Hangeul : The Korean Alphabet

The Korean Alphabet, Hangeul was created by King Sejong who was the greatest King in the Kingdom of Joseon(1392~1910), in what is modern day Korea, during the 15th century.

Before its creation, only a small percentage of the population in Joseon could read and write because at that time Joseon did not have its own alphabet system and used Chinese characters

for the upper class people. In fact, the general public was illiterate. So King Sejong tried to make a Korean writting system based on phonology. Hangeul consists of 10 vowels and 14 consonants and can be conbined to form numerous syllables. Hangeul is quite easy to learn and write because it is systematic and comprehensive.

For example,

We can combine all the consonants ㄱ/g/, ㄴ/n/, ㄷ/d/... ㅌ/t/, ㅍ/p/, ㅎ/h/ and vowel ㅏ/a/.

The results will be like the followings in terms of written form and pronunciation.

* Wirtten form : 가, 나, 다 ... 타, 파, 하

*Pronunciation: /ga/, /na/, /da/... /ta/, /pa/, /ha/

Once you learn the basic Korean Alphabet(10vowels and 14consonants) and several

prounciation pattern, you can read most of Korean syllables using the way I showed you above examples. Therefore, it is deemed as one of the most scientific languages in the world. Hangeul has attributed to high literacy rate(more than 95%) in Korea.