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.
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