Learn about the Korean alphabet
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Intro |
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| Michael: What alphabet does Korean use? |
| Kyejin: And has it changed over time? |
| Michael: At KoreanClass101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Jing Liu, an exchange student from China, sees Chinese characters in a book, and asks his friend In-jeong Im |
| "Do Koreans use Chinese characters?" |
| Jing Liu: 한국 사람들은 한자를 사용해요? (Hanguk saramdeureun hanjareul sayonghaeyo?) |
| Dialogue |
| Jing Liu: 한국 사람들은 한자를 사용해요? (Hanguk saramdeureun hanjareul sayonghaeyo?) |
| In-jeong Im: 더 이상 사용 안 해요. 한글을 사용해요. (Deo isang sayong an haeyo. Hangeureul sayonghaeyo.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Jing Liu: 한국 사람들은 한자를 사용해요? (Hanguk saramdeureun hanjareul sayonghaeyo?) |
| Michael: "Do Koreans use Chinese characters?" |
| In-jeong Im: 더 이상 사용 안 해요. 한글을 사용해요. (Deo isang sayong an haeyo. Hangeureul sayonghaeyo.) |
| Michael: "Not anymore; now we use Hangul." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: As you might know, some Asian countries use Chinese characters as their standard writing script, including Japan and China itself. Due to Korea's geographical closeness to China, the question if it uses Chinese characters is justifiable, and is often asked by non-Korean speakers or beginner level Korean language learners. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: To answer this question, let's have a closer look at our dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Jing Liu asked "Do Koreans use Chinese characters?" |
| (Pause 4 Seconds) |
| Kyejin: 한국 사람들은 한자를 사용해요? (Hanguk saramdeureun hanjareul sayonghaeyo?) |
| Michael: "Do Koreans use Chinese characters?" |
| Michael: In the same conversation, In-jeong Im responds, |
| (Pause 4 Seconds) |
| Kyejin: 더 이상 사용 안 해요. 한글을 사용해요. (Deo isang sayong an haeyo. Hangeureul sayonghaeyo.) |
| Michael: "Not anymore; now we use Hangul." |
| Kyejin: 한글 (hangeul), |
| Michael: is the name of the modern Korean alphabet. While it is romanized as 'hangeul', it is officially written as 'Hangul', so keep this in mind. It was first introduced in the 15th century, and replaced the overall problematic |
| Kyejin: 한자(hanja) |
| Michael: which used Chinese characters as the writing script. |
| The unique thing about hanja was that the pronunciation had been adapted with a Korean pronunciation. This means that, while the characters were definitely from the Chinese language, it was pronounced in a different way. And even after Hangul was implemented, these |
| Kyejin: 한자(hanja) |
| Michael: based words remained in the Korean language until recent times–if you look at newspapers from a few decades ago, you would find |
| Kyejin: 한자(hanja) |
| Michael: mixed with |
| Kyejin: 한글 (hangeul). |
| Michael: Also, you can still find remnants of this old system of Korean writing throughout the country, including ancient Buddhist temples and in other aspects of traditional culture, as well as various older signboards of commercial shops and traditional Korean restaurants. |
| Michael: Today, however, Hangul, the modern Korean alphabet is comprised of 24 letters, including 14 consonants |
| Kyejin: ㄱ(giyeok), ㄴ (nieun), ㄷ (digeut),ㄹ (rieul) , ㅁ (mieum), ㅂ (bieup), ㅅ (siot), ㅇ (ieung), ㅈ (jieut) , ㅊ (chieut) , ㅋ (kieuk) , ㅌ (tieut) , ㅍ (pieup) , ㅎ (hieut) |
| Michael: and 10 vowels |
| Kyejin: ㅏ(a), ㅑ(ya), ㅓ(eo), ㅕ(yeo), ㅗ (o), ㅛ (yo) , ㅜ (u), ㅠ (yu), ㅡ (eu),ㅣ( i) |
| Michael: Korean is based on a phonetic writing system which means both speaking and writing are easy once you've mastered the sound each individual letter (and letter combination ) makes. |
| Korean letters are made up of simple geometric patterns. While the order of each stroke of a letter is important, it's not difficult to learn. |
| When it comes to reading in Korean, each syllable is grouped together. So, while Korean is generally read left to right, each syllable is read in a clockwise direction before moving right onto the following syllable. Take, for example, the word for "Korean." Once again, it's: |
| Kyejin: 한글 (hangeul) |
| Michael: The first syllable we read is: |
| Kyejin: 한(han), |
| Michael: a combination of the consonant |
| Kyejin: ㅎ(h), |
| Michael: vowel |
| Kyejin: ㅏ(a), |
| Michael: and the consonant |
| Kyejin: ㄴ(n). |
| Michael: Add them together and you get |
| Kyejin: 한(han). |
| Michael: The second syllable is |
| Kyejin: 글 (geul), |
| Michael: a combination of the consonant |
| Kyejin: ㄱ(g), |
| Michael: vowel |
| Kyejin: ㅡ(eu), |
| Michael: and consonant |
| Kyejin: ㄹ(l). |
| Michael: Add them together and you get |
| Kyejin: 글 (geul). |
| Michael: Little by little, you can dramatically improve your reading and writing skills in Korean simply by practicing common syllabic pairings and frequently used homophones. Before long, you'll be reading and writing at a more advanced level. |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: We mentioned before that Hangul was created in the 15th century, and before that hanja was the standard Korean writing script. But why did Koreans change their script? And who decided to introduce Hangul to the people? |
| The creation of |
| Kyejin: 한글(hangeul) |
| Michael: was due to necessity. Before the creation of Hangul, |
| Kyejin: 한자(hanja), |
| Michael: or Chinese characters, was solely used for reading and writing. However, Chinese characters were difficult to write, and there were too many characters. This made it difficult for the lower class to learn Hanja, which resulted in illiteracy for many of the lower classes: |
| Michael: King |
| Kyejin: 세종 (sejong), |
| Michael: the fourth king of the |
| Kyejin: 조선(Joseon) |
| Michael: Dynasty, wanted to reduce illiteracy among the Korean people. He decided that if Hanja was too difficult for most Koreans to learn, he would create a unique language for Koreans which would make it easier for people with little or hardly any education to easily learn to read and write. This is why he created Hangul, the Korean alphabet. |
| Hangul initially introduced 28 letters, of which four are no longer used. |
| If you look into the creation of Hangul, you will find that it is a very scientific language. Consonants were created based on a simplified diagram of the patterns made by the mouth, tongue and teeth when pronouncing the sound related to the character. |
| Vowels were formed through combinations of dots which are representing heaven, horizontal lines standing for earth, and humanity being represented by vertical lines. |
| Consonants and vowels were then combined to create Hangul characters written within a syllabic block. |
| Michael: King Sejong completed Hangul in 1443 and published it through a 33 page manual in 1446, titled |
| Kyejin: 훈민정음(hunminjeongeum). |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Kyejin: 안녕히 계세요. (Annyeonghi gyeseyo.) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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