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Joseon Dynasty

Joseon Dynasty

The Joseon Dynasty (also Chosun, Hangul: 조선왕조, Hanja: 朝鮮王朝) was the final ruling dynasty of Korea, lasting from 1392 until 1910. It was founded by the Jeonju Yi family, and was preceded by the Goryeo dynasty. It was officially founded by Yi Seonggye, a general who originally distinguished himself by repelling Japanese pirates who were marauding the peninsula for mainland technology. Later, General Yi would lead the overthrow or coup d'etat of the last king of the Goryeo Dynasty. The name Joseon comes from the ancient founding dynasty of Korea, Gojoseon, which was founded circa 2333 BC. The 518-year-old dynasty came to an end with Japanese annexation in 1910.

History

Overview

At the beginning of the dynasty, Seoul (also known as Hanyang and later as Hanseong) became the new capital. Construction for Gyeongbok Palace began in 1394. General Yi had allied himself with the Chinese Ming Dynasty and under the political situation of that time, extensive trade and information exchange with China was favored again. This included the ginseng trade and exchanges in medicine, technology, and science. The question of land holding, and quelling the growing animosity between the Buddhists and Confucian scholars was a concern, so the new government readily decided to adopt Confucianism as the state ideology. The Hangul alphabet was created by King Sejong in 1443. Prior to Hangul, Koreans used Hanja, which were Chinese characters used with Korean grammar.

Science and culture

During the Joseon Dynasty, a centralized administrative system was installed based on Confucian yangban scholars who acted as the counsellors to the king and made up most of the officer class of the imperial army. The expansion of scholarship on the Confucian classics was attended by a new moral system, as Buddhism's medieval cloistering of scholars gave way to an urban sophistication based on wider travel and knowledge. The Joseon Dynasty also presided over two periods of great cultural growth, during which Joseon culture created the first Korean Tea Ceremony, Korean Gardens, and extensive encyclopaedias. The royal dynasty also built several fortresses, trading harbors, and palaces. Many Korean inventions are from this period, such as the first Asian sundial and the world's first water-powered clock. During the Joseon period, the metal printing press, invented during the Goryeo dynasty in 1232 AD, supplanted the wood-block printing press in China.

Early Japanese invasions

In 1592 and 1597, Japanese warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi led the invasion of Korea by daimyo and their troops. This war is generally referred to as the Imjin War or Seven-Year War. Factional infighting in the Joseon court, the inability to assess Japanese military capability and failed attempts at diplomacy led to poor preparation on the Joseon's part. The element of surprise and use of European firearms by the Japanese left most of the southern peninsula occupied within months, with both Pyongyang and Seoul captured. Local resistance, however, slowed down the Japanese advance and decisive naval victories by Admiral Yi Sun-shin left control over sea routes in Korean hands, severely hampering Japanese supply lines. Chinese forces from the Ming refused to give aid when asked for help. Eventually, Joseon repelled these invasions alone. During the war, Koreans developed powerful firearms and high-quality gunpowder and the Turtle ships, the first cannon-bearing ironclad warships in world history. Even though Korea won the Seven-Year War, it left deep scars in Korea. Farmlands were devastated, irrigation dikes were destroyed, villages and towns were burned down, the population was first plundered and then dispersed, and tens of thousands of skilled workers (celadon ware makers, craftsmen, artisans, etc) were either killed during the war or kidnapped to Japan as captives to help Japanese develop their crafts. In 1598 alone, the Japanese took some 38,000 ears as horrific trophies. The long war reduced the productive capacity of farmlands from 1,708,000 kyol to 541,000 kyol. Pillage and foraging by Chinese troops only added to the unmitigated tragedy of a war from which the peninsula kingdom never fully recovered. Following the war, relations between Korea and Japan had been completely suspended. Japan was cut off from the technology of continental Asia. After the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, however, negotiations between the Korean court and the Tokugawa shogunate were carried out via the Japanese lord on Tsushima. In 1604, Tokugawa Ieyasu, needing to restore commercial relations with Korea in order to have access to the technology of the mainland again, met Korea's demands and released some 3000 captive Koreans. As a result, in 1607, a Korean mission visited Edo, and diplomatic and trade relations were restored on a limited basis. Edo

Subsequent history

Following these events the Korean Kingdom became increasingly isolationist. Its rulers sought to limit contact with foreign countries. In addition, the Ming Dynasty was weakened which lead to the destruction of the Ming Dynasty by the Manchu invasion of China, and lead to the establishment of the new Qing Dynasty. The Koreans decided to build tighter borders, exert more controls over inter-border traffic, and wait out the initial turbulence of the Manchu overthrow of the Ming. Despite these limits, Korea had extensive trade with Mongolia, Northern Asia, China, and Japan. However, at times trade with Japan was limited to missions appointed by the king in order to prevent piracy and conduct orderly trade, which had been a problem even in the Goryeo Period. After the Manchus defeated the Ming dynasty, the Korean rulers agreed to pay tribute to the new Qing dynasty emperors. Tribute at this time involved two way trade missions with China. The Qing rulers adopted a foreign policy to avoid the creation of foreign trading enclaves on Chinese soil. This policy limited the prescence of the traditional entrepot of the foreign hongs to Macau. These entrepot handled the significant trade of Chinese silks for foreign silver. This arrangement relegated foreign trade to the southern provinces of China, leaving the more unstable northern region under careful regulation and limiting the influence of foreigners. This decision affected Korea since China was Korea's main trading partner. Foreign trade restrictions except China helped strengthen Korea: the wealth of Korean natural resources, sophisticated technology, ceramics innovations and the key medicinal trade in ginseng was fostered by trading with the most technologically advanced nation at that time which was China. At this time a relatively sophisticated economy developed and the first western visitor, Hendrick Hamel, a Dutchman, arrived.

Decline and collapse

In the 19th century tensions mounted between Qing China and Japan, culminating in the First Sino-Japanese War (淸日戰爭, 청일전쟁, 1894–1895). Much of this war was fought on the Korean peninsula. Japan, after the Meiji Restoration (明治維新), acquired Western military technology, had forced Joseon to sign the Kanghwa Treaty in 1876. Japan encroached upon Korean territory in search of fish, iron ore, and natural resources. It also established a strong economic presence in the peninsula, heralding the beginning of Japanese imperial expansion in East Asia. The Chinese defeat in the 1894 war led to the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which officially guaranteed Korea's "independence from China." The treaty effectively granted Japan direct control over Korean politics. The Joseon court in 1894, pressured by encroachment from larger powers, felt the need to reinforce national integrity and declared "The Great Han Empire" (대한제국 大韓帝國). King Kojong assumed the title of Emperor (황제 皇帝) in order to assert Korea's independence by putting himself on the same level as the Chinese Emperors. In addition, other foreign powers were sought for military technology, especially Russia, to fend off the Japanese. Technically, 1894 marks the end of the Joseon period, as the official name of the state was changed; however, the Yi Dynasty would still reign, albeit perturbed by Japanese interventions such as in 1895, when the Japanese murder Empress Min of Korea, apparently orchestrated by Miura Goro, because the Korean Empress was effective in keeping Japan at bay. In 1910 Japanese annexation of the Korean peninsula effectively ends the Yi Dynasty rule. The collapse of Russia's navy in the historic battle of Port Arthur (in which Russia's imperial navy was destroyed in a decisive surprise attack), led to a great weakening of Korea's umbrella of protection. The combined effect on China of the opium wars to the south and Japanese naval strikes in the north increasingly led the Japanese to see Korea as a strategic foothold into north China, just as Macau and Hong Kong were Portuguese and English trade enclaves into south China.

Japanese occupation

In a complicated series of manoeuvres and counter-manoeuvres, Japan pushed back the Russian fleet at the Battle of Port Arthur in 1905. Both the fleets of China and Russia had given Korea sufficient protection to prevent a direct invasion, but this ambuscade of the Russian fleet gave Japan free reign over north China, and Korea was left at the mercy of the new regional naval power: Japan. Korea became a protectorate of Japan in 1895 when Japan forced Emperor Gojong of Korea to abdicate his throne and assassinated his wife, Empress Min of Joseon. Japan annexed Korea in 1910 and Korea became a Japanese colony. The event is recalled both in books and at the historical site itself, (Cheong'duk Palace in Seoul), with a monument. Queen Min's brutal murder — she was stabbed repeatedly, cut into pieces, desecrated, and thrown into a fish pond — didn't shock the world powers as it should have: the events were not known widely for decades because of the suppression of journalism and the sacking and looting of Seoul, which was occurring at the same time.

The family today

After the Invasion and de facto annexation of Korea by Japanese in 1910, the Princes and Princesses of the Imperial Family were forced to leave for Japan to be re-educated and married. 1910The Heir to the Throne, Imperial Crown Prince Uimin, married Princess Yi Bang-ja nee Nashimoto, and had two sons, Princes Yi Jin and Yi Gu. His elder brother, Imperial Prince Ui had twelve sons and nine daughters from various wives and concubines. The Crown Prince lost his status in Japan at the end of World War II and returned to Korea in 1963 after an invitation by the Republican Government. He suffered a stroke as his plane landed in Seoul and was rushed to a hospital. He never recovered and passed away in 1970. His brother, Imperial Prince Ui passed away in 1955 and the Korean people officially considered this to be the end of the Royal line. Presently His Highness Prince Yi Seok is one of two pretenders to the throne of Korea. He is a son of Prince Gang of Korea, a fifth son of Gojong of Korea and currently a professor of history lecturing at Jeonju University in the Republic of Korea.

The Imperial Family

- Emperor Gojong (1852-1919)
- Emperor Sunjong (1874-1926)
- Prince Gang (1877-1955)
- Prince Gun (1909-1991)
- Prince Wu (1912-1945)
- Yi Chung (1936-)
- Prince Gap (1938-)
- Hereditary Prince Imperial Won (1962-)
- Yi Jeong
- Prince Seok (1941-)
- Yi Hong (1976-)
- Yi Jin (1979-)
- Yi Jeonghun (1980-)
- Crown Prince Euimin (1897-1970)
- Prince Jin (1921-1922)
- Hereditary Prince Hoeun (1931-2005)
- Princess Deokhye (1912-1989)
- Jeonghye

About titles

(( in empire ))
- Hwangje (皇帝 황제), the Emperor, with the style of His Imperial Majesty (陛下 폐하 pye ha)
- Hwang-hu (皇后 황후), the Empress (consort), with the style of Her Imperial Majesty
- Hwangtaehu (皇太后 황태후), the Empress Dowager
- Tae-hwangtaehu (太皇太后 태황태후), the Empress Dowager, current Emperor's alive grandmother
- Hwangtaeja (皇太子 황태자), the Crown Prince of Empire, the eldest son of Emperor, with the style of His Imperial Highness (殿下 전하 jeon ha)
- Hwangtaeja-bi (皇太子妃 황태자비), the Crown Princess (consort) of Empire, with the style of Her Imperial Highness
- Chinwang (親王 친왕), the Prince (Imperial), son of Emperor, with the style of His Imperial Highness
- Chinwang-bi (親王妃 친왕비), the Princess (Imperial) (consort), with the style of His Imperial Highness
- Gongju (公主 공주), the Princess of Empire, the legitimate daughter of Emperor, with the style of Her Imperial Highness
- Ongju (翁主 옹주), the Princess of Empire, the illegitimate daughter of Emperor, with the style of Her Imperial Highness (( in kingdom ))
- Wang (王 왕), the King, with the style of His Majesty (殿下 전하 jeon ha)
- Yeo-wang (女王 여왕), the Queen, with the style of Her Majesty
- Wang-bi (王妃 왕비), the Queen consort, with the style of Her Majesty
- Dae-bi (大妃 대비), the Queen Dowager, current King's alive mother
- Wangdaebi (王大妃 왕대비), the Queen Dowager, ex-Queen or current King's aunt
- Dae-wangdaebi (大王大妃 대왕대비), the Queen Dowager, current King's alive grandmother
- Wonja (元子 원자), the eldest son of King before inauguration to the Crown Prince, with the style of His Royal Highness (마마 mama)
- Wangseja (王世子 왕세자 or Donggung), the Crown Prince, the eldest son of King, with the style of His Royal Highness (저하 jeo ha)
- Sejabin (世子嬪 세자빈 or Bingung), the Crown Princess, with the style of Her Royal Highness (마마 mama)
- Daegun (大君 대군), the Prince of Kingdom with the style of His Royal Highness (마마 mama), the legitimate son of King, Daegun's title is not inherited and his sons titled Gun with style of His Highness
- Bubuin (府夫人 부부인), the Princess (consort), the wife of Daegun with the style of His Royal Highness or Queen consort's mother with the style of Her Excellency
- Gun (君 군), the Prince of Kingdom with the style of His Royal Highness (마마 mama), the illegitimate son of King or Daegun's sons, grandsons and great-grandsons or Gun's sons and grandsons
- Gunbuin (郡夫人 군부인), the Princess (consort), the wife of Gun, with the style of Her Royal Highness
- Daewongun (大阮君 대원군), the Prince Regent, the King's father as distant relative of royal family not to be the King, with the style of His Royal Highness
- Budaebuin (府大夫人 부대부인), the Princess (consort), the Daewongun's wife, with the style of Her Royal Highness
- Gongju (公主 공주), the Princess of Kingdom, the legitimate daughter of King, with the style of Her Royal Highness
- Ongju (翁主 옹주), the Princess of Kingdom, the illegitimate daughter of King, with the style of Her Royal Highness
- Buwongun (府院君 부원군), the title of Queen consort's father, with the style of His Excellency

About references

The Joseon Dynasty recorded its history as Annals of Joseon Dynasty. There is presently no official historian of the Korean royal family, and the Imperial records have ceased to be recorded since the Japanese invasions. Occasional references to the Korean Royal Family and its present charities and activities in the arts or in cultural preservation are found on websites on world royalty.

References

- A Cultural History of Modern Korea, Wannae Joe, ed. with intro. by Hongkyu A. Choe, Elizabeth NY, and Seoul Korea: Hollym, 2000.
- An Introduction to Korean Culture, ed. Koo & Nahm, Elizabeth NJ, and Seoul Korea: Hollym, 1998. 2nd edition.

External links

- [http://www.royalcity.or.kr/ Korean royal family website] - currently available only in Korean.
- [http://myhome.shinbiro.com/~mss1/choson.html Choson dynasty]
- [http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200501/200501120024.html "Japanese Document Sheds New Light on Korean Queen's Murder"] - Ohmynews.com's uncovered document about murder of Queen Minbi Category:Korean royalty Category:House of Yi Category:Royal families
- ko:조선 ja:李氏朝鮮

Hangul

Hangul is the native alphabet used to write the Korean language, as opposed to the Hanja system borrowed from China. For other Romanized spellings of "Hangul", please see Names below. While hangul may appear logographic to the uninitiated, it is actually phonemic, like most so-called "phonetic" writing systems. Each Hangul syllabic block consists of at least two of the 24 alphabetic letters (jamo): 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Historically, the alphabet had several more consonants and vowels. (See Obsolete Jamo.) For a phonological description of the letters, see Phonology.

Names

Official names

- The modern name Hangul (한글) is a term coined by Ju Si-gyeong in 1912 that simultaneously means great script in archaic Korean and Korean script in modern Korean. It cannot be written in Hanja, though the first syllable, Han (한), if used in the sense of the word Korean, may be written 韓. It is pronounced (IPA), and has been Romanized in the following ways:
- Hangeul or Han-geul in the Revised Romanization of Korean, which the South Korean government uses in all English publications and encourages for all purposes. Many recent publications have adopted this spelling.
- Han'gŭl in McCune-Reischauer. When used as an English word, it is often rendered without the diacritics: Hangul, or sometimes without capitalization: hangul. This is how it appears in many English dictionaries.
- Hankul in Yale Romanization, another common spelling in English dictionaries.
- The original name was Hunmin Jeong-eum (see History)
- North Koreans prefer to call it Chosŏn'gŭl (조선글), for reasons related to the different Names of Korea.

Other names

- Jeong-eum, short for the official Hunmin Jeong-eum (훈민정음; 訓民正音). (See History)
- Urigeul (우리글) / Uri kŭl (우리 글) "our script" is used in both the North and South, but not by non-Koreans. Until the early twentieth century, Hangul was often denigrated by those who preferred the traditional Hanja writing. They gave it names such as:
- Eonmun (언문 諺文 "vernacular script").
- Amkeul (암클 "women's script"). 암-(probably derived from 陰) is a prefix that signifies a noun is feminine.
- Ahaegeul (아해글 "children's script"). However, the use of Hanja in writing has become rare in the past several decades in South Korea, and has been banned in North Korea, so these names are considered archaic.

History

History Hangul was promulgated by the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty, Sejong the Great. Some people suspect that such a complex project must have been developed by a team of researchers, but historical records show that his staff of scholars actually strongly denounced the King for not having consulted with them. Of the many inventions attributed to King Sejong, Hangul is the only one recorded to have been "personally" created by King Sejong. There are some indications that King Sejong may have been assisted by his family members, who worked in secret because of the opposition by the educated elite. The system was completed in 1443 or January 1444, and published in 1446 in a document entitled Hunmin Jeong-eum, after which the alphabet was named. The publication date of Hunmin jeong-eum, October 9, is Hangul Day in South Korea and a national holiday. Its North Korean equivalent is on January 15. An old legend holds that King Sejong visualized the written characters after studying an intricate lattice, but this speculation was put to rest by the discovery in 1940 of the 1446 Hunmin Jeongeum Haerye (Explanations and Examples of Hunmin jeong-eum). This document details the rationale for the letter designs. (See jamo design.) King Sejong explained that he created the new script because the Chinese characters used to write Korean speech were inaccurate and difficult to learn for the common people. (Hence the name Hunmin Jeong-eum, which means "Correct Sounds for the Education of the People" in Sino-Korean). At that time, only male members of the aristocracy (Yangban) learned to read and write Hanja. Since written material was only available in Hanja, most Koreans were effectively illiterate. Hangul faced heavy opposition by the literate elite, who believed Hanja to be the only legitimate writing system. The protest by Choe Man-ri and other Confucians in 1444 is a typical example. Later the government became apathetic to Hangul. Yeonsan-gun, the 10th king, forbade the study or use of Hangul and banned Hangul documents in 1504, and King Jungjong abolished the Ministry of Eonmun in 1506. Until this time Hangul had been used by women and the uneducated. In late 19th century, Korean nationalism increased as Japan attempted to sever Korea from China's sphere of influence. Hangul began to be considered as a national symbol by some reformists. As a result of the Gab-o Reform (갑오 개혁) by pro-Japanese politicians, Hangul was adopted in official documents for the first time in 1894. After Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910, Hangul was briefly taught in schools, but later banned as Japan enforced a cultural assimilation policy. However, many Korean people still secretly studied and used Hangul under the age of Japanese occupation. After regaining independence from Japan in 1945, Hangul has been extensibly used as the offical writing of Korea. Some elites still have preferred mixed use of Hanja (mostly for nouns) in Hangul-written sentences, but generally the mixed use of Hanja has been ever-decreasing. Today, it is hard to find using Hanja within Hangul sentences in most written publications or documents.

Jamo

Jamo (자모; 字母) or natsori (낱소리) are the letters that make up the Hangul alphabet. Ja means letter or character, and mo means mother, so the name signifies that the jamo are the building-blocks of the script. There are 51 jamo, of which 24 are equivalents to letters of the Roman alphabet. The other 27 are clusters of two or sometimes three jamo. Of the 24 simple jamo, fourteen are consonants (ja-eum 자음, 子音: literally "child sounds") and ten are vowels (mo-eum 모음, 母音: literally "mother sounds"). Five of the simple consonants are doubled to form the five tense consonants (see below), while another eleven clusters are formed of two different consonants. The ten vowel jamo can be combined to form eleven diphthongs. Here is a summary:
- 14 simple consonants: ㄱㄴㄷㄹㅁㅂㅅㅇㅈㅊㅋㅌㅍㅎ, plus obsolete ㅿㆁㆆㅱㅸㆄ
- 5 double consonants: ㄲㄸㅃㅆㅉ, plus obsolete ㅥㆀㆅㅹ
- 11 consonant clusters: ㄳㄵㄶㄺㄻㄼㄽㄾㄿㅀㅄ, plus obsolete ㅦㅧㅨㅪㅬㅭㅮㅯㅰㅲㅳㅶㅷㅺㅻㅼㅽㅾㆂㆃ, and obsolete triple clusters ㅩㅫㅴㅵ
- 6 simple vowels: ㅏㅓㅗㅜㅡㅣ, plus obsolete ㆍ
- 4 yotized simple vowels: ㅑㅕㅛㅠ
- 11 diphthongs: ㅐㅒㅔㅖㅘㅙㅚㅝㅞㅟㅢ, plus obsolete ㆎㆇㆈㆉㆊㆋㆌ Four of the simple vowel jamo are derived, with a short stroke that signifies yotization (a preceding y): ㅑ ya, ㅕ yeo, ㅛ yo, and ㅠ yu. These four are counted as part of the 24 simple jamo because the yotizing stroke taken out of context does not represent y. In fact, there is no separate jamo for y. Of the simple consonants, ㅊ chieut, ㅋ kieuk, ㅌ tieut, and ㅍ pieup are aspirated derivatives of ㅈ jieut, ㄱ giyeok, ㄷ digeut, and ㅂ bieup, respectively, formed by combining the parent consonant with an extra stroke representing aspiration. The doubled consonants consist of two identical consonants placed beside each other horizontally. They are: ㄲ ssang-giyeok (kk: ssang- 쌍 "double"), ㄸ ssang-digeut (tt), ㅃ ssang-bieup (pp), ㅆ ssang-siot (ss), and ㅉ ssang-jieut (jj). Double jamo do not represent geminate consonants, but instead are tense. The sounds represented by the single and double consonantal jamo cannot be pronounced alone in normal speech. There are three formal categories of jamo: # Initial (초성, 初聲 choseong): The syllable onset of consonant(s) before the vowel(s). These include all five doubled jamo. The lack of an initial is indicated by the silent placeholder jamo ㅇ. #
- Position: Placed at the top, left, or upper-left corner of the syllabic block. #
- See: Hangul consonant and vowel tables#Initials # Medial (중성, 中聲 jungseong): The vowels comprising the syllable nucleus. #
- Position: The middle of the syllable block if there's a final, otherwise at the right or bottom. #: For a list of the medials, see #Vowel jamo design # Final (종성, 終聲 jongseong): The syllable coda of consonant(s) after the vowel(s). All basic jamo can occur as finals, and the silent initial ㅇ is pronounced ng in final position. However, the only doubled jamo that can occur finally are ㅆ (ss) and ㄲ (kk). #
- Position: Placed at the bottom, right or lower-right corner of the block. #
- See: Hangul consonant and vowel tables#Finals

Jamo design

Hangul is featural. Scripts may indicate morphemes (so called logograms like hanja), syllables (like kana), or segments (an alphabet of consonants and/or vowels, like the one you're reading here). Hangul goes further than this, in indicating individual distinctive phonetic features such as place of articulation (labial, coronal, velar, glottal) and manner of articulation (plosive, nasal, sibilant, aspirated) for consonant jamo, and yotization (a preceding y- sound), harmonic class, and umlaut for vowel jamo. For instance, the jamo ㅌ t is composed of three strokes, each one meaningful: the top stroke indicates it is a plosive, like ㆆ ’, ㄱ g, ㄷ d, ㅂ b, ㅈ j, which have the same stroke (the last is affricative, a plosive-fricative sequence); the middle stroke indicates that it is aspirated, like ㅎ h, ㅋ k, ㅍ p, ㅊ ch, which also have this stroke; and the curved bottom stroke indicates that it's coronal, like ㄴ n, ㄷ d, ㄹ l. Two consonants, ᇰ and ᇢ, have dual pronunciations, and may be composed of two elements to represent these (/silent and /, respectively). With vowel jamo, what was originally a dot (now a short connected line) indicates that it may be yotized; this dot is then doubled to indicate actual yotization (y-). The position of the dot indicates which harmonic class the vowel belongs to ("light" or "dark"). In the modern jamo, an additional vertical stroke indicates umlaut, deriving ㅐ , ㅔ , ㅚ , ㅟ from ㅏ , ㅓ , ㅗ , ㅜ . However, this is not part of the intentional design of the script, but rather a natural development from what were originally diphthongs ending in the vowel ㅣ. (e.g. ㅐ , ㅚ , etc.) Indeed, in many Korean dialects, including the standard dialect of Seoul, some of these may still be diphthongs. Although the design of the script may be featural, for all practical purposes it behaves as an alphabet. The jamo ㅌ isn't read as three letters coronal plosive aspirated, for instance, but as a single consonant t. Likewise, the former diphthong ㅔ is read as an independent vowel e. Beside the jamo, Hangul originally employed diacritic marks to indicate pitch accent. A syllable with a high pitch was marked with a dot (·) to the left of it (when writing vertically); a syllable with a rising pitch was marked with a double dot, like a colon (:). These are no longer used. However, although vowel length is phonemic in Korean, it was never indicated in Hangul, except that syllables with rising pitch necessarily have long vowels. Although some aspects of Hangul are shared with Phagspa (and thus Indic phonology), such as the relationships among the homorganic jamo and the alphabetic principle itself, other aspects are shared with Chinese writing, such as syllablic blocks and the basic consonants. Tenuis (non-voiced, non-aspirated) plosives, g for ㄱ , d for ㄷ , and b for ㅂ were considered basic in Chinese, but not Indic languages; as well as the sibilant s for ㅈ and the liquid l for ㄹ . (Korean ㅈ was pronounced in the 15^th century.) The Hunmin Jeong-eum Haerye explains the designs and derivations of the consonants according to articulatory phonetics; and the vowels according to the principles of yin and yang and vowel harmony.

Consonant jamo design

The letters for the consonants fall into five homorganic groups, each with a basic shape, and one or more letters derived from this shape by means of additional strokes. The basic shapes model the articulation the tongue, palate, teeth, and throat take when making these sounds. The Korean names for the groups are the traditional Sino-Korean phonetic terminology.
- Velar consonants (아음, 牙音 a-eum: "molar sounds"):
- ㄱ g , ㅋ k
- Basic shape: ㄱ is a side view of the back of the tongue raised toward the velum (soft palate). (For illustration, access the external link below.) The ㅋ is derived from ㄱ, with an extra stroke for the burst of aspiration.
- Coronal consonants (설음, 舌音 seol-eum: "lingual sounds"):
- ㄴ n , ㄷ d , ㅌ t , ㄹ r/l
- Basic shape: ㄴ is a side view of the tip of the tongue raised toward the alveolar ridge (gum ridge). The letters derived from ㄴ are pronounced with the same basic articulation. The line topping ㄷ represents firm contact with the roof of the mouth. The middle stroke of ㅌ represents the burst of aspiration. The top of ㄹ represents a flap of the tongue.
- Bilabial consonants (순음, 唇音 sun-eum: "labial sounds"):
- ㅁ m , ㅂ b , ㅍ p
- Basic shape: ㅁ represents the outline of the lips in contact with each other. The top of ㅂ represents the release burst of the b. The top stroke of ㅍ is for the burst of aspiration.
- Sibilants (치음, 齒音 chieum: "dental sounds"):
- ㅅ s , ㅈ j , ㅊ ch
- Basic shape: ㅅ was originally shaped like a wedge ʌ, without the serif on top. It represents a side view of the teeth. The line topping ㅈ represents firm contact with the roof of the mouth. The stroke topping ㅊ represents an additional burst of aspiration.
- Glottal consonants (후음, 喉音 hueum: "throat sounds"):
- ㅇ ng , ㅎ h
- Basic shape: ㅇ is an outline of the throat. Originally ㅇ was two letters, a simple circle for silence (null consonant), and a circle topped by a verticle line, ㆁ, for the nasal ng. A now obsolete letter, ㆆ, represented a glottal stop, which is pronounced in the throat and had closure represented by the top line, like ㄱㄷㅈ. Derived from ㆆ is ㅎ, in which the extra stroke represents a burst of aspiration. The phonetic theory inherent in the derivation of glottal stop ㆆ and aspirate ㅎ from the null ㅇis more accurate than modern IPA usage. In the IPA, the glottal consonants are posited as having a specific "glottal" place of articulation. However, recent phonetic theory has come to view the glottal stop and [h] to be isolated features of 'stop' and 'aspiration' without a true place of articulation, just as their hangul representations based on the null symbol assume.

Vowel jamo design

Vowel letters are based on three elements:
- A horizontal line representing the flat Earth, the essence of yin.
- A point for the Sun in the heavens, the essence of yang. (This becomes a short stroke when written with a brush.)
- A vertical line for the upright Human, the neutral mediator between the two. Dots (now short lines) are added to these three basic elements to derive the other simple vowel jamo.
- Simple vowels
- Horizontal letters: these are mid-high back vowels.
- ㅗ o
- ㅜ u
- ㅡ eu (ŭ)
- Vertical letters: these were once low or front vowels. (ㅓ eo has since migrated to the back of the mouth.)
- ㅏ a
- ㅓ eo (ŏ)
- ㅣ i
- Compound jamo. Hangul never had a w, except for Sino-Korean etymology. Since an o or u before an a or eo became a sound, which occurred nowhere else, could always be analyzed as a phonemic o or u, and no letter for was needed. However, vowel harmony must be observed: yin ㅜ with yin ㅓ; yang ㅏ with yang ㅗ. The compound jamo ending in ㅣ i, on the other hand, were originally diphthongs. However, several have since evolved into pure vowels.
- ㅐ = ㅏ + ㅣ
- ㅔ = ㅓ + ㅣ
- ㅘ = ㅗ + ㅏ
- ㅙ = ㅗ + ㅏ + ㅣ
- ㅚ = ㅗ + ㅣ
- ㅝ = ㅜ + ㅓ
- ㅞ = ㅜ + ㅓ + ㅣ
- ㅟ = ㅜ + ㅣ
- ㅢ = ㅡ + ㅣ
- Yotized vowels: There is no jamo for Roman y-. Instead, this sound is indicated by doubling the stroke attached to the base line.
- ㅑ = ㅏ + a stroke
- ㅕ = ㅓ + a stroke
- ㅛ = ㅗ + a stroke
- ㅠ = ㅜ + a stroke
- ㅒ = ㅐ + a stroke
- ㅖ = ㅔ + a stroke Two methods were used to organize and classify these vowels, vowel harmony and yotization. Of the seven vowels, four could be preceded by a y- sound ("yotized"). These four were written as a dot next to a line: ㅓㅏㅜㅗ. (Through the influence of Chinese calligraphy, the dots soon became connected to the line, as seen here.) Yotization was then indicated by doubling this dot: ㅕㅑㅠㅛ. The three vowels which could not be yotized were written with a single stroke: ㅡㆍㅣ. The Korean language of this period had vowel harmony to a greater extent than it does today. Vowels alternated according to their environment, and fell into "harmonic" groups. This affected the morphology of the language, and Korean phonology described it in terms of yin and yang: If a word had yang ('bright') vowels, then most suffixes also had to have a yang vowel; and conversely, if the root had yin ('dark') vowels, the suffixes needed to be yin as well. There was a harmonic third group called "mediating" ('neutral' in Western terminology) that could coexist with either yin or yang vowels. The Korean neutral vowel was ㅣ i. The yin vowels were ㅡㅜㅓ eu, u, eo; the dots are in the yin directions of 'down' and 'left'. The yang vowels were ㆍㅗㅏ, ə, o, a, with the dots in the yang directions of 'up' and 'right'. As mentioned above, the Hunmin Jeong-eum states that the shapes of the non-dotted jamo ㅡㆍㅣ were also chosen to represent the concepts of yin, yang, and mediation. (The dot ㆍ ə is now obsolete.) There was yet a third parameter for designing the vowel jamo: namely, choosing ㅡ as the graphic base of ㅜ and ㅗ, and ㅣ as the base of ㅓ and ㅏ. A full understanding of what these horizontal and vertical groups had in common would require knowing the exact sound values these vowels had in the 15^th century. Our uncertainty is primarily with the jamo ㆍㅓㅏ. Some linguists reconstruct these as , respectively; others as . However, the horizontal jamo ㅡㅜㅗ do appear to have all been mid to high back vowels, .

Ledyard's theory of consonant jamo design

morphology There are several theories on what sources may have inspired King Sejong's creation of Hangul. Although none have wide acceptance, Professor Gari Ledyard of Columbia University believes that five consonants were derived from the Mongol Phagspa alphabet of the Yuan dynasty, and the rest derived internally, essentially as described in the Hunmin Jeong-eum. However, these basic consonants were not the graphically simplest letters of the Hunmin Jeong-eum, but the basic consonants in Chinese phonology. The Hunmin Jeong-eum states that King Sejong adapted 古篆 "Gǔ script(s)" in creating hangul. The primary meaning of 古 is old, frustrating philologists because hangul bears no functional similarity to Chinese 篆字 seal scripts. However, 古 may also have been a pun on Mongol (蒙古 Měng-gǔ), and 古篆 may have been an abbreviation of 蒙古篆字 "Mongol Seal Script", that is, a formal variant of the Phagspa alphabet written to look like the Chinese seal script. There were certainly Phagspa manuscripts in the Korean palace library, and several of Sejong's ministers knew the script well. If this was the case, Sejong's evasion on the Mongol connection can be understood in light of Korea's relationship with Ming China after the fall of the Yuan dynasty, and of the literati's contempt for the Mongols as "barbarians". According to Ledyard, the five borrowed letters were graphically simplified, which allowed for jamo clusters and left room to derive the aspirate plosives, ㅋㅌㅍㅊ. But in contrast to the traditional account, the non-plosives (ng ㄴㅁ and ㅅ) were derived by removing the top of these letters. While it's easy to derive ㅁ from ㅂ by removing the top, it's not clear how to derive ㅂ from ㅁ, since ㅂ is not analogous to the other plosives. The explanation of ng also differs from the traditional account. Many Chinese words began with ng, but by King Sejong's day, ng was either silent or pronounced in China, and was silent when these words were borrowed into Korean. Also, the expected shape of ng (vertical line left by removing the top stroke of ㄱ) would have looked the same as the vowel ㅣ . Sejong's solution solved both problems: the vertical stroke from ㄱ was added to the null symbol ㅇ to create ᇰ (a circle with a vertical line on top), iconically capturing both in the middle or end of a word, and silence at the beginning. (The distinction between ㅇ and ᇰ was eventually lost.) Additionally, the composition of obsolete ᇢᇦᇴ w, v, f (for Chinese initials 微非敷), by adding a small circle under ㅁㅂㅍ (m, b, p), is parallel to the Phagspa addition of a small loop under three variants of h. In Phagspa, this loop also represented w after vowels. The Chinese initial 微 represented either m or w in various dialects, and this may be reflected in the choice of ㅁ [m] plus ㅇ (from Phagspa [w]) as the elements of hangul ᇢ, for another letter composed of two elements to represent two regional pronunciations. Finally, most of the borrowed hangul letters were simple geometric shapes, at least originally, but ㄷ d [t] always had a small lip protruding from the upper left corner, just as the Phagspa d [t] did. This can be traced back to the Tibetan letter d, ད. See Gari Ledyard for details.

Jamo order

The alphabetical order of Hangul does not mix consonants and vowels as the Western alphabets (Latin alphabet and Cyrillic alphabet) do. Instead, the order is of the Indic type, first velar consonants, then coronals, labials, sibilants, etc. However, the consonants come before the vowels rather than after as in Sanscrit and Tibetan. The modern alphabetic order was set by Choi Sejin in 1527. This was before the development of the Korean tense consonants and the double jamo that represent them. The conflation of the two letters ㅇ and ㆁ also occurred after the alphabetic order was set. Therefore, when the South Korean and North Korean governments implemented full use of Hangul, they ordered these letters differently, with South Korean grouping similar letters together, and North Korea placing the new letters at the end.
South Korean order
The modern order of the consonantal jamo is: ㄱ ㄲ ㄴ ㄷ ㄸ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅃ ㅅ ㅆ ㅇ ㅈ ㅉ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ Double consonantal jamo are placed immediately after the simple jamo they are based on. No distinction is made between silent and nasal ㅇ. The order of the vocalic jamo is: ㅏ ㅐ ㅑ ㅒ ㅓ ㅔ ㅕ ㅖ ㅗ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅛ ㅜ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅠ ㅡ ㅢ ㅣ The modern monophthongal vowels come first, with the derived forms interspersed according to their form: first added i, then yotized, then yotized with added i. Diphthongs beginning with w- are ordered according to their spelling as ㅏ or ㅓ plus a second vowel, not as separate digraphs.
North Korean order
North Korea maintains a more traditional order. The modern order of the consonantal jamo is: (null) ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ (null-ㅇ) The first ㅇ is the nasal ㅇ ng, which occures in the final in the modern language. ㅇ used at the initial, on the other hand, goes after ㅉ, because it is a placeholder. A letter with no final consonant goes right before that letter with ㄱ at the final, however. Note that the "new" letters, the double jamo, are placed at the very end of the alphabet, just before the null ㅇ, so as not to alter the traditional order of the rest of the alphabet. The order of the vocalic jamo is: ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ ㅐ ㅒ ㅔ ㅖ ㅚ ㅟ ㅢ ㅘ ㅝ ㅙ ㅞ All digraphs and trigraphs, including the old diphthongs ㅐ and ㅔ, are placed after all basic vowels, again maintaining Choi's alphabetic order.

Jamo names

The Hangul arrangement is called "the ganada order" (가나다 순), after the first three jamo (g, n, and d) affixed to the first vowel (a). The jamo were named by Choi Sejin in 1527. North Korea regularized the names when it made Hangul its official orthography.

Consonantal jamo names

The modern consonants have two-syllable names, with the consonant coming both at the beginning and end of the name, as follows: All jamo in North Korea, and all but three in the more traditional nomenclature used in South Korea, have names of the format of letter + i + eu + letter. For example, Choi wrote bieup with the hanja 非 (bi) 邑 (eup). The names of g, d, and s are exceptions because there are no hanja for euk, eut, and eus. 役 yeok is used in place of euk. Since there is no hanja that ends in t or s, Choi chose two hanja to be read in their Korean gloss, 末 kkeut ("end") and 衣 os ("clothes"). Originally, Choi gave j, ch, k, t, p, and h the irregular one-syllable names of ji, chi, ki, ti, pi, and hi, because they should not be used as final consonants, as specified in Hunmin jeong-eum. But after the establishment of the new orthography in 1933, which allowed all consonsants to be placed as the final consonants, the names were changed to the present forms. The double jamo precede the parent consonant's name with the word 쌍 ssang, meaning "twin" or "double", or with 된 doen in North Korea, meaning "strong". Thus: In North Korea, an alternate way to refer to the jamo is by the name letter + eu (ㅡ), for example, 그 geu for the jamo ㄱ, 쓰 sseu for the jamo ㅆ, etc.

Vocalic jamo names

The vocalic jamo names are simply the vowel itself, written with the null initial ㅇ ieung and the vowel being named. Thus:

Obsolete jamo

Several jamo are obsolete. These include several that represent Korean sounds that have since disappeared from the standard language, as well as a larger number used to represent the sounds of the Chinese rime tables that were never used in Korean at all. The most frequently encountered of these archaic letters are,
- ㆍ or 丶 ə (arae-a 아래아 "lower a"): Pronounced as IPA , similar to modern eo.
- :Ə formed a medial of its own, or was found as the diphthong ㆎ area-ae. The word ahə ("child"), which was originally written using this letter, has been changed to ai (아이).
- ㅿ z (bansios 반시옷): A rather unusual sound, perhaps IPA (a nasalized palatal fricative). (If your browser doesn't show it, the jamo looks like an equilateral triangle.)
- ㆆ ’ (yeorin-hieuh 여린히읗 "light hieuh" or doen-ieung 된이응 "strong ieung"): A glottal stop, "lighter than ㅎ and harsher than ㅇ".
- ㆁ ng (yet-ieung 옛이응): The original jamo for ; now conflated with ㅇ ieung. (With some computer fonts, yet-ieung is shown as a flattened version of ieung, but the correct form is with a long peak, longer than what you would see on a serif version of ieung.)
- ㅸ β (gabyeoun-bieup 가벼운비읍): IPA . This letter appears to be a digraph of bieup and ieung, but it may be more complicated than that. There were three other less common jamo for sounds in this section of the Chinese rhyme tables, ᇢ w (IPA [w] or [m]), a theoretical ᇴ f, and ㅹ ff . There were two other now-obsolete double jamo,
- ㆅ x (ssanghieuh 쌍히읗 "double hieuh"): IPA or .
- ㆀ (ssang-ieung 쌍이응 "double ieung"): Another jamo used to represent the rime tables. In the original Hangul system, double jamo were used to represent the "muddy" (murmured) Chinese consonants, and were not used for Korean. It was only later that a similar convention was used to represent the modern "tense" consonants.) The sibilant ("dental") consonants were modified to represent the two series of Chinese sibilants, alveolar and retroflex, a "round vs. sharp" distinction which was never made in Korean, and which was even being lost from northern Chinese. The alveolar jamo had longer left stems, while retroflexes had longer right stems: There were also consonant clusters that have since dropped out of the language, such as ㅴ bsg and ㅵ bsd, as well as diphthongs that were only used to represent Chinese medials, such as ㆇ, ㆈ, ㆊ, ㆋ. Some of the sounds represented by these jamo for "obsolete" Korean (as opposed to for Chinese) still exist in some dialects of Korean.
Syllabic blocks
Except for a few grammatical morphemes in the early days of Hangul, no jamo may stand alone to represent the Korean language. Instead, jamo are grouped into syllabic blocks containing, at minimum, an initial (syllabic onset) and a medial (syllabic nucleus). When a syllable has no initial consonant, the null initial ㅇieung is used as a placeholder. No placeholder is needed when there is no final (syllabic coda). The null initial was originally just that, null, but since it was only used in initial position, and the consonant ng was silent when initial as well as having a similar shape to the null character, the two came to be seen as the same letter. Syllabic blocks may be composed of two or three jamo: # Two jamo: an initial (a consonant or consonant cluster, or the null ㅇ) + a medial (a vowel or diphthong) # Three jamo: an initial + a medial + a final (a consonant or consonant cluster) The placement, or "stacking", of jamo in the block follows set patterns: # The components of a complex jamo are written left to right. The most complex are two: ㅄ, ㅝ, etc. (Obsolete combinations are more complex: ㅵ, ㆋ, etc.) # All modern Hangul vowels have either a vertical or horizontal axis. #
- Vertical vowel jamo are written to the right of the initial: ㅣ i. #
- Horizontal vowel jamo are written under the initial: ㅡ eu. #
- When a vowel jamo has both horizontal and vertical components, it wraps around the intitial from the bottom to the right: ㅢ ui. # A final jamo, if there is one, is added at the bottom. This is called 받침 batchim "supporting floor". # Blocks are always written in phonetic order, initial-medial-final. Therefore, #
- Syllables with a horizontal vowel jamo are written downward: 읍 eup. #
- Syllables with a vertical vowel jamo and simple final are written clockwise: 쌍 ssang. #
- Syllables with a wrapping vowel jamo switch direction (down-right-down): 된 doen. #
- Syllables with a complex final are written left to right at the bottom: 밟 balp. The resulting block is written within a rectangle of the same size and shape as a hanja, so to a naive eye syllabic blocks may be confused with hanja. Not including obsolete jamo, there are some 11,571 possible Hangul blocks. There was a very minor movement in the twentieth century to abolish syllabic blocks and write the jamo individually and in a row, in the fashion of the Western alphabets: ㄱㅡㄷ geut. However, the blocks make Hangul very efficient to read, as each syllable has a unique shape. Now that Hangul orthography is morphophonemic (see below), this means that Hangul words have easily recognizable shapes. This is a great help to the reader; a similar word-recognition advantage has kept the Semitic abjads vowel-free for millennia. Indeed, people raised reading Chinese or Korean often report that reading the strings of letters in an alphabet like English is like trying to read Morse code, and the Korean linear writing movement has never gained much support.
Orthography
Until the 20th century, no official orthography of Hangul had been established. Due to liaison, heavy consonant assimilation, dialectical variants and other reasons, a Korean word can potentially be spelled in various ways. King Sejong seemed to prefer morphophonemic spelling (representing the underlying morphology) rather than a phonemic one (representing the actual sounds). However, early in its history, Hangul was dominated by phonemic spelling. Over the centuries the orthography became partially morphophonemic, first in nouns, and later in verbs. Today it is as morphophonemic as is practical.
- Pronunciation and translation: : :a person who cannot do it
- Phonemic orthography: :모타는사라미 :
- Morphophonemic orthography: :못하는사람이 : Morpheme-by-morpheme gloss: After Gabo Reform in 1894, Joseon Dynasty and later Korean Empire started to write all official documents in Hangul. Under the government's management, proper usage of Hangul, including orthography, was discussed, until Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910. The Japanese Government-General of Chosen established the writing style of a mixture of Hanja and Hangul, as in the Japanese writing system. The government revised the spelling rules in 1912, 1921 and 1930, which were relatively phonemic. The Hangul Society, originally founded by Ju Si-gyeong, announced a proposal for a new, strongly morphophonemic orthography in 1933, which became the prototype of the contemporary orthographies in both North and South Korea. After Korea was divided, the North and South revised orthographies separately. The guiding text for Hangul orthography is the called the Hangeul machumbeop, whose last South Korean revision was published in 1988 by the Ministry of Education.
Mixed scripts
During the Japanese colonial era, hanja were used for lexical (noun and verb) roots, and Hangul for grammatical words and inflections, much as kanji and kana are used in Japanese. However, hanja have been almost entirely phased out of daily use in North Korea, and in South Korea they are now mostly restricted to parenthetical glosses for proper names and for disambiguating homonyms. Arabic numerals are also mixed in with hangul, as in 2005년 7월 5일 (5 July, 2005). The Latin alphabet, and occasionally other alphabets, may be sprinkled within Korean texts for illustrative purposes, or for unassimilated loanwords.
Style
Hangul may be written either vertically or horizontally. The traditional direction is the Chinese style of writing top to bottom, right to left. Horizontal writing in the style of the Roman alphabet was promoted by Ju Si-gyeong, and has become overwhelmingly preferred. In Hunmin Jeong-eum, Hangul was printed in sans-serif angular lines of even thickness. This style is found in books published before about 1900, and can be found today in stone carvings (on statues, for example). Over the centuries, an ink-brush style of calligraphy developed, employing the same style of lines and angles as Chinese calligraphy. This brush style is called myeongjo (Chinese míng cháo, Japanese minchō), and is used today in books, newspapers, and magazines, and several computer fonts. A sans-serif style with lines of equal width has re-emerged with pencil and pen writing, and is often the default typeface of Web browsers.
External links

- [http://www.declan-software.com/korean ReadWrite Korean - Hangul Learning Software]
- [http://www.korea.net/korea/kor_loca.asp?code=A020302 The Korean Ministry of Culture and Tourism's article on Hangul]
- [http://www.langintro.com/kintro/toc.htm Hangul lessons]
- [http://sources.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hangul_syllables List of syllables and Romanization]: Wikisource
- [http://www.triangletkd.org/students/facts/hangul.html Browser and Hangul]
- [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/korean.htm Korean alphabet and pronunciation]
- [http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1100.pdf Jamo in Unicode] (177 KByte PDF)
- [http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/UAC00.pdf Hangul syllables] (7 MByte PDF)
- [http://www.korea.net/korea/kor_loca.asp?code=A020303 The Revised Romanization of Korean]
- [http://www.korean.go.kr The National Academy of the Korean Language]
See also

- Korean language
- Korean language and computers
- alphabet
- character
- writing system
- Korean romanization
- Romaja
- Languages of China
- List of Korea-related topics
- Seong Sam-Mun Category:Korean language Category:Alphabetic writing systems Category:Unique scripts ko:한글 ja:ハングル

Hanja

Hanja, or hanmun, sometimes translated as Sino-Korean characters, are what Chinese characters (hanzi) are called in Korean. More precisely, the name refers to those characters borrowed by Koreans and incorporated into the Korean language with a changed pronunciation. Unlike the Japanese kanji, which has altered and simplified many characters, hanja are almost entirely identical to modern traditional Chinese hanzi, although a minority of the standard characters of hanja are variant hanzi also used in standard kanji.

History

A major impetus for the introduction of Chinese characters into Korea was the spread of Buddhism. These characters were modified to fit the Korean grammar, then later introduced to the Japanese language. The major text that introduced Hanja to Koreans, however, was not a religious work but the Cheonjamun (Thousand Character Classic). Hanja was the sole means of writing Korean until King Sejong the Great invented hangul in the 15th century. However, even after the invention of hangul, most Korean scholars continued to write in hanja. There were some systems developed earlier, to use simplified forms of Chinese characters that phonetically transcribe Korean, namely, hyangchal (향찰; 鄕札), gugyeol (口訣), and idu (이두; 吏讀), but for the most part Koreans had to learn Literary Chinese to be aptly literate. It was not until the 20th century that hangul truly replaced hanja. Officially, hanja has not been used in North Korea since 1949; however, they still appear in special contexts, as Latin does in the United States.

Character formation

Each hanja is composed of one of 214 radicals plus in most cases one or more additional elements. The vast majority of hanja use the additional elements to indicate the sound of the character, but a few hanja are purely pictographic, and some were formed in other ways.

Meaning and sound

In modern Korean, when a hanja appears as a word or part of a word, it is invariably pronounced by its sound. To aid in understanding a character, however, character dictionaries and school textbooks refer to each character not only by its sound but also by its meaning. This dual meaning-sound reading of a character is called eumhun (음훈; 音訓; from 音 "sound" + 訓 "meaning," "teaching"). For example, the character 愛 is referred to in character dictionaries as sarang ae (사랑 애), where sarang is the word for "love" (the character's meaning) and ae is its sound. Similarly, the character 人 is read as referred to as saram in (사람 인), where "saram" means "person" and "in" is its sound. When the two characters are put together to form the word 愛人, they are simply read as aein (애인; pronounced "ay-in"), and denote the idea of a beloved or sweetheart ("love" + "person"). The word or words used to denote the meaning are often—though hardly always— words of native Korean (i.e., non-Chinese) origin, and are sometimes archaic words no longer commonly used. For example, the character 山 is referred to as me san or moe san (메산, pronounced "meh sahn"; or 뫼산, pronounced "moeh sahn"), where me or moe is an archaic word for "mountain," almost entirely supplanted by the Chinese-derived word san. This dual sound-meaning concept is similar but not identical to the Japanese on and kun readings of Kanji, whereby a character may be read according to its Chinese-derived sound (on) or its native Japanese meaning (kun).

Education

Hanja are still taught as courses (that have recently become non-compulsory) in South Korean high schools. Hanja education begins in grade 7 (junior high school) and continues until graduation from senior high school in grade 12. A total of 1800 Hanja (about 100 fewer than Kanji) are taught: 900 for junior high, and 900 for senior high (starting in grade 10). Post-secondary Hanja education continues in some liberal arts universities. The 1972 promulgation on basic Hanja for educational purposes were altered in December 31, 2000 to replace 44 Hanja with 44 others. The choice of characters to eliminate and exclude caused heated debates prior to and after the 2000 promulgation. In Korean language and Korean studies programs at universities around the world, a sample of Hanja is typically a requirement for students. Graduate student in these fields usually requires students to learn at least the 1800 basic Hanja.

Uses

Because many different Hanja—and thus, many different words derived from Hanja—often share the same sounds, two distinct Hanja words may be spelled identically in the phonetic Hangul alphabet. Thus, Hanja are often used to clarify meaning, either on their own without the equivalent Hangul spelling, or in parentheses after the Hangul spelling as a kind of gloss. Hanja are often also used as a form of shorthand in newspaper headlines, advertisements, and on signs. Some details of use follow.

Hanja in print media

Sino-Korean characters are used most frequently in academic literature, where they often appear without the equivalent Hangul spelling. Usually, only those words with a specialized or ambiguous meaning are printed in Hanja. In books and magazines, Hanja are generally used sparingly, and only to gloss words already spelled in Hangul when the meaning is ambiguous. Hanja are often used in newspaper headlines as abbreviations or to eliminate the ambiguity typical of newspaperese in any language. Hanja appear frequently in dictionaries and atlases; see below.

Hanja in dictionaries

In modern Korean dictionaries, all entry words of Sino-Korean origin are printed in Hangul and listed in Hangul order, with the Hanja given in parentheses immediately following the entry word. (A similar practice is followed in Japanese dictionaries.) This practice helps to eliminate ambiguity, and it also serves as a sort of shorthand etymology, since the meaning of the Hanja and the fact that the word is composed of Hanja often help to illustrate the word's origin. As an example of how Hanja can help to clear up ambiguity, many homophones are written in Hangul as 수도 (sudo), including: # 修道 "spiritual discipline" # 受渡 "receipt and delivery" # 囚徒 "prisoner" # 水都 "'city of water'" (e.g. Hong Kong and Naples) # 水稻 "rice" # 水道 "drain" # 隧道 "tunnel" # 首都 "capital (city)" # 手刀 "hand-knife" Hanja dictionaries (Okpyeon) are organized by radicals, like Hanzi and Kanji.

Hanja in personal names

Korean personal names generally use Hanja, although exceptions exist. Korean personal names usually consist of a one-character family name (seong, 姓) followed by a two-character given name ("ireum"). There are a few 2-character family names (eg 南宮, namgung), and the holders of such names — but not only them — tend to have one-syllable given names. Traditionally, the given name in turn consists of one character unique to the individual and one character shared by all people in a family of the same sex and generation (돌림자, dollimja). Things have changed, however, and while these rules are still largely followed, some people have given names that are native Korean words (popular ones include "Haneul" — meaning "heaven" or "sky" — and "Iseul" — meaning "dew"). Nevertheless, on official documents, people's names are still recorded in both Hangul and in Hanja (if the name is composed of Hanja).

Hanja in place names

Due to standardization efforts during Goryeo and Joseon eras, native Korean placenames were converted to Hanja, and most names used today are Hanja-based. The most notable exception is the name of the capital, Seoul. Disyllabic names of railway lines, freeways, and provinces are often formed by taking one character from each of the two locales' names. For Seoul, the abbreviation is the Hanja gyeong (京). Thus,
- The Gyeongbu (京釜) corridor connects Seoul (gyeong) with Busan (bu);
- The Gyeongin (京仁) corridor connects Seoul with Incheon (in);
- The former Jeolla (全羅) Province took its name from the first characters in the city names Jeonju (全州) and Naju (羅州) (the "r" sound in Korean is assimilated to "n" when it follows an "n" sound). Most atlases of Korea today are published in two versions: one in Hangul (sometimes with some English as well), and one in Hanja. Subway and railway station signs give the station's name in Hangul, Hanja, and English, both to assist visitors and to disambiguate the name. (A similar practice occurs in Japan, where signs are written in Hiragana, Kanji, and English).

Pronunciation

The pronunciations of Hanja are not entirely identical to the way the Chinese pronounce them. For example, 印刷 "print" is yìnshuā in Mandarin Chinese and inswae (인쇄) in Korean. Each Hanja character is pronounced as a single syllable, corresponding to a single composite character in Hangul. Due to divergence in pronunciation since the time of borrowing, sometimes the pronunciation of a Hanja and its corresponding Hanzi may differ considerably. For example, 女 ("woman") is nǚ in Mandarin Chinese and nyeo (녀) in Korean. However, in most modern Korean dialects (especially South Korean ones), 女 is pronounced as yeo (여) when used in an initial position, due to a systematic displacement of initial n's followed by y or i. In some archaic transcription systems, Hanja were used to represent native Korean grammatical particles and other words solely according to their pronunciation. This partial use is the basis of vernacular Sino-Korean scripts like Gugyeol. For example, Gugyeol uses the Hanzi weini (爲尼) to transcribe the Korean word "hăni", "hani" in modern Korean, that means "does, and so". However, in Chinese, "weini" means "becoming a nun." This is a typical example of Gugyeol words where the radical (爲) is read in Korean for its meaning (hă — "to do") and the suffix 尼, ni, used phonetically.

Vocabulary

Much like Japanese, a great deal of Hanja vocabulary were directly borrowed from Chinese vocabulary. A small number of Sino-Korean words were either coined by the Koreans, or they were replaced with Hangul for non-existing Hanja words. Many academic and scientific terms were borrowed from Japanese. The Japanese translated numerous Western words (mainly English and German) into Sino-Japanese terms by coining or reusing words. Under the Japanese annexation, they were borrowed into Korean by systematically changing the pronunciations of the characters from Japanese to Korean. The table below contains words different between Chinese and Korean:

English	Korean (in Hanja)	Chinese	Korean (in Hangul)
letter	便紙, 片紙	信	편지 (pyeonji)
tissue	休紙	草紙	휴지 (hyuji)
gift	膳物	贈品	선물 (seonmul)
bill	外上	賬單	외상 (oesang)
dining table	食卓	餐桌	식탁 (siktak)
cheque	手票	支票	수표 (supyo)
name card, business card	名啣	名片 or 咭片	명함 (myeongham)
maid	食母	女傭	식모 (singmo)
prohibit, cancel	休止	取締	휴지 (hyuji)
study	工夫	學習	공부 (gongbu)
very	大端	非常	대단 (daedan)
prisoner	囚徒	囚徒, 囚犯	수도 (sudo)
side room	舍廊, 斜廊	側房	사랑 (sarang)

Sometimes the Chinese and Korean words are composed of the same characters, but in reversed order.

English	Korean (in Hanja)	Chinese	Korean (in Hangul)
noon -	午正	正午	오정 (ojeong)
compass	羅針盤	羅盤針	나침반 (nachimban)

- Note, however, that the Chinese order of jeong-o is used frequently in modern Korean as well. Some Sino-Korean words derive from kun readings of Kanji, which are native Japanese pronunciations of Chinese characters. When borrowed into Korean, Sino-Korean pronunciation is used.

English	Japanese	Korean (in Hanja)	Korean (in Hangul)	Chinese pronunciation of Korean term	Actual Chinese term
assemble	組み立て	組立	조립	組立	組裝 or 組合
assemble	ku.mi.ta.te	jo.rip		zu.li
big sale	大売出し	大賣出	대매출	大賣出	大拍賣
big sale	ō.uri.da.shi	dae.mae.chul		da.mai.chu
building	建物	建物	건물	建物	建築物 or 建物
building	tate.mono	geon.mul		jian.wu
estimate	見積もり	見積	견적	見積	估算
estimate	mi.tsu.mo.ri	gyeon.jeok		jian.ji
share of stock	株式	株式	주식	株式	股份
share of stock	kabu.shiki	ju.sik		zhu.shi
match	試合	試合	시합	試合	比賽
match	shi.ai	si.hap		shi.he
procedure	手続き	手續	수속	手續	程序 or 手續
procedure	te.tsuzu.ki	su.sok		shou.xu

A few words were found in Chinese but not in Hanja, especially in newly coined out phrases. These words were subsequently replaced by Hangul.

External links

- [http://www.hanja.re.kr/ All about Hanja]
- [http://www.learnkorean.com/whanja/hclassindex.asp A basic course in Hanja]

References

- Hannas, William. C. 1997. Asia's Orthographic Dilemma. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 082481892X (paperback); ISBN 0824818423 (hardcover)
- DeFrancis, John. 1990. The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0824810686 Category:Logographic writing systems Category:Korean language ko:한국어의 한자 ja:韓国における漢字

1910

1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar).

Events

January-April

- January - In Greece, the Military League forces parliament and George I of Greece to summon National Assembly to revise Constitution.
- January 15 - In the United Kingdom, General Election held in response to House of Lords rejection of the (1909) budget results in reduced Liberal Party majority (Liberals, 275 seats; Labour, 40; Irish Nationalists, 82; Unionists (the title then preferred by the British Conservative Party), 273).
- January 16 - Constant rains in Paris, France cause the Seine to overflow its banks, flooding the city. All but one line of the Paris Métro become filled with water, effectively draining water from the city.
- February 20 - Boutros Ghali, first native born prime minister of Egypt, assassinated.
- March - Uprising against Ottoman rule breaks out in Albania.
- March 19 - In America, Republicans reduce the powers of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to influence Committee membership.
- April - Albanian revolt suppressed by Turkish army.
- April 27 - Louis Botha and James Hertzog (James Barry Munnik Hertzog) found South Africa Party.
- April 27 - British House of Commons passes David Lloyd George's (1909) 'People's Budget' for second time; passed by House of Lords, 28 April
- April 29 - Andrew Fisher becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the second time.

May-July

- May 6 - George V becomes King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father, Edward VII.
- May 11 - U.S. Congress establishes Glacier National Park in Montana.
- May 16 - The U.S. Congress authorizes the creation of the United States Bureau of Mines.
- May 18 - The earth passes through the tail of Comet Halley.
- May 31 - creation of the Union of South Africa.
- June - Edinburgh Missionary Conference is held in Scotland, presided over by Nobel Peace Prize recipient John R. Mott, launching the modern ecumenical movement and the modern missions movement.
- June 22 - First flight of Zeppelin airship.
- July 2 - Demonstrations in France against public executions.
- July 4 - African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer James J. Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match sparking race riots across the United States.
- July 24 - James MacGillivray publishes first account of Paul Bunyan in the Detroit News.

August-October

- August 14 - fire at World Exhibition in Brussels destroys exhibitions of Britain and France.
- August 22 - Japan annexes Korea.
- August 28 - Montenegro is proclaimed an independent kingdom under Nicholas I.
- September 1 - the Vatican introduces a compulsory oath against modernism, to be taken by all priests upon ordination.
- September 16 - Australian Treasury given power to issue currency
- October 1 - bomb explodes on the Los Angeles Times building - 21 dead, several injured. James B. McNamara and Joseph J. McNamara later arrested and sentenced.
- October 5 - Portugal becomes a republic. King Manuel II of Portugal flees to England.
- October 10 - Tau Epsilon Phi Fraternity is established at Columbia University.
- October 18 - Eleutherios Venizelos becomes prime minister of Greece.

November-December

- November 7 - First air flight for the purpose of delivering commercial freight occurs between Dayton, Ohio and Columbus, Ohio by the Wright Brothers and department store owner Max Moorehouse.
- November 20 - Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero denounces President Porfirio Díaz, declares himself president, and calls for a revolution to overthrow the government of Mexico.
- November 23 - Last execution in Sweden (by guillotine) - murderer Johan Ander
- December - British Prime Minister Asquith makes second appeal in the same year to the electorate to resolve battle of wills with the House of Lords (Liberals, 272; Labour, 42; Irish Nationalists, 84; Unionists, 272 - making a majority of 126 for restriction of the powers of the Lords and for Irish Home Rule).
- December 12 - New York socialite Dorothy Arnold disappears. Her family does not notify the police until six weeks later, after their own investigations have come to nothing
- December 16 - Henri Coanda makes first short flight in a plane with a jet engine.
- December 16 - In Houndsditch, London, four (Latvian) anarchists shoot three policemen in botched raid on a jewellers - three are arrested, other members of the gang escape but are later (January 1911) cornered in the 'siege of Sidney Street'.

Unknown dates

Births

January-April

- January 5 - Jack Lovelock, New Zealand athlete (d. 1949)
- January 7 - Orval Faubus, Governor of Arkansas (d. 1994)
- January 8 - Galina Sergeyevna Ulanova, Russian dancer (d. 1998)
- January 12 - Luise Rainer, German-born actress
- January 16 - Dizzy Dean, baseball player (d. 1974)
- January 23 - Django Reinhardt, Belgian guitarist (d. 1953)
- January 30 - C Subramaniam, Indian politician ( d. 2000)
- February 5 - Francisco Varallo, Argentine footballer
- February 6 - Irmgard Keun, German author (d. 1982)
- February 9 - Jacques Monod, French biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1976)
- February 10 - Georges Pire, Belgian monk, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1969)
- February 13 - William Shockley, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
- February 27 - Joan Bennett, American actress (d. 1990)
- March 1 - Archer John Porter Martin, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2002)
- March 1 - David Niven, English actor (d. 1983)
- March 9 - Samuel Barber, American composer (d. 1981)
- March 11 - Robert Havemann, German chemist (d. 1982)
- March 13 - Karl Gustav Ahlefeldt, Danish actor (d. 1985)
- March 23 - Akira Kurosawa, Japanese screenwriter, producer, and director (d. 1998)
- March 28 - Frederick Baldwin Adams, Jr. Bibliophile and director of the Pierpont Morgan Library (d. 2001)
- April 10 - Ivan Goff, Australian screenwriter (d. 1999)
- April 10 - Paul Sweezy, American economist and editor (d. 2004)
- April 23 - Simone Simon, French actress (d. 2005)

May-August

- May 12 - Charles B. Fulton, American jurist (d. 1996)
- May 12 - Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
- May 22 - Johnny Olson, American game show announcer (d. 1985)
- May 23 - Scatman Crothers, American actor and musician (d. 1986)
- May 23 - Artie Shaw, American clarinetist and bandleader (d. 2004)
- May 28 - T-Bone Walker, American blues singer (d. 1976)
- May 30 - Ralph Metcalfe, American athlete (d. 1978)
- May 30 - Inge Meysel, German actress (d. 2004)
- June 8 - Fernand Fonssagrives, French photographer (d. 2003)
- June 12 - Bill Naughton, British playwright (d. 1992)
- June 14 - Rudolf Kempe, German conductor (d. 1976)
- June 18 - E.G. Marshall, American actor (d. 1998)
- June 19 - Paul Flory, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1985)
- June 22 - Peter Pears, English tenor (d. 1986)
- June 23 - Jean Anouilh, French dramatist (d. 1987)
- June 23 - Peaches Browning, American actress (d. 1956)
- June 23 - Gordon B. Hinckley, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- July 4 - Gloria Stuart, American actress
- July 11 - Irene Hervey, American actress (d. 1998)
- July 14 - Vincent Brome, English biographer and novelist (d. 2004)
- July 14 - William Hanna, American animator (d. 2001)
- July 30 - Edgar de Evia, American photographer (d. 2003)
- August 14 - Pierre Schaeffer, French composer (d. 1995)
- August 27 - Mother Teresa, Albanian nun and humanitarian, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1997)
- August 28 - Tjalling Koopmans, Dutch economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1985)

September-December

- September 16 - Karl Kling, German race car driver (d. 2003)
- September 23 - Elliott Roosevelt, American author and World War II hero (d. 1990)
- October 8 - Ray Lewis, Canadian runner (d. 2003)
- October 14 - John Wooden, American basketball coach
- October 19 - Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Indian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
- October 27 - Jack Carson, Canadian actor (d. 1963)
- November 14 - Eric Malpass, English novelist (d. 1996)
- December 1 - Alicia Markova, English ballerina (d. 2004)
- December 11- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hari_Singh%2C_Inspector_General_of_Forests_of_India Hari Singh] , Inspector General of Forests of India (d. 2003)
- December 15 - John Hammond, American record producer (d. 1987)
- December 19 - Jean Genet, French writer (d. 1986)
- December 29 - Frank Abbandando, American gangster (d. 1942)
- December 29 - Michel Aflaq, Syrian political theorist, founder of Ba'athism (d. 1989)
- December 29 - Ronald Coase, British economicst, Nobel Prize laureate
- December 29 - Konsta Jylhä, Finnish violinist (d. 1984)
- December 30 - Paul Bowles, American author (d. 1999)

Deaths

- January 27 - Thomas Crapper, English inventor (b. 1836)
- March 26 - An Jung-geun, assassin of Japanese politician Ito Hirobumi (executed) (b. 1879)
- April 21 - Mark Twain, American novelist (b. 1835)
- April 26 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1832)
- May 6 - King Edward VII of the United Kingdom (b. 1841)
- May 18 - Pauline Garcia-Viardot, French mezzo-soprano and composer (b. 1821)
- May 27 - Robert Koch, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1843)
- May 29 - Mily Balakirev, Russian composer (b. 1837)
- May 31 - Elizabeth Blackwell, first female physician in the United States (b. 1821)
- July 4 - Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italian astronomer (b. 1835)
- July 12 - Charles Stewart Rolls, British aviator and automobile manufacturer (b. 1877)
- July 19 - Johann Gottfried Galle, German astronomer (b. 1812)
- August 13 - Florence Nightingale, English nurse (b. 1820)
- September 2 - Henri Rousseau, French painter (b. 1844)
-