Hangul was invented in 1445 by King Sejong During the Yi Dynasty. It was originally called Hunminchongum and contained 28 letters. Hangul (as it is now called) currently contains 24 letters, 14 consonants and 10 vowels. King Sejong employed many of the Korean scientist and philosphers of his day to create the alphabet. Thorefore, Hangul is probably the easiest language to read. The shape of each letter corresponds to phonetic sound. The King and his committee of scholars designed the alphabet to be simple enough for any 'layman' person of the day to be able to read and write their own language. Up until this time, Korean could only be written in Chinese (which was completely different than the spoken language. Chinese was still the dominate means of published writings until the 1950's. After the Korean War, a nationalistic movement brought forth changes which included that billboards, shop windows, and office directories in public buildings be written in Hangul.

Consonants: (k), (n), (t), (r or l), (m), (p), (s or sh),

(voiceless), (ch), (ch'), (k'), (t'), (p'), (h)

Vowels: (a), (ya), (o), (yo), (o), (yo), (u), (yu), (u), (i)

 

How Korean is Read...

Korean is read from left to right and up to down. Notice how the "n" and "l" in the Hangul above are placed below the begining of the syllable. Korean is then read by syllables, which are grouped into words. These syllables use 2 to 5 (mostly 2 or 3) letters. Syllables always start with a consonant. Starting out is a little difficult, but with a little practice Hangul is much easier to read than the romanization of Korean words. Korean words rarely consist of more than 2 or 3 simple syllables, unlike the English language.

 

Korean Consonants

Regular Consonants: To the right is a chart of all of the 'normal' consonants found in Hangul. These sounds are fairly easy to obtain. In general consonants are pronounced much softer when in the middle of the word (especially between two vowels). The silent 'o' (ng) begins words that start with a vowel sound.The program, 'Reading Korean', demonstrates each sound of the above consonants. These sounds are the basics of Korean!! A student should master the consonants above before reading further.

Double Consonants: The double consonants (see the chart on the left) can be described as 'stopped' consonants. When speaking these consonants, the breath is paused and tension is built up. However, the consonants are not exploded. Instead, they stress the vowel that follows. Again listen to the expamples in 'Reading Korean'. Three of these double consonants do not end syllables, which is indicated by '-'.

Complex Consonants: Many syllables end with two consonants (see chart on left). There are two simple rules for reading this phenomnon: 1. When followed with a vowel, both consonants are read/spoken. 2. When follwed by a consonant or used at the end of word, only the first or second is read/spoken (depending on the word). Fortunately, Korean does not use these types of combinations very often.Some examples of these complex consonants are:

Korean Vowels...

Single Vowels:Hangul contains 10 basic vowel sounds all of which are fairly easy to pronounce and remember. They are generally spelled (and pronouced) with the silent 'o' as the intial consonant. Again, vowels should be much easier to learn than the consonants.

Dipthongs (vowel combinations) The main problem with dipthongs is that they can be quite difficult to distinguish between each other. Being able to generalize the sounds at the begining is the key to learning these syllables. Looking at the chart above, how different is the first and third syllable? Not much. Confusing (or blending) the two sounds does not cause much confusion for the listener. However, they are different and an effort to make some distinction is necessary.

When writing the dipthongs, the consonant (here 'o') is written followed by the vowel sounds from left to right.

 

How Korean is Spoken

'How to read' Korean is easy. However, speaking and listening to Korean can be very difficult. Below are some notes to watch for when conversing with native Koreans or other (maybe more advance) students of Korean. The Korean language lends itself to be more personal than the English language. Korean usually don't say "Hello." Instead, questions such as "Have you eaten lunch?", "Where are you going?", "Did you sleep well?" are asked. Be aware that these questions will come immediately and it takes time to get accostumed to which questions are coming at which times. Once a student is familiar with the language, conversing becomes much easier. No matter how the questions are phrased, being able to recognize what is being asked of oneself and being able to answer, is most important. Korean speech has little variation is accents and pitch when compared to other languages. Stresses of the language also vary from region to region. The general rule is to evenly stress Korean phrases and sentence. When reading/speaking interrogatives, the end of the sentence is raised just as in English.