Invention of Hangul, the Korean Script

Invention of Hangul, the Korean Script

King Sejong is best remembered for the invention of hangul, the Korean alphabet. In 1443, Sejong and eight advisers developed an alphabetic system to accurately represent Korean language sounds and sentence structure. They came up with a simple system of 14 consonants and 10 vowels, which can be arranged in clusters to create all of the sounds in spoken Korean.

King Sejong announced the creation of this alphabet in 1446 and encouraged all of his subjects to learn and use it:

The sounds of our language differ from those of Chinese and are not easily communicated by using Chinese graphs. Many among the ignorant, therefore, though they wish to express their sentiments in writing, have been unable to communicate. Considering this situation with compassion, I have newly devised twenty-eight letters. I wish only that the people will learn them easily and use them conveniently in their daily life.

Initially, King Sejong faced a backlash from the scholar elite, who felt the new system was vulgar (and who likely did not want women and peasants to be literate). However, hangul quickly spread among segments of the population that previously did not have access to enough education to learn the complicated Chinese writing system.

Early texts claim that a clever person can learn Hangul in a few hours, while someone with a lower IQ can master it in 10 days.

It is certainly one of the most logical and straightforward writing systems on Earth—a true gift from King Sejong to his subjects and their descendants, down to the present day.