Hunminjeongeum was created by the Great King Sejong which consists of 17 consonants and 11 vowel letters. All 28 letters were specifically designed to reflect the shape of vocal organs or space at the point of articulation for each letters. The current study focuses on the phonetic and phoniatric aspects to elucidate the rationale behind the design of the Hunminjeongeum principle of Korean middle vowel letters, with a particular emphasis on the three key vowel characters [ • (天, heaven), ㅡ (地, earth), ㅣ (人, human)]. To accomplish this, we established a research framework aimed at implementing the articulatory process of Korean middle vowels using 2D magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) recording in conjunction with state-of-the art acoustic analysis techniques. This research constitutes a segment of ongoing national research project in Korea. In this presentation, we will discuss the detailed procedures employed to capture instances of Korean speakers producing middle vowel sounds using cutting-edge technology. 

Jeong Min Lee, Ph.D., K-SLP is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher and voice-specialized clinician at the Cheon-Ji-In Institute of Vocalization, Jeil ENT Hospital. She received her M.S. from the department of Speech-Language Pathology at the Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea, and Ph.D. from the University of Utah. As a researcher, she holds a diverse range of research interests including psychological well-being of patients with voice disorders and acoustic analysis of voice.