The Korean Writing System

The Alphabets

Hangul is the native script for writing Korean. The Hunmin Jeong-eum which describes this writing system was commissioned in the mid-15th century by King SeJong The Great as a way to bring literacy to the commonfolk. Prior to this invention Korean mainly used Chinese characters (nowadays called Hanja) for writing. However learning to read and write these characters were reserved only for the upper class who could afford such education. Hangul is phonetic and it is said that each vowel was designed to represent the formation of the mouth when making the sound.

Chinese characters, Hanja, are still used but its popularity comes and goes as times change. Chinese characters are complex and take time to memorize and that has pushed people away from it. However knowing Hanja and being able to read is still seen as a worthwhile skill and shows a learned person. A good way to impress someone. It is also used to distinguish between words that may be confusing in newspapers as well as proper names of induviduals. In recent times though there has been a movement to change everything over to Hanja and use only Hangul.

Intonation

Lessons covered in this section

Basic Hangul - The basic Hangul characters. This lesson will go over all the commonly used initials and vowels used in Hangul.
Advanced Hangul - More complex composite Hangul characters. This lesson will go over all the commonly used finals and complex vowels used in Hangul.
Hanja - A more in-depth explanation of Hanja. Goes over some basic Hanja and their uses nowdays.

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This page has last been revised on 2004/11/24