Polarity of Vowels

You may wonder whether other vowel symbols can be combined.

However, there are vowel symbols that cannot be combined together.

For instance, ㅜdoes not combine withㅏor, whereasㅓdoes not combine withㅗ. The reason is attributed to the Korean vowel harmony principle. In Korean, two vowel symbolsㅗandㅏare called “bright vowels”/”positive vowels” since they sound sonorous to Korean native speakers. All other vowel or diphthong derived from them is also known as bright vowel. On the other hand, ㅜandㅓare considered “dark vowels”/”negative vowels”. Meanwhileㅣandㅡare called “neutral vowels.”  The vowel harmony principle prohibits the combination of bright and dark vowel symbols.

Bright/ Positive Vowels: ㅏ, ㅑ, ㅗ, ㅛ, and compound vowels including them

Dark/ Negative Vowels: ㅓ, ㅕ, ㅜ, ㅠ, , and compound vowels including them

Neutral Vowel: ㅣ, ㅡ

This polarity of vowels can be illustrated in the formation of diphthongs, the w-diphthongs in particular. As can be observed bright vowels repel dark vowels. There is not one diphthong composed from a dark and a bright vowel. Example: ㅝ  ㅞ ㅟㅘ ㅙ ㅚ

TEST

Classify the following vowels according to their polarity.

1.                ㅏ

2.                ㅐ

3.                 ㅑ

4.                ㅒ

5.                ㅓ

6.                 ㅔ

7.                ㅕ

8.                ㅖ

9.                 ㅗ

10.             ㅘ

11.            ㅙ

12.            ㅚ

13.           ㅛ

14.           ㅜ

15.            ㅝ

16.             ㅞ

17.            ㅟ

18.            ㅠ

19.            ㅡ

20.            ㅢ

21.           ㅣ