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Official Names: Hangul (

The document summarizes the Korean alphabet known as Hangul. It was created in the 15th century under King Sejong and consists of 14 consonants and 10 vowels that are grouped into blocks. Hangul combines features of alphabetic and syllabic writing. It is considered one of the most logical writing systems as the shapes of its letters mimic the mouth shapes of pronouncing each consonant. Hangul is the official writing system of both South and North Korea, though North Korea also calls it Chosŏn'gŭl.

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Jenny Lyn L. Bautista
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155 views3 pages

Official Names: Hangul (

The document summarizes the Korean alphabet known as Hangul. It was created in the 15th century under King Sejong and consists of 14 consonants and 10 vowels that are grouped into blocks. Hangul combines features of alphabetic and syllabic writing. It is considered one of the most logical writing systems as the shapes of its letters mimic the mouth shapes of pronouncing each consonant. Hangul is the official writing system of both South and North Korea, though North Korea also calls it Chosŏn'gŭl.

Uploaded by

Jenny Lyn L. Bautista
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Hangul (/ˈhɑːnˌɡuːl/ HAHN-gool;[1] from Korean hangeul 한글 [ha(ː)n.ɡɯl]) is the Korean alphabet.

It
has been used to write theKorean language since its creation in the 15th century under Sejong the
Great.[2][3]

It is the official writing system of South Korea and North Korea. It is a co-official writing system in
the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and Changbai Korean Autonomous County in Jilin
Province, China. It is sometimes used to write the Cia-Cia language spoken near the town of Bau-
Bau, Indonesia.

The alphabet consists of 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Hangul letters are grouped
into syllabic blocks, vertically and horizontally. For example, the Korean word for "honeybee" is
written 꿀벌, not ㄲㅜㄹㅂㅓㄹ.[4] As it combines the features of alphabetic and syllabic writing
systems, Hangul has been described as an "alphabetic syllabary" by some linguists.[5][6] As in
traditional Chinese writing, Hangul texts were traditionally written top to bottom, right to left, and are
occasionally still written this way for stylistic purposes. Today, Hangul is typically written from left to
right with spaces between words and western-style punctuation.[7]

Some linguists consider Hangul the most logical writing system in the world, partly because the
shapes of its consonants mimic the shapes of the speaker's mouth when pronouncing each
consonant.

Official names[edit]

Korean name (South Korea)

Hangul 한글

Revised Romanization Han(-)geul

McCune–Reischauer Han'gŭl[9]

IPA [ha(ː)n.ɡɯl]

Korean name (North Korea)

Chosŏn'gŭl 조선글

Revised Romanization Joseon(-)geul


McCune–Reischauer Chosŏn'gŭl

IPA [tso.sɔn.ɡɯl]

The word "Hangul", written in Hangul

The Korean alphabet was originally called Hunminjeongeum (훈민정음), after the document that
introduced the script to the Korean people in 1446.[10]

Today, South Koreans call the Korean alphabet hangeul (한글), a name 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 is used to refer to Korea in general, so the name also
means "Korean script".[11] It has been romanized in multiple ways:

 Hangeul or han-geul in the Revised Romanization of Korean, which the South


Korean government uses in English publications and encourages for all purposes.
 Han'gŭl in the McCune–Reischauer system, is often capitalized and rendered without
the diacritics when used as an English word, Hangul, as it appears in many English dictionaries.
 Hankul in the Yale romanization, a system recommended for technical linguistic studies.

North Koreans call the Korean alphabet Chosŏn'gŭl (조선글) after Chosŏn, the North Korean name
for Korea.[12] The McCune–Reischauer system is used.

Other names[edit]
Until the early 20th century, the Korean elite preferred to write using Chinese characters
called Hanja. They referred to Hanja as jinseo (진서) or "true letters". Some accounts say the elite
referred to Hangul derisively as amkeul (암클) meaning "women's script", and ahaetgeul (아햇글)
meaning "children's script", though there is no written evidence of this.[13]

Supporters of Hangul referred to it as jeong-eum (정음) meaning "correct


pronunciation", gungmun (국문) meaning "national script", and eonmun (언문) meaning "vernacular
script".[13]

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