Hangeul
Home>Hangeul>About Hangeul
- Unlike most other writing systems in the world, Hangeul clearly distinguishes vowels from consonants. The principle by which the consonants were created is different from that of the vowels. The consonants were modeled after the human vocal organs. The letter 'ㄱ' is the image of the back of the tongue touching the palate, 'ㄴ' is the image of the back of the tongue touching the gums, 'ㅁ' is the image of both lips touching each other, 'ㅅ' is the image of the side of the teeth, and 'ㅇ' is the image of the throat.
- The vowels 'ㆍ', ‘ㅡ’, and ‘ㅣ’ were modeled after ‘Samjae,’ which means the heavens, the Earth and Man. ‘ㅡ’ represents the flat Earth, the essence of yin, and ‘ㆍ’ represents the heavens, the essence of yang. ‘ㅣ,’ which symbolizes man, is the mediator between the heavens and Earth. ‘ㅗ’ and ‘ㅏ’ are light vowels, ‘ㅜ’, ‘ㅓ’ and ‘ㅡ’ are dark vowels, and ‘ㅣ’ is a neutral vowel. If ‘ㆍ’ is added to the top of a ‘ㅡ’ or to the right of a ‘ㅣ,’ a light vowel is formed. If it is added below a ‘ㅡ’ or to the left of a ‘ㅣ,’ a dark vowel is formed.
- A slight discrepancy exists between the Hangeul letters created by King Sejong in the 15th century and those we use today. There are several letters that are have become obsolete, such as ‘ㅿ,’ ‘ㆁ,’ ‘ㆆ,’ and ‘ㆍ,’ and several letters of which the pronunciation has changed, such as ‘ㅐ’ and ‘ㅔ.’
- Hangeul is a featural alphabetic writing system. Writing systems can be categorized into such systems as: hieroglyphic systems of writing such as Chinese; kana systems of writing such as Japanese; and alphabetic systems of writing such as the Roman alphabet. Hangeul can be classified as a phonetic system of writing as well as a featural system of writing. We know this when we look at the relationship between the letters ‘ㄱ’ and ‘ㅋ’ and ‘ㄷ’ and ‘ㅌ.’ ‘ㅋ’ and ‘ㅌ’ are aspirated derivatives of ‘ㄱ’ and ‘ㄷ,’ respectively, and this aspiration is expressed by a stroke. In the case of vowels, ‘ㅏ’, ‘ㅓ’, ‘ㅗ’, and ‘ㅜ’ are simple vowels, and ‘ㅑ’, ‘ㅕ’, ‘ㅛ’, and ‘ㅠ’ are diphthongs. If we add another stroke to these diphthongs, we get semivowels.
- Hangeul is a phonetic writing system displaying characteristics of featural writing. however, the letters are written in syllables, like a syllabic alphabet. This is a very important feature of Hangeul. Each syllable consists of the initial (choseung), medial (jungseong), and the final (jongseong), which is optional. The final is called ‘batchim,’ which literally means ‘supporting ground’, and is divided into single finals, which consist of 16 of the 19 consonants and do not include ‘ㄸ’, ‘ㅃ’, and ‘ㅉ’, and double finals, which consist of ‘ㄳ’, ‘ㄵ’, ‘ㄶ’, ‘ㄺ’, ‘ㄻ’, ‘ㄼ’, ‘ㄽ’, ‘ㄾ’, ‘ㄿ’, ‘ㅀ’, and ‘ㅄ.’ In theory, 19 letters can come in the place of the initial, 21 vowels in the medial and 27 letters in the final. There are cases when no final is used, so 11,172 (19 x 21 x 28) syllables can be formed; however, just about 3,000 syllables are use in practice.
- All Hangeul letters are written as a syllable box, just as with Chinese, so at a glance, it may not be easy to distinguish them from Chinese characters. It’s suspected that Hangeul is written syllabically because of the strong influence of Chinese writing.
