麻豆社

What's significant about Korean characters?

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• Hangul: an introduction

  There are two things that make the Korean script, Hangul, quite unique, at least among the major writing systems used in the world:
  
  Firstly, rather than evolving from pictures or abstract shapes, the Korean script was a deliberate invention. The script was invented in (or around) 1443 by the Korean monarch King Sejong. Although the king was assisted by a group of young scholars, documents suggest that Sejong was personally responsible for devising the workings of the script
  
  Secondly, the way that Korean is written is different to most writing systems. Although Korean is an alphabet (in which one shape largely corresponds to one sound), the letters are not written linearly. Instead, they are grouped into syllable blocks.
  For example, the name of the script is written not as 銋庛厪銊淬劚銋°劰 [h-a-n-g-u-l] but as 頃滉竴 [han-gul]. Thanks to the ingenuity of its creation, the Korean script has sometimes been called the most scientific writing system in the world

  The writing system is known as Hangul in South Korea, and this is also the word that has been adopted into English. However, it should be noted that in North Korea, the script is known as 颁丑菕蝉辞苍驳菙濒

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• Strange sounds

  The main pronunciation problem facing learners is that Korean has three different 鈥渟ets鈥� of consonants that correspond to the following English sounds: k, t, p and ch
  
  The first set 听銊�, 銊�, 銋�, 銋� (romanised as k, t, p, ch) are pronounced similar to the English, but slightly more relaxed
  
  The second set 听銋�, 銋�, 銋�, 銋� (romanised as k鈥�, t鈥�, p鈥�, ch鈥�) are pronounced accompanied by a strong puff of air. These are known as aspirated consonants
  
  The third set 听銊�, 銊�, 銋�, 銋�, 銋� (romanised as kk, tt, pp, ss, tch) are pronounced with great force and tensing of mouth, but with no puff of air. These are known as reinforced consonants

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• Email and website conventions

  When giving an email or website address the conventions are:
  听@听 瓿眳鞚� [kolbaengi], literally sea snail
  听.听鞝� [ch菕m], dot
  听/听鞀灅鞁� [slash], forward slash

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