The Superb Korean Alphabet

Prince Ch'ungyon, later named King Sejong, was chosen by his father, not because of age, but because he was the wisest and most capable of his sons.  This is where I begin sharing part a brochure called "The Superb Korean Alphabet" written by Wally Kennicutt for the Museum of the Alphabet in Waxhaw, NC:

King Sejong's first act was to organize the Jade Hall of Scholars. Members of the hall compiled books dealing with history, government and poetry. Sejong believed that part of his responsibility was to train the men who would be capable administrators. For this purpose, he encouraged the spread of learning as widely as possible.


Sejong’s father had established a printing press that used yellow wax to hold type in place. Of course, whenever the wax got soft it allowed the type to slide. Sejong hit on the idea of making copper plates with grooves to hold the type.

Now he faced another problem. At that time, Korean was written in Chinese characters, but the 7,000 symbols of written Chinese made printing difficult. Besides, Korean and Chinese belong to different language families.


The rules of Korean grammar are also different than for Chinese. In a Chinese sentence, the verb comes before the object and preposition (as it does in English); while in Korean the verb comes at the end of the phrase. Written Chinese also includes symbols to distinguish between different sounds, but some of these sounds are not used in Korean.

Sejong became concerned that scholars found it difficult to communicate their ideas. Judges also had problems because “indictments and evidence are incomprehensible.”

The king asked Chinese scholars about developing a modified script for writing Korean, but they ignored him. Sejong decided to develop his own alphabet.

For this purpose, the king asked his advisors to learn all they could about phonetics. Sin Suk-chu took notes and eventually wrote several books on languages. Sang Sammun made thirteen trips to Manchuria to consult the Chinese scholar Huang Chu’an

Buddhist monks from Tibet may also have had a hand in developing the new writing system, but most Koreans say that King Sejong devised the alphabet himself.


The king called his alphabet Humin-chong-um (correct pronunciation of letters for teaching people), but later scholars called it Han-gul (great letters).

In 1940, a copy of Sejong’s book, Explanatory notes on Humin-chong-um came to light. In it the king gave detailed information on how he developed the alphabet. He said he began by considering language as music and isolating the vocal elements. He then modeled the letters on the shapes and functions of the vocal organs. Each letter is a stylized picture of the position of the tongue, teeth or lips, or how the throat would look while pronouncing it.

Each of the eleven vowels of the Korean alphabet represents one sound. The seventeen consonants were classified as cheek-tooth sounds, lip sounds, tooth sounds, throat sounds, semi-tongue sounds and semi-tooth sounds. These 28 letters were later reduced to 24. Sejong grouped letters by syllables to make them easier to read, and perhaps also to make them conform to the system in which Chinese characters are arranged.


Everyone who has studied the Korean alphabet gives it high marks. Its admirers call it “the world’s most scientific system of writing.”

Despite that, many scholars opposed the use of a new alphabet. They said the king’s study of Han-gul took him away from reading Chinese classics, that a new alphabet would prove harmful to the study of Chinese learning, and that it might anger the Chinese emperor.

Besides, it seemed that anything which was so easy to learn must not be of much value.

After Sejong’s death, it looked as though such arguments would put an end to the use of the new alphabet. Women sometimes used Han-gul in personal correspondence, but scholars disdainfully called it “female letters.”

The prejudice against the use of Han-gul started to give way late in the nineteenth century when the Korean government began using it as part of a program of social reform. After World War II, a typewriter using the Korean alphabet was developed and on New Year’s day, 1970, the government of South Korea declared Han-gul the official writing system of the country. North Korea now uses Han-gul exclusively.

Korean linguists are continuing the tradition established by King Sejong through their work with SIL International.

Sejong’s alphabet made it possible for all Koreans to learn to read and write, but some Asian languages have never been written. Who will do for them what Sejong did for Korean?



- Wally Kennicutt

The Museum of the Alphabet

Waxhaw, NC 28173