Yaminjeongeum 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, ("chief") is changed into (Korean: 머장), since (대) resembles (머). The name Yaminjeongeum is a blend of Hunminjeongeum and (Korean: 야갤); is short for, 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 with ㄹ | 박근혜 | Park Geun-hye (former president of South Korea) | 박ㄹ혜 | ||||
| Replacing ㅠ with ㅡ + ㄲ as a stop consonant | 유재석 | Yoo Jae-suk (comedian) | 윾재석 | [1] | |||
| Replacing 과 with 파 | 광주 | Gwangju (major city) | 팡주 | [2] | |||
| Replacing 대 with 머, or vice versa | Doggy | 댕댕이 | |||||
| 대전광역시 | Daejeon Metropolis | 머전팡역시 | [3] | ||||
| Replacing 며 with 띠 | Well-known song | 띵곡 | |||||
| Replacing 귀 with 커 | Cute | 커엽다 | |||||
| Replacing ㅗ + ㅇ with ㅎ as a stop consonant | 세종대왕 | Sejong the Great | 세종머앟 | [4] | |||
| Replacing hanja 長 (장) (the surname Jang) with 튽 | 김장훈(金長훈) | Kim Jang-hoon (rock singer) | 숲튽훈 | ||||
| Rotating a whole phrase by 180º | 폭풍눈물 | Bursting into tears | 롬곡옾눞 | ||||
| Rotating hangul blocks by 90º | 비버 | Beaver or Bieber | 또뜨, 뜨또 | [5] | |||
| Compacting multiple syllable blocks into one | ㅗㅜㅑ(오우야) | An interjection | 퍄 | [6] | |||
There is no definitive source of the origin of Yaminjeongeum.[7] It is commonly used in public, especially by teens,[8] and even appears on TV advertisements.
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.[9]