Moeum

Moeum (모음) is the Korean term for vowels, the vocalic elements that form the nucleus of syllables in Korean speech and the Hangul writing system.

In Hangul, syllables are built from an initial consonant (choseong), a vowel (jungseong), and an optional final consonant (jongseong). The vowel provides the core sound of the syllable, and every syllable contains a vowel. Depending on the vowel, its graphical form may appear to the right of the initial consonant or below it within the syllable block.

Modern Korean uses 21 distinct vowels in its Hangul inventory, including a set of simple vowels and several compound vowels formed by combining basic vowels. The vowel choice interacts with the consonant to determine the syllable’s pronunciation, and the same vowels can appear in multiple syllable shapes depending on their position and neighboring consonants.

In linguistic terms, moeum denotes vowels as a category distinct from consonants (자음). The concept is central to Korean phonology, Hangul orthography, and related Romanization conventions. While the system relies on a relatively small set of vowel sounds, the combinations with consonants create the range of syllables used in Korean.

See also: Hangul, Jungseong, Choseong, Jongseong, Korean phonology.