᅮ can participate in Korean syllable shaping. This character stays free-standing, so use ordinary Hangul syllables or conjoining jamo when you want shaped Korean text.