Who invented hangeul

Cr the author. This October 9, , Koreans will celebrated the th anniversary of the institution of Hangul, the Korean alphabet, which is considered by many linguists as the best alphabet that exists. The fact that Hangul is a simple, ingenious, and comprehensive writing system makes it one of the most scientific and convenient to use for general learning.

It is said that "an intelligent person can learn it in one morning and a simple person can do it in ten days. Hangul was born out of King Sejong's love for his people. King Sejong decided that the Korean people needed a new alphabet because the Korean language was fundamentally different from Chinese. Until this point all Korean was written in Chinese characters known as Hanja which were very difficult for common people to read and write.

In fact, before the invention of Hangul the majority of Koreans were illiterate. Hangul was designed so that even commoners would be able to read and write and as you might imagine this caused problems for the literary elite. Many scholars and aristocrats believed that Hanja was the only legitimate writing system and saw Hangul as a threat to their status.

King Sejong is widely recognized as one of the most influential and greatest Koreans in history. This alone would have made King Sejong more than worthy of his name, but there is much more to his legacy than this! King Sejong lived from , he was the 4th king of the Joseon Dynasty — reigning from until his death. His 32 years sitting on the throne brought about some of the most important changes in Korean history. King Sejong is best known for personally inventing Hangul, the Korean script.

The script was completed in and published a few years later in This accompanied the announcement of this new alphabet, explaining the philosophy behind the script. These systems did not mix well. This meant that basic literacy was achievable to only those with access to a high education, such as nobles and scholars.

Many Korean elite initially opposed the introduction of Hangul. However, King Sejong strongly believed that this new writing system benefited all the Korean people.

As a result, literary rates skyrocketed to some of the highest in the world in a very short time. Today, Korea remains at the top of world literacy rankings due to Hangul. Hangul is recognized worldwide for its ingenuity and many redeeming features. Toggle navigation. Sign Up Log in. All rights reserved.