Hangeul Day: October 9th

Invented by King Sejong in the mid-15th century, hangeul (or hangul) is an alphabet unique to Korea. Hangeul allowed mass literacy in Korea to flourish without the burden of having to master the thousands of Chinese characters previously required in order to be literate.
 During a KORCOS professional development session last spring, I learned that King Sejong wanted the average person to be able to read and write. He started to write Hangeul late at night and early in the morning so that his helpers and the elite would not find out. He worked so hard that he even lost his sight as he finalized the Korean alphabet. Hangeul became available to the general population and gradually grew in popularity.
Over the summer back in the US, I tried to show off my Hangeul skills but in reality, it is very easy to learn. In fact, most people learn the alphabet in an hour. You just have to continue practicing. There are 14 consonants an 10 vowels.


From Hanguladay:

• ㅏ (a) as in apply
• ㅓ (oe) shorter o as in lot
• ㅗ (o) o that is rounded as in own
• ㅜ (oo or long u) as in look
• ㅡ (short u officially eu when romanized) as in put
• ㅣ (ee or i) as in keep or lip
• ㅐ (ae) as in way
• ㅔ (e) as in elephant
• ㅑ (ya) as in yak
• ㅕ (yeo) as in york
• ㅛ (yo) as in yawn
• ㅠ (yoo or yu) as in yuletide
• ㅒ (yae) as in yeah
• ㅖ (ye) as in yesterday
• ㅘ (wa) as in wax
• ㅙ (wae) as in waiter
• ㅚ (oe) as in when
• ㅝ (wo) as in wash 
• ㅞ  (we) as in way
•  ㅟ (wi) as in wheat
• ㅢ  (ui) officially pronounced as uh-ee but is commonly heard/used as in Yale

Consonants

• ㄱ (k/g) between ‘ka’ and ‘ga’ but when used as initial character the standard romanization is g; never to be pronounced as g of George 
• ㄴ (n) as in the sound n of noun
• ㄷ (d/t) between d and t but when used as initial character the standard romanization is d
• ㄹ (l/r) between l and r, one of the characters with most nuances in pronunciation 
• ㅁ(m) as in monster
• ㅂ(b/p) between the sound of ‘ba’ and ’pa’ but when as initial character standard romanization is b
• ㅅ (s) as in sample, its a straight forward sound as in hissing of snake ssss this is trivial because when used as final consonant the sound becomes similar to ‘t’ 
• ㅇ (ng/silent) when this character occurs as initial it is not pronounced or silent otherwise it is similar to tang
• ㅈ (j) almost like ‘ch’ as in just 
• ㅊ (ch) always romanized as ch as in chop
• ㅋ (k) always romanized and pronounced as k as in kite 
• ㅌ (t) always romanized and pronounced as t as in ten
• ㅍ (p) always romanized and pronounced as p as in pet 
• ㅎ (h) as in hat

Double Consonants (asprirated, more air released)

• ㄲ (kk)
• ㄸ (tt)
• ㅃ (pp)
• ㅆ (ss)
• ㅉ (jj)

King Sejong