Hangul was created for both social and linguistic reasons. For social reason, it was easier for common people to learn and become more literate only people in the government and upper class were able to learn Chinese. And anyone that knew Chinese was automatically assumed to be in the upper class, especially due to the fact common were not able to learn Chinese. Classical Chinese was known as Hancha. During this time period, Chiense characters was common amount all of North East Asia. The creation of a easier language would make an equal status for everyone.
The other reason were linguistic based. The two languages during the period were both Chinese and Korean. Chinese characters were not able to express the language of the difficult of the translating form Korean to Chinese. The separation between the languages was not appreciated either. And the most relatable for the people was that common people did not have the resources to learn Chinese. Like mentioned in the Turkish presentation, only the upper class was able to learn Chinese.
So who created Hangul. The person that created Hangul was King Sejong. He was the only king was that was given the title “the great king” except for two other kings that were given the title of being “great”. He was also famous for his influence in technology, military and humanitarian work. During the creation of Hangul he made a 28-letter alphabet for the Korean people. Each shape of the letter resembles from the olden-day Tenji, which is a style of writing when brush was used.
Hangul was created in the secret because of the resistance from the aristocrats. Each of the letters in Hangul is a shape that is based on the configuration of the articulators in the making of the sound. Although this is more then the original version of Hangul, there has been changes made since Hangul was first created.
Hangul was first designed for the reader to easily to distinguish and for the writer to have a simple writing system. The designers were familiar with the Chinese phonological theory, and to some had an understanding of Tibetan, Mongolian, Japanese and Jurchen. Another set of knowledge that was used was Buddhist scriptures. All of this knowledge led to the creation of Humminjeongeum, which means instructing the people in the correct sound.
Humminjeongeum is the explanation of the completion of creation alphabet. The word means to teach the correct sounds to people. This meaning was given because Hangul was made to replace Chinese character that were used to point of period. Scholars during the period had to learn classified Chinese first to order to write. It was made to make education easier for everybody. But initially it was not accepted by scholars, therefore did not become effect until after World War II. There are two versions of Humminjeongeum, one is a seven page manuscript in the Hancha and Chinese. And the other is a 36 manuscript that has both Hancha and Hangul.
Knowing all of this information and much more gives me knowledge about Korean culture and the reason behind their pride. For anyone that is Korean, I can now understand not only is their spoken language an important part of their identity but their written one has more history behind it. Koreans scarified so much so they can have a system that gave themselves identity, and not use the language of another country. They truly fought for their language after the Japanese occupied Korea, where many started to gain nationalist pride with Hangul. This pride stuck around until current day because only very few places actually use and teach Chinese or Hancha.
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