Hangul: Language Reform in Korea.

1
Hangul Language Reform in Korea.

• by JiYoon Seo and Jeremy Purser

2
Korean

• official language of North and South Korea
• 78 million speakers worldwide
• large groups in former Soviet Union, Australia,
  the United States, Canada, China, Brazil, Japan,
  and the Philippines

3
Korean

• Unclassified perhaps Altaic or a language
  isolate
• spoken Korean Hangugo
• written Korean Hangul (Korean alphabet), Hanja
  (Chinese symbols)

4
Hangul ??

• phonemic alphabet
• 24 Hangul letters (Jamo ?? )
• Ja means character and Mo means mother.
• organized into syllabic blocks
• referred to as Chosongul ??? in North Korea

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Hangul ??

• Hangul was greatly influenced by Chinese
  artistically.
• Such a practice in English would produce the
  following examples
• that ? t a oven ? o e
• /h t v n
• living ? i
• i n
• l v g

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Introduction of Hangul

• Hangul became the written language of Korea when
  schools reopened in October 1945.
• Hangul had been prohibited by Japanese law since
  1938.
• Korean scholars felt that Hangul was only
  suitable for women.

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Introduction of Hangul

• Large groups within the National Committee on
  Education favored used of Japanese or Chinese.
• There was an aesthetic beauty seen in Chinese
  characters due to its association with Buddhism
  and Confucian philosophy.

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Arguments for Hangul

• Hangul is intrinsically Korean.
• It was a symbol of cultural heritage and
  progressive change.
• It was advocated by scholars that had carefully
  studied the language.
• It was opportunity to gain mass literacy.

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Progress

• Members of the Korean Language Society were
  imprisoned for creating a standard Hangul
  dictionary because such work had been forbidden
  by the Japanese.
• Hangul did not develop along with industrial
  changes of the world.

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Progress

• Hangul was promoted by King Sejong, the fourth
  king of the Joseon dynasty.
• Sejong believed a new script was necessary
  because of the differences between Korean and
  Chinese.

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Suppression

• The tenth king, Yon San, saw a poster criticizing
  his actions. Thus, he decided learning is a
  dangerous thing.
• Yon San attempted to suppress the language
  through ridicule. However, Hangul had become too
  useful to forget.

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19th 20th Century

• 1894 Hangul was adopted for the first time in
  official documents.
• 1910 Korea was annexed by Japan and Hangul was
  banned.
• 1930s Hangul was standardized under Japanese
  occupation.
• 1940 A system for expressing other
  orthographies in Hangul was published.
• 1945 Korea gained independence from Japan.

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Conclusions

• Hangul experienced resistance due to presence of
  the Japanese and scholars that considered the new
  alphabet to be vulgar.
• Hangul proved to be an incredibly useful and
  efficient alphabet thus, it was difficult to
  suppress.

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Bibliography

• Anderson, Paul S. Korean Language Reform. The
  Modern Language Journal. 32 (1948) 508-511.
• Hsiang, P.S. What is the Korean Language? The
  Modern Language Journal. 34 (1950) 441-443.
• De Mente, Boye. Korean in Plain English.
  Chicago Passport Books. 1988.
• Sangbaek, Lee. The Origin of the Korean
  Alphabet. Seoul Tong-mun Kwan, 1957.
• TourNetKorea. Lets Learn Korean. 2000.
  
• Wikipedia. Hangul. 22 April, 2006
• Zkorean. History of Hangul. 1987.