Hangul: when a country decides to change its writing system
(First page of the Hunminjeongeum, which formally introduced Hangul)
A country’s orthography – it’s alphabet and spelling – may seem fixed. But there are instances in history when a country completely changed. This is exactly what Korea did.
From Wikipedia:
Before the invention of Hangul, Korea had been using Hanja (Chinese characters) since antiquity. The difficulty of the script limited its use to mostly upper-class people; commoners were largely illiterate. Hanja is not well suited for representing the Korean language; the Chinese and Korean languages are not closely related and differ in significant ways. Korean pronunciation and ideas could only be indirectly represented.
Joseon king Sejong the Great (r. 1418–1450) was responsible for Hangul’s creation, and most scholars believe he was significantly personally involved in creating it. Hangul was first introduced, likely in a mostly complete form, to Sejong’s court in the 12th month of 1443 of the Korean calendar (around December 30, 1443 to January 28, 1444 in the Gregorian calendar). Work then began on applying the script and developing official documentation for it. Part of this effort resulted in the creation of Yongbiŏch’ŏn’ga, the first ever piece of Hangul literature. In the 9th month of 1446 (the specific day of publication is not known), Hangul was officially promulgated via the introductory texts Hunminjeongeum and Hunminjeongeum Haerye. The Hunminjeongeum begins with this now famous preface by Sejong:The sounds of our country’s language are different from those of the Middle Kingdom and are not confluent with the sounds of characters. Therefore, among the ignorant people, there have been many who, having something they want to put into words, have in the end been unable to express their feelings. I have been distressed because of this, and have newly designed twenty-eight letters, which I wish to have everyone practice at their ease and make convenient for their daily use.
Read more here.
So how does this relate to English? English spelling is notoriously difficult and is only partially phonetic. Many famous figures, including Benjamin Franklin, Noah Webster, Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt, George Bernard Shaw, Charles Darwin, and Andrew Carnegie have championed English spelling reform, advocating for simplification through new alphabets, phonetic spelling, or standardized changes. Unfortunately, the attempts to reform English spelling have all been unsuccessful – so far.
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