Hangul Syllable Jat

On Dubeolsik, press W, K, then X. A Korean IME maps those keys to ㅈ, ㅏ, and ㅌ, then joins the jamo into 잩.

These jamo are individual Hangul letters: ㅈ begins the syllable, ㅏ is its vowel, and ㅌ is the final consonant, called 받침. Other Korean layouts use different keys for the same letters.

What does 잩 mean?

It is usually a syllable; Ulleungdo also has a local word. Hangul writes a syllable as a block of letters arranged together. In ordinary Korean, 잩 contributes one syllable inside a word; alone, it does not identify a word reliably. A 2012 regional-language survey records it as an Ulleungdo word for sea near the shore, alongside 가새. Do not assume that local reading without dialect context.

The first record of Hangul's creation dates to 1443. In 1446, the Hunminjeongeum, an explanatory text, presented the letters and explained how to use them. Hangul offered a way to write Korean speech more directly.

Before Hangul, Korean writing used Chinese characters and systems such as idu, gugyeol, and hyangchal, which adapted Chinese characters to record Korean words and sounds.