Hangeul step 1

ㅏ ㅐ ㅑ ㅒ ㅓ ㅔ ㅕ ㅖ ㅗ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅛ ㅜ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅠ ㅡ ㅢ ㅣ

Step 1: Introduction
Step 2: Letters 1
Step 3: Letters 2

Welcome. Unlike Japanese and Chinese, the basics of the Korean script can be learned in a matter of hours. The only way to accurately pronounce Korean words is to use the Korean script. English and Korean do not have perfectly matching sounds, so using Romanization is mostly a bad idea. We have created a 6 step lesson plan and have employed various methods to help others learn the Korean script quickly and effectively. After finishing the 6 step lesson, you should also visit the consonant assimilation pages for advanced pronunciation rules. This project is still under construction and the recording of each vocal sound is still in process, please be patient. As time permits, each page will be gradually finished. We would also like to hear your input on the talk page. Thank you for your patience --Bluesoju 12:32, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Brief history

See full article at The Origin of Hangeul

A page from the Hunmin Jeong-eum Eonha

Hangul was introduced under Sejong the Great and finished around 1444. Up until and even after that time, Chinese characters were used as the written language which limited reading and writing to the royal and government elite. King Sejong wanted Korea to have its own script which was easier for the commoner to use. Hangeul was said to be easy enough to learn that a wise man could finish it in the morning and a fool could finish it by night. For that reason, there was opposition to Hangeul for a long time by the aristocrats who thought learning Hangeul was only for Women or the poor.

Ever since Hangeul was first introduced, it went through many phases of being refined. Korean went through a large reformation during the Japanese colonization in the early 1900's, removing many of the now archaic letters and changing some rules.

For those interested in learning Korean Sign Language (KSL), please see the page on sign language.

Letters

Korean is very differentiated from the other Asian languages in that it uses letters that are arranged in character form. Just like English, letters are classified as either consonants or vowels.

Consonants

Simple: ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅇ, ㅈ, ㅎ
Tense consonants or glottalized (written as two simple consonants and involve tensing up the mouth): ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ
Aspirated (blowing more air than the simple consonant it's based on): ㅊ, ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ
Consonant clusters (containing two unrelated consonants): ㄳ, ㄵ, ㄶ, ㄺ, ㄻ, ㄼ, ㄽ, ㄾ, ㄿ, ㅀ, ㅄ

Design

The letters for the consonants fall into five groups, each with a basic shape, and one or more letters derived from this shape by means of additional strokes. The basic shapes represent the positions of the tongue, palate, teeth, and throat when making these sounds.

Articulation
Place↓ Manner→	Stop	Affricate	Fricative	Nasal	Approximant
Velar (아 음 <牙音> "molar sounds")	ㄱ, ㄲ, ㅋ
Coronal (설 음 <舌音> "lingual sounds")	ㄷ, ㄸ, ㅌ			ㄴ	ㄹ
Bilabial (순 음 <唇音> "labial sounds")	ㅂ, ㅃ, ㅍ			ㅁ
Sibilant (치 음 <齒音> "dental sounds")		ㅈ, ㅉ, ㅊ	ㅅ, ㅆ
Glottal (후 음 <喉音> "throat sounds")				ㅇ	ㅎ

Vowels

Simple: ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅗ, ㅜ, ㅡ, ㅣ
Iotized (Adds a 'y' sound): ㅑ, ㅕ, ㅛ, ㅠ
Dipthongs (combinations, usually adding a 'w' sound): ㅐ, ㅒ, ㅔ, ㅖ, ㅚ, ㅟ, ㅢ, ㅘ, ㅝ, ㅙ, ㅞ

Design

Vowel letters are based on three elements:

A horizontal line representing the flat Earth, the essence of yin.
A point (now a short line) for the Sun in the heavens, the essence of yang.
A vertical line for the upright Human, the neutral mediator between the Heaven and Earth.

Vowels can be organized by their harmony:

Positive / Light / Yang: ㅏ, ㅑ, ㅗ, ㅛ, ㅐ, ㅘ, ㅚ, ㅙ
Negative / Dark / Yin: ㅓ, ㅕ, ㅜ, ㅠ, ㅔ, ㅝ, ㅟ, ㅞ
Neutral / Center: ㅡ, ㅣ, ㅢ

In Korean onomatopoeia, you can change a sounds loudness by changing the vowel from or to a light vowel to make it softer or dark vowel to make it louder

Structure

The easiest way to describe the structure of Hangeul is that it's a combination of a letter-based language like English and a character-based language like Chinese. Korean syllables are organized into blocks of Jamo that have a beginning consonant (called Cho), a middle vowel (called Jung), and an optional end consonant (called Jong).