Korean language is the national language of South Korea (Republic of Korea) and North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea). It is known as Hanguk-eo (한국어) in South Korea or Chosŏnmal (조선말) in North Korea. Korean language is not only spoken by people in North Korea and South Korea, but it is also used in Japan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia. Grammatically Korean is very similar to Japanese and about 70% of its vocabulary comes from Chinese.
The modern Korean writing system, known as Hangeul (한글), was first invented in 1444 and promulgated in 1446 by Sejong the Great, the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty. Before the invention of Hangeul, Chinese characters is used to represent the sounds of Korean in writing scripts. However, the Chinese characters could not adequately denote Korean speech, because the two languages have different pronunciation. Therefore, in order to make the writing process easier, Hunminjeongeum or "Proper Sounds for the Instruction of the People" was invented. It is a book that explains the principles and purpose of Hangeul, as well as how to use and pronounce the letters. It turns the writing system from a complex Chinese characters to the simpler Korean characters so that the common people illiterate in Chinese characters or "Hanja" could accurately and easily read and write the Korean language. By using Hangeul, people can express themselves and communicate by speaking or writing in a more effective way compared to the past.
Hangeul originally had 28 letters, but four letters have dropped out of use, so Hangeul used by the societies now only consists of 24 letters, which are 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Five of the consonants are doubled to form the five "tense" (faucalized) consonants of Korean, while another eleven sequences are formed of two different consonants. The ten vowel letters are combined into eleven sequences for diphthongs.
A Korean character is combined by consonant sounds and vowel sounds. For example, the character “한” (Han) in 한국 (Hanguk) is combined by the consonant “ㅎ” (h), vowel “ㅏ” (a), and consonant “ ㄴ” (n).
I've found some videos in learning Hangeul and they are very useful for the beginners like you and me! Although they are a bit lengthy, but they are absolutely worth to watch as I assure you that you will learn the basic knowledge of Korean language by watching these videos. Here's the link. Well, let's learn this beautiful language from today! Remember your oppas are waiting for you~ XD
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| Hanja and Hangeul calligraphy. |
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| A quote in Hangeul. |
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| The Korean characters. |
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| The Hunminjoengeum. |
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| Consonant sounds and vowel sounds in Korean language. |
By : Ang Wan Xin
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