Korean Alphabet Script. Hangul Hanja History and Origin

[JanuaryBlack1996]

i heard there is some african tribe somewhere that uses hangul for their writing. i forgot which one, but i thought that was pretty inturesting.

[pakorman]

this is awesome video. wow

[brothersister1234]

oh your explanation is very clear and your English is really good!

[MasterTonberryV1]

And I thought Korea has decided to make an amendment to abolish hanja since the second world war has ended.

Since there was no hanja, hangeul eventually became only consistent, phonetically and lost its original definitions/meanings. Hence, all those that you are about to learn are just syllables combined from vowels/consonants.

That's why most civilians are illiterate on reading obsolete scripts pre-1947. The history is China's and Korea just only borrowed the hanzi, and then abolished it!

[marshmellowzebra]

really good and helpful video!

[ShaddyLee]

can any 1 tell me purpose of korean learn hanja ???

[migencluz]

I am not shy that my language came from Indian, Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Spanish, Viet, Brazilian, Portugese... basically about every major languages.

[migencluz]

and they say that try to learn Chinese before Japanese, it is easier... but I am not saying that chinese is greater... just talking of history, i am sure they will understand

[cimmeriabastardsword]

I spent some time learning the korean alphabet but like you said it dosent give a real advantage in your speaking ability.

[hiphopbus]

scientifically well explained!!

[sweizhong]

ㄱㅈㅊ are of the same tongue position??

please double check..

each of the following sets is of the same position

1. ㄱ ㄲ ㅋ >> basic shape of 7 which resemble the rising of tongue at the back

2. ㄴㄹ ㄷ ㄸ ㅌ >> the use of the tip of tongue

3. ㅁ ㅂ ㅃ ㅍ >> the use of lips

4. ㅅ ㅆ ㅈ ㅉ ㅊ >> the shape of lower teeth

4. o ㅎ >> the use of throat

[hasmenn1]

It is necessary to learn hanja(漢字) besides strengthening the national language 한국어 (韓文）. My school teaches hanja two hours per week and I find that hanja is more interesting than English-

If we look into our history, almost all literacy works are written in hanja. So we have to regard learning hanja as learning our root, not learning mandarin (even it is getting important) , just like Japanese do.

[veracuiz]

You are correct. But, generally, Korean people don't have to use single Chinese alphabet to right novels. But Japanese do need to use Chinese alphabet. If you major Korean literature deeply, you may need to know Chinese alphabet. I'm 20 years old and I'm Korean. but I know only 10 chienese characters. But I don't get any hard time on Korean literature.

[Hanul91]

@hasmenn1

Hanja is interesting since countries like Japan still uses them. We did develop a similar system like Japanese Katakana or Kana which is said to have come from Korea in early 3rd century. But Hanja isn't needed anymore, only for historical reference or for bilingual purposes.

[Enigmatism415]

@hasmenn1

I agree, and furthermore, I believe the Korean written language could benefit from using mixed-script (Hanja for Sino-Korean words, Hangeul for everything else) in printed documents (but optional for handwriting). This would be convenient because it is much easier to recognize Chinese characters than it is to write them from memory, and when typing, the computer constructs the characters automatically. Reading with Hanja would also remove ambiguity (homophones), and expedite reading.

[SeventhSun]

@hasmenn1

Just learn the Chinese characters in writing would do. In your ancient texts they were written just in the same way that the Chinese would perfectly understand, which is the same as the case with the Japanese ones.

[airmanjoe]

I have been learning Korean for a few years, and so far I have found that there are relatively few resources for learning it compared to Japanese and Mandarin. I think you are doing a good thing by helping to spread the popularity of this beautiful language.

[Rab1975bit]

It's exciting when you can speak different languages when traveling.

Korean and Chinese are not from the same language family, are they?

Were Chinese characters used in the Korean language like in Japanese? Were they written along side Korean characters or separately, how does it work?

Why are Korean names sometimes written in Hanji? Is it confusing?

Is the Korean Alphabet system similar to Latin alphabet?

[Ooilei]

Korean and Chinese are NOT related and Hanja are used almost exactly like Kanji in Japanese but they are used very sparsely and only when necessary. The best example of Hanja usage that I can think of is the South Korean Constitution. Heres a sample of it: 前文

悠久한 歷史와 傳統에 빛나는 우리 大韓國民은3•1 運動으로 建立된 大韓民國臨時政府의 法統과 不義에 抗拒한. This is a rare situation where Hanja are used extensively.

[makaono]

犬韓民國이다. 개 병.신새.꺄 제발 그냥 입 닥쳐라.

[sweizhong]

@makaono

犬??? please respect others

[89yy98gt89]

@Ooilei dont be stupid. get an education. koreans used chinese for 1000yrs. half of korean vocabulary comes from chinese. the only reason koreans stopped using chinese is because their japanese masters told them not to in order to cut off chinese influence to korea. divide and conquer. understand?

[Ooilei]

@89yy98gt89 Wow, that was harsh and stupid. I didn't say anything about Koreans not using Hanja for thousands of years or why they stopped. All I said was that Hanja are used in a similar way to Kanji and they are very rarely used, which are both true. And I'm a history major so I do have an education. Maybe it's you who needs an education. I didn't say anything negative about Korean, Chinese, Hangeul, or Hanja so please don't twist my words.

[Hanul91]

@89yy98gt89

HAHAHHA Japanese masters? Since invention of Hangul, there were few people gradually writing in Hangul and this took time. That's why you see a lot of books in late Joseon dynasty, books with Hangul and some with Hanja.

[migencluz]

@Ooilei Actually, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese are indeed related to Chinese. They used Chinese writing systems and oral systems before they came up with their own languages, except for Vietnamese, they still have the same writing system.

[Ooilei]

@migencluz That's very offensive to Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese people. None of those 3 languages are related to Chinese. They did borrow Chinese characters but that doesn't mean they're related. If that was true, then Vietnamese and English are related because they both use the Latin alphabet. But everyone knows that they aren't. They just simply use the same script, same for Japanese and Korean when it comes to Chinese characters. They use them but are not related.

[Ooilei]

@migencluz What do you mean by oral systems? They didn't just invent their own languages. They were already speaking them when they met the Chinese. They just didn't have writing yet. So it is true that the Koreans and Japanese did invent their own writing systems after using written Chinese but that doesn't mean anything. English is written in the Latin alphabet but I'm defiantly not typing in Latin.

[migencluz]

@Ooilei Not true, English people use roman characters... actually, your comment uses the Roman writing system.

And by the way, let me rephrase my comment if you are thinking of a different idea. I could be wrong by the way, or maybe still unclear...

Oriental Countries like China, Viet, Japanese, and Korea, adapted the same language long ago, but it is not obvious now because each year that pass by, their languages became far far apart. For example, in the Philippines. read the Next comment

[Ooilei]

@migencluz You do know that Roman characters and Latin characters are the same thing right? The Romans SPOKE Latin and are called Latins and there alphabet can be called the Roman or Latin alphabet. And that’s my point I'm writing in the Roman/Latin writing system but I'm defiantly not using Latin, the language of the Romans. Same with Japanese and Koreans when they use Kanji and Hanja. They are NOT writing in Chinese they are writing in KOREAN and JAPANESE but they are using Chinese characters.

[migencluz]

@Ooilei Not exactly. Roman uses CAPS and Latin uses CAPS and undercase. and came from Phoenicians. Romans did too but was directed from ancient Spanish. Before, China, vietnam, and possibly Korea and Japan, were once united as one nation... that is why... and they used chinese before but today, because of originality, they only used not higher than 30% chinese and constructed their own speaking instead, and they did that because of their separation from china.

[migencluz]

the same happened in mainland china and hongkong... one used mandarin and one used cantonese, but still had the same writing system.

[Ooilei]

@migencluz Mandarin and Cantonese are bad examples because both ARE Chinese. They belong to the same langugae family and the people who speak them are the same people. Hong Kong people are Han, Mainland people are Han. No difference. Makes sense why they both write in Chinese. Just like how people in the US and UK both write in English.

[Ooilei]

@migencluz I don't know where you learned history but you learned it wrong. Roman is not a language. It's used to describe a group of people and their culture. This group of people spoke and wrote in Latin. This is a fact. No matter what you say nothing will change that fact. And the Latin alphabet evolved from Greek not directly from Phoenician. But it is true the Greek alphabet evolved from Phoenician.

[Ooilei]

@migencluz Korea and Japan were never an integrated part of China. As for Vietnam they were subjugated and incorporated as part of China but fought throughout their history to gain independence. They were NEVER Chinese. They do not speak Chinese and did not want to become Chinese. Stop saying their language evolved from Chinese. It DIDN'T. Vietnamese numbers mot, hai, ba, bon, nam. Now Chinese. Mandarin yi, er, san, si, wu. Cantonese yat, yi , sam, sei, ng. Vietnamese is nothing like Chinese.

[Ooilei]

@migencluz The people controlling Vietnam during Chinese rule obviously spoke Chinese but the Vietnamese people did NOT. They spoke ancient Vietnamese. The Chinese are NOT the origin of the Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese language or people. They are completely unrelated. The Chinese did influence all of them greatly because of the vast amount of culture that the Chinese have always had. They could see that so they borrowed aspects Chinese culture that seemed advanced and cultured.

[Ooilei]

@migencluz I don't know how much more I can emphasize this but borrowing is not the same as relation. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese are not related at all. The latter 3 just borrowed a lot from the Chinese but never wanted to become or be Chinese. They are not related! if that was true then the whole world must have been part of America because they use cars, teach English in school,s and wear American inspired fashion.

[migencluz]

@Ooilei OK I am quite busy for this. studying algebra for year 10, but here, what i understand about this is from Wikipedia. it says there that the korean and japanese people used chinese long before because thes still have not generated their own languages. but they started off by speaking their own, but still have the chinese writing. then a few centuries ago, they generated their own writing system as well. read it there. so please, i am busy... if i can't reply back, it means i did not visit

[Ooilei]

@migencluz Oriental countries DID NOT adopt the same language. They at one time did use Classical Chinese as a written standard but NEVER SPOKE any form of Chinese. People only wrote in it. Just as the laws of England were once written in French but the people never spoke French. A WRITING system and SPOKEN language is not the same thing. Spoken Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese NEVER evolved from Chinese. They do NOT belong to the same language family and have huge grammatical differences.

[Ooilei]

@migencluz Borrowing is not the same as relation.

[MilkByCow]

I could be wrong but here goes ...

Korean and Chinese are not related as they have completely different grammar structures. Before the development of Hangul, Korean script was pure Hanja, and known only by upper class society. Korean names have both Hangul and Hanja ways of being written. And Hangul is phonetic like the alphabet.

[ItzMeNeng]

your explaination is so clear, now i know the letters that related to each other...thank you for teaching us.

[jiha2n]

I think alphabetic is necessary because I have to pronounce them perfectly, if i did then i can pronounce a whole sentence perfectly ^^

[hjames1101]

TNX!!!

[fosterd27]

Thank you for your langauge.