EVERYTHING ABOUT HANGUL (KOREAN ALPHABET)

Who created Hangeul?

Hangeul was developed by King Sejong the Great. King Sejong was known as one of the greatest kings of the Joseon Dynasty and is recognized for his achievements. During this period, the country was able to develop itself as a nation throughout the development of the Korean language, agriculture, science and technology, medicine, music and law. It was King Sejong who led this progress.

However, King Sejong does not receive acclamation solely due to his brilliant achievements and skills.

He was also a wise king who loved his people. King Sejong was often gracious to his people, and made effort to improve the status and conditions of his people.

How was Hangeul created?

Before Hangeul was made, the elite borrowed Chinese characters as there were no characters in our language. However, the common people had difficulty learning the Chinese characters and were often treated unfairly. Saddened by this, King Sejong felt compassion for his people characters and decided to create easy for anyone to learn. This initiated a cultural expansion for the nation as everyone could learn a unique writing system designes specially for the Korean language.

What are the principles of creating Hangeul?

The principle of creating Hangeul is the principle of the hieroglyphic, stroke, and the initial-middle- final consonant. Consonants were made based on the shape of the vocal organs, while vowels were made from the shape of the sky(•), land (ᅳ), and human body(ᅵ). After creating the basic consonants and vowels, other letters were created by adding a stroke, and by forming the initial, middle, and final consonants into a letter. The final consonants do not use new letters but make use of letters used in the initial consonants for simplicity.

Vowels

Hangeul consists of vowels and consonants, and vowels resemble the shape of the sky(•), land (ᅳ), and human body(ᅵ). By forming the basic vowel shapes (•, ᅳ, l) with an additional point, we can create ‘ᅡ, ᅥ, ᅩ, ᅮ, ᅡ’ refers to the sun rising from the East Sea while ‘ᅥ’ refers to the sun going down to the West. Also, ‘ᅩ’ refers to the sun rising above ground, and ‘ᅮ’ refers to the sun setting below the ground.

Basic vowels

ᅡᅥᅩᅮᅳᅵᅢᅦᅬᅱ

Consonants

The consonants are based on the shape of the vocal organs. The throat, tongue, gums and teeth were used to form the shape, and this was to help remember the pronunciation. The principles were based on the first five consonants (ᄀ, ᄂ, ᄆ, ᄉ, ᄋ). The first sound ‘ᄀ’ refers to the shape of the root of the tongue blocking the throat. ‘ᄂ’ refers to the tongue stuck to the upper gums. ‘ᄆ’ refers to the shape of the lips, ‘ᄉ’ refers to the shape of a tooth, and ‘ᄋ’ refers to the shape of the throat.

By adding a stroke to these basic consonants, we can form letters with stronger pronunciation. Moreover, by adding the same letter, we can also create ‘ᄁ, ᄄ, ᄈ, ᄊ, ᄍ.’