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Other websites on Hangeul :
Naver's
Hangeul Museum
Source : IK Journal
Hangul was created under King Sejong during the Choson Dynasty (1393-1910) in 1446, the first Korean alphabet was proclaimed under the original name Hunmin chong-um, which literally meant "the correct sounds for the instruction of the people." King Sejong is considered to be one of the greatest rulers in the history of Korea. Highly respected for his benevolent disposition and diligence, King Sejong was also a passionate scholar whose knowledge and natural talent in all fields of study astounded even the most learned experts. When he was not performing his official duties, King Sejong enjoyed reading and meditating. He could also be very tenacious at times and would never yield on what he thought was right. Love for the people was the cornerstone of his reign, and he was always ready to listen to the voices of the common folk. He was a ruler of virtue, with the welfare of the people dictating all policy formulations. King Sejong also established the Chiphyonjon , an academic research institute inside the palace walls, which was noted for the lively discussions among its academics and also for publishing a variety of quality books. During his reign, King Sejong deplored the fact that common people, ignorant of the ideographic Chinese characters that formed the alphabet of the time, were manipulated by the educated because they were not able to read and write. He understood their frustration in not being able to read or to communicate their thoughts and feelings in written words. TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE The Chinese script was used by the intelligentsia of the country, but being of foreign origin, it could not fully express the words and meaning of Korean thoughts and spoken language. Therefore, common people with legitimate complaints had no way of submitting their grievances to the appropriate authorities, other than through oral communication, and they had no way to record for posterity the agricultural wisdom and knowledge they had gained through years of experience. King Sejong felt great sympathy for the people. As a revolutionary ruler strongly dedicated to national identity and cultural independence, he immediately searched for solutions. What he envisioned was a set of letters that was uniquely Korean and easily learnable, rendering it accessible and usable for the common people. Thus, the Hunmin chong-um was born. In the preface of its proclamation, King Sejong states as follows: "Being of foreign origin, Chinese characters are incapable of capturing unique Korean meanings. Therefore, many common people have no way to express their thoughts and feelings. Out of my sympathy for their difficulties, I have created a set of 28 letters. The letters are very easy to learn, and it is my fervent hope that they improve the quality of life of all people." The statement captures the essence of King Sejong's determination and dedication to cultural independence and commitment to the welfare of the people. The creation of the Hunmin chong-um was truly a remarkable accomplishment, and as it is composed of symbols that represent images that appear in nature as well as the human anatomy, it is a form of hieroglyph with consonants and vowels separated due to their different functions when two letters are combined to form a syllable. Consonants resemble a person?? speech organs. Their basis shapes were inspired by consonantal sounds in the Korean language. Other consonants, by adding additional strokes to the basic forms, indicate the strength of the sounds. The vowels, on the other hand, were created in the images of the sky, land and man. For example, "." resembles the roundness of the sky, " -" represents the flat land and " I" is in the image of a standing person. THE PRINCIPLE OF YIN-YANG King Sejong and the scholars of the Chiphyonjon, creators of the Korean alphabet, considered human sounds as being more than mere physical phenomena. They assumed that an invisible yet more powerful principle was the controlling force behind these phenomena. They adhered to the principle that human sounds and all universal phenomena are all based on yin-yang (the balance between universal negative- positive forces) and ohaeng (the five primary elements-metal, wood, water, fire and earth). Hence, they thought it natural that there be a common link on the one hand between sounds and the changing of the seasons, and between sounds and music. It is no coincidence, therefore, that illiteracy rate in Korea is almost zero. In particular, because of its simplicity and the rather small number of letters, Hangul is very easy to learn even by children and foreigners. By the time they reach the ages of two or three, most Korean children are already capable of expressing their feelings and thoughts, albeit in primitive form. By the time they reach school age, most exhibit mastery of Hangul. Most observers will agree that it is a rare accomplishment indeed for pre-school children to know the alphabet of their mother tongue. This fact clearly attests to the accessibility of the Korean alphabet and the ease with which it may be learned. It is ironic that the strongest proof of the "learnability" of Hunmin chong-um came from the critics who argued against its creation. Some scholars vehemently voiced their opposition to "new" alphabet by deriding it as Ach??mgul (morning letters) meaning that it could be learned in one morning, or worse still, Amk??l (women?? letters). Amk??l meant that even women who had no academic training or background could easily learn the new alphabet. Back then there were those who considered the pursuit of academic studies and the subject of reading and writing to be the sole domain of a few privileged scholars. For those scholars who had spent years on learning the complicated letters of the Chinese language, Hangul did not appear to be worthy of learning. Such misconceptions were the result of confusing simple linguistic learning with more advanced academic studies. Without learning the basic alphabet, reading and writing would be impossible, let alone the study of more advanced subjects. THE INFLUENCE OF CHINESE Without being able to read and write, there can be no direct communication of one ?? feelings and thoughts. King Sejong?? intent was to enrich the lives of the people by creating Hangul, and not to make scholars out of all his subjects. Chinese script had been known and used in Korea for over 2,000 years. By the fifth century AD, the Koreans were starting to write in classical Chinese-the earliest known example of this dates from 414 AD. They later devised three different systems for writing Korean with Chinese characters: Hyangchal, Gukyeol and Idu . These systems were similar to those developed later in Japan and were probably used as models by the Japanese. The Idu system used a combination of Chinese characters together with special symbols to indicate Korean verb endings and other grammatical markers, and was used to in official and private documents for many centuries. The Hyangchal system used Chinese characters to represent all the sounds of Korean and was used mainly to write poetry. Koreans borrowed a huge number of Chinese words, gave Korean readings and/or meanings to some of the Chinese characters and also invented about 150 new characters, most of which are used rarely or in personal or place names. To be pronounced, Hangul jamo (letters) must be formed into blocks together, sometimes called "characters." Each Hangul block is a syllable consisting of two or three jamo. The placing, or stacking of jamo in the block follows set patterns. Syllables that end in a vowel are written either vertically or horizontally, depending on the vowel. When a syllable has an additional, or "final" jamo it is added to the pattern formed above, but at the bottom. Syllables which have a vertical vowel and end in a final are written clockwise. Syllables which have a horizontal vowel and end in a final are written in a vertical stack. The result is the same size and shape as a Chinese character and hence some westerners confuse Hangul syllabic blocks with Chinese characters. AN ESTABLISHED ORTHOGRAPHY There onc e were over 2,500 Hangul blocks, many of which have been eliminated. One of those so deleted is the entirely consonantal ???(bsd). There was a very minor movement in the twentieth century to abolish syllabic blocks and write the jamo individually in a row. This would be difficult to read, because ambiguity in regard to the use of syllables would arise. Specifically, it would be unclear when one syllable ended and another began. The abolition of syllabic blocks would presumably necessitate inserting spaces in between all syllables. However, spaces are already employed in Korean script to separate words. Understandably, movement gained very little support. Until the 20th century, no orthography of Hangul had been established. Due to dialectical variants and other reasons, it was possible for a Korean word can be spelt in several different ways. King Sejong seemed to prefer morphophonemic rather than phonemic spelling; that is, one based on the smallest variations in linguistic sounds, as opposed to one that represents a whole set of similar but slightly different sounds with the same symbol. However, since it was mainly used by uneducated people, Hangul was dominated by phonemic and inconsistent spelling. The Hangul Society, originally found by Ju Si-Gyeong, announced a proposal for a new morphophonemic orthography in 1933, which became the prototype of the contemporary orthographies. After Korea was divided, the North and South revised orthographies separately. The guiding text for Hangul orthography is the called the H a n g u l Matchumbeop, whose last South Korean revision was published in 1988 by the Ministry of Education. SYMBOL OF NATIONAL IDENTITY Hangul can be written both horizontally and vertically. The latter method is traditional, akin to the Chinese style. The former style was promoted by Ju Si-gyeong, and has become overwhelmingly preferred. Hangul?? first appearance was in Hunmin Jeongeum, the 14th-century book that first described the script. At that time, Hangul was printed in lines of even thickness and without short serifs (a fine line projecting from the main stroke of a letter). This style can be found in books published before about 1900, and also today when Hangul is carved in stone, on the plinths of statues, for example. Over the centuries, as people slowly began to use Hangul and write it by hand, an ink-brush style developed, and calligraphers employed the same style of the lines and bending angles as they did in writing Chinese characters, to achieve a similar look. (This is known as the Myeongjo style in Korean, a translation of the Chinese Mingcho , which name is used to describe a Chinese computer font today.) The Myeongjo style is used today in the body of books, newspapers, and magazines. Some computer fonts, such as Mac Korean, reflect the ink-brush style. In longhand writing, ink brushes have given way to ballpoint pens, and a square style has onc e again emerged. This "square-edged" style of font characterized by lines of equal width and few curves is used by most Web browsers, such as Microsoft GulimChe as their default, so that much computer text is now read and written in noncalligraphic fonts. Pronunciation of Hangul script is occasionally not based strictly on Hangul jamo, but rather follows specific irregular phonetic rules. Until the twentieth century, Hangul was written in the "surface" form (that is, as is pronounced), but now it is written in the "deep" form (that is, etymologically, according to the origins of individual words). Throughout history, Hangul has been Despite the fact that it is one of the simplest and scientific writing systems in the world, the strong cultural influence of China prevented it from becoming widely used in the 20th century when it emerged as a symbol of modern national identity and independence under the Japanese occupation. Now its invention is considered the most noteworthy event in the cultural history of the Korean people.
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