King Sejong and Hangul: How Korea's Alphabet Was Created
Hangul is the writing system used for the Korean language today. If you have ever studied Korean, you probably started with simple letters such as ㄱ, ㄴ, ㅏ, and ㅓ . But Hangul is more than a set of letters. It has a clearly recorded history, and we know why it was created and who was responsible for it. The story begins in the 15th century with King Sejong the Great , the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty. King Sejong wanted ordinary people to have a writing system that matched the sounds of the Korean language and was easier to learn. The new writing system was completed in 1443 , and the explanatory work known as Hunminjeongeum was published in 1446. ( 유네스코 ) Understanding this history can make learning Korean more interesting because many Hangul letters were designed according to clear principles rather than created as random shapes. 1. Why Did King Sejong Create Hangul? Before Hangul existed, educated Koreans mainly used Chinese characters , known in Korea as Hanja (한자), for writi...