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57-539: The Hall of Worthies is known for its role in compiling the Hunminjeongeum , the original treatise on Hangul . Sejong established the institution early in his reign, and staffed it with talented scholars. He instructed them to conduct a variety of research activities to strengthen his rule and the nation. The Hall of Worthies originally served an advisory role to the king, but King Sejong restructured and expanded its role into an academic research institute. During

114-644: A National Treasure in South Korea and was registered by UNESCO in the Memory of the World Programme in 1997. Before Hangul, the Korean alphabet, was created, Koreans used Chinese characters to record their words. Since Chinese language and Korean language share few similarities, borrowing Chinese characters proved to be inefficient to reflect the spoken language. In addition, at the time when Sejong

171-449: A consonant letter, then a vowel letter, and then potentially another consonant letter called a batchim ( Korean :  받침 ). If the syllable begins with a vowel sound, the consonant ㅇ ( ng ) acts as a silent placeholder. However, when ㅇ starts a sentence or is placed after a long pause, it marks a glottal stop . Syllables may begin with basic or tense consonants but not complex ones. The vowel can be basic or complex, and

228-590: A glide (or a semivowel) and a monophthong. There is some disagreement about exactly how many vowels are considered Korean's monophthongs; the largest inventory features ten, while some scholars have proposed eight or nine. This divergence reveals two issues: whether Korean has two front rounded vowels (i.e. /ø/ and /y/); and, secondly, whether Korean has three levels of front vowels in terms of vowel height (i.e. whether /e/ and /ɛ/ are distinctive). Actual phonological studies done by studying formant data show that current speakers of Standard Korean do not differentiate between

285-620: A major genre . However, the use of the Korean alphabet had gone without orthographical standardization for so long that spelling had become quite irregular. In 1796, the Dutch scholar Isaac Titsingh became the first person to bring a book written in Korean to the Western world . His collection of books included the Japanese book Sangoku Tsūran Zusetsu ( An Illustrated Description of Three Countries ) by Hayashi Shihei . This book, which

342-453: A preface, the alphabet letters , and brief descriptions of their corresponding sounds. The first paragraph of the document reveals Sejong the Great's motivation for creating Hangul : The Classical Chinese (Hanja) of the Hunminjeongeum has been partly translated into Middle Korean . This translation is found together with Worinseokbo : an annotated Buddhist scripture and is called

399-490: Is assumed that the Gwolaegaksa was located around where the current building of Sujeongjeon Hall  [ ko ] resides. There used to be several buildings at Gwollaegaksa, but Sujeongjeon Hall is the only building that remains in well-preserved condition. The Hall of Worthies was disbanded by King Sejo after many of its members (notably the six martyred ministers ) plotted to assassinate Sejo in 1456, following

456-681: Is based on the South Korean order. The order from the Hunminjeongeum in 1446 was: This is the basis of the modern alphabetic orders. It was before the development of the Korean tense consonants and the double letters that represent them, and before the conflation of the letters ㅇ (null) and ㆁ (ng). Thus, when the North Korean and South Korean governments implemented full use of the Korean alphabet, they ordered these letters differently, with North Korea placing new letters at

513-626: Is occasionally still the way for stylistic purposes. However, Korean is now typically written from left to right with spaces between words serving as dividers , unlike in Japanese and Chinese. Hangul is the official writing system throughout both North and South Korea. It is a co-official writing system in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and Changbai Korean Autonomous County in Jilin Province , China. Hangul has also seen limited use by speakers of

570-478: Is referred to as Hangul today but was originally named as Hunminjeongeum by King Sejong. "Hunmin" and "Jeongeum" are respective words that each indicate "to teach the people" and "proper sounds." Together Hunminjeongeum means "correct sounds for the instruction of the people." There are three versions of Hunminjeongeum. Hunminjeongeum Yeui is written in Classical Chinese / Hanja and contains

627-459: Is the modern writing system for the Korean language . The letters for the five basic consonants reflect the shape of the speech organs used to pronounce them. They are systematically modified to indicate phonetic features. The vowel letters are systematically modified for related sounds, making Hangul a featural writing system . It has been described as a syllabic alphabet as it combines

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684-570: Is used to refer to Korea in general, so the name also means Korean script. It has been romanized in multiple ways: North Koreans call the alphabet Chosŏn'gŭl ( 조선글 ), after Chosŏn , the North Korean name for Korea . A variant of the McCune–Reischauer system is used there for romanization. Until the mid-20th century, the Korean elite preferred to write using Chinese characters called Hanja . They referred to Hanja as jinseo ( 진서 ; 真書 ) meaning true letters. Some accounts say

741-778: Is widely assumed that Sejong the Great ordered the Hall of Worthies to invent Hangul, contemporary records such as the Veritable Records of King Sejong and Jeong Inji 's preface to the Hunminjeongeum Haerye emphasize that he invented it himself. This is stated in Book 113 of The Annals of King Sejong (Sejongsillok) on the 9th month and the 28th year of reign of King Sejong and at the end of An Illustrated Explanation of Hunminjeongeum ( Hunminjeongeum Haeryebon ; Hunminjeongeum Haerye ). Afterward, King Sejong wrote

798-915: The Hunminjeongeum Eonhae . 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. Hangul The Korean alphabet , known as Hangul or Hangeul in South Korea ( English: / ˈ h ɑː n ɡ uː l / HAHN -gool ; Korean :  한글 ; Korean pronunciation: [ha(ː)n.ɡɯɭ] ) and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea ( 조선글 ; North Korean pronunciation [tsʰo.sʰɔn.ɡɯɭ] ),

855-520: The Veritable Records of King Sejong and Jeong Inji 's preface to the Hunminjeongeum Haerye emphasize that he invented it himself. The project was completed sometime between December 1443 and January 1444, and described in a 1446 document titled Hunminjeongeum ( The Proper Sounds for the Education of the People ), after which the alphabet itself was originally named. The publication date of

912-556: The Cia-Cia language in Indonesia. The Korean alphabet was originally named Hunminjeong'eum ( 훈민정음 ) by King Sejong the Great in 1443. Hunminjeong'eum is also the document that explained logic and science behind the script in 1446. The name hangeul ( 한글 ) was coined by Korean linguist Ju Si-gyeong in 1912. The name combines the ancient Korean word han ( 한 ), meaning great, and geul ( 글 ), meaning script. The word han

969-491: The Hunminjeongeum , October 9, became Hangul Day in South Korea. Its North Korean equivalent, Chosŏn'gŭl Day, is on January 15. The opening page of Hunminjeongeum contains King Sejong's foreword written in Literary Chinese, which reads: 國之語音。異乎中國。與文字不相流通。故愚民。有所欲言而終不得伸其情者。多矣。予。爲此憫然。新制二十八字。欲使人人易習。便於日用矣。 Because the speech of this country is different from that of China, it [the spoken language] does not match

1026-555: The Hunminjeongeum Haerye Edition, King Sejong expressed his intention to understand the language of the people in his country and to express their meanings more conveniently in writing. He noted that the shapes of the traditional Chinese characters, as well as factors such as the thickness, stroke count, and order of strokes in calligraphy, were extremely complex, making it difficult for people to recognize and understand them individually. A popular saying about

1083-448: The emphatic consonants were standardized to ㅺ, ㅼ, ㅽ, ㅆ, ㅾ and final consonants restricted to ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅇ, ㄺ, ㄻ, ㄼ . Long vowels were marked by a diacritic dot to the left of the syllable, but this was dropped in 1921. A second colonial reform occurred in 1930. The arae-a was abolished: the emphatic consonants were changed to ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ and more final consonants ㄷ, ㅈ, ㅌ, ㅊ, ㅍ, ㄲ, ㄳ, ㄵ, ㄾ, ㄿ, ㅄ were allowed, making

1140-609: The mayor of Seoul . Letters in the Korean alphabet are called jamo ( 자모 ). There are 14 consonants ( 자음 ) and 10 vowels ( 모음 ) used in the modern alphabet. They were first named in Hunmongjahoe  [ ko ] , a hanja textbook written by Choe Sejin . Additionally, there are 27 complex letters that are formed by combining the basic letters: 5 tense consonant letters, 11 complex consonant letters, and 11 complex vowel letters. In typography design and in IME automata,

1197-504: The 21 vowels used in the modern Korean alphabet in South Korean alphabetic order with Revised Romanization equivalents for each letter and pronunciation in IPA (see Korean phonology for more). The vowels are generally separated into two categories: monophthongs and diphthongs. Monophthongs are produced with a single articulatory movement (hence the prefix mono), while diphthongs feature an articulatory change. Diphthongs have two constituents:

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1254-464: The Great commissioned the royal research institute Hall of Worthies to write the Hunminjeongeum to describe the writing system he had invented in 1443. The manuscript was then published in 1446. Hunminjeongeum was intended to be a simpler alternative to the incumbent Chinese-based Hanja , in order to promote literacy among the general populace. It originally included 28 letters, but over time, four of those (ㆆ, ㆁ, ㅿ, ·) were abandoned, leading to

1311-508: The Great was inventing Hangul the Ming dynasty had just come to power in China, which changed the pronunciation of Chinese characters, making it harder for Koreans to learn the new standard pronunciation to record their words. The illiteracy level also stayed high since reading and learning Chinese characters was restricted among the ordinary people. They were generally used in official documents by

1368-492: The Great , and revealed by him in 1443. Afterward, King Sejong wrote the preface to the Hunminjeongeum, explaining the origin and purpose of Hangul and providing brief examples and explanations, and then tasked the Hall of Worthies to write detailed examples and explanations. The head of the Hall of Worthies, Jeong In-ji , was responsible for compiling the Hunminjeongeum. The Hunminjeongeum was published and promulgated to

1425-560: The Hunminjeongeum and publishing the Samgang Haengshildo, King Sejong sponsored books such as "The Songs of the Flying Dragons" ( Yongbieocheonga ) and eulogies of his ancestors, the Hall of Worthies was involved in the publication of numerous scholarly and scientific writings, which contributed to the reputation of Sejong's reign as the golden age of Korean culture. When Ming envoys came to Joseon in 1450 to pronounce

1482-517: The Joseon and the Ming until the Ming's fall in 1644. Hunminjeongeum Hunminjeongeum ( Korean :  훈민정음 ; Hanja :  訓民正音 ; lit.   The Correct/Proper Sounds for the Instruction of the People ) is a 15th-century manuscript that introduced the Korean script Hangul . The name of the manuscript was also the original name of the script. King Sejong

1539-579: The Korean alphabet or mixed script as their official writing system, with ever-decreasing use of Hanja especially in the North. Beginning in the 1970s, Hanja began to experience a gradual decline in commercial or unofficial writing in the South due to government intervention, with some South Korean newspapers now only using Hanja as abbreviations or disambiguation of homonyms. However, as Korean documents, history, literature and records throughout its history until

1596-466: The Korean consonants by their respective categories and subcategories. All Korean obstruents are voiceless in that the larynx does not vibrate when producing those sounds and are further distinguished by degree of aspiration and tenseness. The tensed consonants are produced by constricting the vocal cords while heavily aspirated consonants (such as the Korean ㅍ , /pʰ/ ) are produced by opening them. Korean sonorants are voiced. The chart below shows

1653-409: The [Chinese] letters. Therefore, even if the ignorant want to communicate, many of them in the end cannot state their concerns. 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. The Korean alphabet was designed so that people with little education could learn to read and write. According to

1710-409: The alphabet is, "A wise man can acquaint himself with them before the morning is over; even a stupid man can learn them in the space of ten days." Another document published in 1446 and titled Hunminjeongeum Haerye ( Hunminjeongeum Explanation and Examples) was discovered in 1940. This document explains that the design of the consonant letters is based on articulatory phonetics and the design of

1767-505: The annexation and Korean was written in a mixed Hanja-Hangul script , where most lexical roots were written in Hanja and grammatical forms in the Korean alphabet. Japan banned earlier Korean literature from public schooling, which became mandatory for children. The orthography of the Korean alphabet was partially standardized in 1912, when the vowel arae-a ( ㆍ )—which has now disappeared from Korean—was restricted to Sino-Korean roots:

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1824-472: The ascension of Emperor Jingdi, members of both the Hall of Worthies and Ming envoys exchanged poems in a tradition now called Hwanghwajip. The Ming envoys were led by Ni Qian, who befriended Hall of Worthies scholars Jeong Inji, Seong Sammun, and Shin Sukju. Both sides would exchange poems several times during the visit. This continual exchange of poems and other tributary gifts led to a strong relationship between

1881-421: The basic letters: 5 tense consonant letters, 11 complex consonant letters, and 11 complex vowel letters. Four basic letters in the original alphabet are no longer used: 1 vowel letter and 3 consonant letters. Korean letters are written in syllabic blocks with the alphabetic letters arranged in two dimensions. For example, the South Korean city of Seoul is written as 서울 , not ㅅㅓㅇㅜㄹ . The syllables begin with

1938-611: The contemporary period were written primarily in Literary Chinese using Hanja as its primary script, a good working knowledge of Chinese characters especially in academia is still important for anyone who wishes to interpret and study older texts from Korea, or anyone who wishes to read scholarly texts in the humanities. A high proficiency in Hanja is also useful for understanding the etymology of Sino-Korean words as well as to enlarge one's Korean vocabulary. North Korea instated Hangul as its exclusive writing system in 1949 on

1995-585: The current 24 letters of Hangul. Sejong the Great also commissioned the creation of a companion explanatory manuscript entitled Hunminjeongeum Haerye . In 1940, a copy of the Hunminjeongeum Haerye was discovered in Andong, Gyeongsang Province. An original copy of the document is currently located at the Gansong Art Museum in Seoul , South Korea. In 1962, Hunminjeongeum Haerye was designated

2052-513: The difficulty of learning the Korean and Chinese languages, as well as the large number of Chinese characters that are used. To promote literacy among the common people, the fourth king of the Joseon dynasty, Sejong the Great , personally created and promulgated a new alphabet. Although it is widely assumed that King Sejong ordered the Hall of Worthies to invent Hangul, contemporary records such as

2109-536: The early part of King Sejong's reign, the Hall of Worthies served as a legislative system, but its role eventually grew to hold discussions regarding Joseon's national policy. The Hall of Worthies would also later act as an organ of the press. The workplace of the scholars from the Hall of Worthies was located in the Gwollaegaksa, a series of government offices located in Gyeongbokgung Palace . It

2166-694: The elite referred to the Korean alphabet derisively as 'amkeul ( 암클 ) meaning women's script, and 'ahaetgeul ( 아햇글 ) meaning children's script, though there is no written evidence of this. Supporters of the Korean alphabet referred to it as jeong'eum ( 정음 ; 正音 ) meaning correct pronunciation, gungmun ( 국문 ; 國文 ) meaning national script, and eonmun ( 언문 ; 諺文 ) meaning vernacular script. Koreans primarily wrote using Literary Chinese alongside native phonetic writing systems that predate Hangul by hundreds of years, including Idu script , Hyangchal , Gugyeol and Gakpil. However, many lower class uneducated Koreans were illiterate due to

2223-614: The features of alphabetic and syllabic writing systems. Hangul was created in 1443 by Sejong the Great , fourth king of the Joseon dynasty. It was an attempt to increase literacy by serving as a complement to Hanja , which were Chinese characters used to write Literary Chinese in Korea by the 2nd century BCE, and had been adapted to write Korean by the 6th century CE. Modern Hangul orthography uses 24 basic letters: 14 consonant letters and 10 vowel letters. There are also 27 complex letters that are formed by combining

2280-476: The latter's usurpation of the throne from King Danjong . However, a similar organization, the Hongmungwan , Office of Special Advisors, continued much of the same work, though without enjoying the same prestige or output it had during the earlier period. The Hall of Worthies participated in various scholarly endeavors, one of which was compiling the Hunminjeongeum . Hangul was personally created by Sejong

2337-498: The letters that make up a block are called jaso ( 자소 ). The chart below shows all 19 consonants in South Korean alphabetic order with Revised Romanization equivalents for each letter and pronunciation in IPA (see Korean phonology for more). ㅇ is silent syllable-initially and is used as a placeholder when the syllable starts with a vowel. ㄸ , ㅃ , and ㅉ are never used syllable-finally. The consonants are broadly categorized into two categories: The chart below lists

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2394-508: The literary elite, including Choe Manri and other Korean Confucian scholars. They believed Hanja was the only legitimate writing system. They also saw the circulation of the Korean alphabet as a road to break away from the Sinosphere as well as a threat to their status. However, the Korean alphabet entered popular culture as King Sejong had intended, used especially by women and writers of popular fiction. Prince Yeonsan banned

2451-459: The orders of Kim Il Sung of the Workers' Party of Korea , and officially banned the use of Hanja. Systems that employed Hangul letters with modified rules were attempted by linguists such as Hsu Tsao-te  [ zh ] and Ang Ui-jin to transcribe Taiwanese Hokkien , a Sinitic language , but the usage of Chinese characters ultimately ended up being the most practical solution and

2508-659: The orthography more morphophonemic . The double consonant ㅆ was written alone (without a vowel) when it occurred between nouns, and the nominative particle 가 was introduced after vowels, replacing 이 . Ju Si-gyeong , the linguist who had coined the term Hangul to replace Eonmun or Vulgar Script in 1912, established the Korean Language Research Society (later renamed the Hangul Society ), which further reformed orthography with Standardized System of Hangul in 1933. The principal change

2565-406: The preface to the Hunminjeongeum , explaining the origin and purpose of Hangul and providing brief examples and explanations, and then tasked the Hall of Worthies to write detailed examples and explanations. The head of the Hall of Worthies, Jeong In-ji , was responsible for compiling the Hunminjeongeum . The Hunminjeongeum was published and promulgated to the public in 1446. The writing system

2622-451: The public in 1446 in order to increase the literacy of the general populace. Confucianism ideals were very important to King Sejong, and he wanted his subjects to have a medium through which they could learn the ethics and morals of Confucianism. During his 14th year in power, King Sejong instructed his scholars at the Hall of Worthies to compile outstanding examples of the fundamental principles in human relationships (filial piety, loyalty to

2679-505: The ruling class. The ruling class took advantage of this and learning the Chinese characters became a symbol of power and privilege. In order to make written language more accessible for common people, Sejong the Great started creating Hangul secretly, since the ruling class would be appalled by the news. Hangul was personally created by Sejong the Great, the fourth king of the Joseon dynasty, and revealed by him in 1443. Although it

2736-642: The second consonant can be basic, complex or a limited number of tense consonants. How the syllables are structured depends solely if the baseline of the vowel symbol is horizontal or vertical. If the baseline is vertical, the first consonant and vowel are written above the second consonant (if present), but all components are written individually from top to bottom in the case of a horizontal baseline. As in traditional Chinese and Japanese writing, as well as many other texts in East and southeast Asia, Korean texts were traditionally written top to bottom, right to left, as

2793-589: The state, and wifely devotion) from both Korean and Chinese history. This compilation of works would become the book "Conduct of the Three Fundamental Principles in Human Relationships" (Samgang Haengshildo, Hanja: 三綱行實圖, 삼강행실도 ). Unfortunately, this work was originally recorded in Chinese characters, and thus, the general public could not read it until it was translated into Hangul some 30 years later. Besides contributing to

2850-478: The study and publication of the Korean alphabet in 1504 during his kingship, after a document criticizing him was published. Similarly, King Jungjong abolished the Ministry of Eonmun, a governmental institution related to Hangul research, in 1506. The late 16th century, however, saw a revival of the Korean alphabet as gasa and sijo poetry flourished. In the 17th century, the Korean alphabet novels became

2907-400: The vowel letters is based on the principles of yin and yang and vowel harmony . After the creation of Hangul, people from the lower class or the commoners had a chance to be literate. They learned how to read and write Korean, not just the upper classes and literary elite. They learn Hangul independently without formal schooling or such. The Korean alphabet faced opposition in the 1440s by

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2964-479: The vowels ㅔ and ㅐ in pronunciation. Alphabetic order in the Korean alphabet is called the ganada order, ( 가나다순 ) after the first three letters of the alphabet. The alphabetical order of the Korean alphabet does not mix consonants and vowels. Rather, first are velar consonants , then coronals , labials , sibilants , etc. The vowels come after the consonants. The collation order of Korean in Unicode

3021-499: Was adopted in official documents for the first time in 1894. Elementary school texts began using the Korean alphabet in 1895, and Tongnip sinmun , established in 1896, was the first newspaper printed in both Korean and English. After the Japanese annexation, which occurred in 1910, Japanese was made the official language of Korea. However, the Korean alphabet was still taught in Korean-established schools built after

3078-643: Was endorsed by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan . The Hunminjeong'eum Society in Seoul attempted to spread the use of Hangul to unwritten languages of Asia. In 2009, it was unofficially adopted by the town of Baubau , in Southeast Sulawesi , Indonesia, to write the Cia-Cia language . A number of Indonesian Cia-Cia speakers who visited Seoul generated large media attention in South Korea, and they were greeted on their arrival by Oh Se-hoon ,

3135-684: Was published in 1785, described the Joseon Kingdom and the Korean alphabet. In 1832, the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland supported the posthumous abridged publication of Titsingh's French translation. Thanks to growing Korean nationalism , the Gabo Reformists ' push, and Western missionaries' promotion of the Korean alphabet in schools and literature, the Hangul Korean alphabet

3192-423: Was published in 1946, just after Korean independence from Japanese rule. In 1948, North Korea attempted to make the script perfectly morphophonemic through the addition of new letters , and, in 1953, Syngman Rhee in South Korea attempted to simplify the orthography by returning to the colonial orthography of 1921, but both reforms were abandoned after only a few years. Both North Korea and South Korea have used

3249-438: Was to make the Korean alphabet as morphophonemically practical as possible given the existing letters. A system for transliterating foreign orthographies was published in 1940. Japan banned the Korean language from schools and public offices in 1938 and excluded Korean courses from the elementary education in 1941 as part of a policy of cultural assimilation and genocide . The definitive modern Korean alphabet orthography

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