Hangul syllable 컌

Alone, 컌 gives a syllable, not enough context to identify a word. It is one Korean syllable block; the surrounding Korean text shows which word it belongs to.

Hangul was created under King Sejong to give Korean an accessible phonetic writing system; using Chinese characters to write Korean grammar was difficult. A court record from late-December 1443 describes the creation of 28 letters. Hunminjeongeum, a 1446 manuscript, explains the new writing system. 컌 is one syllable formed under that system.

Why is 컌 a square block?

Hangul groups letters into square blocks, one syllable per block. Unicode decomposes 컌 into ᄏ + ᅤ + ᆫ: an initial consonant, a vowel, and a final consonant. These joined forms are called conjoining jamo, Hangul letter forms that combine within a syllable. A Korean IME can take the corresponding input letters ㅋ + ㅒ + ㄴ and compose them into 컌. Fonts vary the parts' internal spacing, but text treats the completed block as one unit.

Phags-pa, a script promulgated in 1269 for languages under Mongol rule, is discussed as a possible reference for Hangul, but a direct ancestry claim is not established.