Hangeul Poster Korean alphabet
The Korean alphabet is called Hangeul. Each letter in Hangeul indicates an individual sound or phoneme.
Hangeul is an alphabet system made by King Sejong in 1443 during the Joseon dynasty; the alphabet was initially called Hunminjeongeum.
Hangeul is an alphabet system made by King Sejong in 1443 during the Joseon dynasty; the alphabet was initially called Hunminjeongeum.
Hunminjeongeum means "the right sound to teach the people". Until then, Korea had an oral language but not a native alphabet, so Idu--modified Chinese characters to the sound and structure of Korean--was used. However, this did not match with the structure of Korean and it was very inconvenient to indicate Korean sounds.
Therefore, King Sejong continued research to make an alphabet that matched the structure of Korean, and was easy to learn and write. In the end, there was a total of 28 letters, which consisted of 11 vowels and 17 consonants.
In the meantime, useless letters were deleted while necessary ones were added; hence 21 vowels and 19 consonants are currently being used in contemporary Korean.
combination of hangeul, 11,172 letters
Hangeul, consonant simplify
The vowels are based on three universal principles, including the sky(•), earth(ㅡ), and person(ㅣ); these three factors are used alone as well as in combination with created features of vowels. "•" was modeled after the roundness of the universe; "ㅡ" after the flatness of the earth; and "ㅣ", the feature of a standing person. These three factors are used alone or together and create vowels.
circle = Sky, triangle = person, square = earth
天 = Sky
地 = Earth
人 = Person
To make the feature of consonants, five principle consonants, which are modeled after the feature of articulation organs to create sounds, are made;
by adding strokes on top of these principal consonants, the feature of similar sounds, which are created in the same articulation organs, are made.
by adding strokes on top of these principal consonants, the feature of similar sounds, which are created in the same articulation organs, are made.
