Hangul syllable 콷

A word around it supplies meaning; alone, it is only a syllable. The Hangul jamo in 콷 are ㅋ (the opening consonant), ㅘ (the vowel), and ㄷ (the final consonant). Hangul groups letters into blocks like this, so a syllable can be only part of a word; the surrounding Korean text provides the context.

The Sejong annals, a Korean royal chronicle, record Hangul in 1443; in 1446, the book 훈민정음 explained the script. Hangul was designed to write Korean speech by grouping each syllable's initial, middle, and final parts into one block. Earlier Korean names included 정음, 언문, 반절, 국문, and 국서; 한글 became widely used after 1928.

How do I type 콷 on a Korean keyboard?

Use Dubeolsik Korean input and type zhke. The z key gives ㅋ, h gives ㅗ, k gives ㅏ, and e gives final ㄷ. The input method combines ㅗ and ㅏ into ㅘ, then forms the syllable block.

These are separate jamo keys on the Dubeolsik layout; the Korean input method joins them into 콷.

Why does 콷 split apart?

It can be stored as one block or three separate letters. Unicode NFC, the composed form, keeps the modern syllable as one block; NFD, the decomposed form, represents it with three jamo. Both forms are intended to preserve the same text.

If an app has limited support for joining decomposed Hangul letters into blocks, it may show the pieces separately.