Let's Get Acquainted with Hangeul - Basic Korean Language 1

안녕하세요, been a while since my last update. I'm busy with my works & Korean Class. (but I'm enjoyed my time)  ^0<

Today I want to introduce you with hangeul (한글), I can guarantee that most people who love K-POP or K-drama will also love hangeul and want to know more about this alphabet.

Before that, let's read a history about hangeul a little bit.

Hangeul (Korean Alphabet) was created by King Sejong. You already know King Sejong ??? 

You can see his picture on 10,000 won bill & there's also a big statue of him that you must visit when you have a chance to visit Korea.

King Sejong created hangeul because he found great injustice in the fact that it was mostly Joseon elites who could read and write Hanja (Chinese Characters) that were used that time. This ability to commnunicate using the written word meant huge power for the upper classes, so when King Sejong decided to create a phonetic alphabet for the masses, he knew he would meet lots of resistence. For this reason, King sejong created alphabet in secret with help from just a few people. And now hangeul used by all Koreans today. Hangeul had 10 vowels and 14 consonants.

Previously I read that the oriental philosophy including concepts like Yin and Yang, Ohaeng (The Five Elements) and Cheonjiin (Heaven, Earth & Man) went into the making of Hangeul. I liked philosophical elements things, because of that I became more interested with hangeul.

For Yin & Yang concepts, it said that every vowel must be accompanied with a consonant to make a syllable in Korean. No one letter can stand alone.

Another interesting point related to Yin and Yang, it was thought that vowels have either  positive or negative values.  The vowels that point up or to the right were seen as bright and positive (ㅏ,ㅗ), and the ones that point down or to the left were seen as dark and negative (ㅓ,ㅜ).  For example words : 밝다’(bright) and ‘어둡다’(dark). You can see that bright using 'ㅏ' and dark using'ㅓ', 'ㅜ'

For Cheonjiin, it said that world consisted of 3 things Heaven, the earth and man. This 3 things is symbolized with : Heaven = ".", the earth = "ㅡ" and man = "ㅣ".

You can see these symbols on vowels in Hangeul.



Cheonjiin Concept : Heaven, Earth & Man

Now, let's see 10 vowels of Hangeul below :

Vowel	Name       Sound
ㅏ	a (아)         a
ㅑ	ya (야)       ya
ㅓ	eo (어)       eo
ㅕ	yeo (여)     yeo
ㅗ	o (오)        o
ㅛ	yo (요)      yo
ㅜ	u (우)       u
ㅠ	yu (유)     yu
ㅡ	eu (으)     eu
ㅣ	i (이)        i

The names of the vowel letters are simply the vowel itself, written with the null initial ㅇ ieung (because vowel must accompanied by consonant to make a balanced syllable). For example word : '우유' (milk), in here ㅇ ieung become silent so you pronounce 'uyu' .

But when there's consonant letter before vowel you don't need to add ㅇ ieung, for example word : '사랑' (love), in here you write'ㅏ'in '사' without ㅇ ieung  and ㅇ ieung at the end of syllable '랑' become -ng so you pronounce 'sarang' .

And for 14 consonants of Hangeul below :

Consonant	Name                    Sound
ㄱ	giyeok (기역)                G
ㄴ	nieun/niŭn (니은)          N
ㄷ	digeut (디귿)                 D
ㄹ	rieul/riŭl (리을)             R/L
ㅁ	mieum/miŭm (미음)      M
ㅂ	bieup/piŭp (비읍)          B
ㅅ	siot (시옷)                     S
ㅇ	ieung/iŭng (이응)          -NG at the ending of syllable
ㅈ	jieut/chiŭt (지읒)           J
ㅊ	chieut/ch'iŭt (치읓)       CH
ㅋ	kieuk/k'iŭk (키읔)         K
ㅌ	tieut/t'iŭt (티읕)            T
ㅍ	pieup/p'iŭp (피읖)         P
ㅎ	hieut/hiŭt (히읗)           H

The consonants have two-syllable names, with the consonant coming both at the beginning and end of the name.

Besides basic vowel above, there's also Dipthongs (Combined Vowels) as below :

		Letter	Name       Sound
		ㅐ	ae (애)         ae
		ㅒ	yae (얘)       yae
		ㅔ	e (에)          e
		ㅖ	ye (예)        ye
		ㅚ	oe (외)       oe
		ㅙ	wae (왜)    wae
		ㅘ	wa (와)      wa
		ㅟ	wi (위)       wi
		ㅝ	wo (워)      wo
		ㅢ	ui (의)        ui
		ㅞ	we (웨)      we

There's also Double Consonant, the sound of double consonant is similiar to the original consonant, but more tensed and stronger. You will need practice to be able recognize the difference, right now i'm still practicing too ^0^  ᄏᄏᄏᄏ

Letter	Name
ㄲ	ssanggiyeok (쌍기역)
ㄸ	ssangdigeut (쌍디귿)
ㅃ	ssangbieup (쌍비읍)
ㅆ	ssangsiot (쌍시옷)
ㅉ	ssangjieut (쌍지읒)

  

One important thing when you learn hangeul is, how to write in a right way. A simple thing to remember the right way is stroke from left to right and top to bottom which one come first. Below is some example :

Are you familiar with 한글 now and want to know more?? Wait for my next post, I will share some Korean Vocabulary and how to introduce yourself in Korean.

I'm not a native Korean speaker so please correct me if there's misleading information in my post & hope my post useful.

One more things, please make sure to visit Korea Tourism Organization Official Website to learn more about Hangeul , more interesting philosophy and how to pronounce it in right way. 감사합니다.....

My source for this post & picture is : 세종한국어 1 (Korean Cultural Center Indonesia), Korea Tourism Organization Website, Wikipedia & Google.