Beauty Of Hangul
Introduction To The Most Scientific Writing System
Most of us began learning Korean for the love of K-pop or K-dramas, yes, many of us are learning it for career-oriented reasons as well. Today, 77 million people speak Korean and it’s the 14th most popular language in the world. Hallyu(Korean Wave) played an essential role in popularising Korean on the global platform. However, we are not talking about Hallyu today let's go back in time and learn about the beginning of Hangul as we know it today, why and how the alphabet was created, their pronunciation, forming letters, combining vowels, and consonants, and more. Excited much! 가자!
Earlier, only the elite had the privilege to read and write, they used Chinese characters(Hanja) as a writing system for Korean, but this privilege was not accessible for the common demographic. Hence in December of 1443, Hangul or Hangeul began to be developed by King Sejong the Great with his scholars in the Hall of Worthies(Jiphyeonjeon) during his 25th year of rule. He created a unique writing system for everyone to use. In the 28th year of his reign (1446) within Hunminjeongeum Haerye (lit. “Explanations and Examples of the Proper Sounds for the Instruction of the People”) the writing system of Korean was introduced to the people of Korea.
During the reign of King Sejong, the Korean writing system called Hangul, which was originally called 훈민정음 (hunminjeongeum) was completed. On October 9th, Hangul day is celebrated to commemorate its significance. The writing system is used in South Korea as well as North Korea. In South Korea, it is called Hangul and in North Korea, it is called Joseongul. Both the countries continue to use the same writing system.
The Principle Behind Creating Hangul:
Hangeul is based on the principle of hieroglyphic, stroke, and the initial-middle-final consonant. Consonants were made based on the shape of the vocal organs, while the vowels were made from the shape of the sky/ heaven/ sun (.), land( _ ), and person(|). After creating the basic vowels and consonants, other letters were created combining a stroke order and adding the initial, middle, and final consonants into a letter.
The consonants as I mentioned earlier are based on the vocal organs. The first five consonants ( ㄱ [k/g], ㄴ[n], ㅁ [m], ㅅ [s], ㅇ [ng]) form the principles. 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 which are the aspirated sounds [ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ, ㅊ]. Moreover, by adding the same letter, we can also get ‘ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ.’ These are the twin letters referred to as ‘ssang’ which translates to ‘a pair’. These are tense sounds.
To get the pronunciation right for the aspirated and tense sound try the tissue test(Beginners refer to her channel for further study).
The pronunciation reflects the sound of the consonants when placed at the beginning of the end.
How The Letters Were Created:
The syllables are written in block form. A single syllable consists of a single sound. Consonants cannot be read by themselves thus, there must be a vowel present to form a syllable. Each block consists of 1 to 4 consonants with at least one vowel to form a syllable block. These blocks are then arranged in horizontal format from left to right or vertical format from top to bottom to form words. Letters within Hangeul consists of the following form: ‘vowel’, ‘consonant + vowel’, ‘consonant + vowel + consonant’. The consonant that comes after the vowel in the form ‘consonant+ vowel + consonant’ is called ‘Batchim’, which refer to consonant bases. Batchim is also called a final consonant however they are not. They are support consonants and are always placed under the consonant + vowel combination.
When combining letters in Hangeul, the letters ‘ㅎ, ㅏ, ㄴ’ are not listed; rather, they are combined into the word ‘한’. Depending on the vowel, the position and the shape of the consonant change. When the vowel is in the vertical form as in ‘ㅣ’[이], the vowel is added on the right side of the consonant. The consonant base (받침) is placed under the ‘consonant + vowel’. On the other hand, when the vowel is the horizontal form as in ‘ㅡ’[ 으], the vowel is placed under the consonant and the base consonant is placed under the ‘consonant + vowel’. A vowel cannot be written on its own thus it is paired with a consonant.
Rules when a consonant has two pronunciations: Here we will look at the example of ‘Kogi’ which means meat in Korean, even though the same ‘ㄱ’ is used, the form may change depending on the vowel that is combined. ‘고기’ the consonants with two pronunciations can be simplified by understanding that the first consonant is pronounced as [k] or its original sound and the following consonant is pronounced as [g] or it's another sound. ‘ㄱ’ is similar to [g] or [k] but the pronunciation can differ depending on the location of the consonant. Like in ‘Kogi’ both consonants are ‘ㄱ’ but have a different pronunciation.
Final Note On Hangul:
Hangul consists of 19 consonants and 21 vowels that makes a total of 40 letters. The vowels and consonants are combined to produce syllables, syllables are written in blocks. Every sound can be written in Hangul considering how the consonants and vowels are combined. All 19 consonants can appear before vowel however, ‘ng’ [ㅇ] acts as a silent consonant and works as a place-holder. The point to remember is when [ㅇ] is paired with a vowel on the right [이] or at the bottom [으] it acts as a silent consonant and when it appears under consonant and vowel it's pronounced as ‘ng’ for example, 강 — ‘Kang’ which means river.
Using the above Hangul chart try to read the following words:
1.가자 2.비 3.우유 4.오이 5.기타 6.피아노 7.아기 8.토끼 9.오빠 10.코 11.때 12.내가 13.여자 14.아티스트 15.왜If you can read these congrats you just got through the basic readings of Korean. If you weren’t able to read these try again refer to the Hangul chart above and try again, Hwaiting👍👍 I am rooting for you.
In the next blog, we will get to some Batchim, the support consonants of Korean. That blog will be separated into two parts as Batchim is extremely important to completely master Korean reading skills.
Here is the meaning and romanized reading of the above-mentioned Korean words:
가자 - gaja ([k/g] must be softly pronounced) = Let's go
비 - bi = rain
우유 - uyu = milk
오이 - oi = cucumber
기타 - gita = guitar
피아노 - piano = piano
아기 - agi = baby
토끼 - tokki([kki\ggi] should have tense sound) = rabbit
오빠 - oppa([ppa] should carry a tense sound) = older brother(female)
코 - ko (ko has an aspirated sound) = nose
때 - dae([dd/tt] has tense sound) = time
내가 - naega = I, me
여자 - yeoja = woman
아티스트 - atiseuteu = artist
왜 - wae = whyIt was extremely informative and educational for me to write this blog. I got to learn a lot about Hangul, its history as well as its modern evolution. Hangul looks elegant, systematic, aesthetically pleasing, and its application on different media takes it to another level. We can see its impact on crafts, billboards, night lights, typography, calligraphy, and even in fashion. I get why it is a scientific writing system, and respect the writing system as a whole. The fact that we can write any word in Hangul from the way it’s pronounced is simply epic. The block form of writing is new to me but I am excited to get this writing and reading right. ✌🤞
References for curious folks:
If you have anything to add feel free to do so. In the meantime, keep acquiring your targeted language. 안녕 🙆♂️.
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