Hangul facts for kids

A page from the Hunmin Jeong-eum Eonhae. The Hangul-only column, third from the left (나랏말ᄊᆞ미), has pitch-accent diacritics to the left of the syllable blocks.

Hangul or Hangeul (Korean: 한글) is the alphabet used for the Korean language and Cia-Cia language.

It was made by Sejong the Great, the 4th King of the Joseon Dynasty in 1443, and it is still used by many people. When Hangeul was spread out, King Sejong published Hunminjeong'eum Haeryebon (훈민정음 해례본) which was chosen as the Memory of the World by UNESCO in 1997. In this book, the design ideas of Hangeul and information on its usage were written down in detail.

The book Hunminjeong'eum Haeryebon states the 2 design ideas of Hangeul. The first one is that the consonants of Hangeul look like vocal organs. The second one is that the vowels of Hangeul are based on Cheonji'in (천지인). Cheonji'in refers to the three elements of philosophy which are sky (천), earth (지) and human (인). Because of these ideas, Hangeul is well-known for being easy to learn.

Although it was only used by the lower classes at first, Hangeul became the official writing script of Korea in the late 19th century. Today it is the most used writing system of both North and South Korea. North Korea abolished the use of Hanja, and today North Koreans write only in Hangeul. In South Korea, people write mostly in Hangeul, although in some contexts Hanja is still used.

Vowels

Vowels are letters like A, E, O and so on

There are 21 letters for vowels in Hangul.

• 10 simple ones, ㅏㅓㅣㅑㅕ and ㅗㅜㅡㅛㅠ.
• 11 more complicated combinations: ㅐㅒㅔㅖ and ㅘㅙㅚㅝㅞㅟㅢ.

Meaning:

Those with two small lines are pronounced with an extra "y" first.

Consonants

Consonants are letters like B, G, L, M, N, S and so on.
There are 14 simple consonants: ㄱㄴㄷㄹㅁㅂㅅㅇㅈㅊㅋㅌㅍㅎ
They can be written two next to each other. Meaning:

Blocks

The consonants and vowels are combined into blocks of syllables. A syllable means one vowel and a few consonants, like "han" and "gul".

The blocks look like these examples: 서울 한글 평양

Examples

Images for kids

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  Songangasa, a collection of poems by Jeong Cheol, printed in 1768.

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  An elementary school sign in Baubau, Indonesia, written in Indonesian and Korean (in the Latin and Hangul alphabets respectively)

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  The shape of tongue when pronouncing ㄱ (g)

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  The shape of tongue when pronouncing ㄴ (n)

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  The shape of teeth and tongue when pronouncing ㅅ (s)

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  ㅇ (ng) is similar to the throat hole.

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  ㅁ (m) is similar to a closed mouth.

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  A close-up of the inscription on the statue of King Sejong above. It reads Sejong Daewang 세종대왕 and illustrates the forms of the letters originally promulgated by Sejong. Note the dots on the vowels, the geometric symmetry of s and j in the first two syllables, the asymmetrical lip at the top-left of the d in the third, and the distinction between initial and final ieung in the last.

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  Hankido [H.N-GI-DO], a martial art, using the obsolete vowel arae-a (top)

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  The words 놉니다, 흘렀다, 깨달으니, 지어, 고와, 왕, 가져서 written in New Orthography.

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  Computer Modern Unicode Oesol, a linear Hangul font with both uppercase and lowercase characters, using the Unicode Private Use Area. The text is a pangram that reads: "웬 초콜릿? 제가 원했던 건 뻥튀기 쬐끔과 의류예요." "얘야, 왜 또 불평?"

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  The U.S. city of Gardena in the Korean alphabet, with the [ɡ] written as Latin ⟨G⟩. (Compare this large ⟨G⟩ with the smaller ⟨G⟩ in all-Latin Gardena below: The large ⟨G⟩ is fused (at bottom-right) with the Korean alphabet ⟨ㄱ⟩ that would normally be used to transcribe Gardena.)

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  ㄱ (giyeok 기역)

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  ㄴ (nieun 니은)

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  ㄷ (digeut 디귿)

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  ㄹ (rieul 리을)

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  ㅁ (mieum 미음)

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  ㅂ (bieup 비읍)

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  ㅅ (siot 시옷)

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  ㅇ (ieung 이응)

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  ㅈ (jieut 지읒)

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  ㅊ (chieut 치읓)

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  ㅋ (ḳieuk 키읔)

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  ㅌ (ṭieut 티읕)

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  ㅍ (p̣ieup 피읖)

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  ㅎ (hieuh 히읗)

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  ㅏ (a)

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  ㅐ (ae)

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  ㅓ (eo)

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  ㅔ (e)

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  ㅗ (o)

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  ㅜ (u)

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  ㅡ (eu)

See also

In Spanish: Hangul para niños