From King Sejong's vision to a UNESCO-recognized script β the story of how Korea got its own alphabet.
Before Hangul, Korea used Hanja β Classical Chinese characters β for writing. These characters were so difficult that only the wealthy elite could master them. Commoners, women, and farmers were left illiterate. This changed in 1443.
King Sejong the Great (1397β1450), the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty, personally invented the Korean alphabet. His driving philosophy was Aemin Jeongsin(μ λ―Όμ μ ) β βthe spirit of loving the people.β He wanted every Korean to have access to reading and writing.
In December 1443, Sejong completed the original 28-letter system. Contrary to popular myth, he created it alone β scholars from the Hall of Worthies later helped write the explanatory manual, but the alphabet itself was the king's own work.
The 1443 system had 17 consonants and 11 vowels. Modern Hangul uses 24 basic letters (14 consonants, 10 vowels), plus 27 derived from combination β totaling 51 jamo (letters).
In October 1446, the system was officially published as Hunminjeongeum(νλ―Όμ μ) β βThe Correct Sounds for the Instruction of the People.β The companion commentary, Hunminjeongeum Haerye, explained the scientific principles behind each letter's design.
During the Japanese colonial period (1910β1945), the Korean language was systematically suppressed. In 1938, Korean was banned from schools. Newspapers and publications were shut down in 1941. Members of the Korean Language Society were arrested and imprisoned in 1942.
Despite this, Korean linguists and activists secretly preserved Hangul, keeping it alive through resistance. The script survived.
Today, Hangul is the official script of both South and North Korea. It is used by over 80 million people worldwide. The Hunminjeongeum Haeryemanuscript β rediscovered in 1940 β was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 1997, praised as βan exceptional example of linguistic creation.β
Hangul is one of the few writing systems in history with a known creator, documented design principles, and an explicit date of invention. It is also used for the Jeju language and, to a limited degree, the Cia-Cia language in Indonesia.