Around 7,000 different languages exist in the world and some of them have their own set of written characters. In the case of our neighbors, Chinese people speak Chinese with their own characters and the same applies for the Japanese. Koreans on the other hand have their own phonetic language with its own standardized alphabet called Hangeul.
In fact, Hangeul is the only language in the world whose inventor is well-known to scholars of history. He is none other than King Sejong, the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). Before Hangeul’s creation in 1443, Koreans had no other choice but to rely on Chinese characters for their written communication. Chinese characters are semantic in nature, meaning the more characters you know the easier it is for you to convey your message. In contrast, the Korean alphabet created by King Sejong is phonetic by design, consisting of 10 vowels and 14 consonants whose different combinations form syllables of words. In theory, as long as you learn Hangeul’s 24 alphabetical letters, you can read and write Korean. Even when you are unfamiliar with the language, you can immediately figure out at least how to say the words based on the phonetic attributes of Hangeul.
What motivated King Sejong to create Hangeul about 50 years before Christopher Columbus discovered the NewWorld? The Kingdom of Joseon was then a society of strict hierarchy with people born into defined social classes. Only the nobility at the top could read and write in Chinese characters, while commoners were completely isolated from the language due to lack of education. Historical record has it that when a deadly epidemic spread in Sejong’s kingdom, people were unable to avert the plague, despite a written notice posted on the walls of villages warning them to take precautions, because they simply could not read it. Shortly after the King was enthroned, he also inspected the kingdom to see how his people were living.
Part of his inspection included a visit to the prison where he asked prisoners how they ended up there. To his dismay, most of them did not know why they were locked up in the first place and could not name the charges laid against them.
Appalled at such a miserable state of his people due to illiteracy, Sejong was determined to invent an alphabet system easy for his people to learn, pronounce and understand. His compassion and commitment for his people are firmly expressed in the preface of “Hunminjeongeum” that contains
his invention; “Being of foreign origin, Chinese characters are incapable of capturing uniquely
Korean meanings. Therefore, many common people have no way to express their thoughts and feelings. Out of my concern for their difficulties, I have invented a set of 28 letters that are very easy to learn. It is my fervent hope that they improve the quality of life for all.”
Today, Koreans pay tribute to King Sejong for his remarkable invention every ninth of October,
designated as Hangeul Day. Thanks to the birth of Hangeul, the illiteracy rate fell sharply and now it is less than one percent, the lowest in the world. Sejong is also commemorated on the 10,000 Won bill, the most widely used banknote in Korea.
With the growing popularity of Korean culture especially in the form of K-pop and TV dramas, an increasing number of foreigners are learning Korean nowadays.
* 《쿨투라》 2018년 10월호(통권 52호) *
