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Yaminjeongeum (Korean: 야민정음; Hanja: 野民正音) is a South Korean Internet meme which disassembles Hangul characters of a word and replaces them with others which appear similar to the correct form. For example, daejang (대장, "chief") is changed into meojang (머장), since dae (대) resembles meo (머). The name Yaminjeongeum is a blendofHunminjeongeum and Yagael (야갤); Yagael is short for Gungnae Yagu Gallery (국내야구 갤러리; 國內野球 갤러리), the domestic baseball league section of DC Inside.
There are various ways to convert a word into yaminjeongeum: just replacing its consonants or vowels, rotating it, compacting it, or even using Latin alphabet. Some word plays are often considered as Yaminjeongeum, though they existed before it. There is no standard of the meme, only popular forms. The following are some common examples of it:
| Type of replacement | Examples | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original form | Yaminjeongeum | References | ||||
| Hangul | RR | Meaning | Hangul | RR | ||
| Replacing 근 (geun) with ㄹ (r) | 박근혜 | Bak Geun-hye | Park Geun-hye (former president of South Korea) | 박ㄹ혜 | Bak R-hye | [1] |
| Replacing ㅠ (yu) with ㅡ + ㄲ (eukk) as a stop consonant | 유재석 | Yu Jae-seok | Yoo Jae-suk (comedian) | 윾재석 | Euk Jae-seok | [2] |
| Replacing 과 (gwa) with 파 (pa) | 광주 | Gwangju | Gwangju (major city) | 팡주 | Pangju | [3] |
| Replacing 대 (dae) with 머 (meo), or vice versa | 멍멍이 | meongmeong-i | Doggy | 댕댕이 | daengdaeng-i | [4] |
| 대전광역시 | Daejeon Gwangyeoksi | Daejeon Metropolis | 머전팡역시 | Meojeon Pangyeoksi | [5] | |
| Replacing 며 (myeo) with 띠 (tti) | 명곡 | Myeonggok | Well-known song | 띵곡 | Ttinggok | [4] |
| Replacing 귀 (gwi) with 커 (keo) | 귀엽다 | gwiyeopda | Cute | 커엽다 | keoyeopda | [1] |
| Replacing ㅗ + ㅇ (-ong) with ㅎ (h) as a stop consonant | 세종대왕 | Sejong Daewang | Sejong the Great | 세종머앟 | Sejong Meoat | [6] |
| Replacing hanja 長 (장) (the surname Jang) with 튽 (Teunj) | 김장훈(金長훈) | Gim Jang-hun | Kim Jang-hoon (rock singer) | 숲튽훈 | Sup Teun-hun | [1] |
| Rotating a whole phrase by 180º | 폭풍눈물 | pokpung nunmul | Bursting into tears | 롬곡옾눞 | romgok omnup | [5] |
| Rotating hangul blocks by 90º | 비버 | Bibeo | BeaverorBieber | 또뜨, 뜨또 | Ttotteu, Tteutto | [7] |
| Compacting multiple syllable blocks into one | ㅗㅜㅑ(오우야) | ouya | An interjection | 퍄 | pya | [8] |
There is no definitive source of the origin of Yaminjeongeum.[1] It is commonly used in public, especially by teens,[4] and even appears on TV advertisements.[9]
Critics state that the meme destroys Hangul and is a type of verbal violence, but supporters state that it is just a part of culture and improves the Korean language.[6][10]
