Hangeul (Korean Alphabet)

A long time ago, in the period of Chosun Dynasty, the old kingdom of Korea, we used our language. However we didn’t have our own system of writings. So we should have borrowed Chinese characters to write something. But the Chinese writing system was very different from Korean. In many cases, Chinese characters were incomplete and inefficient to fully express our own language, and not everyone had got a chance to learn these Chinese characters. In fact, only persons belonging to the ruling class were allowed to learn Chinese writing. So most of population didn’t even know how to read and write.
Then, there came a king who felt pity on his people for their illiteracy. His name was King Sejong. He had decided to make Korea’s own system of writings, so that everyone would use these new, easy characters thus they will be literate—that was his desire. With a few years of study, he finally came to give his people very joyful news. He proclaimed Hangeul—which means “the characters of Korea”—in 1446. He starts his statement as follows—translation quoted from Hunmin Jeongeum from Wikipedia—“Because the national language is different from that of China, it doesn’t match letters. Therefore, when the ignorant want to communicate, many of them cannot achieve their intentions. Because I am saddened by this, I have newly made 28 letters. It is my intention that everybody learns the letters easily so that they can conveniently use them everyday.”
Hangeul used to have 28 letters when first invented. But after 500 years, it was revised and now 24 letters are in active use including 10 vowels and 14 consonants. Each letter represents a specific sound just like what English alphabet does. This is called a phonogram. But Hangeul’s unique characteristic made it different from other characters. It is designed to combine consonant letters and vowel letters into syllabic units. Because of this, we can say that it has something in common with syllabic writing systems. For example, a word 엔더런(Enderun) is written in 3 syllabic units like 엔더런, not set forth side by side like ㅇㅔㄴㄷㅓㄹㅓㄴ. That’s the definite difference from other characters. English or Japanese letters are arranged side by side. Sometimes it confuses a reader because he/she may not know how a word is divided into syllables. A reader will easily read Hangeul for it is already divided into syllabic units. One syllabic unit has three positions: the initial sound, the medial sound, and the final consonant. When the symbol ‘ㅇ’ comes to the initial sound, it functions as place holder, doesn’t have any sound. We just pronounce the medial sound and the final consonant. Almost all letters are pronounced as they appear with only a few exceptions, so it makes people read them even more easily. Indeed, Hangeul was created to let even illiterate commoner learn how to read and write. In the records say, “A wise man can introduce him with the letters before the morning is over, a stupid man can learn them in ten days.” —quoted from Hangeul from Wikipedia
We are quite proud to have such unique and scientific letters as our national characters. In terms of user’s population, the Korean language is in the 13th place among several thousand languages in the world, despite of the fact that Korea is a very small country in terms of the territorial size. We can be proud of this. Several reports say minor languages have disappeared in this world so that only few languages are expected to remain in the future. However, language is not only a communication method but also a cultural heritage containing the nation’s history and spirit. A nation makes a feature of its own language. The nation that once looses its original language cannot be called a nation any more. We should maintain our nation’s identity by keeping our original language and writings.
So here goes my little advice to Filipino friends. You are Filipino. Speak out your own Filipino language (I know there’s a lot of other languages in the Philippines aside from Tagalog such as Cebuano, Ilocano, Waray etc. so I would just say Filipino). It is your language that makes you a Filipino. If you want to keep your culture in this foreign-culture-overflowing society, I want you to learn Filipino after you are already good at speaking English. I felt little bit awkward when I met some Filipino friends who really can’t speak Filipino. I’m happy all of my Filipino classmates in Enderun can speak Tagalog. But I would also appreciate if you speak English to me. A language makes the culture of a nation. Like I said, the nation once looses its original language cannot be called a nation any more. We all have to keep that in mind.



By the way, they celebrated the 561st Hangeul Proclamation Day yesterday. On every October 9 is held a commemoration of the proclamation of Hangeul. It is such an honorable day for us. They held many ceremonies, they even had the reproducing ceremony of Hangeul Proclamation, I'm sure that was a great event, though I couldn't see it because I'm in the Philippines. Everyone was like so glad. ^_^