Everything About the Korean Alphabet — From Its Creation to Its Meaning Today
How was Hangeul, the alphabet we use every day, actually created? Hangeul is the native script of Korea, created in 1443 by King Sejong the Great and promulgated in 1446. It is far more than 'an alphabet made long ago': who created it, when, and on what principles are all recorded within the script itself — something rarely seen among the world's writing systems. In this article, we take a close look at the background of Hangeul's birth, its design principles, the history of its name and its commemorative day, and why Hangeul is drawing attention around the world today. 1. The World of Writing Before Hangeul Before Hangeul was created, written communication in Joseon Korea depended almost entirely on Chinese characters (Hanja, 漢文). As a Confucian state, Joseon used classical Chinese for administration, scholarship, and diplomacy — but Chinese characters were originally designed to record a language with entirely different word order and grammar from Korean. Korean sch...