How Korea crafted a better alphabet - History of Writing Systems #11 (Featural Alphabet)

The Korean alphabet is better than yours. Meet the king who invented it and watch him work his linguistic magic in this chapter in the history of writing.
You wake up in another palace. This time you're in Korea. The first face to greet you is that of King Sejong the Great. He tells you of centuries of struggles trying to fit Chinese characters to his Korean language. He compares it to Japanese. But he wants something cleaner, more efficient.
You tell him about your alphabet, but he's not impressed. Watch as he knocks your ideas down and invents a better writing system. Are you convinced? Could this be the greatest major moment in the history of writing?
Watch all of Thoth's Pill:
• Thoth's Pill: an Anima...
Who created this?
Art, animation and music by NativLang
CC-BY and public domain credits:
docs.google.com/document/d/1z...
CORRECTIONS:
ㅁ is m and ㅍ is p - Theophilus Zhou

[@GhostOfJulesVerne]

Hangul is the easy part. Now I can pronounce all the Korean signs in my city, but I still don't know what they mean.

[@keffinsg]

looks like that is one of the cons of using an alphabetical script. with an ideographic script like chinese, you may know what it means, but not necessarily how to pronounce it. There are pros and cons of either type of script. i imagine one reason the ideographic script lasted so strongly in China was the need to administer vast lands and varied tongues without having everyone learn the same spoken language.

[@CesarPerez-pu2hy]

+keff You're wrong, an alphabetical script is always better. What you said isn't true because just like you'd have to learn that 人 means person, you'd have to learn that 집 means house - in either case, you always have to learn it first. The difference being that if you don't know that 집 means house, at least you are able to read it and maybe be able to recognise it if you hear that word later on, something you wouldn't be able to do in Chinese, as writing and speaking are two completely isolated and disconnected things. So if you know how to write something, you don't necessarily know how to say it, and if you know how to say something, you don't necessarily know how to write/read it.

[@keffinsg]

Let me break it down for you. I come from Singapore. I speak Chinese but not Japanese and Korean. I can go to Japan and read the road signs and find my way around without learning any new spoken language or written script. I cannot do this Korea. Is an alphabetical script better for me in this situation? It all depends on the situation. Alphabetical scripts are good for easy learning and administration of groups of people who speak the same language. Ideographic scripts are better for people of different cultures who do not speak the same language to interact. Just look at the symbols on all the signs at airports and train stations. They are symbols and not any particular language because the cut across language barriers.

[@CesarPerez-pu2hy]

keff I hadn't thought about that, actually... that's very true. Thanks for sharing. I suppose using an ideographic script was very useful for China back in the good ol' days for that very reason, then, since it was such a large country and there were surely many, many different dialects. I guess I'll reconsider my stance on non-alphabetical writing systems :)

[@keffinsg]

Yes, in its history China encountered many alphabetical systems from India, Rome, Arabs, Mongols, Khmer etc. In fact alphabetical scripts became popular on some occasions, but they were never able to overtake the ideographic system. I imagine the reason was largely because the alphabetical system had problems when it came to administering the large and varied Middle Kingdom. You are right when referring to dialects, but what isn't so well known is that the dialects are as different as Spanish from French. China has been called a civilisation state, rather than a nation state. In a way it is like the EU, only that it was formed 2000 years ago when there was no Google auto-translation

[@user_ZS75HGV89Kh]

Sejong did not order scholars to make Hangul. Rather, most scholars opposed the making of Hangul, and they also held a large-scale rally to stop Sejong from making Hangul. Hangul is a character created by Sejong alone. He only had a few helpers who were in agreement with him, and the idea of the system and shape of the letter stemmed from his ingenuity of Sejong's creativity and phonetics.

[@yaleyoon6856]

Right

[@molkkoraba]

우리나라엔 이제 많이 알려진 사실이지만 아직 외국에선 모르는 사람이 많은듯

[@yaleyoon6856]

Yeah so I actually looked that up because even if something doesn't sound right to me I've learned to be open minded when it comes to history because I don't know everything and I'm not an expert, but turns out that book's complete pseudohistorical bs. That author doesn't even look like he's even an actual certified historian or scholar. He's a "Theoretical researcher" one of the websites online said. I can't believe it's somehow on sale on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. How can high profile companies like those let a bs book like this be on sale in their stores? At first I was genuinely interested for what that book is about, but when I read the description I found out it's one of those "African people were everyone and did everything" kind of pseudohistory. I'm more interested in how that guy even found about Baekje and Korean history, which is relatively not well known throughout the world besides some historians and niche groups of ppl who are interested in Korea, and decided to create his pseudohistorical theory and write an entire book on it. Yeah so in conclusion, everyone ignore this guy's comment because it's completely false. And also I'm curious what's going on in history academia in some African countries. Is this a part of some ultranationalist agenda by certain groups in certain African countries to try to make their history sound great or something? I wouldn't be surprised if that's true, for they wouldn't be the first people to do such things, oh no not at all the first people haha. Alright I'm out.

[@user-qi7tj7fx4q]

yep

[@Dom_om_nom]

@@benhesediszrael4031 You do realize the Sejong DID create Hangul, it's not stolen. Africans didn't make everything. In fact, most of the inventions throughout history were made by Ancient China.

[@EyeLean5280]

I think King Sejong's real motive, to give the common people a writing system they can learn easily so they can bring cases to court, is fascinating and remarkably progressive. So sorry it isn't mentioned here.

[@NativLang]

I've read he did this to promote common education. I kept the narrative bound to linguistic motives because that's what I understood best. I thank you for expanding by sharing more insights!

[@user-tu4nd4dv7k]

TakeshimaIsJapan!!! This person is netto uyo similar as neo nazi. So just ignore him. Next, this person will blame me with unlogical things.

[@elimirienfalas3456]

​@TakeshimaIsJapan!!! That's telling only one side for defending Japanese netto uyo. Japanese colonial government appeased during 1920s for absorb Korea, making Koreans as lower grade peoples. You didn't told about forbidding of using Hangul and Korean language in 1938 and punishing Hangul scholars in 1942.

[@elimirienfalas3456]

@TakeshimaIsJapan!!! You're escaping from historic events what I said. And you think your opponent opinion is Korean's without thinking. That represents your logical flaws.

[@elimirienfalas3456]

@TakeshimaIsJapan!!! You're in the 'reality' that built from things only you want to see, not whole reality. Just like your reply, you see just glory, not faults like harrassment to others. Should I call real? I call it Otakic Masterbations.

[@wiitubeaccount]

Ah hangul. Such a logical and easy writing system for such a difficult language to learn ㅜㅜ

[@jazz1795]

Really? I'm learning korean and it really doesn't seem that hard. maybe it's just me

[@wiitubeaccount]

@107853911391738771084 Probably because you're doing the easy stuff honestly

[@jazz1795]

+Wiitubeaccount lol yea I'm just at the begging so probably

[@CesarPerez-pu2hy]

What are you finding really difficult? (I'm not saying the language isn't hard, I'm just curious)

[@TheBongoJeff]

+Cesar Perez The beginnerstage is very easy because you dont have genders, cases you dont even different verb conjugations for different persons which is comparable to english. for example to eat : I eat you eat only the Third person gets an "s" attached. the only verb conjugation you make is depending on the tense (very very easy) and level of formality. example : 공부하다 infinitive of learning Lowest formal level: 공부해 formal language : simply add 요 (yo) 공부해요 highest formal language used when refering to the president for example : 공부합니다 neutral language used in newspaper because no specific person is being talked to : 공부한다 the real is coming when sentence getting longer since the verb is always at the end of the sentence ; S-O-V For me listening was very tough because words and syllables had smooth transition thus making it hard to distinguish where the end of a word is.

[@nexus1g]

When I was in high school, I had thought of developing a more compact and accurate writing system that represented phonetic sounds using spatial positioning and symbols within a square area. Then I learned about Hangul and realized I was 600 years too late.

[@shinilpm]

Me tooo

[@user-rb9ye8cz3d]

Yeah right

[@nexus1g]

@@user-rb9ye8cz3d You don't believe me?

[@user-rb9ye8cz3d]

@@nexus1g You were that smart when you were in highschool? If that's true, I bet you are in Google or something.

[@nexus1g]

@@user-rb9ye8cz3d I am certainly not dumb, but I'm a loser and my life is an absolute mess. I'm a person who's likely not as smart as he likes to think he is while still being at least above average enough to be self-aware of this fact and aware of all the things I likely don't know. I have a false outward bravado like the world just wasn't ready for this level of genius yet, but then go cry by myself knowing I've just had a very screwed up life that I'm going to have to muddle through the best I can while I wait to die. But what I said in my OP is also true.

[@lostnursery]

Hangul is the easy part. *Korean grammar, expressions and dialects are what will trigger you and make you ragequit learning Korean.*

[@electrode8239]

korean be like *"wanna see me writing "eat" with dozens of variations by meaning?"* im korean, i can approve that

[@user-ej5tv7uu7s]

agree as a korean...hangul is so easy but the grammer is so hard on the other hand😂😂😂

[@junovzla]

japanese is the other way around, it's easy to say, writing is a hell

[@vegataryanrecipes6304]

@_Spam _ I KNOW THAT ONE! IT SAYS "na"

[@kiw6024]

But hard grammar also mean a various type of meaning. many way to express specific topic. When you get used to it, it would feel really beautiful.

[@jahinzee]

3:26 Bit of an issue: the Hangeul characters for 'p' and 'm' are swapped; 'm' is the one that looks like a box

[@vandana_bangar9492]

Somehow they wrongly represented it ........ actually what you're saying is actually what it is ....... M=ㅁ P=ㅍ B=ㅂ

[@Rand0mperson433]

I noticed that

[@suldra915]

I saw that as well - I thought they'd explain it further in the video but they didn't xD (maybe they evolved later on or whatever)

[@PC_Simo]

I noticed that, too.

[@nennaknowsnothing]

So glad someone noticed. 😌

[@Samuel-th6fw]

You mixed up P and M at 3:24

[@NativLang]

You're right. It's one of a handful of things I wish I could just fix.

[@TheAurgelmir]

I only noticed the M ㅍmistake at first and thought I'd get a nice transitional diagram... Hangul us such a cool alphabet but evolution has made som of it odd... looking at you ㅔand ㅐ.

[@Samuel-th6fw]

Magnus Ludvigsen It's not that odd to me. I'm swedish and we have the exact same case with E and Ä wich are pretty much the same as ㅔand ㅐ. It's just a difference that some languages have and others don't, in time people easily learn the difference though.

[@TheAurgelmir]

***** I always thought swedish Ä was more like Norways Æ?

[@roeese1]

In Korean, the ㅚ (ㅗ+ㅣ) is technically pronounced like ö, and ㅟ (ㅜ+ㅣ) should be pronounced like ü, and ㅢ (ㅡ+ㅣ) should be pronounced like ÿ, but in the Seoul dialect, these are pronounced like wë, wi, and yi.

[@LawnPygmy]

I was taught Hangul in Korea. I didn't master it, and I still couldn't understand the words I was reading, but I could actually read them with some level of proficiency. It took an hour. Hangul is THAT good.

[@quabledistocficklepo3597]

LawnPygmy I taught myself in about the same amount of time, but I later learned that I hadn't really learned it. I still don't understand where I went wrong, but I have since learned that that the same symbol can have different pronunciations. I guess there's a logical way to figure out which sound to use, but I never got that far. In fact, I only discovered my ignorance when was trying to show off my newly found knowledge of the Korean writing system to my Korean workmates. I need to be able to learn Korean like I need a hole in the head, but one of these days I'm going to find out where I went wrong

[@deadlyk1tten]

@@quabledistocficklepo3597 how is it good? anyone can spend an hour learning the phonetic symbols of English and be able to read phonetic symbols too, it achieves nothing, if anything it slows down the reading of the language, like try to read 'aniwan kan lern tu rid. ' it is significantly slower when you have to figure out the sound then the meaning special spelling or characters helps define words and gives them meaning while speaking and phonetic marks drifts over time in history

[@quabledistocficklepo3597]

@@deadlyk1tten What?

[@deadlyk1tten]

@@quabledistocficklepo3597 easypronunciation.com/en/american-english-pronunciation-ipa-chart you can write any western language in these symbols, and anyone can read them, boom a new language is born, it is THAT good

[@user-pm2zv9fs5r]

@@deadlyk1tten phonetic sounds can still have meaning. you can't just force someone to abandon their language and try yours

[@dohyunchoi3735]

Hangul is such an amazing writing system, but the rest of the Korean language is on the difficult side...

[@switch9636]

Tbh, Hangul is indeed easy. It took me only 5 hours to learn how to read and write in Hangul, which made it easier for me to learn korean. Maybe it's because I grew up in Morocco where we already learn growing up French,Arabic and english so I can easily adapt to languages But korean was by far the easiest language I learned and it was so fun! I am currently studying german after mastering spanish and I can say that Korean took me the shortest while to learn (About 2 to 3 years) (Spanish took me 5 years)

[@jamessandoval5843]

CupOfTaeWithSuga AndSomeKookies 你是学习中文。我觉得汉语太难过。虽然汉语有一点难过，这个语言非常有意思。我记得当你会说法国话，我觉得西班牙语不在话下。You can plug this into a translator. My grammar is a bit off. ;p

[@switch9636]

James Sandoval I gave up on learning chinese a long time ago since it's too hard, And google doesn't give appropriate translation so... I didn't really understand what you mean.

[@outofenergy79]

CupOfTaeWithSuga AndSomeKookies lol just cause reading and writing is easy doesn't mean the language is easy. The grammar structures make me wanna kms 😂

[@switch9636]

my heartu ;-; Really? I found it fun and interesting! It's not too difficult but also not easy. It is doable. Wait until you check out arabic grammar It's exhausting! I have been speaking arabic for 13 years nad I still have a lot if trouble in grammar and conjugation.

[@ToastiLP]

Hangul is probably THE best writing system in the world, by how logical and easy to learn it is, while still saving space.

[@ToastiLP]

***** Obviously, the writing system was modelled after a language and the language ended up being modelled after the writing system. Words like "strike" wouldn't even exist in korean. Maybe you can try and write some chinese words with roman letters? You can't, all you can do is give an appropriation and tell others how it's pronounced.

[@danaphanous]

Another advantage of the alphabet over block structures is it is easier to use with a printing press since the language is linear and has less characters. This is, in my opinion, why I think the printing press really took off when the idea reached the western world but never progressed beyond hand wood-blocks in asia. A funny downside of the western alphabet though: the characters really are disorganized, probably because they came from simplified glyphs. I realized I don't even know what shape my mouth makes when it makes sounds until I thought about it after this video. I thought of "t" and "d" as really different because the english characters look really different but realized that the only difference is air flow...lol. It's pretty cool that Hangul organized the symbols logically! I think the ideal writing system is an alphabet that is adapted to better express tonal languages and all of the sounds that occur between languages. We need to drop a few redundant characters and add a few more for sounds that exist in other languages. Then we need new punctuation to instruct how each syllable is pronounced tonally and where the emphasis is. Pretty much the international phonetic alphabet I guess. But invetibly any language will simplify the stuff that doesn't exist in itself so an international standard is hard to maintain.

[@KateGladstone]

+Nothhelm Blodcyning Just writing the Hangul characters side by side (no block system) has been attempted - in the 19th century, by missionaries in Korea who thought this would be more "normal" because it's what the missionaries were used to. However, it made reading and writing Korean unexpectedly harder to learn - even for the missionaries, but also observably for young Koreans learning to read/write their language written in this form.

[@freddyt55555]

"strike" = 스트라이크

[@freddyt55555]

"This is, in my opinion, why I think the printing press really took off when the idea reached the western world but never progressed beyond hand wood-blocks in asia." Uh, the oldest book printed with metal moveable type happens to be Korean in origin, and it came 78 years before the Gutenberg Bible.

[@OranJJeTofu]

The Korean language is really great. I am of Indian descent and also know how to read/write/speak in Hindi, but Hangul is sooo soo soo much easier

[@KateGladstone]

Interestingly, in Indonesia there is a language (unrelated to Korean) whose speakers have adopted Hangul as their writing system: www.bing.com/search?q=cia+cia+hangeul&form=APIPA1&PC=APPD

[@viktro546]

actually the King Sejong took inspiration from the Mongolian writing system at that time, the 'Phags-pa script, which is a descendant of the Indian Devanagari. The video failed to show this part.

[@lynksis12]

Kate Gladstone that's fascinating!

[@KateGladstone]

viktro546 I suspect that Koreans don't talk much about that part ...

[@viktro546]

Kate Gladstone true.

[@AndyMoonKR]

He didn't present himself as "sejong", those are only names given after death!

[@CrabTastingMan]

Ah, a good observation, seeing how the vast majority of Koreans don't know this (except historians).

[@tsuba14]

this is borrowed from Chinese culture. there are multiple names for the emperor, his birth name, his title name, his posthumous name, his non-taboo name, etc.

[@AndyMoonKR]

+tsuba14 Yes I do know that. Korea is the only country in East Asia other than Chinese dynasties to use it, even if the Chinese said only they can use it since, well, literally translated, they're at the centre of the world!

[@ROBLOXobama1337]

I like your profile picture.

[@CrabTastingMan]

Andy Moon Did Vietnam also use it?

[@drivesthecar3247]

40 years ago in junior high, a Korean girl in speech class gave a presentation about the Hangul alphabet and how perfectly mated it was to the language. It was so informative and fascinating, I remember it to this day! Her too! She was a cutie!!!

[@wlgjs678]

I'm a Korean and I'm so glad that King Sejong made that Korean writing system. Learning Chinese or Japanese takes long time to be able to read and write, but learning Korean only takes about 1~3 days to be able to do so. It's pretty much like English. The letter itself doesn't mean anything, but when you combine those Korean letters, it then means something. Thank you Sejong!

[@AndrewVasirov]

It's even easier than learning to pronounce things in English.

[@symmetry08]

English is too complicated and does not sound as it is written, and there are always exceptions. Russian, in the other-hand is exactly how it is written.

[@AndrewVasirov]

symmetry08 Что? Его? Бог?

[@symmetry08]

ну немного exceptions везде, но в большинcтво случай 99% what I said above

[@user-ot3py6nc1z]

Bull shit. In China, grade 1 student can write 100 worlds+ essay.

[@Asidders]

Just when the video started to get really interesting, it ends? ... :(

[@HenningGu]

Because he said: “Screw Chinese! I’m making my own!”

[@benhesediszrael4031]

This is what I am saying in another comment, read the book , "Paekche's Principle: The Great Secret of Asia" by Bayemy Biyick to find out the true creators of the Hangul writing system!

[@claretravels783]

As a learner of Korean I thank God everyday for King Sejong :')

[@sunnyday6133]

I learned to write and read Korean with no problem in like 2-3 weeks, just in my own free time. It's so damn easy and just... logical.

[@molly3857]

Same. I made flashcards and flicked through them whenever I was bored.

[@luchanefnvgc]

Ikr i literally learned how to real hangul in like 30 minutes

[@hawthornroot]

Mollie omg. show me those flashcards pls? so i too can make them :)

[@litten4112]

Any tips

[@royceleo]

30 minutes enough

[@user-jj1fd3cf5d]

Fun fact: Since Hangul was 'invented', it has a user's manual 😎

[@Chironexe]

lmao

[@user-dy6hg1pm4s]

ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 생각해보면 웃김 문자를 발명하다니 정말 대단해

[@hyunjinki1995]

We Koreans treat king sejong like a hero of Korea

[@fix24311]

yes, and after watching this video i understand why. his contribution to Korea culture is super huge. and it's genius how he thought of hangeul

[@alexfriedman2047]

As a Korean learner/speaker I 100% Agree. I can only write and speak with Koreans because of his invention. Imagine having to learn thousands of characters. Hangul has complicated grammar... but is mostly phonetic and takes up such a little amount of space!! He was a great King. I think Hangul is better than English in terms of creating words.

[@M_B_CayaMarvinC]

ㅒ

[@user-qh3hv3fv9w]

There are only 4 king that korean has called Deawang which means The great. Seajong Deawang(scholar) is one of them. Others are Geanggeto Deawang(warrior), Jungjo Deawang(art), Sunduck yeo Deawang(architect) last one means the great queen.

[@ihateallrace.soimnotracist550]

집현전 학자들도 영웅입니다 ㅎㅎㅎㅋㅋㅋ

[@dezzydream]

I am a linguistics nerd, but I didn't start to learn Korean because of that. Being the music nerd I am, I wanted to learn Korean because of K-Pop. Yes, K-Pop. Though, I did look into charts and just how to read and write hangul, and now I use it every day, whether it be reading lyrics or teaching someone how to pronounce someone's name.

[@kimurahundoshi4485]

I love k-pop too 👍

[@myy_.m3lody]

Same bro 💀💀💀

[@PC_Simo]

I, for one, love DPRK-Pop 🇰🇵😎.

[@ZachMikeMoller]

You managed to miss nearly all of the points that make the story of the development of Hangul so interesting.

[@nicoleraheem1195]

@grace 73😂 true

[@szecr]

Why don't you let him know how could you make it better? Your comment isn't helpful nor interesting.

[@szecr]

@@MaoTao yes

[@benhesediszrael4031]

To find out who the true creators of Hangul are, you got to read the book, "Paekche's Principle: The Great Secret of Asia" by Bayemy Biyick. You will be surprised, to say the least! The true identity of these creators is an even bigger secret that the elite of South Korea are hiding from the masses because they were genocided by South Korea in alliance with China! Check out the book!

[@koreansunbae3314]

I’m a native Korean teacher!🇰🇷😁👍This video is so useful!! 감사합니다!!😁🇰🇷

[@fester91113]

In fact, Hangul was not developed by scholars but was developed by Saejong and his children. Sejong himself was one of the best linguists of his time.

[@jeshgamer8717]

mistake... ㅁ is M and ㅍ is P

[@jeshgamer8717]

I didnt see description there you corrected

[@NativLang]

Hah, yeah, thanks for reading. I caught that shortly after upload and facepalmed so hard that we mentioned it in the "Thoth's Pill extras".

[@daisycutter2978]

이걸 보러 답글에 왔죠ㅋㅋ

[@to1back]

2:58 is not true. King Sejong alone made Hangul. About 90%. Scholars did a little work.

[@bitchass1004]

"big" mistake

[@foggymedia]

The actual historical scenario under which Hungul came about is utterly fascinating. This presentation is like a Coles Notes version put out by the National Inquirer doing history lessons, and more then just borders on the moronic.

[@rohansaxena4751]

As person who's trying to learn korean I am really thankful to this guy for inventing Hangul😂 it's legit super easy to learn, the language itself I'm afraid is not easy at all😭😭😭😭

[@littlearttalks]

This series is so great! I'm learning so much :)

[@NativLang]

+Little Art Talks Thanks! Early on in planning Thoth's Pill, your channel raised some questions that nudged my design choices. So I'm happy you're enjoying!

[@jeremyrojas7631]

+NativLang was written with Chinese characters was really cool. 我感破啊，當韓國與一朝語字寫的是真的很酷

[@trien30]

+Jeremy Rojas what you wrote is not (grammatically) Chinese, only with random combination of Chinese phrases which makes no sense. Is your original statement from English, Spanish or some other non-Chinese language or dialect? What is 感破?(felt broken?), What is 一朝語字?(1 dynasty‘s spoken script?) & 酷 literally means cruel, used by Taiwanese to transcribe "cool" because the English word cool sounds closest to 酷 than anything else. It's really only used on the internet or between friends(especially young people, which later spread into other Chinese communities globally, some people still don't know 酷= cool, is originally from Taiwan). Cultural note: "朝語" can also be used now to mean "buzzword, jargon, neologism, etc..." in modern Chinese.

[@johnsherfey3675]

Lee Kwok lol.

[@Trex-or6cd]

This video is full of inaccuracies.

[@incrediblejava]

Huge respect to people who invented writing systems.

[@michaelkahn8744]

In Korea, most first graders start read and write within the first week of their school because the Korean Alphabet "Hangul" is so easy to learn.

[@yoonchangshin62]

Indeed Hangul is an amazing invention but many people underestimate how great linguist the king Sejong himself was, he didn't only have the idea but also leaded the project himself as well as intervened in all details throughout the whole process

[@andrewparke1764]

Korean Mixed Script is, in my opinion, the best and easiest script for reading comprehension (not recitation) ever.

[@jiwookang2463]

What do you mean by korean mixed script? If you mean hangul why don't you just say it? And I have no idea why it would make relations in east asia better. china and korea are tense politically right now

[@AndrewVasirov]

jiwoo kang Mixed script like the Japanese one: Using both the native system and Chinese characters to write. So both Hanja and Hangul. Politically tense right now, but we should focus about the long term relationship. But I doubt this will improve anything. I mean the Japanese were more Chinese (linguistically) during WW2 and we know how they treated them. But I agree that this will strengthen the cultural bond between the 3 nations. Also, DPRK loves PRC. :)

[@user-sl6ou3qb9l]

@@AndrewVasirov why must one change for the other Maybe the others should change to the more logical system that is Hangul?

[@AndrewVasirov]

@@user-sl6ou3qb9l No, I disagree. Chinese has tones and even words that are homophones can mean something different. Some Japanese tried writing books in Hiragana only and at times it is impossible to figure out what it is written, because of, once again, homophones. Chinese script is important because it gives *meaning* to sounds. And a Japanese man might be able to understand some written Chinese and vice versa, despite Japanese being from a completely different language family. And lastly, Chinese and Japanese do have their own 'hangul' or phonetic symbols: Bopomofo [in ROC] and Hiragana/Katakana [in Japan]. Of course, both language families are phonetically different from Korean.

[@user-sl6ou3qb9l]

@@AndrewVasirov You disagree? So you would prefer that Koreans change fue the others? It is proven that Korean is the most logical language to date You can disagree but it’s weird how you’d prefer regression

[@hopefullylost4012]

The best short presentation of Hangul in linguistic assessment. One thing I'd like to emphasize is that Hangul is the only writing system that was officially announced of its creation by the nation's court with a purpose of creation published in the first text book titled "훈민정음 Right Sound to Educate People". Yes, The King clearly proclaimed that the whole purpose was to educate his people for his empathy for his court could not communicate directly with via inefficient Chinese logo-graphs. Thank you for the great posting.

[@gamnamoo6195]

Well said, friend.

[@KettiexD]

learning hangul really is easy. the language itself, however..

[@Arthion]

I'd love to see a more in-depth look at the workings and advantages of these various writing systems at some point

[@soplet6121]

There are various theories about how King Sejong created Hangul but he definitely did not heard of European alphabet. The most popular theory is that consonants are based on shape of tongue when you pronounce the consonents. Vowel is based on various combination of vertical line(symbolize sky), horizontal like(land) and a dot(haman).

[@trinfinity22]

It took me more than ten days to learn hangul because I am a fool :')

[@asuka813]

This is literally the concept behind the writing system I have been developing, but more beautiful. I just haven't refined it yet ;) Similar shapes even! Really inspiring, I'm happy to know it exists.

[@rutilusovis]

From what I can tell of learning Korean, so much of the pronunciation is "eh, whichever way is easiest" which I love. Makes the language sound very flowy.

[@daniloreis86]

These series is so great! twice!

[@sakvra1913]

고맙시미다!!! As a person learning korea I think this DOES explain very much of the words and the culture.

[@gamnamoo6195]

고맙습니다 haha kind correction

[@SJ-zb3eo]

I first thank you to make this video. However, there is an error in your video about how hangul is created. Hangul is created by only King Sejong. No other scholars helped him. Only he himself made it secretly. It sounds so impossible that even a lot of Koreans don't know correct history. However, cross validations of the references clearly prove that he himself made it alone. It could be possible that some princes and princesses helped him but AT LEAST 95% of work is done only by King Sejong alone. A lot of wrong facts are spread. If you need references, "Hunminjeongeum/훈민정음 해례본" and "Sejong Annals/세종 실록" clearly write that King Sejong himself made it. Someone might say I don't believe those books because the king might change the true history. But "Sejong Annals/세종 실록" is very credible source. It is record of every work of each king in Joseon Dynasty. It even records "the king twisted his ankle. Since he was ashamed, he told me to not record this story". Seriously, even kings couldn't stop them recording those facts. Kings were not allowed to even read those records because it might affect the recording. Therefore, the references are really credible.

[@Lucas-rz3vl]

Source? Every source I've seen included the help of scholars, not just Sejong himself

[@SJ-zb3eo]

@@Lucas-rz3vl I understand that many sources include the wrong facts because even many Koreans don't know it. If you need an English version, the paper "Was the Korean alphabet a sole invention of King Sejong?" might be helpful which can be found in google scholars. The paper discusses many hypotheses of inventors of Hangul. The most credible source is "Sejong Annals/세종 실록" which is one of "Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty". You can find the information and copied version of it in "sillok.history.go.kr/intro/english.do" The copied version is written in Chineses and the translation in modern Korean is also available, but no English version exists. I am very sure that the sources that you have will say King Sejong ordered the scholars from "Hall of Worthies/집현전" to create Hangul. If you read the Sejong Annals, the scholars in Hall of Worthies didn't like to make new alphabet because the Chinese Dynasty would hate it. Joseon was very afraid of the pressure of China, and creating new alphabet is a serious political issue. For this reason, King Sejong created Hangul secretly and released it to the public, but the scholars argued that Hangul must not be released. Even the head of Hall of Worthies didn't know the creation of Hangul until it is released. You can clearly see the conflicts between king and the retainers in the Sejong Annals. You can see how the upper class people didn't like Hangul at that time. They thought Chineses is the best for scholars and Hangul is for low class. That is why Hangul became the main alphabet for Koreans after 20th century, 500 years later after the first release.

[@ekim3153]

@@SJ-zb3eo This would make sense, I had heard that he made it so that the common people could bring their cases to court, but tbh, i believe that things like this could only be divinely or supernaturally inspired, so I believe you in that He was alone, just him and whatever force was aiding him.

[@Hyreia]

Yeah, the amount of thought and care put into crafting the writing system to fit the spoken language is beautiful. Most languages look like they stole a bunch of squiggles from someone in an attempt to learn this 'written word' trick. Meanwhile this guy commissions a gift to his people.

[@Ninisw33t]

i love hangul its truly amazing & actually very easy, although the korean language itself is somewhat more difficult... 한글이 최고 다 !

[@Gwoogae]

ㄱㅅ

[@user-jy6bm6uu4i]

Korean writing system : Heaven korean Grammar : Hellllllll

[@user-fp8kd6dj8x]

여기서 잘못된 부분이 있습니다. 집현전에서는 한글창제를 반대하였기때문에 세종대왕은 공주들과 소수의 신하들만 모아서 비밀리에 한글을 만들어야 했습니다. 따라서 엄밀히 말하면 집현전 학자중 몇명정도는 한글을 창제하는데 힘을 보탰을지 모르나 '집현전'에서 만들어진것은 아님니다.

[@user-fp8kd6dj8x]

집현전을 훌륭한 인재들의 전당이라거 번역하셨다는 전제하에 쓴 글입니다.

[@1dir951]

I had friends who could read and write what they heard in Hangul. The amazing thing was, they had no idea what anything meant. It's a simply amazing writing system.

[@user-eo4xu4vv9s]

3:24 p - ㅍ b - ㅂ m - ㅁ p is not ㅁ M is not ㅍ (I'm Korean)

[@cheesecakelasagna]

Yeah, they misplaced the symbol for sure.

[@oneryang]

세종대왕님 고맙습니다ㅠㅠ사랑해요!! Thank you King sejong. All korean always appreciate for Hangul.

[@Gwoogae]

나닛 한국 사람?

[@korviscapetrova5269]

when I was learning the hangul alphabets I couldn't help but notice how it was so similar to Hindi Vanmala and the grammar so similar to Tamil ended up learning it far too soon Love the language.

[@KendrixTermina]

Wow, this one integrates functional information! Who knew Korean was so awesome. I've really been educated by this series.

[@user_ZS75HGV89Kh]

The content of this video is very different from the historical fact, so you should not accept everything as fact.

[@cyan225]

03:30 The vowels for m and p is reversed

[@zaenoaplays1855]

Its been a year since i learned hangul, i learned hangul in 2019. I’m really interested in hangul because i’m chinese, and i know how to read some chinese characters, and some korean characters and basically similar to chinese. And i also know that korean used to use chinese traditional characters, Hanja (漢字, Hanzi), (繁體字,Fantizi ) I also memorized some Hanja. I actually learned how to read korean because of my korean friends.

[@Croatam31]

Oh, that's an interesting story. I am Korean, and I can speak Japanese. Certainly, Japanese is very easy to learn because not only vocabulary but also grammar are similar with Korean. I just need to memorize the words. Even it's easy to memorize the word. Because both Korea and Japan are Chinese-characters cultures. So I became interested in Chinese, and I was excited to see a video comparing the similarities of words in three East Asian countries. Besides, I heard that Chinese grammar is easy. But... Chinese characters are a big barrier. Even though I learned Chinese characters when I was young. There is no end to learning lol. But I will definitely learn someday. It is very lovely to experience only slightly different pronunciations in each country at the root of the same word China. (For example human life is rensheng - insaeng - jinsei)

[@zaenoaplays1855]

@@Croatam31 Oooo

[@ashburnian]

I can't even imagine the pain and agony one must go through to learn Korean. At the same time, Korean is extremely expressive and anyone can create a new expression based on a basic expression.

[@TheDea8]

At 3:25, the ㅍ and ㅁ should be switched so that they match with the correct corresponding letter

[@TNTErick]

ㅂ is b, ㅍ is p, ㅁ is m actually

[@May-we3fh]

Yh I don't think they noticed in the video

[@CrabTastingMan]

Why is the bgm so *Japanese?* At least Chinese music would be bit more appropriate because Sejong was actually importing a lot of palatial music from China for "formal occasions" (but he also made a lot of changes compared to his descendents importing stuff from China).

[@thesixtywalrus]

White people like to group Korean culture with Japan rather than China.

[@ValianTiger]

That is bullshit,Chinese and Korean music are totally different,Japanese music is way closer to Chinese music

[@user-vw1yg4cx5e]

in history,the Chinese have little interest in spreading culture,CCP publicity department can't even made a nice military propaganda video.

[@alexnick4996]

talking about Closerly as a Chinese i gotta say Chinese and Korean share much more cultural stuff than Japanese

[@kyoumalee2675]

eyes small then why Korean copy the clothes of Ming China?And why did you use Chinese characters and practice Confusion?

[@RockZerr]

writing logically? what an excellent idea! Who would have thought of this...

[@darkJohnSmith]

It is very easy to learn. I learned hangul one morning on a road trip with flash cards.

[@KateGladstone]

At 3:25, the video has an error. The Korean letter you show there for /p/ is really the one for /m/, and the Korean letter you show there for /m/ is really the one for /p/ - PLEASE CORRECT THIS.

[@NativLang]

+Kate Gladstone I've added annotations. I mislabeled the "shape keys", so the animations got switched. A full fix will require deleting this video, rerendering animations, reediting, then reuploading - I'm not prepared to do that yet.

[@KateGladstone]

Thanks!

[@harpforest]

It is now generally believed that Hangul was invented by the King himself alone!!!

[@swedishguyonyoutube4684]

This is simply amazing! :D I love this a little too much, haha ;)

[@MadSpectro7]

I'd assume it wouldn't be easier to learn than an alphabet, but I admire just how much sense it makes.

[@im8510]

Guys! I'm Korean. Hangul is really easy. It is a magical language in which people communicate with each other simply by speaking without having to follow the order of the sentences.

[@beepbeepimasheep237beepbee3]

What about ㄹ?!?

[@alpacamale2909]

I wonder if the japanese could do the same with their language and turn it from ideograms to phonograms like Hangul.

[@AllyMcLesbian]

The issue is that there are relatively few possible syllables in Japanese (around a hundred at most vs. thousands and thousands in Korean) and lots of homonyms. Learning kanji as used in Japanese is extremely frustrating, but they are the surefire way to disambiguate all those homonyms. Even Koreans will still fall back on hanja for some homonyms if necessary, though that is thankfully rare.

[@alpacamale2909]

@@AllyMcLesbian if they can communicate via sound they have no need for Kanji. it wouldn't be bad to reform the languagee and add slight variations to these homonyms, spanish solves it with accents, for instance. A language where a group of sounds can mean 8 different things is a highlt innefective one.

[@laprophetesse428]

3:26 the hangul for p is the cup-like lettre (associated with m in the video) and the sound m is the square

[@SoftTofu123]

a lot of dramatizations in this video. He had no access to western culture, so he wouldnt know about roman alphabet (and how similar sounding letters look completely different). Also, there's no lip-biting sound, such as an f and a v. Furthermore, the birth of korean wasn't simply out of curiosity, but his unusual realization of necessity. He realized that a lot of low class people simply don't have time to learn chinese characters, so they couldnt read any of the king's announcements or educate themselves for better farming techniques or whatever. The major push back was from the upper class scholars and politicians who felt threatened by the idea of educated low class peasants. The king forced some of major books to be translated and written in korean. Some of the first books were about the creation of the nation and the civic duties. He even forced the national examinations to be done in korean, so even the middle/upper class scholars can learn it. fun fact, it took a while for chinese characters to be fully dropped out korean media. I remember not being able to read newspaper back in mid-late 90's because at least half of the letters were written in chinese. The laws are still written along with chinese characters, so it's pretty much a requirement for law students to learn chinese characters.

[@letmedoitforyou221]

Korean is really scientific!As a Korean, I am proud:)♡

[@retepwal]

Hangul is really well adapted to the Korean language, but it really struggles when you try to transliterate other languages (I call it the hangle mangle). For instance, you can't make a sh sound, unless it's followed by an "i" sound (or a couple of the other less common vowels). You can't make consenent blends, so they add phantom "eu" sounds. You can't end a syllable with an s sound (because the character for s turns into a t sound at the end of a syllable block). So when you take a word like, "crush" and convert it into korean, transliterate it into Korean and transliterate the result back into the latin alphabet, Crush, turns into the completely unrecognizable "keureusi." The problem extends to Koreans learning foreign languages (I used to teach English in South Korea). The constraints of the alphabet constrain the sounds Koreans are willing to put together, so English pronunciation typically reflects the inflexibility of alphabet, as Koreans transliterate the English sounds into Hangul and then speak using the mangled pronunciation. Of course, this wasn't universal, but many of my students were trapped by the serious constraints of this alphabet.

[@thevannmann]

Precisely. Hangeul works well with languages with "simpler" phonologies but would struggle immensely to capture the Vietnamese sounds, for instance, unlike Latinised writing which can be moulded for that.

[@themobiusfunction]

@@thevannmann words like Nguyen

[@uggae84]

훈민정음 은 28글자 이고 현대에 사용하는 한글은 24글자 입니다. 이는 한국의 역사와 한글의 역사 흐름속에 자주쓰고 발음하기 쉬운 언어가 더욱 쓰이고 불편한 발음은 퇴화 되는 과정 입니다. 언어순화 의 과정입니다. 또 한글의 언어순화 과정은 말하기 편하고 듣기 편한것 도 포함 되었습니다. 하지만 추가로 시안성 바로 눈에 쉽게 익은 글자로 변환이 된겁니다. 바로 외래어 단어가 순수한 발음을 적는것이 아닌 발음과 유사하고 한국인이 일상생활에서 적는 음절형태와 같이 변경하여 적게 된것입니다. 알파벳-조선시대-현대시대 (발음책자예시) Ruler-으룰러-룰러 Elderbrother - 엘더ㅅㅂㅜ로ㅇㅈㅓ-엘더브라더 Earth - 이어ㅇㅈㅡ - 어스 Vegetable - ㅇㅂㅔ쥐타블 - 베지타블 Rice - 으라이쓰 - 라이스 Flower - ㅇㅍㅡㄹ누어 - 플라워 Smoke - 스목크 - 스모크 Yellow - 이앨노우 - 옐로우 Learn - 을러언 - 런~ 더욱 많은데 예시로 적은것이고 유투브에서는 훈민정음식 음절이 표기 안되서 위처럼 분리해서 적음 (괂>과 ㄴㅎ) naver.me/5Ndth6Yb 단순히 28글자가 4글자 발음이 사라진걸로 착각 할수 있지만 4글자를 추가하여 자음+모음 자음+자음 조합을 하면 조합하면 엄청난 숫자의 발음기호가 생깁니다. 또 한국식 음절이 아닌 음절형태를 무시하는 기록은 또 외래어를 표기하기 좋게 됩니다. 유투브 한계상 잘라서 예시로 적으면 ㅂㅇㅜ ㅇㅇㅡㅇ 이런글자처럼 m.blog.naver.com/haminee0691/222525275949 사진을 보면 현대의 언어순화된 글자가 아닌 좀더 발음기호에 치중한 글자를 볼수 있습니다. 현대 외래어 알파벳을 표기하는 한국 글자는 발음 기호가 아니라 콩글리시(외국어 발음을 순화하고 보기좋게 변경) 된것을 알고 있으면 됩니다.

[@frafraplanner9277]

That's the language's phonological constraints, not the alphabet's lol

[@retepwal]

@@frafraplanner9277 the language's constraints were baked into the alphabet, but I believe the alphabet reinforce those constraints. The inflexibility of the alphabet limits their imagination about what kind of sounds can be made. I can think of sounds that never occur in English but that I can conceive of and make because I can spell them. But when you can't spell them it becomes much more difficult to even conceptualize them.

[@Pedrosa2541]

Hangul is so amazing. It just so pratical, so simple, so easy to understand, so rational. It feels like somebody just cleaned up a big mess.

[@vegapunk6985]

Not to mention the sound transformations that naturally happen when speaking is included in the writing system

[@elimalinsky7069]

Though not fully proven, Hangul may have been influenced by the Mongolian script, which is ultimately derived from Phoenician through many stages and intermediates. Hangul may be, in fact, an alphabet in the most literal sense.

[@linuxpony]

+Eli Malinsky it is an alphabet. I think you're misunderstanding what an alphabet is. alphabet does not just refer to the latin and greek writing systems, it refers to any writing system that has one grapheme for every phoneme.

[@elimalinsky7069]

***** I meant an alphabet in the literal sense, alpha and beta - the first two lettets of the Phoenician alphabet (alef-bet). All scripts that are descendant from Phoencian, is what I was trying to say, which Hangul might be one of those.

[@linuxpony]

+Eli Malinsky oh yeah, I get what you're saying then.

[@geoffreyherrick9900]

Eli Malinsky yes. One of the few East Asian nations to use it. Vietnamese uses the Latin alphabet because it was forced on them by the French.

[@eliri412]

Hangeul is such an easy alphabet that you can learn it in two hours... the language though, not that easy :(

[@kfizzledizzle8467]

I learned hangul in about 15 minutes, it is such an easy system to master. The language though, well, like you said, is not easy.

[@-saumya-81]

Reading and writing is easy now, all I need is knowing what the words mean

[@sen795]

i taught my japanese friend to write in Hangul in a morning. Hangul is the simplest writing system with the least number of consonents and vowls (24 in total). It can also mimic different sounds in nature as well as sounds of other languages very precisely.

[@trinyenne]

Um the p and the m are mixed up

[@rockerdrake]

Those dudes didn't develop "Hangul", they developped _Hunminjeongeum_ (훈민정음) which you should say if you wanna be accurate according to time, and then clarify it's "Chosŏn'gŭl or Han'gŭl" since both names have official status, while only one of each is used in their respective countries

[@SK-te4uo]

It should be included Hangle is mainly made for lower-class people or for people who are excluded from education like farmers, servants and woman at the time. Himself was a great language researcher and he was ended almost blind after the hard researching. Korea is a lucky country to have great kings and many great humanist leaders. It seems many korean has sympathetic or perhaps altruistic DNA.

[@gamnamoo6195]

As a Korean, I appreciated your warm and kind comments. 좋은 코멘트 감사드립니다. ^^

[@dojawiththecat]

What you should recognize is modern Hangul is different from old Hangul(which is made by king Sejong). Some letters are removed and grammer changed too.

[@dmiralenbow9056]

1:30 "Such a complicated system, gentlemen..." I almost died at that lmao ごめん、ナーレターさん。I personally think Japanese is pretty fun haha

[@hajarmdn4883]

at first yes but you keep digging and it starts to get more and more frustrating. while a latin language takes you about a year or two to master. Japanese will take you 3 to 4 years just to be able to converse let alone write or read. I love it still though i'll just leave it for now and concentrate on more easier languages.

[@Bibblemansaves]

I think it takes you longer because some languages have the same origin and English is closer to Latin than Japanese. It’d be easier for a Korean to learn Japanese compared to a Korean learning Spanish or something I think, the closer the origins are, the mor easier it is to learn it :)

[@ihateallrace.soimnotracist550]

Wow is that language? How to read them??

[@vanessab.3270]

Are you saying that king sejong refered to the Latin alphabet to create Hangul? That’s totally NONESENSE. There are some theories saying the possibility that he might refer to Phags-pa or Sanskrit. But nothing from Latin. There were NOT any cultural trades or ties between Korean and Western countries that use languages based on Latin at that time. It’s my first time to hearing about getting a thought of creating Hangul from Western languages. ( 1:49 ~ 3:25 ) What evidence do you have or where did you get your fact from?

[@enzo2.2]

Major moments in the history of writing never gets old.

[@erinpilla]

I agree! The case of how hangul was formed is interesting. I studied some Korean and I did not really reckon before that all those circles and squares resemble how we actually moved our mouths. Kinda confused though, isn't the M in the video supposed to be the P and vice-versa?

[@innestt9292]

Almost right but something makes me uncomfortable. The great king Sejong made this after studied human’s structure of mouth teeth lip and throat. He didn’t followed Western or Japanese.

[@MrSupasonics]

아니 왜 다들 이 좋은 비디오를 두고 댓글로 싸우고 있지?

[@kilomikesierra7840]

영상에 오류가 너무 많으니까요..

[@user-cg7yf6np1k]

살다살다 영어로 한국어를 배우네

[@jamsiiman]

둟 둟 내말이 ㅋㅋㅋ

[@aoibana]

일단 브금부터가 일본풍임.

[@WildisAwesome]

p b m이 ㅁ ㅂ ㅍ라는 거에서 거름 p b m은 ㅍ ㅂ ㅁ 아님???

[@symmetry08]

I know about many writing systems and probably learned Korean faster than anything else, but cannot speak that language almost, except few dozens words when I visited Korea. Very space saving efficient writing methods, if I could put it that way, and very easy on eyes as I understood.

[@STEAL8540]

Wonderful explanation. Thank you!

[@vevo9713]

아 그래픽 너무 귀엽다...

[@azugirl111]

"korean hongle" lol dat pronunciation

[@MEZNAY]

it just makes so much sense.

[@eil1468]

that's right, i actually learnt to fully pronounce hangul in 10 minutes. but it takes practice to really let it sink in and become long-term memory

[@user-hr9zz6dm7p]

Hey , p is not ㅁ, p is ㅍ, ㅁ is m

[@TGIFurry]

So much talking, so little useful explanation.

[@loubro98]

I agree, the simplicity of Hangul is so beautiful that it wouldn't have been that difficult to explain!

[@DanHarkless_Halloween_YTPs_etc]

+Dean Morris: Agreed. I think the NativLang videos are extremely well done, fun to watch, and interesting, but I would prefer he spend more time on substance and less on style.

[@huehue5286]

I wish Japanese had a character reform the same way Korean, let's be honest, most people in China in Japan just don't remember how to write and it takes years to master.

[@memegodsonseungwan329]

Can't wait to try using hanja and hangul together

[@to1back]

Thia video is not true. 2:58 . king Sejong alone made Hangul. About 90%. Scholars did a little work

[@jacquelineliu2641]

Shame that you didn't pronounce "Hangul" using the Korean pronunciation...

[@daebakworld2671]

hahaha I noticed that too! :)

[@jonvancil4431]

So seriously hooked on these videos 🤓

[@TheDavidlloydjones]

Well said! A nice piece of work! I went around for years thinking that Sejong must have been a genius. Then I realised that all his stuff was really done by committees, sorta like the King James, "the only competent work ever done by a committee." Then I figgered he either put the committee together, or endorsed its work, and he got the thing into circulation, which is a fer real achievement. So I was right the first time: he was a genius!