Hangul syllable 깺

It spells one Korean syllable; its word supplies the meaning.

깺 combines the tense initial consonant ㄲ, the vowel ㅐ, and final cluster ㅄ in one Hangul block. It spells a syllable; any word meaning comes from the Korean word it belongs to.

A font fits the components into a square syllable cell, so their spacing and proportions can vary. Unicode can also store the same syllable as conjoining jamo—the separate Hangul letters that join to form a syllable. If an app displays those parts separately, it is showing a decomposed spelling, not a different character.

Why is Hangul written in blocks?

Each block brings the parts of a Korean syllable together.

Hangul was devised in 1443; Hunminjeongeum, the text that introduced and explained the script, was promulgated in 1446. It was designed to make Korean speech easier for ordinary people to write: a block joins an initial consonant and vowel, with an optional final consonant.

The base syllable 깨 is recorded in Korean texts from 1459 and 1489: the Buddhist work 월인석보 and the medical guide 구급간이방언해. Those records attest 깨, not 깺; both share ㄲ and ㅐ, while 깺 adds final cluster ㅄ.

Across its history, Hangul had different public names and status. Older labels included 언문, meaning vernacular writing, and the disparaging 암글, meaning women's writing; Hangul became the script's modern name.

How does final ㅄ sound?

Its sound changes with what follows.

At a word edge or before another consonant, final ㅄ is reduced to a clipped p sound, the value represented by ㅂ. Before a vowel, the ㅅ part can move into the next syllable. So one pronunciation cannot cover every word containing 깺.