The background of inventing Hangul was well described in the chapter 42 of Sejongsilrok which is a history book written in the old days. Vowels were made with 3 basic letters. Those basic 3 important letters are ˇ°.ˇ±which simbolizes Heaven, ˇ° the earth and ˇ° And other 8 vowels were made combining those 3 basic letters. In case of consonants ,they made basic 5 of them after the shape of organs which produces sounds(such as mouth and throat) and the rest was made with combination of those basic 5 letters. G.Sampson who is a famous professor working at the computer department at Sussex University in U.K mentioned as follows.
"There is no doubt that Hangul is the greatest writing system in the world from a scientific viewpoint. There is no precedent in the world, as Hangul was made according to certain principles. Above all, Hangul is a scientific system, invented systematically following the shapes of vocal organs as they make sounds. Furthermore, the writing system reflects the characteristic of the sounds. For example, T and N in English represent sounds, but they have nothing to do with the shape of vocal organs. But ' was made from the way the tongue touches the gums, while ' which corresponds to T is made by adding a stroke to ' that these two sounds come from the same area. Each letter of han-gul was made in this way, with the shapes of the vocal organs in mind. Many Western scholars and intellectuals who are knowledgeable about the scientific aspects of Hangul are very impressed by the principles behind its invention."
Also Prof.Byun of the computer department from Dong-Kuk University in Korea had said that
"The computer, which we think of as all-powerful, is driven by the repetition of two numbers--0 and 1-according to certain rules, but it has propelled the world into the information age almost instantaneously. It is the same with music. In Western music, seven notes--do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti-are used to create innumerable scores from the classical works of Mozart to the rap songs of Seo Taiji that Korean adolescents love. The same is true with Hangul. It is a characteristic of Hangul that the limited code of 24 letters, sfter several rules are applied, creates an unlimited number of sounds. In this way, Hangul is more scientific than any other writing system, and it is based on the same principles as the computer, a product of modern science."
|
|
Principles for Creation |
|
ˇ±which symbolizes
ˇ± which symbolizes human beings.
' in Hangul, which corresponds to the English N,
'