History of Hangul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul internationally, Hangeul in South Korea, and Choson'gŭl in North Korea, is the native alphabet used to write the Korean language.
Before Hangul's creation, Korea had been using Hanja since antiquity. As Hanja was poorly suited for representing the Korean language, and because its difficulty contributed to high illiteracy, Joseon king Sejong the Great moved to create Hangul. The script was announced around late 1443 to early 1444 and officially published in 1446 via the text Hunminjeongeum and its companion commentary Hunminjeongeum Haerye. While Hangul saw gradual adoption among both the elite and commoners, it was looked down upon by the elite for centuries. It was only widely adopted in the late 19th century. It is now the predominant script for Korean in both Koreas and among the Korean diaspora. It is also used to write the Jeju language, and to a limited degree, the Cia-Cia language of Indonesia.
Background
Some time in antiquity, Korea adopted writing in the form of Hanja. There is a legend that, before that, during the Old Chosŏn period and around the time of the legendary ruler Tan'gun, Koreans used another original script dubbed "". Ahn is skeptical of the claim and argues there is no strong evidence to support its existence.The difficulty of Hanja limited the script's use to mostly upper-class people; commoners were largely illiterate. Hanja is not well suited for representing the Korean language; the Chinese and Korean languages are not closely related and differ in significant ways. For example, Classical Chinese uses subject–verb–object word order while Middle Korean uses subject–object–verb word order. Korean pronunciation and ideas could only be indirectly represented. Some efforts were made to adapt the script to suit Korean, which resulted in the Idu script and its varieties, including Hyangch'al. Scholars have evaluated these scripts as complicated and difficult to decipher, and thus not useful for promoting widespread literacy. Hanja was used for official records and most works of literature, while Idu was used for clerical documents and transactions.
Creation
Due to a lack of records, it is unknown when work on Hangul first began, nor what that process looked like. Sejong possibly developed the script in secret, although this is debated. Most scholars believe Sejong was significantly personally involved in the script's creation. A minority of believe that he was the sole creator of it.Hangul was first introduced, likely in a mostly complete form, to Sejong's court in the 12th month of 1443 of the Korean calendar. Some time afterwards, Sejong had the office established. The office worked on applying Hangul and developing official documentation for it. In the 9th month of 1446, Hangul was officially promulgated via the introductory texts Hunminjeongeum and Hunminjeongeum Haerye. The Hunminjeongeum begins with this now famous preface by Sejong:
Critics of the script emerged soon after its introduction. They argued a native Korean script was too far a departure from Chinese civilization, which they insisted Korea should be deferent to in a Confucian manner. Modern historians have argued that elitism and self-interest were other motivators for the faction; literacy in Hanja was then seen as a status symbol and general literacy was seen as potentially harming the social positions of the elite.
Late 15th century
A number of scholars have argued that Hangul was only rarely used during the 15th century; its use was largely centered in Seoul, among people close to the royal family and court. Works in Hangul produced during this period drew little contemporary scholarly attention.Sejong's attempts to spread the script
Sejong attempted to lightly pressure his detractors and subjects into accepting the script, to limited success. Ahn argues Hunminjeongeum did not have firm, clear top-down edicts on where it should be used relative to Hanja, and to what degree. Ledyard argues that Sejong intentionally did not aggressively force the script on others as to avoid more severe backlash. Ledyard evaluated this hypothesized strategy favorably and said it likely contributed to Hangul's eventual success. For example, in the 10th month of 1446, Sejong submitted to the Ŭigŭmbu a long report written in Hangul of the government office Sahŏnbu's alleged misdeeds. When the Sahŏnbu protested, Sejong gave them a copy of the Hangul letter and asked them to familiarize themselves with the charges before complaining. He repeated similar stunts; each time he would ask of his detractors literacy in Hangul, to their chagrin.Sejong made efforts to integrate Hangul into government functions, but these were largely unsuccessful. On the 26th day, 12th month of 1446, Sejong ordered that Hangul be included in the state examination for clerical officials. On the 20th day, 4th month of 1447, he made a similar order for regional official examinations. Sejong intended for Hangul to replace Idu in clerical situations, but this effort fizzled out with Sejong's death. In 1447, it was proposed that the government school Sŏnggyun'gwan add Hangul to its curriculum, although Paek argues is unclear how long it maintained the subject. Sejong had a coin issued that was inscribed with a Hangul phrase hyoje yeŭi. Sejong also ordered that a Hangul copy of the Yongbiŏch'ŏn'ga, the first ever piece of Hangul literature, be included in the '.
Lee and Ramsey argue Sejong made a point of prioritizing non-Buddhist works in order to appease his detractors, but many of these plans failed to materialize. Otherwise, early major Hangul works produced during Sejong's lifetime were Buddhist. The first Hangul Buddhist work was the Sŏkposangjŏl. It was completed around 1447 to 1449, compiled by Grand Prince Suyang, and dedicated to Queen Sohŏn's memory. The ' was the next major Buddhist work; it was compiled by Sejong himself and published around the same time.
A number of anecdotes indicate that Sejong's immediate family quickly adopted and used the script. Crown Prince Yi Hyang possibly assisted Sejong in the script's development. On the 14th day, 11th month of 1447, it was proposed that Hangul be added to the curriculum of the crown prince. In 1451, Grand Prince Yangnyŏng wrote a letter to his nephew, King Munjong, in Hangul.
After Sejong's death
The Ŏnmunch'ŏng continued publishing major works in Hangul for decades after Sejong's death. In 1457, King Sejo established the organization, which oversaw the translation of Buddhist texts into Hangul. It was closed in 1471. In 1460, a proposal was submitted to have Hangul be an exam subject for civil servants, but Paek argued sparse records on the topic suggest that this policy did not last long. King Seongjong issued a royal decree in Hangul in 1472.Royal and court women were significant early adopters and disseminators of Hangul. The first record of a woman's use of Hangul dates to 1453. A court woman named Myodan wrote to a royal concubine that another court woman had had an affair with a royal guard. On the 24th day, 8th month of 1458, the queen wrote the first known Hangul letter written by a queen. It was addressed to King Sejo. In 1465, a concubine wrote a secret love letter in Hangul to a royal family member that was intercepted. Eventually, women became the primary teachers of Hangul in the home, with mothers and grandmothers expected to teach the script to the children of the household.
Hangul saw significant adoption in intimate private letters. Such letters, called ', were written by both women and men, although a majority of surviving letters were written by men to women. The oldest surviving Hangul letter is, which is estimated to date to the 1490s.
Buddhists were also significant early adopters of Hangul. In 1467, Sinmi produced the ': a Hangul translation of a Goryeo-era Buddhist text. A 1500 republishing of that book became the first Hangul text to be published outside of Seoul; it was made at the temple Pongsŏsa in Hapcheon County, Gyeongsang Province.
The earliest known attestation to the Japanese language being rendered in Hangul was in the 1492 text Irop'a. A Ryūkyūan language was rendered in Hangul in the 1471 Haedong chegukki.
16th century
It was not until the 16th century that Hangul began seeing significant organic usage, especially outside of the capital. By the late 16th century, limited numbers of people throughout Korea had attained literacy in Hangul, although most were illiterate. Overall, Hangul works would remain a significant minority of those published in this century.During the 1504, after learning that criticisms of him had been published in Hangul, King Yeonsangun persecuted the use of the script. He demanded that a list be drawn up of the people who were literate in Hangul and ordered that Hangul books be burned. In 1506, the Ŏnmunch'ŏng was abolished.
In the early 16th century, numerous Buddhist temples worked on translating Buddhist works to Hangul. While such efforts had largely been limited to Seoul and funded by royal patronage, around this point they began to be done in the countryside with private donations. The first Hangul works to be primarily produced outside Seoul were the 1518 works Iryun haengsilto, ', and '. Some Buddhist temples used lists of syllabaries called ŏnbon as teaching aids for how to read and write Hangul.
File:訓蒙字會_cover.jpg|thumbnail|Cover of the landmark 1527 text Hunmong chahoe, by Ch'oe Sejin
Around this time, the Bureau of Interpreters was a significant presence in scholarship on and with Hangul. In particular, one of its members linguist Ch'oe Sejin had a significant and lasting impact on Hangul and Korean linguistics, for which he is still revered. He wrote a wide variety of pedagogical texts on Hangul, including textbooks and dictionaries. His most famous work, the dictionary Hunmong chahoe, was the source of many of the current names of Hangul letters. It also was groundbreaking and useful for modern linguists in that it documented actual pronunciations of the time instead of attempting to enforce artificial prescriptivist pronunciations. A section at the end of the text, called Ŏnmun chamo, was an adaptation of the Hunminjeongeum meant to serve as a more practical guide for learning the script. Ahn evaluated it as a superior educational tool to the original, and argued that its structure made it a predecessor to the later panjŏl tables that became ubiquitous teaching tools for Hangul in the early modern period. A significant catalyst for Hangul's spread during this period was the rise of textbooks that relied on Hangul annotations to explain the Chinese script and language. In effect, this incentivized the literati to learn Hangul. Ch'oe Sejin produced a number of significant such works, including the Hunmong chahoe, , and Nogŏltae.
The oldest surviving gravestone with Hangul written on it is the, which was erected in 1536. It was designated a Treasure of South Korea in 2007.
The earliest known painting with Hangul on it is the 1576 Allakkuk t'aeja chŏnbyŏnsangdo ; it is now located in Japan.
The 1586 Hangul letter to Yi Ŭngt'ae, which was written from a widow to her deceased husband, was rediscovered in 1998 and became a sensation in South Korea.
In 1593, during the 1592–1598 Imjin War, King Seonjo issued to Korean commoners, a surviving copy of which is now a Treasure of South Korea.