The Korean Alphabet

[Guest]

Han-kul is the name of the Korean Alphabet.  Literally, it simply means "Korean" (sort of).  But in context it usually refers to the alphabet or written language.

It is what I believe to be the only truly scientific alphabet.  It is completely phonetic.  And every shape is based on a principle.  Most consonants have a shape of the mouth in mind.

CONSONANTS

The g/k is a picture of the back of the tongue (towards the right hand side) meeting with the roof of the mouth.

The n is made by pushing the tongue into the shape shown by the shape.

The d/t is made by pushing the tongue in a shape similar to the n and allowing a bit of air out.

And so on...

The g/k and the d/t and similar pairings are made because some are vocalized explosive sounds, while some are non-vocalized explosive sounds.  Context in both word and sentence determines which pronunciation is actually made.

VOWELS

There are vertical vowels and horizontal vowels.  Pronounce them for a while and you'll pick up on what is a vertical sound and what is a horizontal sound.  Then there is the "y" sound and the "w" sound.  You can see how they are related by the way they look.  The "O" is a simple horizontal vowel (somewhat mimicking the shape of the mouth) with the rise in the center to round out the mouth.  Then the "yO" is made by adding a second vertical tick to the same vowel.  This is what adds the "y" sound.

I know of no other alphabet in the world that has such a thought out system of relationships between sound and alphabetic character representing it.

** Note that the r,l sound seems to be missing.  It is not.  It is simply mislabeled as a "t".  Notice there is the d/t, the tt, and the t indicated.  The "t" is sometimes the correct transliteration of the actual spoken sound.  But it is due to a pronunciation quirk in the Korean spoken language.  It is generally, not the correct Romanization.

Edited August 23, 2017 by Guest

[Vort]

I think written Korean is awesome. But when you have an inflected, agglutinative language inheriting from a dozen primary sources and in which five- and six-syllable words are not uncommon. a Korean-like system for writing simply will not work.

[Sunday21]

@Carborendum. Cool alphabet!

[NeuroTypical]

14 minutes ago, Vort said:

But when you have an inflected, agglutinative language...

Just wanted to make sure Vort got credit for using the word "agglunitative" in polite conversation and nobody even went to jail.  

[person0]

Not to change the subject here but. . . Spanish is completely phonetic too.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Vort said:

I think written Korean is awesome. But when you have an inflected, agglutinative language inheriting from a dozen primary sources and in which five- and six-syllable words are not uncommon. a Korean-like system for writing simply will not work.

I would disagree.  It is certainly lacking some 10 to 20 additional consonants.  But they could be so developed.  I did so.

I began writing in Spanish using the Korean alphabet.  It was my own code.  I had to add a few letters.  I first noticed that "F" was missing from hangul.  But I also noticed that the "F" was pretty close to a Korean character in and of itself.  This process went on for the few remaining characters to complete the Spanish language.

Later I took it upon myself to do the same with English.  I based the sounds off of the phonemes found in the dictionary.  I believe there were something like 25 consonant sounds?  Anyway, I slowly created them.  They looked like runes from Tolkien.  I wish I still had them.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, person0 said:

Not to change the subject here but. . . Spanish is completely phonetic too.

Yes.  But it is still based on an arbitrary alphabet.  I was pointing out that Hangul has the benefit of characters with a reasoning to them.

[Vort]

How do you write e.g. "necessarily" or "polysyllabic" or "agglutinative" or "mechanistically" in a written language that limits each word to three syllables or fewer?

[prisonchaplain]

I learned to sound this out with fair accuracy after a couple of two-hour tutoring sessions. My guess is that one could learn to write it with not too many more sessions. Of course, reading would require vocabulary. It's an awesome system--much easier than our romanized spelling, with more exceptions than compliances to the so-called rules.

[Guest]

16 hours ago, Vort said:

How do you write e.g. "necessarily" or "polysyllabic" or "agglutinative" or "mechanistically" in a written language that limits each word to three syllables or fewer?

Well, that would go against definition, wouldn't it?

Korean names are all three syllables (in a 2 + 1 or 1 + 2 format).  But the language itself is not.  The historical Korean vocabulary was pretty limited.  Most words were either one, two, or three syllables.  But as time went on we adopted many words from other languages which created longer words.  But it creates rather interesting barbarisms.

"Ice Cream" is a perfect example.  In English, it is only two syllables.  But in Korean, it is five syllables.

The nature of the written and spoken language is that you can't end syllables with certain consonants.  So, we have to add an additional vowel syllable to make the desired sound.  The romanization would be "ah ee su kuh rim".   The "ah ee" is required because there is no Korean equivalent to the long "I" in English.  It is accomplished by the separate pronunciation of "ah" and "ee".

But the mechanics are there to write any sound you want.

"Polysyllabic" would be "Pol-ree-syl-rah-bik".  Notice that the L and the R are the same sound in most Asian languages. So, this is how you'd write it.  I suppose you could remove the two "r"s.  But the tendency is to not do that.

When I wrote in Spanish or English using Hangul, I never followed these rules or the rules of syllables.

EDIT:  It just occurred to me.  One of the most commonly used words in the language is four syllables.

ha-sim-ni-ka.  It is used in the phrase "anyung hasimnika?"  It is the common greeting (hello).  It literally means "are you at peace?" or "Do you make peace?"

Edited August 23, 2017 by Guest

[anatess2]

20 hours ago, Carborendum said:

Notice that the L and the R are the same sound in most Asian languages.

Yeah, I can't decide if we say it Pry Rye or Ply Lye.