Korean

Korean   한글자모 / 조선글

Origin of writing in Korea

Chinese writing has been known in Korea for over 2,000 years. It was
used widely during the Chinese occupation of northern Korea from 108
BC to 313 AD. By the 5th 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 (향찰/鄕札),
Gukyeol (구결/口訣) and Idu
(이두/吏讀). These systems were similar to those
developed 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.

The 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 rare or used mainly for
personal or place names.

The Korean alphabet was invented in 1444 and promulgated it in 1446
during the reign of King Sejong (r.1418-1450), the fourth king of the
Joseon Dynasty. The alphabet was originally called Hunmin jeongeum,
or “The correct sounds for the instruction of the people”,
but has also been known as Eonmeun (vulgar script) and Gukmeun
(national writing). The modern name for the alphabet, Hangeul,
was coined by a Korean linguist called Ju Si-gyeong (1876-1914). In
North Korea the alphabet is known as 조선글 (josoen guel).

The shapes of the consonants are based on the shape the mouth made when
the corresponding sound is made, and the traditional direction of writing
(vertically from right to left) most likely came from Chinese, as did the
practice of writing syllables in blocks.

Even after the invention of the Korean alphabet, most Koreans who could
write continued to write either in Classical Chinese or in Korean using
the Gukyeol or Idu systems. The Korean alphabet was associated
with people of low status, i.e. women, children and the uneducated.
During the 19th and 20th centuries a mixed writing system combining
Chinese characters (Hanja) and Hangeul became increasingly
popular. Since 1945 however, the importance of Chinese characters in
Korean writing has diminished significantly.

Since 1949 hanja have not been used at all in any North Korean
publications, with the exception of a few textbooks and specialized books.
In the late 1960s the teaching of hanja was reintroduced in North
Korean schools however and school children are expected to learn 2,000
characters by the end of high school.

In South Korea school children are expected to learn 1,800 hanja
by the end of high school. The proportion of hanja
used in Korean texts varies greatly from writer to writer and there
is considerable public debate about the role of hanja in Korean
writing.

Most modern Korean literature and informal writing is written entirely in
hangeul, however academic papers and official documents tend to be
written in a mixture of hangeul and hanja.

Notable features of Hangeul

  • Type of writing system: alphabet
  • Direction of writing: Until the 1980s Korean was usually written from
    right to left in vertical columns. Since then writing from left to right in
    horizontal lines has become popular, and today the majority of texts are
    written horizontally.
  • Number of letter: 24 (jamo): 14 consonants and 10 vowels. The
    letters are combined together into syllable blocks.

For example, Hangeul is written: 한(han) ᄒ(h) + ᅡ(a) + ᄂ(n)
글(geul) ᄀ(g) + ᅳ(eu) + ᄅ(l)

  • The shapes of the the consontants g/k, n, s, m and ng are graphical
    representations of the speech organs used to pronounce them. Other consonsants
    were created by adding extra lines to the basic shapes.
  • The shapes of the the vowels are based on three elements: man (a vertical
    line), earth (a horizontal line) and heaven (a dot). In modern Hangeul
    the heavenly dot has mutated into a short line.
  • Spaces are placed between words, which can be made up of one or more syllables.
  • The sounds of some consonants change depending on whether they appear
    at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a syllable.
  • A number of Korean scholars have proposed an alternative method
    of writing Hangeul involving writing each letter in a line like in English,
    rather than grouping them into syllable blocks, but their efforts have been
    met with little interest or enthusiasm.
  • In South Korea hanja are used to some extent in some Korean texts.

Used to write

Korean (한국어 / 조선말),
a language spoken by about 63 million people in South Korea, North Korea, China, Japan,
Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia. The relationship between Korean and other languages
is not known for sure, though some linguists believe it to be a member of the Altaic
family of languages. Grammatically Korean is very similar to Japanese and about 70% of its
vocabulary comes from Chinese.

The Hangeul alphabet (한글)

Korean consonants

The double consonants marked with * are pronounced fortis. There is no
symbol in IPA to indiciate this.

Korean vowels

Note on the transliteration of Korean

There are a number different ways to write Korean in the Latin alphabet.
The methods shown above are:

  1. (first row) the official South Korean transliteration system, which
    was introduced in July 2000. You can find
    further details at www.mct.go.kr.
  2. (second row) the McCune-Reischauer system, which was devised in 1937 by two
    American graduate students, George McCune and Edwin Reischauer, and is widely used
    in Western publications. For more details of this system see:
    http://mccune-reischauer.org

Download

Download a Korean alphabet chart in Word
or PDF format (letters arranged in South
Korean order but without the double consonants).

Sample text in Korean (hangeul only)

모든 인간은 태어날 때부터 자유로우며 그 존엄과 권리에 있어 동등하다. 인간은 천부적으로 이성과 양심을 부여받았으며 서로 형제애의 정신으로 행동하여야 한다.

Sample text in Korean (hangeul and hanja)

Sample text in Korean (hangeul and hanja)

Transliteration

Modeun Ingan-eun Tae-eonal ttaebuteo Jayuroumyeo Geu Jon-eomgwa Gwonrie
Iss-eo Dongdeunghada. Ingan-eun Cheonbujeog-euro Iseong-gwa Yangsim-eul
Bu-yeobad-ass-eumyeo Seoro Hyungje-ae-ui Jeongsin-euro Haengdongha-yeo-yahanda.

A recording of this text

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

  • Categoria dell'articolo:Lingue
  • Tempo di lettura:7 minuti di lettura