The Korean language is believed to have been spoken for roughly 9,000 years, dating back to the Neolithic period. Korean belongs to the Transeurasian language family, together with Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, and Japanese.

As it evolved through Ancient Korean and later into Middle Korean during the Goryeo Dynasty, the language existed mainly as a spoken language without a native writing system. To record Korean, Chinese characters were borrowed. However, Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family, which is structurally very different from Korean. As a result, Chinese characters could not accurately represent Korean sounds or grammatical features.

Chinese characters were difficult to learn, could not fully represent Korean pronunciation, and restricted written expression. Because this caused widespread inconvenience, King Sejong of the Joseon Dynasty initiated the creation of a new writing system designed specifically for the Korean language. This writing system is known today as Hangul.

Among the world’s writing systems, Hangul is unique in that both its inventor and the time of its creation are clearly documented. However, developing Hangul and establishing it as Korea’s official script was a long and challenging process.

King Sejong sought to ease the difficulties of everyday written communication and, out of compassion for his people, wished to enable “even uneducated commoners to express their thoughts easily.” With this humanitarian vision, he decided to create a new writing system.

• Creation Process and Period: Working in secrecy with scholars of the Hall of Worthies, King Sejong completed 28 new letters in 1443.
• Proclamation and Name: In 1446, the script was officially proclaimed as Hunminjeongeum, meaning “The Proper Sounds for the Instruction of the People.”
• Scientific Principles: Hangul is a scientific and original script based on the shapes of the speech organs. Consonants reflect the shape of the tongue, lips, and teeth, while vowels are built upon the philosophical concept of the Three Elements: Heaven (·), Earth (ㅡ), and Human (ㅣ).
• From Hunminjeongeum to Hangul: The script was initially known as Hunminjeongeum or Eonmun. In the early 20th century, linguists such as Ju Si-gyeong popularized the name “Hangul”, meaning “the great and perfect script.”

The creation of Hangul democratized literacy, enabled full expression of the Korean language, and laid the foundation for Korea’s cultural and technological development. The original Hunminjeongeum manuscript is designated as Korean National Treasure No. 70 and is registered in the UNESCO Memory of the World.

Hangul is the only writing system in the world for which the creator, the time of creation, and the purpose are all clearly documented.

It was created by King Sejong in 1443 and officially promulgated in 1446 after three years of preparation.

The principles, design philosophy, and usage guidelines were recorded and distributed, and these original documents still exist today.

Modern Hangul can form a total of 11,170 Gulja(also known as syllable blocks or syllables). By excluding similar sounds, it is still capable of representing approximately 7,400 distinct sounds. With the addition of new consonants or vowels, even more sounds can theoretically be created.

• Japanese: fewer than 300 possible sounds
• Chinese: around 400 possible sounds
• Hangul: over 7,000 possible sounds

A unique structural system found only in Hangul.

Voiced sounds are formed using consonants and vowels, while voiceless sounds rely primarily on consonants.

Any sound can be represented as a written character.

Each Gulja corresponds to exactly one sound value.

Korean is an agglutinative language. Grammatical roles are expressed through particles and verb endings attached to words. As a result, meaning is generally preserved even when word order changes, although the focus or emphasis may shift.

Korean does not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters, nor between cursive and printed forms, making the writing system visually consistent and easier to learn.

Korean verbs and nouns do not have grammatical gender, reducing ambiguity and making the language easier for learners.

New consonants and vowels can be created as needed.

Because any sound can be represented, Hangul can transcribe virtually any language.

Example:

The Cia-Cia people of Indonesia, who historically had no native writing system, adopted Hangul and even use additional consonants that appeared in early forms of Hangul.

Hangul is easy to type on a keyboard, and because each gulja represents a single sound, pronunciation is clear and consistent. Its expressive power and scalability make Hangul especially well suited for the age of AI.

Try learning Hangul and writing your name with it. If you can say it, Hangul can write it.

Efficient keyboard input: Hangul keyboards are designed for speed, with consonants on the left and vowels on the right, optimized for alternating consonant–vowel patterns.(the keyboard layout pdf is available on Resources )

From a learner’s perspective, the distinction between honorific and casual speech is one of the factors that can make Korean challenging.

Helpful learning resources are available in the Resources section.

The Korean Peninsula contains numerous Paleolithic and Neolithic sites, and Korean is believed to date back approximately 9,000 years. As an ancient language with extensive historical interaction with neighboring cultures, Korean has developed a remarkably rich and diverse range of expressions.

This richness is often cited as a reason why “Hangul is easy, but Korean is difficult.” However, this expressive diversity is also regarded as one of the language’s greatest strengths and a source of cultural depth.