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Hangul, the Korean alphabet, was created in 1443 under King Sejong so that ordinary people could read and write. Until then Koreans wrote in literary Chinese, which took years to master; Hangul's small, systematic set of letters could be learned far more quickly.

Korea, 1443

The story behind the card

The script was announced to the public in 1446 in a document called the Hunminjeongeum, meaning ‘the correct sounds for the instruction of the people’. Its accompanying explanation says a clever person could learn the letters in a morning. The consonant shapes are drawn from the position of the tongue, lips or throat when making each sound, an unusually deliberate piece of design for its time, and letters are grouped into square syllable blocks. Some court scholars protested that giving up Chinese characters would be a step towards barbarism, and for centuries the elite kept writing in Chinese. Hangul spread instead through letters, popular literature and everyday writing, and today it is used for virtually all Korean text.

Türkçe oku

Kore alfabesi Hangıl, sıradan halk da okuyup yazabilsin diye 1443'te Kral Sejong döneminde yaratıldı. O güne dek Koreliler, öğrenmesi yıllar süren klasik Çinceyle yazıyordu; az sayıda ve düzenli harften oluşan Hangıl ise çok daha çabuk öğrenilebiliyordu.

Kore, 1443

Yazı 1446'da, “halkı eğitmek için doğru sesler” anlamına gelen Hunminjeongeum adlı bir belgeyle halka duyuruldu. Belgeye eşlik eden açıklamada, akıllı bir kişinin harfleri bir sabah içinde öğrenebileceği yazılıdır. Ünsüzlerin biçimi, o sesi çıkarırken dilin, dudakların ya da gırtlağın aldığı konumdan türetilmiştir; bu, dönemi için alışılmadık ölçüde bilinçli bir tasarımdı. Harfler kare biçimli hece blokları hâlinde bir araya gelir. Bazı saray bilginleri Çince karakterleri bırakmanın barbarlığa doğru bir adım olacağını söyleyerek karşı çıktı ve seçkinler yüzyıllar boyunca Çince yazmayı sürdürdü. Hangıl ise mektuplar, halk edebiyatı ve gündelik yazışmalar yoluyla yayıldı; bugün Korece metinlerin neredeyse tamamı onunla yazılıyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Hangul

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Hangul, the Korean alphabet, was created in 1443 under King Sejong so that ordinary people could read and write. Until then Koreans wrote in literary Chinese, which took years to master; Hangul's small, systematic set of letters could be learned far more quickly.

The story behind the card

Sources and further reading

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