The Next Stepping Stone…

안녕하세요 ! 옅톃게 진개요 ?

I apologize for the lateness of this most recent post, but things have gotten pretty busy recently and I didn’t have the chance to catch up until now. As we discussed last time, I am using this blog as a means to help educate others about anything Korean while allowing myself to do a little self-exploration and figure out more about my recently-discovered ancestry. In the past couple of weeks, I have been able to study Korean a little bit more through an app that I downloaded on my iPhone. Although it does not teach grammar, it is very helpful for important phrases and basic conversation in order to get around Korea. Also, I started watching a YouTube series which helps beginners pick up the language through various scenarios that simulate everyday life. Although I haven’t been able to pick up a significant amount (what does that even mean, honestly?) of the language in the past few weeks, as I said in the last post, every little bit helps.

In my humble opinion, Korean is a beautiful language. The language has a vast history going back as far as the 4^th century CE, when it was known as Old Korean (고대국어). During the Three Kingdoms Period (4^th century CE-10^th century CE), Old Korean was utilized by the Silla, Gorguryeo, and Baekje Kingdoms, which ruled what is now present-day North and South Korea and Manchuria (China). Hanja (한자), or Chinese characters used in the Korean language, was the primary script used to communicate in Old Korean. The Idu (이두) script was the “official’s reading “ (literal translation), or writing system that represented the Korean language using Hanja. This system contained components of Korean phonology with Chinese script, which was used regularly for hundreds of years until the 15^th century when King Sejong commissioned a new writing system known as Hangul (한글). It is essentially an alphabet-based system composed of 24 consonant and vowel letters. Although the Hangul system was introduced in 1443 (during the Joseon Dynasty), it remained suppressed under the cultural and political domination of the political and intellectual elite for several hundred years, who insisted that Hanja was the only legitimate script of the Korean language.

According to research, King Sejong developed the Hangul system because there was a serious issue of illiteracy within the general population of Joseon Korea. Although commoners had no issue with speaking [Middle] Korean, the Hanja used in script was often seen to be too difficult to learn because commoners could not afford to spend time learning Hanja, while the elite and intellectuals could afford to learn the script. While Hangul did see a surge in popularity among the lower classes of society, at the beginning of the 16^th century, we see that the Korean aristocracy banned the teaching and usage of Hangul, favoring Hanja. It was seen by many in the aristocracy as a potential threat to their social standing within Joseon Korea (and later periods in Korea as well). Despite the official position on Hangul, the script continued to fluctuate in usage and popularity up until the late 1800’s, when Hangul was finally established as the official script of Korea. However, that status did not last for long.

During the Occupation of Korea by Japan, which began in 1910, Hangul was still utilized as the script; however, Japanese was made the official language of the newly-formed Japanese Korea. So, we see the Japanese language written in Hangul for approximately 30 years when during the height of World War II, Hangul was banned by the Japanese government and Japanese was written in the various Japanese scripts (Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana). At the end of the war and the end of the Occupation, Korean and Hangul were reinstated as the official language and script of the Korean peninsula. Not too long after the Independence of Korea from Japan, the emerging communist faction of Korea (North Korea), with the assistance of the Soviet Union and Communist China, began a campaign to turn the Korean peninsula into one Communist nation. When the ensuing Korean War ended, Korea became split at the 38^th Parallel, which is now known as the (in)famous Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that currently splits the Korean peninsula in half.

Interestingly enough, Modern Korean, which is spoken by approximately 80 million people around the world, has seen a significant linguistic split in the Koreas based on varying spellings, pronunciations, grammar, and even vocabulary. Perhaps I will save this for the next post, as this could take quite some time to discuss. As it’s getting late here, I should probably go to bed, so I will say 감사합니다 그리고 안녕히 가세요! Stay tuned for what awaits next…

Sources: http://asiasociety.org/korean-language; UCLA Language Materials Project