Cyphernaut - Korean Hangul Alphabet
Korean is a language that is estimated to have over 78 million total speakers worldwide. It the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is written in Hangul, which is a writing system developed in the 15th century by King Sejong the Great, considered by many Koreans to be their finest ruler. Because of the Hangul alphabet, both North Korea and South Korea are two of the most literate nations in the world. Korean is believed to belong to the Ural-Altaic language family which includes the Turkish and Mongolian languages. China has had much influence on the Korean language as many Korean words have Chinese origins even though they are still linguistically different.
This is a Flash guide for browsing the Korean Hangul alphabet. Hangul is a phonetic alphabet and consists of 14 consonants, 10 vowels, 5 double consonants and 11 double vowels. In the browser, vowels are indicated with a reddish tint, double vowels are indicated with a greenish tint and double consonants are indicated with a bluish tint. Double consonants are pronounced very forcefully or glottalized. Consonants whose romanization include apostrophes, (ㅊ, ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ) are strongly aspirated, which means they are pronounced more forcefully (with a puff of air as spoken).
The pronunciation of Hangul letters varies depending on it's placement in a word; initial, medial and final. For instance when the letter ㅇ appears at the beginning of a word (initial), it has no sound. When ㅇ appears at the end of a word (final), it sounds like ng in king. Here is a link to a handy graphic which depicts the essential rules for Hangul letter placement.
For an example of using Hangul, take the word 지도(chi-do), which is Korean for map. The syllable 지 is formed by taking the letters ㅈ(ch) + ㅣ(i) and placing them in a block. The syllable 도 is formed by taking the letters ㄷ(d) + ㅗ(o) and placing them in a block.
Here are some easy sample words in Hangul with their corresponding romanization and English meaning. See if you can use the alphabet browser to determine the individual letters within each syllable block.
- 나무 - (na-mu) - tree
- 산 - (san) - mountain
- 공항 - (kong-hang) - airport
- 텔레비전 - (t´el-le-bi-jŏn) - television
- 침대 - (ch´im-dae) - bed
- 도시 - (to-shi) - city