훈민정음의 자모 체계와 음가 재구 = The Graphemic System of Hunminjeongeum and the Reconstruction of Its Phonetic Values

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Hunminjeongeum was created in the early Joseon period, when Neo-Confucianism had been established as the state ideology. It was not merely a writing system devised to transcribe the Korean language. Rather, it may be understood as the product of a phonological and philosophical project that sought to comprehensively capture the entire system of sounds in the world. In particular, linguistic perspectives reflected in contemporary rime and phonological works such as Huangji Jingshi Shu, Guangyun, and Qieyun Zhizhangtu demonstrate that phonological systems were conceived as universal structures corresponding to the cosmic order.
Hunminjeongeum established basic graphemes that iconically represented places and manners of articulation and was designed as an open writing system capable of expansion through combinatory methods such as compound and cluster formations. The systems of initials (choseong), medials (jungseong), and finals (jongseong), along with the combinatory principles described in the Haerye (Explanatory Examples), suggest an ambitious design intended to encompass not only Korean but also the normative Sino-Korean readings that formed part of the broader East Asian phonological order. Hunminjeongeum, therefore, should not be reduced to the modern Korean script (Hangeul); rather, it must be understood as a historical writing system shaped by the convergence of contemporary phonological awareness and rime-based scholarship.
However, previous scholarship has largely approached Hunminjeongeum from the perspective of the “origin of Hangeul,” often interpreting it retrospectively or explaining the phonetic values of its graphemes on the basis of the modern Korean phonological system. As a result, the principles of grapheme formation and the phonological design embedded within the framework of traditional rime studies have not been fully reconstructed.
This study therefore seeks to reinterpret the graphemic system of Hunminjeongeum in its historical and phonological context by reconstructing the phonetic values assigned to its letters according to rime-theoretical principles. Furthermore, by examining the relationship between Sino-Korean readings and the Korean phonological system against the background of traditional East Asian phonology, this study aims to clarify the phonological horizon and scholarly character underlying the creation of Hunminjeongeum.