Yong Uk Song Yonsei Univerisity Wonju Campus Hangul: Korean
Characters
Slide 2
Why Hangul in Programming Class? Encoding Encoding is mapping a
meaning to a series of symbols. E.g. HTML, Program Human language
Voice Letter
Slide 3
How People Learn Languages? Baby Language, and then characters
Adult Characters, and then language We are adults! Lets learn
Korean characters first.
Slide 4
Introduction to Languages and Characters
Slide 5
Languages vs. Characters CountryLanguageCharacter United
Kingdom U. S. A. Canada EnglishAlphabet PhilippinesTagalogAlphabet
Indonesia Malaysia Bahasa Indonesia Bahasa Malaysia Alphabet
RussiaRussianCyrillic alphabet ChinaChineseChinese character
JapanJapaneseKana KoreaKoreanHangul
Slide 6
Examples of Characters Cyrillic alphabet Chinese character Kana
(Japanese character) mixed with Chinese characters Hangul (Korean
character) ( , , , , , , , , , ) , , ( / , ), .
Slide 7
Categories of Characters CategoriesSub-categoriesExamples
Meaning-based (ideogram) -Chinese Character Sound-based (phonetic
symbol) Syllable-based Ancient Phoenician Kana (Japanese)
Phoneme-based Alphabet Cyrillic alphabet Hangul (Korean)
Slide 8
Terminology (1) Meaning-based character scheme maps a mean
directly into a character. E.g. Water (in meaning) (in Chinese)
Sound-based character scheme maps a mean into a sound, and then
maps the sound into a series of characters. E.g. Water (in meaning)
[w t r] water (in English) E.g. Water (in meaning) [mul] (in
Korean) E.g. Water (in meaning) [tu bik] tubig (in Tagalog)
Slide 9
Terminology (2) Syllable A unit of complete sound A segment of
a spoken word consisting of one sound or of two or more sounds said
as a single unit of speech Examples of one-syllable words Sing,
song, run, go, Examples of two-syllable words Singing, forget,
knowledge, Examples of words with three or more syllables
Philippines, remember, Phoneme The smallest unit of sound in a
language that has significance in distinguishing one word from
another A syllable can be divided into several phonemes. Two
categories of phonemes Consonants (e.g. B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L,
M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z (in Alphabet)) Vowels (e.g. A,
E, I, O, U (in Alphabet))
Slide 10
Evolution of Characters Characters have been evolved in the
sequence of meaning- based, syllable-based, and finally
phoneme-based, even though some languages still use meaning-based
(China) or syllable-based (Japan) characters. Why? To reduce the
number of symbols (characters) The more there are symbols, the more
it is difficult to learn. E.g. Chinese : 30,000 or more symbols
Kana : 50 + 1 symbols Alphabet : 26 symbols
Slide 11
Uniqueness of Hangul
Slide 12
Unique Feature of Hangul (1) Hangul is phoneme-based, but it
can represent syllables, too. Example English For river, we can
identify only consonants (r, v, r) and vowels (i, e). There is no
specification about syllables. Korean For (Seoul), we can identify
two syllables ( , ) firstly, and then, one consonant ( ) and one
vowel ( ) from (Seo), and two consonants ( , ) and one vowel ( )
from (ul).
Slide 13
Coverage by Alphabet and Language In English, If you do not
learn a word, you may not read or write the word. E.g. School,
Chair In Korean language, Even though you do not learn a word, you
can read and write the word. PhonemeSyllableWord
EnglishAlphabetEnglish KoreanHangulKorean
Slide 14
Unique Feature of Hangul (2) Transparency (from Computer
Science) The representation is transparent from its meaning in
Korean thanks to Hangul. You can learn reading and writing (Hangul)
without the knowledge about Korean words (vocabulary), whereas you
should learn reading and writing with English words simultaneously.
Reading & writing are separated from vocabulary in Korean, but
reading & writing are combined with vocabulary in English. So,
Hangul is very easy to learn, read and write.
Slide 15
Unique Feature of Hangul (3) Syllable-based representation
scheme of Hangul enforces no exceptions. (There are some
exceptions, though) Thanks to Hangul, Korean language has a
tendency to adapt itself as a pronunciation for a word is changed.
Adaptation example (rent-fee) [sag-wol-se] [sa-gl-se] Korean
government changed the standard from to . English allows many
exceptions. English do not adapt itself even though a pronunciation
for a word is changed. Example School vs. Skul UK or USA
governments do not change the word from SCHOOL to SKUL. Writing
school but reading skul is still OK for them. The issues is not
government officers attitude (diligentness or lazyness), but the
tendency by the characters (Hangul and Alphabet). There is no
spelling bee competition in Korea. Because every Korean (except
babies) is a spelling bee.
Slide 16
To Learn Hangul Symbols for Phonemes Consonants: , , , , , , ,
, , , , , , , , , , Vowels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Rule of layout for consonants and vowels to represent syllables (
distinguished from other characters)
Slide 17
Layout
Slide 18
Rule of Layout for Syllable Con. : a consonant Vow. : a vowel M
: mandatory B : at least one vowel in sections II and III Vowels
with a vertical bar ( , , , , , ) locate at section III. Vowels
with a horizontal bar ( , , , , , ) locate at section II. O :
optional Section I Con. (M) Section II Vow. (B) Section III Vow.
(B) Section IV Con. (O) Section V Con. (O)
Example: Layout for Syllable What if Con. (M) not exist? Void
(empty, zero) consonant ( ) Con. (M) Vow. (B) Con. (O) [o]
Slide 24
Special Consonant - When is in section I, it means void. [o]
When is in section IV, it is a consonant with its own sound, ng.
[song] Section I Con. (M) Section II Vow. (B) Section III Vow. (B)
Section IV Con. (O) Section V Con. (O)