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Hangul
Native alphabet of the Korean language From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Korean alphabet is the modern writing system for the Korean language. It is known as Chosŏn'gŭl[a] in North Korea, Hangul internationally, and Hangeul[b] in South Korea. The script's original name was Hunminjeongeum.[c]
Before Hangul's creation, Korea had been using Hanja (Chinese characters) since antiquity. As Hanja was poorly suited for representing the Korean language, and because its difficulty contributed to high illiteracy, Joseon king Sejong the Great (r. 1418–1450) moved to create Hangul. The script was announced around late 1443 to early 1444 and officially published in 1446 via the text Hunminjeongeum and its companion commentary Hunminjeongeum Haerye. While Hangul saw gradual adoption among both the elite and commoners, it was looked down upon by the elite for centuries. It was only widely adopted in the late 19th century. It is now the predominant script for Korean in both Koreas and among the Korean diaspora. It is also used to write the Jeju language, and to a limited degree, the Cia-Cia language of Indonesia.
Hangul orthography has changed over time and differs between North and South Korea. Modern Korean-language orthographies use 24[d] basic letters, which are called jamo. These 14 consonants and 10 vowels can be combined to yield 27 additional letters; a total of 51. They are arranged in syllable blocks consisting of an initial consonant, a vowel, and an optional final consonant. The syllables can be arranged in vertical or horizontal rows, although the latter practice has become dominant. Hangul punctuation is now largely similar to Western punctuation, with some differences. Spaces between words or phrases are a modern feature of Hangul.
Hangul letters were designed to be graphically simple, and traditionally consisted of only straight lines, dots, and circles. The shapes of 5 basic consonants are based on those of human speech organs. Most of the other basic consonants, which are considered to correspond to "harsher" sounds than those 5, are derived by adding additional lines to those letters to indicate progressively harsher sounds. There are a number of other hypothesized inspirations for the letter shapes, but these are still debated.
The script has received significant praise from international linguists and historians. It is now a significant point of pride for Korean people.
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Names
The Korean alphabet has been referred to by various names since its invention. Its original name was Hunminjeongeum (훈민정음; 訓民正音; Hunmin chŏngŭm; 'Correct Sounds for the Instruction of People').[1]
Internationally, the script goes by Hangul. This spelling has been adopted as a word in the English language[2] and is used by organizations like the International Organization for Standardization.[3] Hangul is an ad-hoc romanization of the South Korean name for the script; South Korea's preferred Revised Romanization system renders this as Hangeul (한글). The name means script of Han, where Han is one of the names of Korea.[4] The name appeared some time around the early 1910s.[5][6][7]
In North Korea, the name Hangul was briefly used until it was replaced by Chosŏn'gŭl in 1949. This is in part due to differing preferences for names of Korea: North Korea refers to the whole of Korea as Chosŏn, while South Korea uses Hanguk.[8]
The script also historically went by a variety of other names, including ŏnmun (언문; 諺文; lit. vernacular script),[9] panjŏl (반절; 反切),[10] and kungmun (국문; 國文; 'national script').[11]
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Classifications
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Perspective
Hangul is a phonographic script: a writing system where graphemes represent the sounds of a language. It is also an alphabet.[12] The script is often described as "syllabic" because of how its letters are grouped into syllables ,[13][14] although linguist John DeFrancis is skeptical of this.[15] Several linguists have instead argued for calling it an "alphabetic syllabary", "syllabic alphabet", or "alpha-syllabary".[16][17] While Hangul was originally a more phonemic script (where spelling is strictly tied to pronunciation), modern Hangul is generally more morphophonemic (where some pronunciation changes are not reflected in spelling) .[18][19]
Hangul and mixed script are considered to have a property called ŏnmun ilch'i (언문일치; 言文一致; lit. spoken–written agreement): tight correspondence between pronunciation and text. By contrast, the Idu and Kugyŏl scripts for writing Korean do not have this property.[e][21][22] Pae, Winskel, and Kim argue this property was initially stronger but weakened over time due to changes in the language and script.[22]
Featural script
Some scholars argue that Hangul is what is called a "featural script": a writing system where the shapes of the symbols encode phonological features of the spoken language they represent. The term was coined by Sampson in a 1985 book, wherein he argued Hangul was featural. This argument is largely based on the Haerye's explanations for the derivations of the letter shapes.[23][24][25][26]
In a 1989 book, DeFrancis praises Hangul but questions Sampson's classification of Hangul as featural. He argues that Hangul encodes too few features of Korean and that most people literate in Hangul do not actively learn or process the featural principles used to construct the shapes of the letters.[27] In a 1997 book, Chin-Woo Kim rebuts DeFrancis's argument. He argues that DeFrancis relies on a count of Korean's features that is too high, and that other scholars provide lower counts. He also argues that, even if one accepts that most do not learn or perceive Hangul's featural aspects, that does not mean such aspects do not exist. Kim also claims that scholars argue Hangul is not a featural script because it does not neatly abide by Jakobsonian distinctive features.[28] In the same book, linguist Young-Key Kim-Renaud argues against a featural label. She argues it should be considered that the derivation rules are applied to varying quality and that some symbols represent or contribute to multiple significantly different sounds. Kim-Renaud gives the example of the dot: the dot is used as a vowel (ㆍ) and a component in other vowels (e.g. two of them in ㅑ). When used as a component, it does not carry the meaning of the dot vowel.[29] Linguists Pae, Winskel, and Kim argue that the featural designation is difficult to falsify, debatable, and uncertain.[30] Linguist Dimitrios Meletis feels that the label is given too much attention, and that the stroke addition rule and philosophical concepts behind the letters are not purely featural.[31]
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History
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Background
Before the invention of Hangul, Korea had been using Hanja (Chinese characters) since antiquity. The difficulty of the script limited its use to mostly upper-class people; commoners were largely illiterate.[32] Hanja is not well suited for representing the Korean language; the Chinese and Korean languages are not closely related and differ in significant ways. For example, Classical Chinese uses subject–verb–object word order while Middle Korean uses subject–object–verb word order.[33] Korean pronunciation and ideas could only be indirectly represented.[34]
Origin
Due to a lack of records, it is unknown when work on Hangul first began, nor what that process looked like.[35] Joseon king Sejong the Great (r. 1418–1450) was responsible for and significantly involved in Hangul's creation.[36][37] Hangul was first introduced, likely in a mostly complete form, to Sejong's court in the 12th month of 1443 of the Korean calendar (around December 30, 1443 to January 28, 1444 in the Gregorian calendar).[38] Work then began on applying the script and developing official documentation for it. Part of this effort resulted in the creation of Yongbiŏch'ŏn'ga, the first ever piece of Hangul literature.[39]
In the 9th month of 1446, Hangul was officially promulgated via the introductory texts Hunminjeongeum and Hunminjeongeum Haerye.[40] The Hunminjeongeum begins with this now famous preface by Sejong:[41]
The sounds of our country's language are different from those of the Middle Kingdom and are not confluent with the sounds of characters. Therefore, among the ignorant people, there have been many who, having something they want to put into words, have in the end been unable to express their feelings. I have been distressed because of this, and have newly designed twenty-eight letters, which I wish to have everyone practice at their ease and make convenient for their daily use.[42]
— Sejong the Great, Hunminjeongeum, preface
Critics of Hangul emerged soon after its introduction. They argued that a native Korean script was too far a departure from Chinese civilization, which they insisted Korea should be deferent to in a Confucian manner.[43] Modern historians have argued that elitism and self-interest were other motivators for the faction; literacy in Hanja was then seen as a status symbol and general literacy was seen as potentially harming the social positions of the elite.[44]
Spread
While Sejong had attempted to spread Hangul throughout the government and society, his efforts had limited success.[45] Hangul was only rarely used during the 15th century; its use was largely centered in Seoul, among people close to the royal family and court.[46] It only began to spread outside of Seoul in the 16th century.[47] Women and Buddhists were significant early adopters of the script. While Hangul was rarely taught in traditional Confucianist curricula, it was often taught by women in the home.[48]
At least one Joseon king persecuted the use of Hangul; King Yeonsangun (r. 1495–1506) did so during the 1504 second literati purge, after learning that criticisms of him had been written in Hangul.[49][50] In the 16th century, the government agency Bureau of Interpreters became a significant center for Hangul scholarship, with one of its members Ch'oe Sejin still being revered today for his lasting contributions to the script and Korean linguistics.[51][52][53]
Hangul orthography experienced significant changes in the script's early history. Around the time of Hangul's promulgation, an apparent dispute between whether to use a phonemic or morphophonemic orthography resulted in an apparent victory for the morphophonemic faction; among that faction was Sejong himself.[54][19][55][56] A number of letters gradually stopped seeing significant use by the late 16th century, including the base letters ㅿ and ㆆ.[57][58] By the 17th century, the letters ㅇ and ㆁ had merged into one.[59] Tone markings for Hangul stopped being used around the 16th century.[60][61][62] The chaotic 1592–1598 Imjin War caused significant disruption and inconsistencies to Hangul orthography that persisted and worsened even even into the late 19th century.[63]
Hangul popular literature and sijo poetry began to flourish around the 17th century.[64] The landmark novel Hong Gildong jeon was published around the beginning of the century.[65]
Enlightenment and Korean Empire periods
With the end of Korea's isolationism in the 1870s, an influx of foreign ideas arrived in Korea. Around this time, Hangul began to be seen as a symbol of national identity and pride. Various Hangul reform movements arose, with many persisting into the late 20th century. Collectively, these efforts are referred to as the Hangul Movement.[66] Various issues became debated, such as whether to use Hangul only or mixed script,[67] whether to abandon the syllable block structure and write linearly,[68] and whether to write vertically or horizontally.[69]
This era saw numerous landmark firsts for Hangul. Scottish missionary John Ross's landmark 1877 work Corean Primer (조선어 첫걸음) saw the introduction of spaces and horizontal writing for Hangul.[69] In 1888, a Morse code specification for Hangul was developed for the first time by Korean scholar Kim Hagu.[70] In 1897, the first Braille encoding for Hangul, called Pyongyang Point (평양점자), was invented by Canadian missionary Rosetta Sherwood Hall.[71] This period also saw the rise of newspapers in Korea. In 1886, the Hansŏng chubo became the first Korean newspaper to use mixed script.[72] In 1896, The Independent, one of the earliest independent modern Korean newspapers, was established. It was written in pure Hangul.[73][72]
On November 21, 1894, the Joseon government decreed pure Hangul to be the country's preferred script for administrative documents, although mixed script was also allowed.[74][75] This edict was apparently enforced to varying degrees, as exclusive Hangul was rare in many documents even until the beginning of the colonial period.[76][77] Joseon was succeeded by the Korean Empire in 1897. On July 19, 1905, the Korean Empire approved the first official orthography for Hangul: the New Edition of National Writing (신정국문; 新訂國文).[78] Ultimately, this orthography proved controversial and was not put into significant practice.[79][80]
Colonial period
In 1910, Korea was colonized by the Empire of Japan. The Korean language and script saw varying degrees of repression during the colonial period.[81] After the 1919 March First Movement protests, the Japanese colonial government eased suppression of Korean culture in a phenomenon now dubbed cultural rule. Hangul use and reform significantly expanded as a result.[82]
This period saw significant orthographic reform efforts. The colonial Government-General of Chōsen published the first Hangul orthography to be put in common practice in 1912 (revised in 1921 and 1930).[83] The Korean Language Society (KLS) published its landmark 1933 Unified Hangul Orthography (UHO). The orthographies of both North and South Korea are currently based on this one.[84][85] These orthographies ended the use of the vowel ㆍ, although that vowel's sound had long since disappeared from the language.[83][86] The KLS also established Hangul Day in 1926.[87] With the rise of the Second Sino-Japanese War, colonial repression of Hangul and the Korean language increased. The KLS was arrested en masse and tortured beginning in 1942. Hangul reform activity significantly slowed until the 1945 liberation.[88]
The Korean diaspora also participated in significant Hangul reform efforts. Koryo-saram (Koreans of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union) published a number of orthographic reforms,[89] although their use of Hangul declined especially after they were subjected to a 1937 forced migration.[90] The first Hangul typewriter was invented in 1913 by Korean-American Wonic Leigh (이원익; Yi Wŏnik).[91]
Liberation and division
1945 saw the liberation of Korea from colonial rule, as well as its division. Soon after the liberation, use of Hangul began to diverge between the Koreas. Both Koreas continued orthographic reform efforts. North Korea's current Compendium of Korean Language Norms was published in 1966 and revised a number of times.[92] South Korea's Hangeul Orthography was published in 1989.[93]
Both North and South Korea pushed to increase literacy, which had remained low during the colonial period. Within a decade, a significant majority of Koreans in both Koreas became literate in at least Hangul.[94][95] They also pushed to eliminate Hanja from writing. North Korea eliminated Hanja in 1949, although it continued to be used and taught thereafter.[96] South Korea oscillated between the elimination and preservation of Hanja for decades thereafter.[96]
The 1960s saw the rise of computers in Korea and the computerization of Hangul.[97] Computerization efforts lacked a standard until 1974, when KS C 5601 (predecessor to the current KS X 1001) was published.[97] In 1995, South Korea adopted ISO 10646-1, the Universal Coded Character Set, as its standard, in KS C 5700.[98][99]
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Letters
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Perspective
Letters in the Korean alphabet are called jamo (자모; 字母).[100] They are designed to be graphically simple; all the letters can be drawn using straight lines, dots, or circles.[101] Hangul letters generally have more consistent pronunciations than those of other scripts.[102]
Letter counts
In the modern form of Hangul, there are 24 basic jamo: 14 basic consonants (자음; 子音; jaeum; 'child sound'[103]) and 10 basic vowels (모음; 母音; moeum; 'mother sound'[104]).[100][105] The basic letters can be modified and combined to yield 51 jamo in total. Duplications result in 5 additional consonants (ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ), and modifications and combinations result in 11 additional vowels (ㅐ, ㅒ, ㅔ, ㅖ, ㅘ, ㅙ, ㅚ, ㅝ, ㅞ, ㅟ, ㅢ)[106] and 11 additional heterogeneous consonant digraphs (ㄳ, ㄵ, ㄶ, ㄺ, ㄻ, ㄼ, ㄽ, ㄾ, ㄿ, ㅀ, ㅄ).[f] South Korea considers Hangul to have 24 letters (only counting basic letters) and North Korea 40 (not counting 11 heterogeneous consonant digraphs).[108][109][110]
Rather than use different shapes for initial and final consonants representing the same sounds, Hangul uses the same consonants. Some consonants are not typically used as final consonants, however.[111]
Consonants
Below are the Hangul consonants. They have different pronunciations as well as transcriptions in Revised Romanization depending on whether they are in the initial or final part of a syllable block.
The consonants are broadly categorized into two categories:[115]
- obstruents: sounds produced when airflow either completely stops (i.e., a plosive consonant) or passes through a narrow opening (i.e., a fricative).
- sonorants: sounds produced when air flows out with little to no obstruction through the mouth, nose, or both.
Vowels
Even though vowel length has been a feature of many historical and current dialects of Korean since the invention of Hangul, mainstream forms of Hangul have never indicated vowel length. Similar is true for many other scripts for languages with vowel length.[121]
Letter names
The names of the consonants have varied across time and now between North and South Korea.[122] South Korea uses consonant letter names that were decided in the 1933 Unified Hangul Orthography, which were in turn based on letter names used since the 16th century.[123][124] North Korea's consonant letter names have been regularized to follow a ㅣ으 spelling pattern. For example, while South Korea follows the traditional spelling of ㄱ's name, giyeok (기역), North Korea uses gieuk (기윽; kiŭk). In addition, North Korea uses toen (된; lit. hard, referring to the harder pronunciation) instead of ssang (쌍; 雙; lit. double, referring to letter shapes) for the duplicated consonants (e.g. the name of ㄲ is 된기윽; toen'giŭk).[8][125][126] One reason for doing this was that ssang is a Sino-Korean word, which North Korea sometimes discourages in favor of native Korean vocabulary.[8]
Since at latest the 16th century, vowels have been consistently named after the sound they produce, for example ㅑ is named ya.[127][128][126]
Alphabetic order
The ordering of the letters has varied across time and now between North and South Korea.
The 11,172 characters in the Hangul Syllables Unicode character block follow a sort order specified in the South Korean national standard KS X 1026-1. That order accounts for the various Hangul Unicode code points, including obsolete letters.[129]
North Korean order
North Korea uses the following orders:
- Initial consonants: ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ ㅇ[g]
- Vowels: ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ ㅐ ㅒ ㅔ ㅖ ㅚ ㅟ ㅢ ㅘ ㅝ ㅙ ㅞ[131]
- Final consonants: ∅ ㄱ ㄳ ㄴ ㄵ ㄶ ㄷ ㄹ ㄺ ㄻ ㄼ ㄽ ㄾ ㄿ ㅀ ㅁ ㅂ ㅄ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ ㄲ ㅆ[135][130]
Modifications and combinations of initial consonants and vowels are placed at the end of the order. Final consonants follow the same order as initial, but combinations of consonants are inserted into that order and are sorted by the second consonant.[136]
South Korean order
South Korea uses the following orders:[137][138]
- Initial consonants: ㄱ ㄲ ㄴ ㄷ ㄸ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅃ ㅅ ㅆ ㅇ ㅈ ㅉ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ
- Vowels: ㅏ ㅐ ㅑ ㅒ ㅓ ㅔ ㅕ ㅖ ㅗ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅛ ㅜ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅠ ㅡ ㅢ ㅣ
- Final consonants: ∅ ㄱ ㄲ ㄳ ㄴ ㄵ ㄶ ㄷ ㄹ ㄺ ㄻ ㄼ ㄽ ㄾ ㄿ ㅀ ㅁ ㅂ ㅄ ㅅ ㅆ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ
Modifications and combinations of letters are placed just after the primary or initial parent letter. Such modifications and combinations are then sorted according to the previously established orderings. E.g. ㄱ is followed by ㄲ and ㅘ by ㅙ.[136]
Stroke order
ㄱ (giyeok 기역)
ㄴ (nieun 니은)
ㄷ (digeut 디귿)
ㄹ (rieul 리을)
ㅁ (mieum 미음)
ㅂ (bieup 비읍)
ㅅ (siot 시옷)
ㅇ (ieung 이응)
ㅈ (jieut 지읒)
ㅊ (chieut 치읓)
ㅋ (ḳieuk 키읔)
ㅌ (ṭieut 티읕)
ㅍ (p̣ieup 피읖)
ㅎ (hieut 히읗)
ㅏ (a)
ㅐ (ae)
ㅓ (eo)
ㅔ (e)
ㅗ (o)
ㅜ (u)
ㅡ (eu)
ㅣ (i)
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Orthography
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Perspective
Hangul orthography has significantly changed over time. Since 1948, North and South Korea have used different orthographies. However, because both orthographies are based on the 1933 Unified Hangul Orthography, they are still relatively similar. North Korea now uses the Compendium of Korean Language Norms[92] and South Korea the Hangeul Orthography.[93][139]
The depth of the orthography is a subject of some disagreement. Many scholars argue Hangul has a relatively shallow or transparent orthography. Its complexities are often the product of sound changes in the Korean language over time as well as morphophonemic orthographic practices (changing some spellings to reflect the function or meaning of some words).[140] Some have argued Hangul orthography is deep because of the morphophonemic practices.[141]
Syllable blocks
Hangul letters are arranged into syllable blocks in a principle called moasseugi (모아쓰기; lit. gathering together and writing).[142] Each syllable block is broadly divided into two or three components: an initial consonant (초성; 初聲; choseong), vowel (중성; 中聲; jungseong; also called "medial"), and optional final consonant (종성; 終聲; jongseong; also called 받침; batchim).[143][144] Final heterogenous digraph consonant clusters are orthographically considered to be two different letters combined, but phonologically considered to be a single letter.[145] When no initial consonant sound is needed, the zero initial consonant ㅇ is used.[144]
To construct a syllable block, the following rules are applied in order:[146][147]
- Write the initial consonant.
- Place the vowel depending on the appropriate condition below:
- If the vowel has a long vertical stroke (ㅏ, ㅑ, ㅓ, ㅕ, ㅐ, ㅒ, ㅔ, ㅖ, or ㅣ), write it to the right of the initial.
- If the vowel has a long horizontal stroke (ㅗ, ㅛ, ㅜ, ㅠ, ㅡ), write it below the initial.
- If the vowel is a combination and begins with a long horizontal stroke followed by a long vertical stroke (e.g. ㅢ), place the initial above the horizontal stroke.
- If there is a non-zero final consonant, it is written at the bottom. If the final consonant is a combination, place the letters side by side.
The above steps yield the following possible consonant blocks:[148][149]
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Current standard Hangul letters (19 initial consonants, 21 vowels, and 28 final consonants) can be combined to yield 11,172 syllables.[h][151][102] However, many of those syllables virtually never see use in natural language; scholars have argued that only around 2,000 are used in Korean.[152][153]
Several scholars have argued that the syllable block structure was likely inspired by and makes Hangul resemble the form of Chinese characters,[154][155] and that their similar form aids compatibility in writing them together in mixed script.[155]
Several scholars have argued that the syllable block structure is a good fit for the phonology and speech cadence of Korean. Several have also argued that the limited number of syllable shapes, with vowels and consonants in consistent positions, makes Hangul easier to read and learn.[156][157][158] Taylor and Taylor argue that the syllable block structure is especially helpful to young children learning Korean and for people with disabilities that affect reading.[159]
Spelling
In general, words are spelled as they sound in the respective standard Korean dialect, with most exceptions being due to morphophonemic word-formation rules. For example, 하늘 (haneul; 'sky') is spelled the way it is pronounced.[i] However, 먹어 (meogeo; 'to eat') has this spelling despite being pronounced 머거. This is because it follows a word-formation rule that preserves the spellings of the stem verb 먹 and the particle 어. Other exceptions also exist, for example relating to pronunciation differences between stem words when pronounced alone and when attached to particles that begin with ㅇ.[161]
North–South differences
Various shared words are spelled differently between North and South Korea. One significant reason for this is the differing standard dialects used. North Korea uses the Pyongan dialect and South Korea the Gyeonggi dialect. Differences arise due to various phonemena, including the Sino-Korean ㄹ, Sino-Korean ㄴ, vowel harmony, local pronunciations, loanwords, tensing, compounds, morphological derivation, and the saisiot (epenthic ㅅ).[162]
Punctuation
Hangul has used varying punctuation over time and now in both North and South Korea. Modern Hangul now uses a mix of modern Western, Korean, and East Asian punctuation.[163]
South Korean punctuation
South Korean punctuation largely follows Western practice, with some exceptions.[164] Examples of exceptions include 『 』 or ≪ ≫; either of these sets of characters can be put around titles of works. Also, the tilde (~) can be used to indicate ranges of numbers or dates, as well as distances.[165]
Spaces are used in Hangul. As with most other scripts, practices around spaces are somewhat arbitrary and ambiguous because it is difficult to define what a word is. Spacing is considered to be one of the most difficult aspects of Hangul orthography; many native Korean speakers do not use spaces properly or sometimes even at all.[166] In general, spaces are inserted between lexical clusters called eojeol (어절; 語節). These lexical clusters can be subdivided into various other categories.[167][168] Each eojeol can consist of a word and its subsequent corresponding particles or compounds. For example, "학교에 간다" consists of two eojeol separated by a space. The first is "학교" (lit. 'school') with an attached adpositional particle "에". The second is "간다", a conjugated verb.[169]
North Korean punctuation
North Korean punctuation is similar to Western practice. Differences include the lack of Western quotation marks (e.g. "), which are replaced by guillemet (≪ ≫).[170] Like South Korea, it recommends the tilde (~) for ranges of numbers or dates.[171] Recommendations are also given for vertical writing. Vertical writing punctuation is largely the same as horizontal, but guidance is given on the placement and rotation of some punctuation marks.[172]
North Korean spacing rules result in fewer spaces and more compound words when compared to South Korea's.[173]
Writing direction
Historically, Hangul syllable blocks were arranged vertically (top to bottom, right to left). Over the course of the 20th century, horizontal writing (left to right, top to bottom) became dominant in both Koreas.[69] South Korea allows both horizontal and vertical writing, while North Korea officially prefers horizontal writing.[174] Lee and Ramsey argue that the syllable block structure of Hangul aids the adaptability of the script to both directions of writing.[175]
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Style
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Perspective
In Hunminjeongeum, the Korean alphabet was printed in sans-serif angular lines of even thickness. This style is found in books published before about 1900, and can be found in stone carvings (on statues, for example).[176] Over the centuries, an ink-brush style of calligraphy developed, employing the same style of lines and angles as traditional Korean calligraphy. This brush style is called gungche (궁체; 宮體), meaning "palace style", because the style was mostly developed and used by the maidservants (궁녀; 宮女; gungnyeo) of the Joseon court.[177]
Modern styles that are more suited for printed media were developed in the 20th century. In 1993, new names for both Myeongjo (明朝) and Gothic styles were introduced when Ministry of Culture initiated an effort to standardize typographic terms, and the names Batang (바탕, meaning background) and Dotum (돋움, meaning "stand out") replaced Myeongjo and Gothic respectively. These names are also used in Microsoft Windows. A sans-serif style with lines of equal width is popular with pencil and pen writing and is often the default typeface of Web browsers. A minor advantage of this style is that it makes it easier to distinguish -eung from -ung even in small or untidy print, as the jongseong ieung (ㅇ) of such fonts usually lacks a serif that could be mistaken for the short vertical line of the letter ㅜ.[178]
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Derivatives and uses for other languages
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Perspective
Korean Braille, a variant of the script Braille for the visually impaired, encodes the letters of Hangul.[71] Korean morse code also encodes Hangul.[70] A number of Hangul shorthand systems saw use especially in the 20th century.[179]
Use for Jeju
The Jeju language was traditionally not written. Hangul has since become used to write it.[180] Two orthographies are in current use: one created in 1991 by the Jeju Dialect Research Society (제주방언연구회) and another created in 2014 by the provincial government.[181] Hangul orthography for Jeju is relatively similar to those for Korean, with one notable difference being the use of the obsolete vowel ㆍ. Spelling is attempted to be made to be morphophonemic, although there is some uncertainty around how to do this.[180]
Uses for non-Koreanic languages
Since its creation, Hangul has been used to encode the sounds of other languages. It was designed to be able to transcribe both Korean and Chinese of the time. To accomplish this, additional consonants were created exclusively to transcribe Chinese;[182] these consonants have often been revived or repurposed for use in other languages. Before the modern era, Hangul was also used to transcribe Japanese, Ryukyuan, and Manchu.[183] Beginning around the 19th century, Hangul was used to transcribe Russian[184] and English.[185]
Since 1986, the South Korean National Institute of Korean Language has provided official guidance on how to approximately render non–Korean languages into South Korean standard Hangul, particularly for seemless use alongside the Korean language.[186] A number of scholars have attempted to modify Hangul to be able to represent the sounds of every language, similar to the International Phonetic Alphabet.[187]
Efforts have been made to make Hangul the primary script for various languages. Some South Korean linguists have been encouraging ethnic groups without scripts for the languages to adopt Hangul. In the 1990s, a Hangul-based alphabet was devised for the Lahu language of China and Southeast Asia, but this did not see significant adoption.[188]
In the late 1980s, Taiwanese linguists made at least one adaptation of Hangul for Taiwanese Hokkien, a Sinitic language. However, the Taiwanese government eventually endorsed the use of Chinese characters for that language.[189][190][191]
Cia-Cia language
Beginning in the late 2000s, efforts began to be made by the South Korean private organization Hunminjeongeum Society to have Hangul be used for the Cia-Cia language of Indonesia. That language did not already have a script in significant use for it. While Hangul was not legally made an official script for the language due to Indonesian legal restrictions, the local government of Baubau partnered with the Hunminjeongeum Society and several other organizations to promote the use of Hangul for Cia-Cia. A number of local schools taught the script.[192][193] The program was not financially supported by the South Korean or Indonesian governments. It experienced several difficulties in the early 2010s,[194] although it continued to operate. It saw renewed activity and support in the early 2020s.[195] Hangul has since continued to be taught and used in the area.[196]
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Unicode
Summarize
Perspective
Hangul Jamo (U+1100–U+11FF) and Hangul Compatibility Jamo (U+3130–U+318F) blocks were added to the Unicode Standard in June 1993 with the release of version 1.1. A separate Hangul Syllables block (not shown below due to its length) contains pre-composed syllable block characters, which were first added at the same time, although they were relocated to their present locations in July 1996 with the release of version 2.0.[197]
Hangul Jamo Extended-A (U+A960–U+A97F) and Hangul Jamo Extended-B (U+D7B0–U+D7FF) blocks were added to the Unicode Standard in October 2009 with the release of version 5.2.
Parenthesised (U+3200–U+321E) and circled (U+3260–U+327E) Hangul compatibility characters are in the Enclosed CJK Letters and Months block.
Half-width Hangul compatibility characters (U+FFA0–U+FFDC) are in the Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms block.
The Korean alphabet in other Unicode blocks:
- Tone marks for Middle Korean are in the CJK Symbols and Punctuation block: 〮 (
U+302E), 〯 (U+302F) - 11,172 precomposed syllables in the Korean alphabet make up the Hangul Syllables block (
U+AC00–U+D7A3)
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Evaluations and legacy
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Perspective
Linguist John DeFrancis wrote that "scholars are in general agreement on the excellence of the Korean alphabetic script".[198] Hangul has been described by various linguists and historians as the best or among the best actively used writing systems,[12][199][200] as well as a landmark intellectual achievement in Korean and human history.[201][202][203][204] Hangul is a significant aid for modern scholars interested in the historical linguistics of the Korean language. Scholarly understanding of historical Korean sharply improves right at the invention of Hangul.[205][206][207] Several linguists have argued that Hangul is distinguished among writing systems in common use in that it was created, designed to suit the Korean language and be easy to learn, and original in a number of ways.[208]
When Westerners first began encountering Hangul in the 19th century, a number of them evaluated it glowingly and bemoaned that it was not yet respected by Koreans themselves.[209][210] Since then, Hangul has become a major source of pride for Korean people.[211][212][213]
A copy of the Hunminjeongeum Haerye, the document that formally introduced Hangul, was designated a National Treasure of South Korea on December 20, 1962[214][215] and a UNESCO Memory of the World in 1997.[216][215]
See also
Notes
- Korean: 조선글; pronounced [tsʰo.sʰɔn.ɡɯɭ]
- 한글; English: /ˈhɑːnɡuːl/ ⓘ HAHN-gool
- 훈민정음; 訓民正音
- 24 is the letter count used by international and South Korean scholars. North Korea considers the alphabet to have 40 letters, although both Koreas use the same set of letters.
- The initial ㅇ is introduced in North Korea's official Compendium of Korean Language Norms after ㅅ.[130] Some non–North Korean scholarly sources also use that ordering.[131][132] This ordering places ㅇ at the end because, when it is an initial, it does not produce its own sound.[8][133] In 1999, North Korea submitted a proposal to Unicode and ISO (that was eventually rejected) that places ㅇ at the end of the order for initial consonants.[134]
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References
External links
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