Lesson 1: Hangul (Korean Alphabet)

Study Contents Korean Language Origin of Hangul Hangul Supremacy

The Korean Language The Korean language is considered by many linguists as belonging to the Tungusic branch of the Altaic language family, which includes Turkish, Mongolian, and Tungus, or Tungus-Manchu. The Korean language is one of the top twenty languages in the world in terms of the number of speakers. It is spoken by more than 70 million people worldwide. The similarities between Korean and other Altaic languages are not striking; nonetheless Korean displays some important Altaic linguistic features. Korean and Japanese are often regarded as related, because the grammatical (or syntactical) structure of Korean is strikingly similar to that of Japanese.

Origin of Hangul Hangul was promulgated by the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty, Sejong the Great. The Hall of Worthies (Jiphyeonjeon, 집현전,集賢殿) is credited for the work. Sejong the Great

A Page from Hunmin Jeongeum Origin of Hangul The project was completed in late December 1443 or January 1444, and described in 1446 in a document titled Hunmin Jeongeum (訓民正音, "The Proper Sounds for the Education of the People"), after which the alphabet itself was named. The publication date of the Hunmin Jeong-eum, October 9, became Hangul Day in South Korea. A Page from Hunmin Jeongeum

Origin of Hangul Various speculations about the creation process were put to rest by the discovery in 1940 of the 1446 Hunmin Jeong-eum Haerye (訓民正音解例, "Hunmin Jeong-eum Explanation and Examples"). This document explains the design of the consonant letters according to articulatory phonetics and the vowel letters according to the principles of yin and yang and vowel harmony. In explaining the need for the new script, King Sejong explained that the Korean language was different from Chinese; using Chinese characters (known as hanja) to write was so difficult for the common people that only privileged aristocrats (yangban), usually male, could read and write fluently. The majority of Koreans were effectively illiterate before the invention of Hangul.

Origin of Hangul Hangul was designed so that even a commoner could learn to read and write; the Haerye says "A wise man can acquaint himself with them before the morning is over; a stupid man can learn them in the space of ten days.” Hangul faced opposition by the literate elite, such as Choe Manri and other Confucian scholars in the 1440s, who believed hanja to be the only legitimate writing system, and perhaps saw it as a threat to their status. However, it entered popular culture as Sejong had intended, being used especially by women and writers of popular fiction. It was effective enough at disseminating information among the uneducated that Yeonsangun, the paranoid tenth king, forbade the study or use of Hangul and banned Hangul documents in 1504, and King Jungjong abolished the Ministry of Eonmun (언문청 諺文廳, governmental institution related to Hangul research) in 1506.

Origin of Hangul The late 16th century, however, saw a revival of Hangul, with gasa (歌辭) literature and later sijo(時調) flourishing. In the 17th century, Hangul novels became a major genre. Due to growing Korean nationalism in the 19th century, Japan's attempt to sever Korea from China's sphere of influence, and the Gabo Reforms, Hangul was eventually adopted in official documents for the first time in 1894. Elementary school texts began using Hangul in 1895, and the Dongnip Sinmun (獨立新聞), established in 1896, was the first newspaper printed in both Hangul and English. After Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910, Japanese became the official language and main educational language, but Hangul was also taught in the Japanese-established schools of colonial Korea for some time.

Origin of Hangul Ju Sigyeong (주시경,周時經), who had coined the term Hangul "great script" to replace eonmun (언문 諺文) "vulgar script" in 1912, established the Hangul Society which further reformed orthography with Standardized System of Hangul (한글 맞춤법 통일안) in 1933. However, the Korean language was banned from schools in 1938 as part of a policy of cultural assimilation of the Japanese colonialists and all Korean-language publications were outlawed in 1941. The definitive modern orthography was established in 1946, one year after independence from Japan.

Origin of Hangul Since independence from Japan, the Koreans have used Hangul or Hangul with Hanja. But the use of hanja has considerably decreased over the years. Now hanja has all but disappeared in official writing in the South, with some South Korean newspapers only using hanja for such restricted purposes as the disambiguation of homonyms. There has been and there still is widespread debate as to the use of hanja in South Korea. But due to the simplicity and efficiency of Hangul, it has largely replaced Hanja in Korean writing. North Korea adopted Hangul as its exclusive writing system in 1949, and has since banned the use of hanja completely.

Hangul Supremacy Hangul is known to be one of the simplest, most concise, efficient writing systems ever invented by humankind. Thanks to Hangul, South Korea has one of the world’s lowest illiteracy rates (1.7 percent). With its simplicity, Hangul has also proved to be an extremely efficient script for the internet age. UNESCO King Sejong Literary Prize The UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize was created in 1989 with a donation from the South Korean government to spearhead a world-wide campaign against illiteracy.

End of Lesson 1