Korea’s adoption of the Hangul alphabet only occurred in 1894. Yet, Hangul’s letters were created by order of King Sejong of the Joseon Dynasty in 1443. The King felt Korea needed a simpler writing system and an easier alphabet for everyday use. With this goal in mind, King Sejong wanted to spread literacy and erase barriers. Unfortunately for the King, Hangul didn’t come into mainstream use until the 16th century. Yet King Sejong set the stage.
Korea Before Hangul and the Dominance of Hanja
Like many countries near Imperial China, Korea’s writing system used Chinese characters. These characters are called Hanja in Korean. First introduced during the Three Kingdoms period (1st century BC), Hanja became the mainstay writing system for Korea until Hangul’s adoption. Using Hanja exposed Korean nobles and scholars to all aspects of Chinese culture, allowing them to meld this knowledge into Korean culture. Due to its complexity, few outside the upper classes learned Hanja.
How King Sejong Designed a Simple Alphabet for Everyone
King Sejong sought to create a new writing system that would allow ordinary people, who often found Chinese characters difficult to learn, to express their thoughts easily in writing. This writing system was Hunminjeongeum, created in 1443 and promulgated in 1446, and is now known as Hangeul. Modern Hangeul consists of 24 basic letters: 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Five of the basic consonant letters (ㄱ, ㄴ, ㅁ, ㅅ, and ㅇ) were designed to resemble the shape of the human speech organs. As a result, the relationship between the letters and the sounds they represent is relatively clear, making Hangeul easy to read and pronounce.
Furthermore, when a sound becomes stronger, additional strokes can be added to a basic letter to indicate changes in its phonetic characteristics (e.g., ㄱ → ㅋ, ㄴ → ㄷ → ㅌ, ㅁ → ㅂ → ㅍ, and ㅅ → ㅈ → ㅊ). This systematic design allows learners to recognize these changes efficiently and learn the letters more easily. Because of these advantages, particularly its ease of learning, Hangeul was able to spread widely among the population.
Key Differences Between Complex Hanja and Simplified Hangul
Hangul’s simplicity marked a vital difference from Hanja’s complexity. The common folk could learn quickly with familiar sounds and fewer characters. Hanja consisted of Chinese characters that represented words and had given meanings. It required learners to memorize thousands of characters, which was difficult during a period when free time was a luxury.
Why Korean Elite Scholars Resisted the New Script
Despite King Sejong’s decree and the new alphabet’s simplicity, this upstart faced significant resistance. Hangul’s principal opponents came from Korea’s scholars and nobles. Learning the Chinese characters took years, and they represented their scholarly and esteemed positions. To them, abandoning Hanja meant giving up a connection to Chinese culture. To these conservatives, learning Hangul yanked the rug out from beneath them, nullifying their education. Their neighbor’s influence received enormous respect from these people. They called Hangul “Eonmun,” which means vernacular script in Korean.
Due to the upper class’s efforts and resistance, Hangul’s acceptance was slow. To speed up its acceptance, the King’s scholars published the “Hunminjeongeum,” a document to explain Hangul, but to no avail.
The Rise of Hangul and Its Official 1894 Adoption
Although Hangeul was not officially used initially due to opposition from the conservative ruling class, its use gradually expanded beginning around 1490, less than 50 years after its creation, because it was a convenient writing system for expressing people’s thoughts and feelings. The discovery of letters written in Hangeul and exchanged among family members, in addition to its use for recording knowledge and information, demonstrates that Hangeul had already begun to spread rapidly throughout the lives of ordinary people.
Its reach expanded further as folk tales, popular stories, songs, and other works came to be created in Hangeul. Meanwhile, during the nineteenth century, as interference by Western powers and Japan intensified, Hangeul became an important means of advancing the Gabo Reform.
Initiated in 1894, the reform abolished the traditional social status system and designated Hangeul as the primary script for official documents, including laws and royal decrees, while permitting the use of mixed Korean-Chinese writing. This opened the way for all people, regardless of social status, to participate in a more equitable written culture in which they could read and write with greater ease.
How Hangul Survived Japanese Colonial Suppression
The Japanese annexed Korea officially in 1910, several years after the de facto coup of the Korean peninsula. To quicken assimilation, the Japanese government suppressed Korean culture, including Hangul. Japanese became the official language of public schools and administration. In school, Korean and Hangul became secondary. This limited Korean children’s access to Hangul. All media, such as books and newspapers, received heavy censorship. Public signs appeared in Japanese, pushing Hangul to the periphery. Nothing really changed until Japan’s defeat in 1945 and its departure from Korea. Despite Japanese efforts, Hangul’s use never disappeared. Officially, in 1945, both North and South Korea adopted Hangul as their official alphabet after liberation.
How Hangul Evolved Differently in North and South Korea
Post-World War II Korea, and then the 1950-1953 Korean War, affected how Hangul looks, is written, and sounds in both Koreas. Differing political and cultural systems, starting in the 1950s, shaped those changes. The most apparent difference is in how Hangul is written.
In North Korea, Hangul vowels and consonants are separated. South Korea writes Hangul in syllabic blocks. In North Korea, the government tried to “purify” the language, eliminating many foreign words. South Korea sought to incorporate more because of its more open society and international dealings. Hangul is a unique writing system that was deliberately created to help Korean society. Many languages grow or form naturally, with quirks of those original languages.
