ㅿ

Alternative forms

• 반시읏 (bansieut) (North Korea)

Pronunciation

• IPA: /z/
  • The Hunmin Jeongeum notes that "ㅿ is a semi-dental sound pronounced like the beginning of 穰" (半齒音 如穰字初發聲).
  • ㅿ used in the initial position of Chinese characters have all been changed to ㅇ in Korea today. The examples are 日, 人, 弱, 穰, 兒, 入, 如, 潤, 容, 扔, 熱, 若, 軟, 銳, 壤, 䓴, 葇, 儒, 緌, 袵, 橈, 刃, 絍, 撋, 汝, 二, 貳, 邇, 栭, 栮, 餌, 珥 and 輀.

Letter

ㅿ • (z)

1. 반치음 (banchieum): a voiced alveolar fricative; /z/. Common in Middle Korean, but vanished around the end of the 16th century.
2. Used in North Korea in 1948–1954 as part of New Korean Orthography, to represent a /l/ which changes to /t/ before a consonant. Sometimes called 리읃 (rieut) in this context.