Bee Writer by ITU Writing Center November, 2014 | Page 14

Hangul The spoken language of our country is different from that of China and does not suit the Chinese characters. Therefore, amongst uneducated people there have been many who, having something that they wish to put into words, have been unable to express their feelings in writing. I am greatly distressed because of this, and so I have made twenty eight new letters. Let everyone practice them at their ease, and adapt them to their daily use. King Sejong’s Preface to Hunmin Chongum The Korean alphabet, which is named 'Hangul,' is different from other writing systems in the world. Hangul was created by Sejong the Great, who was the 4th King of the Joseon Dynasty. He sponsored the alphabet, and helped in the creation of the alphabet. Until the 15th century, Korea used the Chinese alphabet. It was hard to learn and write for the public. King Sejong saw this difficulty and tried to think of a solution. Moreover, he wanted to improve the sciences in Korea in this way. beewriter ITU Writing Center Student Magazine The period of composing the new characters proceeded from 1443 to 1444. Hangul is composed of ten simple vowels and 14 consonants. King Sejong and a group of scholars developed this systematic rendition from spoken sounds. The five main consonants show us the intelligence of the structure. ㄱ, ㄴ, ㅅ, ㅁ, ㅇ characters imitate the lips and tongue shape when making these (k, n, s, m, ng) sounds. The vowel symbols were formed after the three fundamental symbols of Eastern philosophy. The round ᆞ represents Heaven, the flat ᅳ represents Earth, and the upright ᅵ represents Man. Because of using the Chinese system before, the scholars were inspired by the Chinese alphabet, and they created the syllables as square blocks. Hangul is also superior to other alphabets in the age of information. On a computer keyboard, the consonants are arranged on the left and the vowels on the right. Words are formed by typing consonants and vowels one after another. It offsets the possibility of tiredness in the fingers in this way. 14