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| Proper Sound
to Instruct the People |
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Korea's official script is Hangeul, the unique
Korean Alphabet. This name, a compound of
han, meaning "the Korean people"
or "great" and geul, meaning "Letters,"
was given to it early in the 20th century.
The creator of han-geul was King Sejong the
Great(reigned 1418∼1450), fourth king of the
Joseon dynasty. Sejong was concerned that
Chinese characters, until that time used to
write Korean, were a writing system for representing
Chinese, a language completely different structurally
from Korea, and were therefore hard for Koreans
to learn and use.
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In
the twelfth lunar month of 1443 he completed development
of a writing system suitable for representing Korean,
which he called Hunminjeongeum, "Proper sounds to
instruct the people." Hunminjeongeum was an alphabet
formed of 28 letters. Today's Hangeul uses only 24 of
these, having dropped four. This orthography not only
represents the Korean language perfectly but also is easy
to learn and use. It is recognized as being both original
and scientific.
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Sejong
himself wrote a preface clarifying the origin and
the purpose of the new alphabet and giving brief
examples and explanations of each of its letters,
while he had the scholars of the Jiphyeonjeon, or
"Hall of Worthies," give detailed explanations
and examples of them. The resulting work was published
in the ninth lunar month of 1446, and the new alphabet
was widely made known to the public. The work's
title was the same as the then name of the alphabet,
Hunminjeongeum. The recently discovered complete
edition is known as the Haerye Edition of Hunminjeongeum
( Haerye referring to the explanations and examples
of the Jiphyeonjeon scholars, which were missing
in the previously known editions).
The extract publication date is not clear. But in
the Annals of King Sejong, the official record of
his reign, it is noted that the book was published
in the ninth month of 1446, and the scholar Jeong
In-ji's So, or "Postface," which appears
in the volume, was written in the first ten days
of the ninth lunar month of 1446, so we can judge
that it was published by the tenth day of that month.
This date, converted to the solar date October 9,
has been designated Hangeul Day, a national celebration.
The Haerye Edition of Hunminjeongeum was published
about 550 years ago, and was thought to have been
long lost, but a copy was found by chance in 1940
in an old house in Andong, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and
is presently preserved in Ganseong Art Museum in
Seoul. In 1958 the government designated it a national
treasure and instituted a strict policy for its
conservation.
As mentioned above, this book consists of two parts.
Part 1 is the main text written by Sejong himself.
The contents of the main text are the Seomun or
Preface, which explains his purpose in creating
the new letters, and the longer section which presents
and explains the 28 new letters, 17 initial (consonant)
sounds and 11 medial (vowel) sounds, and the way
they are combined to represent Korean syllables.
Part 2, written by the scholars of the Hall of Worthies
on Sejong's order, consists of commentaries on the
main text.
There are 6 chapters : "An Explanation of the
Design of the Letters," which expounds the
principles by which the new letters were made, "An
Explanation of the Initials," which presents
the 17consonants which appear in syllable-initial
position, "An Explanation of the Medials,"
which presents the 11 vowels, "An Explanation
of the Finals," which presents the consonants
appearing in syllable-final position," "An
Explanation of the Combining the letters,"
which de monstrates how the initials, medials, and
finals are assembled to form a syllable, and "Examples
of the Uses of the letters," which shows Korean
words written in the new letters. At the end of
the volume is Jeong In-ji's postface, which concisely
describes the greatness of the creation of the new
letters and the circumstances of the writing of
the book. The main text is four leaves and the commentaries
29 leaves, making only 33 leaves in all, but the
theory is systematic and the description scientific.
In particular the explanation of the principles
by which the letters were made and of no use of
the letters is highly regarded today by the linguists
of the world.
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people have tried to make letters to try to represent
their languages. This has been one of the important themes
of world history. The world's major orthographies gradually
took form and came into use over long periods of time.
Moreover, most of them were changed through use over time.
The development of Korea's hangeul is a unique example
of a few people, in a short time, without any direct influence
from any already existing orthography, inventing a new
writing system for a language which enabled mass literacy,
one which eventually would become its official script.
Moreover, the publishing of a book on a new alphabet is
not only something that had never happened before Hunminjeongeum
was published in 1446 but something that has not happened
since |
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publication of such a unique book with such excellent
content in 1446 is without doubt an historic event. How
fortunate it is that even one copy of this work has been
handed down to us just as it was. These are the reasons
why is Hunminjeongeum is not only a Korean national treasure
but an achievement which must be preserved forever as
a legacy of world culture. |
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