Consonants

Hangeul has 14 consonants. The design behind these letters has significance, as well. When King Sejong designed the consonants, he made them into shapes that represent the shape of the mouth as it makes the sound. Additionally, certain strokes represent certain things, such as aspiration and force of the sound. Pretty interesting.


Each letter has a name, of course, but I was told by one of my Korean teachers that when people say the alphabet, they don't say the name, they just make the sound of each consonant, followed by an "a" sound. So it goes ga, na, da, ra, ma, and so on. The way most of the letters are named is cool, though, and easy to remember. You simply start with the sound of the consonant, add the "ㅣ" (long "e") sound, then add the "ㅡ" ("eu") sound, then end with the sound of the consonant again. A few of the letters don't follow that rule, due to certain restrictions coming from Chinese at the time of Hangeul's invention. North Korea actually went on to regularize those letter names, but South Korea never did.


Alphabetical order is called "ganada" order, "ga," "na," and "da" being the first three sounds made when saying the alphabet. Compare to "ABC order" or even "alphabetagamma order." The actual order seems to be somewhat variable. According to Wikipedia.org, the order I am about to present the letters in is the current South Korean standard. In my Korean textbook, however, the index is presented with the "double" letters at the end. North Korea uses the latter order, except with the distinction between the two functions of the letter "ieung," which I will discuss below. Vowels are not mixed in with the consonants. They are usually placed at the end, I believe. When using the order to organize words, as in a dictionary, in the case of "ieung" appearing only once in the alphabet, the words beginning with a vowel are placed within that letter's listing (again, see below).

Here are the letters and some info about each one:

ㄱ
giyeok (기역)
This letter makes a sound that is between a "g" and a "k." It is not aspirated. The symbol represents the back of the tongue rising up to touch the back of the palate on the roof of the mouth.

ㄲ
ssanggiyeok (쌍기역)
This letter makes a really hard "g" sound. "Ssang" means "twin" or "double."


ㄴ
nieun (니은)
This letter makes an "n" sound. The symbol shows the tip of the tongue rising up to touch the ridge behind the teeth.

ㄷ
digeut (디귿)
This letter makes a sound that is between a "d" and a "t." It is not aspirated. The symbol represents the same tongue shape as with "ㄴ" but the top line indicates firm contact with the roof of the mouth.


ㄸ
ssangdigeut (쌍디귿)
When I was learning how to read Hangeul back in LA, my teacher told us that this letter makes a really hard "d" sound, but Rosetta Stone seems to pronounce it more like a hard "t." I guess either it varies by speaker, or my ear isn't enough in tune yet to understand what I'm hearing.

ㄹ
rieul (리을)
This letter makes a sound that is between an "l" and an "r," and is where we get the confusion with, for example,"rice" and "lice." It is formed by tapping the tongue at the center of the roof of the mouth, as opposed to touching it to the gum ridge for "l" or lowering and curling it for "r." In lingustistics, this action is called a "flap" (and so is the letter). This is a very hard sound to make, and evidently a very hard sound to leave behind when learning Western languages. The symbol represents the same tongue formation as "ㄴ," with the rop representing the flap.


ㅁ
mieum (미음)
This letter makes an "m" sound. The symbols shows the lips coming together to make the sound (a little abstract).

ㅂ
bieup (비읍)
This sound makes a sound between a "b" and a "p." I like to think of it as the alien head letter. It is not aspirated. The symbol represents the shape of the mouth, as in "ㅁ," but the extended vertical lines indicate the sound bursting from the mouth.

ㅃ
ssangbieup (쌍비읍)
This letter makes a hard "b" sound.

ㅅ
siot (시옷)
This letter makes a soft "s" sound, like in "snow." The symbol represents a side view of the (bottom) teeth. I'm not sure why it's drawn this way, since that sound has nothing to do with those teeth. I'd like to officially theorize that Sejong meant the line on the right to represent the tongue rising up to the gum ridge, and the line on the left to indicate the front of the gum ridge descending toward the upper teeth.

ㅆ
ssangsiot (쌍시옷)
This letter makes a hard "s" sound, as in "song."

ㅇ
ieung (이응)
This letter has two functions (yes, now we come to it). The consonantic function is that of the "ng" sound. It is more commonly used, however, as a "null" letter, to be placed in front of syllables the want to begin with a vowel. As I said in the Vowels entry, no syllable can actually begin with a vowel (I don't know why). So this silent consonant is placed before the beginning vowel to make it legitimate. The symbol shows the shape of the throat, which is near where the "ng" sound is made.

ㅈ
jieut (지읒)
This letter makes a "j" or "dge" sound. The shape comes from the shape of "ㅅ," with the top line indicating firm contact of the tongue tip with the gum ridge.


ㅉ
ssangjieut (쌍지읒)
This letter makes a hard "dge" sound.

ㅊ
chieut (치읓)
This letter makes a "ch" sound. The shape is derived from "ㅈ," with the small top line indicating aspiration.

ㅋ
kieuk (키읔)
This letter is much closer to our actual "k" sound. In English, "k" is aspirated, which is what makes it different from "g." Kieuk and giyeok have a similar distinction, The shape of "ㅋ" comes from "ㄱ," with the lower horizontal line representing that aspiration.

ㅌ
tieut (티읕)
This letter is the aspirated form of "ㄷ," which is what the middle line represents. Again, this letter is more like our "t" than "ㄷ" is, because our "t" is aspirated.

ㅍ
pieup (피읖)
Another aspirated letter, this one is much like our "p." It comes from "ㅂ," although the shape got a bit mangled in the process of adding that extra top stroke for aspiration. Maybe someone had one too many soju shots.

ㅎ
hieut (히읗)
This letter makes an "h" sound. It comes from "ㅇ." The top line represents the aspiration, and the middle line is from an obsolete letter, which was a glottal stop. A glottal stop is a cutting off of sound, like at the end of the first syllable in "uh-oh."


I did not include the Romanization of the consonants like I did with the vowels, but I'm going to have an entry explaining that process with both letters and words soon, so you'll see how that goes.

Vowels

Vowels are an interesting aspect of Hangeul. They are composed of long lines and short lines, verical and horizotal. The long horizontal lines represent Earth's horizon, yin, and the long vertical lines represent man. The short lines represent the sun, yang. They used to be dots, but were translated to short strokes when writing with a brush, and they eventually replaced the traditional dots.

The vowels are divided into bright, dark, and neutral categories, depending on where the short stroke (sun) is located, if present. If the short stroke is to the right of (in the east) or above (above the horizon) the long stroke, the vowel is bright. If it is to the left of (in the west) or below (below the horizon) the long stroke, it is dark. The two vowels with only a long stroke are considered neutral, even though the one that is only a horizontal stroke (the horizon) is technically dark. This all matters when conjugating verbs and otherwise inflecting words. Dark vowel words are only followed by dark vowel suffixes, etc.

Here's a breakdown of the vowels:

ㅏ
"A" sound, as in "father"
Long vertical line, short horizontal line to the right (a man standing before the rising sun)
Romanized as "a"

ㅓ
Short "o" sound, as in "hot"
Long vertical line, short horizontal line to the left (a man standing before the setting sun)
Romanized as "eo"

ㅗ
Long "o" around, as "boat"
Long horizontal line, short vertical line above it (the sun over the horizon)
Romanized as "o"

ㅜ
Long "u" sound, as in "mute"
Long horizontal line, short vertical line below it (the sun below the horizon)
Romanized as "u"

ㅣ
Long "e" sound, as in "feet"
Long vertical line (a man)
Romanized as "i"

ㅡ
Sort of short "u" sound, kind of like in "put"
Long horizontal line (the horizon)
Romanized as "eu"

Hangeul doesn't have a letter "y" like we do, but they do have a sound for it. This is accomplished by adding a short stroke to the first four vowels above, adding the "y" sound to the beginning:

ㅑ
"ya"

ㅕ
"yeo"

ㅛ
"yo"

ㅠ
"yu"


Hangeul also has numerous diphthongs (the combinations above are technically iotized vowels). These two were originally diphthongs, but have become pure vowels over time. They also originally had distinct sounds, but over the last couple generations have come to both sound like short "e." Mostly only the older generations can tell the difference now.

ㅐ
"ae" = ㅏ a + ㅣ i

ㅔ
"e" = ㅓ eo + ㅣ i

These two vowels can also be given an extra stroke to add the "y" sound:


ㅒ
"yae"

ㅖ
"ye"

The same goes for the "w" sound as it does for "y" as evidenced with these diphthongs:

ㅘ
"wa" = ㅗ o + ㅏ a

ㅝ
"wo" = ㅜ u + ㅓ eo

ㅙ
"wae" = ㅗ o + ㅐ ae

ㅞ
"we" = ㅜ u + ㅔ e

ㅟ
"wi" = ㅜ u + ㅣ i

ㅢ
"ui" = ㅡ eu + ㅣ i

ㅚ
"oe" = ㅗ o + ㅣ i (This one doesn't get Romanized with a "w," but it sounds like there is one.)

The cool thing about Korean (and other not-English languages) is that the vowels make the same sound, one sound, every time. You don't have to memorize fifteen different combinations of vowels that all make the same sound. Some of the diphthongs make similar sounds, but in order to read and pronounce them, all you have to do is break them down into the vowels that built them and you've got it.

Hangeul, the Korean System of Writing

Hangeul, which means "great script" and "Korean script," was invented by King Sejong around 565 years ago. It was described in an official document released on October 9, 1446; the anniversary of that day is celebrated as Hangeul Day. I don't get that day off. Prior to the invention of Hangeul, Koreans used a Sino-Korean hanja system, using script and words borrowed from the Chinese language.

Hangeul is divided into syllables, each one of which fits into a square (the square is not drawn, of course). There are no more than four letters per syllable, and no fewer than two. Words and syllables cannot begin with vowels in this script, so a silent letter precedes any vowel that is at the beginning of a syllable. Double consonants within the same syllable are somewhat rare in Korean, relative to English, and can only come at the end of the syllable. When two consonants are put together, only one is pronounced, unless the next syllable begins with a vowel. In that case, the second consonant sound is carried over orally, to begin the next syllable.

Example: the root of the conjugated form of the verb "to sit" is pronounced "an-ja," but the "j" sound is actually in the first syllable, so the romanized version would look like this: anj-a.

The script reads from left to right, then top to bottom, as with English writing, but it can also be read top to bottom, right to left. The former is the preferred modern method of writing, but the latter is the traditional way to write, as influenced by Chinese writing.

Linguists find this written language quite interesting. It was invented with specifical goals in mind. The major goal was to create a writing system that the common man could learn and use easily. When the Chinese hanja system was the only writing available to Koreans, it was mostly only members of the aristocracy who could write, because it was such a difficult task to learn. Once Hangeul was released, it was opposed by scholars who didn't want to lose their high status, but it nonetheless was quickly assimilated into popular culture and the country became literate fairly quickly.

The letters of Hangeul are so easy to learn that it is said "A wise man can acquaint himself with them before the morning is over; a stupid man can learn them within the space of ten days." When I took Korean language classes in LA, the first quarter was devoted solely to learning Hangeul. A quarter was ten weeks long, with classes meeting one night a week for two hours. So, the first class and last class being devoted primarily to placement testing, class organization, fun activities, and ceremonies, it took sixteen hours to learn the whole alphabet and how to read anything written in Hangeul, even if I don't understand it. Not too shabby.

The history of the shapes of the letters is quite interesting, and partly why linguists are fascinated by the system, but I'll have to save that explanation for another day. Stay tuned.

Children

I have never seen so many children as I have in this place. There are children EVERYWHERE. It doesn't matter where I go, or what time it is. Kids get up early and stay up late (thanks to the superstudent education system), so there's no time of day I haven't seen them swarming the streets, restaurants, and stores. Even when I think they're supposed to be in school, they're all over the streets. I still haven't quite figured out the school schedules here.



Before I worked at a school in LA, I would literally go months without seeing a single child. Actually, I think I figured something out from coming here. Angelenos don't actually procreate: they just replenish their massive population by enticing people to move there with eversunny weather and the film industry.



I think the family unit is much stronger here than it is in the US (or at least, where I've lived), so instead of leaving the kids home while they go out, parents take their kids along with them WHEREVER they go. Koreans also work longer hours at school and at their jobs, so they really work hard at relaxation when they have free time. Thus, family field trips.