Hangul was created in 1443 by King Sejong of the Joseon Dynasty. Before that, Koreans used Chinese characters when writing Korean language.However, Chinese characters were too difficult for ordinary people without education. Thus, King Sejong created Hangul, which can be easily used by ordinary people.
(1) Vowels: Vowel letters were made like this.
- • means rounded sky : l + • = ㅏ[a]
- ㅡ means flatten earth : ㅣ + •• = ㅑ [ya]
- ㅣ means person standing : • + ㅡ = ㅗ [o], •• + ㅡ = ㅛ [yo]
King Sejong made ‘ㅏ(아), ㅑ(야), ㅓ(어), ㅕ(여), ㅗ(오), ㅛ(요), ㅜ(우), ㅠ(유)’ based on the three basic vowels (i.e: •, ㅡ, ㅣ). which depicted the round sky, the flat earth, and a standing person. The rest of the vowels were made by combining these basic letters.
Here are 10 basic vowels as follows.
- ㅏ (a): Similar to the ‘a’ in “father.”
- ㅑ(ya): Similar to the ‘ya’ in “yarn.”
- ㅓ (eo): Similar to the ‘eo’ in “Heo(korean family name).”
- ㅕ (yeo): Similar to the ‘yeo’ in “yeoman.”
- ㅗ (o): Similar to the ‘o’ in “go.”
- ㅛ (yo): Similar to the ‘yo’ in “yoga.”
- ㅜ (u): Similar to the ‘u’ in “flute.”
- ㅠ (yu): Similar to the ‘yu’ in “you.”
- ㅡ (eu): Similar to the ‘u’ in “umbrella.”
- ㅣ (i): Similar to the ‘ee’ in “see.”
Here are 11 combined vowels as follows.
- ㅐ (ae): Similar to the ‘ae’ in “apple.”
- ㅒ (yae): Similar to a combination of ‘ya’ and ‘ae.’ Similar to “yesterday”.
- ㅔ (e): Similar to the ‘e’ in “egg.”
- ㅖ (ye): Similar to a combination of ‘yeo’ and ‘e’. Similar to “yesterday”.
- ㅘ (wa): Similar to a combination of ‘o’ and ‘a’. Similar to “wine”.
- ㅙ (wae): Similar to a combination of ‘o’ and ‘ae’. Similar to “wait”.
- ㅚ (oe): Similar to the ‘way’ in “okay.”
- ㅝ (weo): Similar to a combination of ‘u’ and ‘o’. Similar to “wonder”.
- ㅞ (we): Similar to a combination of ‘u’ and ‘e’. Similar to “when”.
- ㅟ (wi): Similar to the ‘wee’ in “week.” Similar to “week”.
- ㅢ (ui): Similar to the ‘ooey’ in “gooey.”
These vowels complete the basic set of Hangul vowels. Again, please note that Hangul vowels can produce sounds that might not have exact equivalents in English, so these approximate sounds are provided for reference.
