A Study of the Influence of Chinese Characters on the Invention of the Korean Alphabet
The Korean Alphabet, that is, Hangeul is a phonetic symbol. It was invented during the 15th century. Before the Korean alphabet was invented, 吏讀 and 反切 were use ...
A Study of the Influence of Chinese Characters on the Invention of the Korean Alphabet
The Korean Alphabet, that is, Hangeul is a phonetic symbol. It was invented during the 15th century. Before the Korean alphabet was invented, 吏讀 and 反切 were used to record the Korean language. However, these phonetic notations had originated from Chinese characters, so they were not suitable to record the Korean language. King Sejong and court scholars invented the 28 letters of the Korean alphabet after they made a special study of Korean readings of Chinese characters.
The 28 letters of the Korean alphabet were made by portraying shapes of things though only 24 letters out of them are being used today. The Korean Alphabet consisted of 17 consonants and 11 vowels at that time. The 5 consonants ᄀ, ᄂ, ᄆ, ᄉ, ᄋ were made at first, and it is said that they were made by portraying speech organs of humans. Then, the other 5 consonants ᄏ, ᄃ, ᄇ, ᄌ, ᅙ were made by adding one stroke to the first 5 consonants, and ᄐ, ᄑ, ᄎ, ᄒ were made by adding one stroke to ᄃ, ᄇ, ᄌ, ᅙ. The rest of the consonants ᅌ, ᄅ, ᅀ were made to represent voiced sounds.
The 3 vowels ᆞ, ᅳ, ᅵ were made by depicting the shapes of the heavens and the earth. ᅡ, ᅥ, ᅣ, ᅧ are un-rounded vowels. ᅩ, ᅮ, ᅭ, ᅲ are rounded vowels.
Koreans used the Korean alphabet to record not only Korean but also Chinese at that time. Therefore, when we study the phonological change of Korean or Chinese, it is very useful to study the old writings written in the Korean alphabet during the Joseon Dynasty period.