Sejong University Korean Language program

Korean Alphabet: A Brief History of Hangul (한글)

The history of Hangul; the language that defines Korea.

October 9 - the holiday of creating Korean Alphabet (한글). As you may know, our University is named after King Sejong who created the Korean alphabet (한글). That is why we would like to tell you more about it.

You may think all east Asian alphabets are created equal. They must all stem from the same ancient source. Think again. Korea’s official writing system, this Korean alphabet (한글), is one of the world’s youngest alphabets in the world.

How young is young? A shade over five hundred years (1446 CE). Considering that the Phonetician alphabet dates back three thousand years (1050 BCE), that’s pretty young.

Since its inception, kings, invaders, and the societal elites have tried and failed to suppress it. Its phonetic alphabet persisted through a brutal thirty-five-year occupation, where the Japanese attempted to destroy all things Korean.

Today Hangul helps define the identity of the proud people who call themselves han-gu-gins (한국인; Koreans).
Before the 15th century, the preferred writing system in Korea was Hanja (漢字). These were Chinese characters brought over from Buddhist and Chinese literature.

The Korean ruling class adapted Hanja to suit their needs. They used Hanja for their bureaucracies, literature. and official record-keeping.

Adapting Hanja

How did they adapt a foreign language writing system and use it for their own? Not easily.

Hanja and Chinese characters are logographic. Meaning, you can’t sound out the characters phonetically, as in Spanish, German, and English (sometimes).

Many Chinese characters derive from illustrations, like the Egyptian hieroglyphs. A brief sketch of a bird means bird. In this Chinese script, 山 means mountain.

Before the creation of Hangul, Koreans used Hanja in two ways. First, they used characters as is. Many of the elite could speak and write in Chinese.

However, the Korean language was created and existed parallel to Chinese. Koreans wanted to preserve their uniqueness. They weren’t Chinese. Their words sounded different.

So, the Korean elite decided to adapt Hanja characters o Korean phonetically.

If a Hanja symbol sounded like a Korean word, Koreans used the symbol to represent the Korean word.

개천절 - National foundation day of Korea
[ 開天節 ] On October 3, 2333 AD, that is, on October 3 of the first lunar year of the Dangun B.C., it was established to commemorate the founding of Dangun Joseon, the first nation-state of the Tangun B.C.

Therefore, National Foundation Day is a national celebration to celebrate the founding of a nation-state, and at the same time, it can be said to be a traditional national holiday that celebrates the new birth as a cultural nation and appreciates heaven.

국군의 날 Armed Forces Day - Anniversary designated to show off the dignity and combat power of the Korean military at home and abroad and to enhance the morale of Korean soldiers. October 1, 1950, was the day when the South Korean military broke the 38th parallel after counterattacking the North Korean Communist Army, which was Invasion from North Korea and was designated as the Armed Forces Day to revive the significance of this day.

Armed Forces Day has held various commemorative events that contribute to boosting the military's morale, which fosters combat capabilities, and has held large-scale commemorative events every five years. However, according to changes in inter-Korean relations and international conditions, the scale of these commemorative events is also flexible.

As of October 1, 2018, it marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the military, and on this day, rewards will be given to soldiers who contributed greatly to national security. However, the city march, which mobilized troops and equipment that had been going on until the 69th anniversary, was not carried out in consideration of inter-Korean relations.

TOPIK REGISTRATION METHOD (ENG)
link-https://www.topik.go.kr/TWGUID/TWGUID0060.do

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