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Han-geul (한글), or Han'gŭl, is the native alphabet used to write the Korean language (as opposed to the non-native Hanja). Each Hangul syllabic block consists of several of the 24 letters (see Jamo) -- 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Historically, it had 3 more consonants and 1 more vowel (See Obsolete Jamo).

While the script looks ideographic to some Westerners, it is actually phonetic. For a table of phonological descriptions of each letters, see Phonology.

Names

  • Official names:
  • Unofficial names:
    • Jeong-eum, short for the official Hunmin jeong-eum (see #History)
    • Commonly known as Eonmun (언문 ; 諺文 "vernacular script")
    • Urigeul (우리글; "our script") is used in both the North and South, but not by non-Koreans.
    • Sometimes called Amgeul (암글; "female script"): Women were traditionally considered to be inferior to men in Korea.
    • Rarely called Ahaegeul (아해글; "childish script")

History

An original native invention and Confucian resistance

Hangul was invented by the fourth king of Joseon Dynasty, Sejong the Great, and possibly also his researchers, as a replacement for, or at least a supplement to, Hanja. The system was completed in 1443 or January 1444, and published in 1446 in a document, Hunmin jeong-eum, after which the alphabet was named. The publication date of Hunmin jeong-eum, October 9, is Hangul Day in South Korea (Its North Korean equivalent is on January 15).

An old legend that holds that King Sejong visualized the written characters after studying the intricate lattice. But this is not true. The book Hunmin jeong-eum haerye explains the principles of the original letter designs, as written in #Jamo design.

However, Hangul faced heavy opposition by the majority of Korean Confucians, who believed Chinese characters are the only legitimate writing system. The protest by Choe Malli and other Confucians in 1444 is a typical example. Later on, the government became apathetic to Hangeul. Yeonsan-gun, the 10th king, forbade the study or use of Hangul and banned Hangul documents in 1504, and King Jungjong abolished the Ministry of Eonmun in 1506. Hangul had been used by women and uneducated people.

Nationalism and the Japanese

When the idea of nationalism was introduced from Japan to Korea, Hangeul began to be considered as a national symbol by some reformists. As a result of the Gabo Reform by pro-Japanese politicians, Hangeul was adopted in official documents for the first time in 1894. After Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910, Hangul was compulsorily taught in schools till Japan took the national mobilization policy in 1937.

Jamo

"Jamo" (자모 ; 字母) literally means "the mother(s) of a script." There are 52 jamo, 20 (14 consonants and 6 vowels) of which are basic (simple) and equivalent to letters in the Latin alphabet. The rest are clusters (called complex or compound) composed of two of these 14 basic jamo, hence parallel to double-consonant letters, like the Spanish ll and ch.

Four vocalic jamo clusters have shapes that are not elemental, but are derived from their respective basic jamo, with an extra short stroke to signify palatalization: ㅑ (ya), ㅕ (yeo), ㅛ (yo), ㅠ (yu). These four are counted as part of the 24 rudimentary jamo (letters), because the palatalizing stroke taken out of context does not represent y at all. In fact, there is no jamo for y.

Five of these consonantal jamo clusters are doubled consonants (bachim): two identical consonants placed beside each other horizontally. They are: ㄲ (kk), ㄸ (tt), ㅃ (pp), ㅆ (ss), and ㅉ (jj). Doubled consonants are not really pronounced twice, they are glottalized.

The sounds represented by the single and double consonantal jamo cannot be pronounced alone in normal speech. There are 42 more jamo that have fallen out of use.

There are three formal categories of jamo:

  1. Initials (초성 ; 初聲 choseong): consonant(s) before the vowel(s) in a syllable (the onset). They include all five double-consonant jamo.
  2. Medials or peaks (중성 ; 中聲 jungseong): All are vowels (the nucleus)
    • Position: usually in the middle of a syllable, but can be at the end as well.
    For a list of the medials, see #Vowel jamo design
  3. Finals (종성 ; 終聲 jongseong): consonant(s) after the vowel(s) in a syllable (the coda). All basic finals are also initials, except The zero initial ㅇ is pronounced ng in the final position. However, the only cluster jamo that are both initials and finals are two of the double consonantal jamo: ㅆ (ss) and ㄲ (kk).

Jamo design

The shapes of the consonants were designed scientifically, and the vowels philosophically.

Consonantal jamo design

The designs of the basic jamo consonant letters model the physical morphology of the tongue, palate, teeth and throat. The consonants can be divided into five groups, each with a basic shape, and one or more derived basic forms with additional strokes. The names in the brackets are the traditional Sino-Korean linguistic terminology.

  • Velar consonants (아음 ; 牙音 ; a-eum; "molar sounds"):
    • ㄱ g, ㅋ k
    • Basic shape: ㄱ is the side view picture of the tongue back touching the velum (soft palate). (For illustration, access the external link below.)
  • Alveolar consonants (설음 ; 舌音 ; seol-eum; "lingual sounds"):
    • ㄴ n, ㄷ d, ㅌ t, ㄹ l
    • Basic shape: ㄴ is the side view picture of the tongue tip touching the alveolar ridge (teethridge).
  • Bilabial consonants (순음 ; 唇音 ; sun-eum; "labial sounds"):
    • ㅁ m, ㅂ b, ㅍ p
    • Basic shape: ㅁ represents the outline of the lips.
  • Dental sibilants (치음 ; 齒音 ; chieum; "dental sounds"):
    • ㅅ s, ㅈ j, ㅊ ch
    • Basic shape: ㅅ was originally shaped like a wedge /\, without the overlapping top slash. It signifies the side view of the teeth.
  • Glottal consonants (후음 ; 喉音 ; hueum; "throat sounds"):
    • ㅇ ng (zero initial), ㅎ h
    • Basic shape: ㅇ symbolizes the outline of the throat.

Vowel jamo design

Vowel letters, on the other hand, consist of three elements:

  • Horizontal line (which signifies the flat Earth)
  • point (the round Heaven), which later becomes a short stroke
  • vertical line (the upright Human)

Together, they form various combinations and represent different vowel sounds:

  • Simple vowels:
    • Horizontal vowels: pronounced in the front of oral cavity
      • ㅗ o
      • ㅜ u
      • ㅡ eu (ŭ)
    • Vertical vowels: pronounced in the back of oral cavity
      • ㅏ a
      • ㅓ eo (ŏ)
      • ㅣ i
  • Compound vowels: combining simple vowels
    • ... (9) (Available to be copied from the French article.)
  • Palatalized vowel: Romanized as y-, represented by an extra stroke attached to a line
    • ... (6) (Available to be copied from the French article.)

Jamo order

The alphabetical order of jamo does not mix the consonants and the vowels like the Western alphabets (Latin alphabet and Cyrillic alphabet). The consonants are placed before the vowels. The modern order was set by Choi Sejin in 1527.

South Korean and North Korean governments have slightly different order, but they both follow Choi Sejin's order of the basic jamo.

South Korean order

The modern order of the consonantal jamo is:

ㄱ ㄲ ㄴ ㄷ ㄸ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅃ ㅅ ㅆ ㅇ ㅈ ㅉ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ

They are listed like the order of finals, not initials. And double consonantal jamo are placed immediately after its source simple jamo.

Medials' order is:

ㅏ ㅐ ㅑ ㅒ ㅓ ㅔ ㅕ ㅖ ㅗ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅛ ㅜ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅠ ㅡ ㅢ ㅣ

The fundamental (not necessarily basic) medials come first, with derived forms inserted in between: additional one stroke, then palatalized form, then palatalized additional one stroke. For vertical vowels, the derived forms are listed in the order: w- (symbolically represented by ㅏ or ㅓ), then adds a stroke to w- (ㅐ), then just a stroke, without w-.

North Korean order

Consonants:

ㄱㄴㄷㄹㅁㅂㅅㅇㅈㅊㅋㅌㅍㅎㄲㄸㅃㅆㅉㅇ

First ㅇ, if it represents sound /ng/. Second ㅇ, is zero. Note that the double jamo are placed at the every end, before zero ㅇ, but after all other jamos, not after their basic source jamo like in South Korea.

Vowels:

ㅏㅑㅓㅕㅗㅛㅜㅠㅡㅣㅐㅒㅔㅖㅚㅟㅢㅘㅝㅙㅞ

ㅐ and ㅔ is placed after all basic vowels, not after ㅏ and ㅓ.

Jamo names

The jamo were named by Choi Sejin in 1527. All vowels' names are as they are pronounced; all consonant's names are the consonant repeated twice with several vowels (for all but three are iu) inserted in between them. For example, m is mium. See Names of the Hangul jamo for a complete list.

Obsolete jamo

The original additional jamo, called archaic or obsolete, are:

  • · or ᆞ (arae-a or araea): Pronounced as [V] , similar to eo
    Existed only in the syllable ㆎ (area-ae)
  • ㅿ (pansios) [z]
  • ㆆ (yeorinhieuh, 여린히읗; or 된이응 "light hieuh" or "doubled ieung") [glottal fricative/stop]: "lighter than ㅎ and harsher than ㅇ"
  • ㆁ (yetieung, 옛이응) [zero cipher]: Now merged into replaced by ㅇ (ieung), traditionally only act as [N]. In computer font: yetieung is less round than ieung. In manuscript, never has a tiny stroke at the prominent peak of the circle like ieung.

In addition, there are two obsolete derived (in form) jamo representing one single sound:

  • ᄝ (kapyeunmieum) [B]
  • ᅘ (ssanghieuh) [x']

Syllabic blocks

To be able to be pronounced, some Hangul jamo must form blocks together, sometimes called "characters". Each Hangul block is a syllable consisting of two to three jamo (simple or cluster). The pattern is consonant + medial + (consonant).

  1. 2 jamo: an initial (ㅇ) + a medial (vowel)
    • 2: a zero initial (ㅇ) + a medial (vowel): just the medial is pronounced
  2. 3: an initial (ㅇ) + a medial (vowel) + a final

The placement, or stacking, of jamo in the block follow set patterns:

  1. Syllables that end in a vowel are written either vertically or horizontally, depending on the vowel.
    • Vertical jamo: initial left of the vertical vowel: →
    • Horizontal jamo: initial on top of the horizontal vowel: ↓
    The zero initial is called a "placeholder", as regard to patterns
  2. Patch'im ("supporting floor") When a syllable has an additional jamo (final), it adds to the above pattern, with the final at the bottom ("floor"):
    • Syllables which have a vertical vowel and end in a final are written clockwise.
    • Syllables which have a horizontal vowel and end in a final are written in a vertical stack.

The result is the same size and shape as a Hanja, and hence some Westerners confuse the syllabic blocks with Hanja.

There once were over 2,500 Hangul blocks, many of which have been eliminated. One of the deleted ones is ㅵ (bsd), entirely consonantal.

There was a very minor movement in the twentieth century to abolish syllabic blocks and write the jamo individually in a row. This would be difficult to read, because syllable ambiguity arises, namely, it becomes unclear when a syllable ends and another begins. Presumably the abolishment of syllabic blocks would necessitate inserting spaces in between all syllables. However, spaces are already presently employed in the Korean script to separate words. (See #Writing) This movement has gained very little support.

Orthography

Until the 20th century, no orthography of Hangul had been established. Due to liaison, heavy consonant assimilation, dialectical variants and other reasons, a Korean word can be spelt in several different ways. King Sejong seemed to prefer morphophonemic spelling rather than phonemic one. However, since it was mainly used by uneducated people, Hangul was dominated by phonemic and inconsistent spelling.

After much trial and error, the Japanese Government-General of Chosen established the writing style of a mixture of Hanja and Hangul, modeled on the Japanese writing system. The government revised the rule for spelling in 1912, 1921 and 1930, which was relatively phonemic.

The Hangul Society, originally found by Ju Si-gyeong, announced a proposal for a new morphophonemic orthography in 1933, which became the prototype of the contemporary orthographies in the North and South. After Korea was divided, the North and South revised orthographies separately.

Writing

Hangul can be written both horizontally and vertically. The latter method is traditional, akin to the Chinese style. The former style was promoted by Ju Si-kyeong, and has become overwhelmingly preferred.

Hangul were originally written with ink brushes, and the calligraphers employed the same style of the lines and bending angles as they did in writing Chinese characters, to achieve a similar look. Nowadays, however, Hangul are written mostly with ballpoint pens or fountain pens. Some computer fonts, such as Mac Korean, reflect the ink-brush style and are mostly used in headlines intended to be more artistic. Others, such as Microsoft Arial and GulimChe reflect the ballpoint style and are used in the body of the texts.

Pronunciation of the Hangul writing is occasionally not based strictly on Hangul jamo, but also follow specific irregular phonetic rules (see Korean language#Phonology).

See also

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