For someone new to the Korean writing system, it may look to be an ideographic system like Chinese. However, the Korean writing system is in fact a phonetic system (just like English) with simple letters to represent each of its various phonemes or sounds. What makes Korean seem ideographic is its convention of grouping its letters into square, syllabic blocks. These syllabic blocks are then combined to form words.
The Koreans borrowed a huge number of Chinese words, gave Korean readings and/or meanings to some of the Chinese characters and also invented about 150 new characters, most of which are rare or used mainly for personal or place names.
Below are some additional features of the Korean writing system:
- The Korean alphabet is made up of 24 letters or jamo. These 24 letters consist of 14 consonants and 10 vowels.
- The symbols used to write the consonants g/k, n, s, m and ng are meant to be abstract pictures of the speech organs used to produce their sounds.
- "Korean can be written in vertical columns running from top to bottom and right to left, or in horizontal lines running from left to right".
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