The Korean alphabet, Hangul (한글), was developed in the 15th century by King Sejong the Great. Until that point, Korean wrote and read using Chinese characters, or hanja ( 한자). However, only male aristocrats could afford the necessary education to learn hanja, leaving the majority of the Korean population illiterate. King Sejong was aware of this issue and intentionally designed Hangul to be as intuitive and easy to learn as possible. He is recorded to have said the following about Hangul: “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.”
Hangul was introduced with the Hunminjeongeum (훈민정음). The Hunminjeongeum was made available to the Korean public and introduced the new Hangul alphabet. The document describes King Sejong’s motivation for creating the alphabet: “Because the speech of this country is different from that of China, it [the spoken language] does not match the [Chinese] letters. Therefore, even if the ignorant want to communicate, many of them, in the end, cannot successfully express themselves. Saddened by this, I have [had] 28 letters newly made. It is my wish that all the people may easily learn these letters and that [they] be convenient for daily use.”
In the above image, we can see that document introduced Korean letters individually, with explanations in Chinese hanja.
Hangul day is an official government holiday celebrated on October 9 in Korea to commemorate the publication of the Hunminjeongeum on October 9, 1446. In 1962 the document was designated a National Treasure and in 1997, it was registered by UNESCO in the Memory of the World Programme.
The Yongbieocheonga was the first text written in Hangul. It translates into Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven. The epic poem describes the founding of the Joseon dynasty as well as the history of neighboring peoples.
Comments
I think the new alphabet system of 28 letters made Hanguel one of the easiest languages in the world to learn. I remember that some countries that do not have their own writing system chose to use Hanguel as their writing system. Humninjeongeum and Hangeul are one of the most important aspects of Korean culture.
Since Korean is basically in its own language family, I find it really interesting how the language has evolved over time and how it was created. I’ve never heard of the Hunminjeongeum before so it’s really interesting to learn about how Korean was so widely available. I wonder how Hangul was acquired by the entire nation considering it was a newly created language and I wonder how long it took to be the spoken by everyone?
Really cool post about the history of the Korean language! It was interesting to read about the creation and idea behind the language, and the King's intent and process. Thank you for bestowing such knowledge.
Perhaps one of the most important artifacts in Korean history. Without the Hunminjeongeum and King Sejong, the Korea we know now would not be the way it is at all. The creation of a written language system that was entirely phonetic was groundbreaking and, like you mentioned, allowed even the poorest or "stupidest" individuals to learn it with ease.