Hangul: The Korean Writing System

Until the beginning of the 20th century, the script was usually called "Volksschrift".

In North Korea and in China, the script is called Chosŏn'gŭl, after the state name [ʦo.sən] 조선 / 朝鮮 and the name of the ethnic group in China, respectively, or simply "our script".

In South Korea, the script is sometimes called "our script" in the same way as in North Korea and China, but usually Hangeul, corresponding to the state name [haːn. ɡuk̚] 한국 / 韓國 (Han'guk); this name was first used by the linguist Chu Sigyŏng (周時經; 1876-1914).

The modern alphabetical order of Korean letters, as well as their names, are slightly different in North Korea and South Korea respectively.

Consonants

The following table lists the consonant letters with the McCune-Reischauer (MR), the Yale, and the so-called "revised romanization" (RR) of the South Korean Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

These are the order and denotations in North Korea. The letter ㅇ is only listed as /ŋ/ at the end of the syllable in this order; words in which it functions as a vowel carrier at the beginning of the syllable are ranked among the vowels at the end of the alphabet. In North Korea, letter names are phonologically completely regular /Ci. ɯC/, where C stands for the consonant in question. Some letters have other designations in South Korea, going back to Ch'oe Sejin (see below): 'k' ㄱ is called [ki.jək̚] 기역, 't' ㄷ [ti. ɡɯt̚] 디귿, and 's' ㅅ [si.ot̚] 시옷.

The doubled characters used to render the stressed consonants used to be called "hard" ([tøːn] 된) throughout Korea; in North Korea they are still called that, but in South Korea they are now called "double" ([s͈aŋ] 쌍 / 雙: [s͈aŋ. ɡi.jək̚] 쌍기역, [s͈aŋ.di. ɡɯt̚] 쌍디귿 etc.).

In South Korea, there are several common alphabetical orders, all based on the following scheme:

The character ㅇ is always used in this order, regardless of whether it stands for /ŋ/ or only serves as a vowel carrier at the beginning of a syllable. Whether or not a consonant sign at the beginning of a word is doubled is ignored in the sorting; for otherwise identical words, the word is followed by the double consonant sign. Double consonant characters and consonant combinations at the end of words are either ignored or sorted separately, in the following order:

Consonant combinations at the end of syllables are called 'underframe' ([pat̚. ʦʰim] 받침), e.g. [ɾi. ɯl ki. ɯk̚ pat̚. ʦim] or [ɾi. ɯl ki.jək̚ pat̚. ʦim] for 'lk' ㄺ.

Vowels

The vowel letters and combinations of letters do not have special names. Vowel length is meaning-differentiating in Korean; however, Korean writing does not distinguish between long and short vowels.

This is the order of vowel letters in North Korea. The order in South Korea is as follows:

Syllable blocks

The individual letters are assembled into more or less square blocks, each corresponding to a syllable. In each written syllable there are three positions: Anlaut, Nucleus and Auslaut. In syllables beginning with a vowel, the first position is filled with the character ㅇ. The second position is filled with a vowel or diphthong letter. The third position is either filled with a consonant letter or remains empty.

Depending on the shape of the letters, the written syllables are composed differently:

For 'i' ㅣ and the vowel signs derived from it, the sign for the initial consonant is on the left.
Examples - 'ha', 'hi', 'he':

In 'ɯ' ㅡ and the vowel signs derived from it, the sign for the initial consonant is at the top.
Examples - 'ho', 'hɯ', 'hu':

For diphthong characters that have both a long horizontal stroke and a long vertical stroke, the character for the initial consonant is in the upper left.
Examples - 'hwa', 'hɰi', 'hwe':

The characters for the final consonant are below each.
Examples - 'hak', 'hok', 'hwak':

The letters change their shape a little at a time as they are put together, so that the syllable fits roughly into a square.

Spelling

Modern spelling is essentially morphophonemic, meaning that each morpheme is always spelled the same, even if the pronunciation varies.

However, some phonologically distinctive features are not distinguished in writing. The length or shortness of vowels is meaning-distinctive, but is not expressed in writing: for example, the word /pəːl/ 벌 "bee" is written the same as the word /pəl/ 벌 / 罰 "punishment". The stressed pronunciation of consonants is not always expressed in writing: /kaːŋɡa/ 강가 / 江가 "riverbank" is spelled the same as /kaŋk͈a/ 강가 / 降嫁 "marriage under the state".

When the script was created, the letters were essentially arranged into blocks according to the syllables of speech. Later-particularly after a 1933 proposal-letters were written morphophonemically rather than by speech syllables. Examples:

• [haːn.ɡu.ɡin] "(South) Korean" is written 'han.kuk.in' 한국인 (instead of 'han.ku. kin' 한구긴) because it is made up of the morphemes /haːn/+/kuk/ "(South) Korea" and /in/ "human".
• [kap̚] "price" is written 'kaps' 값 because, for example, when the nominative suffix /i/ is added, the word [kap̚. si] is pronounced (and 'kaps. i' is written 값이). The phoneme /s/ belongs to the stem, although it is not realized at the end of the word (when the word is used without a suffix).
• [ki. pʰɯn] "to be deep" is written 'kipʰ.ɯn' 깊은 (instead of 'ki. pʰɯn' 기픈) because the stem is /kipʰ/ and /ɯn/ is a suffix, i.e. the /pʰ/ ᄑ belongs to the stem. The principle applies to all derivations:
• [kip̚.k͈o] "deep and" is written 'kipʰ.ko' 깊고 (instead of 'kip.k͈o' 깁꼬),
• [kim.ni] "is it deep?" write 'kipʰ.ni' 깊니 (instead of 'kim.ni' 김니) and.
• [ki. pʰi] "depth" is written 'kipʰ. i' 깊이 (instead of 'ki. pʰi' 기피) etc.

Morphophonemic sound change is generally not considered in writing (except - in South Korean orthography - the allophones of /l/ ㄹ, see Varieties section).

Spaces and punctuation

Words are separated by spaces, with all suffixes and particles written together with the preceding word. Essentially the same punctuation marks are used as in the European languages.

Write direction

The syllable blocks were originally written in columns from top to bottom, as in Chinese writing, and the columns were arranged from right to left. Books were therefore read "from behind" from a European perspective. In modern printed matter, however, the direction of writing is as in European languages from left to right in lines arranged from top to bottom.