Hangul: The Great Script

Hangul, (han translates to great, while gul translates to script) is the official alphabet of Korea.  It is hailed by many linguistics as being the most scientific system of writing.  One University of Michigan professor went so far as to say Hangul is “the best alphabet in the world.” 

So what makes this writing system so great?

In 1443, King Sejong the Great, with the help of scholars, invented this script.  Korea had its own spoken language, but to put their spoken words into written words, they used Chinese script.

King Sejong the Great can be seen on the 10,000 Won note.   His face is a symbol of pride for the people of Korea, just like the faces of Abraham Lincoln or George Washington are used every day as a reminder of the great triumphs of our own country.

In 1446, the creation of Hangul was complete and was published in an article titled “The Proper Sounds for the Education of the People.”

Many aristocrats in the Korean society were very against the creation and spreading of Hangul.  Some would call Hangul “Achimegeul”, or “writing you can learn within a morning.”  They’d say “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.”

Why would this be a negative thing?

Before Hangul, majority of Koreans were effectively illiterate.  Using the Chinese script was a difficult task and the only people that had the extra time and money to study this form of language were rich, elite, and usually men.  They were otherwise known as the yangban.  A nation full of common people able to read newspapers, transmit thoughts over time in forms of letters, and record events as they happened is considered to be a very threatening thing to the people who hold the ultimate power.

Eerie, isn’t it?

The actual form of Hangul was intended to be very easy for the average person to learn.  The strokes of many consonants actually mimic the mouth as they produce the sound.  For example: the sound for “k” is represented by ㄱ.

You can see that if you image this : ㄱ: as your tongue, when making the sound “k”, the back of your tongue touches the roof of your mouth, also at the back. 

Here’s another example: the sound “n” is represented by this character: ㄴ.

Again, if “ㄴ” represents the tongue, you can see that when you make the sound “n”, the tip of your tongue touches the roof of your mouth, right behind the teeth.  The back of the tongue is down, allowing for air to flow through.

And one more example because this is so much fun:  the sound “m” is represented by this character: ㅁ

When you make the sound “m”, your lips come together and close, forming kind of a box inside your mouth, just like this: ㅁ.

Pretty awesome, right?

Thus, Hangul deserves its title as a very scientific language and its claims for being easy for all people to learn.

As if there couldn’t be anything more cool than this very literal representation of sounds, the vowels were developed based on one of the foundations of Confucianism.  The vowels are formed using different combinations of three symbols: ㆍ ㅡ ㅣ.  According to Confucius, the universe is made up of three basic components.   There is heaven (ㆍ), Earth (ㅡ) and Man (ㅣ).  Shabang.  Beautiful.

And to think that I doubted that I would ever use what I learned in my college Linguistics course…

I’ve started my Korean language class and boy, does it feel great to be back in a classroom.  We were introduced to the language with an opening lecture by a highly acclaimed South Korean linguist.  He’s retired and now spends his time volunteering for this and that.  He concluded the lecture by saying he normally opens the floor for questions, but said he wouldn’t be able to hear them anyway, so thank you for your time, goodbye. 

In all of my anthropology classes, my professors always said that learning the language is an imperative first step to learning about the culture and gaining trust and good rapport among the people.  I don’t know how much I’ll really learn in a year, but I think the importance lies in the honest attempt of it.  I’m a visitor in this country, and although I’m here to speak English, literally, I want to show my respect and try to learn as much as I can.  Also, there’s this little part of my brain that lights up when I study a language, that I don’t feel anytime else.  I really like that feeling.  Brain aerobics.