Hangul orthography

The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul internationally, Hangeul in South Korea, and Choson'gŭl in North Korea, has had multiple different orthographies. North Korea's current official orthography is the Compendium of Korean Language Norms. South Korea's current orthography is called "Hangeul Orthography" (한글 맞춤법).

Punctuation

Main article: Korean punctuation

Historical punctuation

On this page of Yongbiŏch'ŏn'ga, both kuduchŏm punctuation (small circles) and tone markings (dots) are in use with Hangul

The original punctuation system was called kuduchŏm (구두점; 句讀點). In the 15th century, a small circle was used to mark major phrasal and sentential/clausal endings. If the circle was placed in the center after a syllable, it marked the end of a major break within a sentence. If it was placed in the right corner of the cell of the final syllable, it possibly indicated either the end of a sentence or a rising tone indicating a pause for that final character.

Some texts, when using Hangul to transcribe foreign languages like Japanese or Manchu, used a variety of relatively unique punctuation for various purposes.

Tone markings

Tone markings, called bangjeom or pangchŏm (방점; 傍點; lit. side dots), were originally used in Hangul to indicate tones. They were marked by dots to the left of a Hangul character:

• Level tone (평성; 平聲) had no dots
• Departing tone (거성; 去聲) had a single dot ( 〮)
• Rising tone (상성; 上聲) had two dots ( 〯)
• Entering tone (입성; 入聲) does not receive its own dot indication. Hangul's creators argue it is implicit in certain words, but Ledyard reads this as implying Korean doesn't have a specific entering tone.

The writers of the Haerye designed this system because they thought that Middle Korean had tones, similar to those of Chinese. However, a number of modern scholars disagree with this. Several argue that Middle Korean was a pitch-accent language that had pitches, possibly two: high and low. Tone markings were widespread until their decline in the 16th century.

History

15th century

Buncheol vs. yeoncheol debate

The buncheol (분철; 分綴) vs. yeoncheol (연철; 連綴) debate was significant in Hangul's early history. These two terms are used to describe two types of Hangul spelling. Around Hangul's promulgation, two factions emerged that advocated each of these approaches. The yeoncheol faction produced the Haerye and promoted a relatively phonemic orthography that aimed to more directly tie pronunciation to spelling. The buncheol faction, which included Sejong, preferred a more morphophonemic approach that aims to preserve the spelling of underlying words. For example, when joining the noun "여름" and particle "이", buncheol prefers the spelling "여름이", while yeoncheol prefers "여르미". These apparent factions used their preferred orthographies in projects they were significantly involved with. Yeoncheol is easier for new learners of Hangul and Korean, because one simply needs to transcribe what they hear. Buncheol is easier for people familiar with Hangul and Korean, because it preserves spellings based on underlying meanings. By the late 16th century, buncheol was much more popular then yeoncheol. Some texts around this period that applied a mix of buncheol and yeoncheol have been described as jungcheol (중철; 重綴). Buncheol eventually won out, and is now the practice in both North and South Korea. Still, modern scholars have debated which approach they think is superior.

In spite of the above disagreement, Lee and Ramsey argue that Hangul in this century was "highly standardized", with "unusually consistent" orthography.

16th century

The 16th century saw a number of changes to Hangul orthography. Various letters gradually ceased to be used, including ㆆ by the start of the century, ㅿ by the 1570s to 1580s, and the doubled characters ᅇ and ㆅ. Tone markings also ceased to be used by around the 1580s.

17th century

The 1592–1598 Imjin War caused significant orthographic inconsistency that worsened into the 18th and 19th centuries, with the rise of Hangul popular literature. Consonant clusters were particularly affected, with significant variety in how they were rendered. Also, changes in letter usage that had occurred in the 16th century became cemented in the 17th.

Enlightenment and Korean Empire periods

The Enlightenment Period in Korean history occurred around the late Joseon and Korean Empire periods; around 1896 to 1910. Around this time, various Hangul reform movements arose, with many persisting into the rest of the 20th century. Collectively, these efforts are referred to as the Hangul Movement.

In 1896, linguist Chu Sigyŏng (1876–1914), who is now often called the "father of modern Korean linguistics", founded the Society for the Standardization of Korean Writing (국문동식회; 國文同式會). On July 19, 1905, the Korean Empire government approved a new orthography designed by Chi Sŏgyŏng: the New Edition of National Writing (신정국문; 新訂國文). It immediately proved controversial and was never fully implemented. To research and potentially resolve the disputes, in 1907, the government established the National Language Research Institute (NLRI). Chu Sigyŏng was a significant voice in the NLRI. The organization lasted until December 27, 1909. While it managed to submit several reports on orthographic reform, Korea's rapidly deteriorating sovereignty around this time negatively impacted the implementation of their work.

Orthographic reform was also sought by the Christian community. In 1902, the missionary community approved a new standardized orthography designed by missionary James Scarth Gale and his Korean assistant Yi Ch'angjik (이창직). However, it was met with backlash from missionaries in the northern regions, who deemed it unsuitable for northern dialects of Korean. It was overturned within months.

Moasseugi vs. pureosseugi debate

An essay from Chu Sigyŏng's 1914 book Marŭi sori that illustrates his proposed pureosseugi orthography. In present South Korean orthography, the title reads "우리 글의 가로쓰는 익힘".

Since the 1446 promulgation of Hangul, the mainstream method for writing the script has been to place letters in syllable blocks in a manner dubbed moasseugi (모아쓰기; lit. gathering together and writing). During the Enlightenment Period, possibly beginning around 1908 during meetings of the NLRI, an idea emerged that Hangul should not use syllable blocks and instead be written completely linearly; this was dubbed pureosseugi (풀어쓰기; lit. separate and write). For example, "한글" is moasseugi and "ㅎㅏㄴㄱㅡㄹ" is pureosseugi. The idea is commonly attributed to Chu Sigyŏng. The idea was apparently inspired by European writing systems. Its proponents argued that pureosseugi would make Hangul better suited for movable type. Chu did not support the use of pureosseugi in all cases, and instead only "where it is necessary". Ultimately, the NLRI rejected the proposal.

Chu continued to explore and apply pureosseugi even after the 1909 rejection. He wrote an extended example of his pureosseugi orthography in his 1914 work Marŭi sori (말의 소리). After his death that year, his disciples continued to explore pureosseugi. It was discussed in works by Kim Tu-bong in 1922, Yi P'ilsu (이필수; 李弼秀) in 1923, and by the Korean Language Society in 1936. After the 1945 liberation, some proposed a "half-pureosseugi" (반풀어쓰기) orthography, where only part of the syllable blocks were linearized.

Horizontal vs. vertical writing debate

See also: Horizontal and vertical writing in East Asian scripts

Page of the 1877 Corean Primer by Scottish missionary John Ross: the first Hangul work to use horizontal writing and spaces

Since its promulgation, Hangul was written vertically (from top to bottom, right to left). This has been dubbed serosseugi (세로쓰기). In the 19th century, Hangul began to be written horizontally and left to right for the first time (garosseugi; 가로쓰기). The earliest known work to use Hangul in this manner was Scottish missionary John Ross's 1877 work Corean Primer (조선어 첫걸음). The first work by a Korean person to employ horizontal writing was the 1895 text Kukhanhoeŏ.

Spaces and Hangul

Until the 19th century, Hangul was consistently written without spaces. Hong argued that the rise of Hangul exclusivity made spaces more necessary. Mixed script works are more unambiguous and thus benefit less from spaces, while pure Hangul works have many homonyms. The 1877 work Corean Primer was the earliest known work to use spaces for Hangul. Spaces began to see significant use with the 1896 newspaper Tongnip sinmun; in its initial issue, it published an op-ed that argued in favor of the use of spaces and Hangul exclusivity.

Switching to other scripts

A minority of people proposed switching to other scripts, namely the Latin script or Cyrillic script. Proposals sometimes suggested converting Hangul letters to perceived equivalents in other scripts or by simply abandoning Hangul altogether. These proposals never gained significant traction.

Colonial period

Korea was colonized by Japan in 1910. The first decade of the colonial period saw especially harsh restrictions on the Korean language and scripts. Koreans worked on Hangul orthographic reform in private. Meanwhile, the Japanese Government-General of Chōsen worked on developing its own orthographies for Hangul.

In April 1912, the Government-General promulgated its first Hangul orthography: Hangul Orthography for Use in Elementary Schools. This was the first ever modern Hangul orthography officially put into significant practice. It notably eliminated the use of the araea (ㆍ) in Sino-Korean vocabulary and asked for a dot to be displayed to the left of long vowels. This policy and its successors proved to be controversial; different parties proposed revisions and argued for their own preferred orthographies. The Government-General promulgated a revised orthography in March 1921: Summary of the Hangul Orthography for Use in Elementary Schools. It completely eliminated the use of the araea and long vowel dot, adopted a free-standing sai-siot (where ㅅ comes between two nouns), and modernized some Sino-Korean spellings. After more complaints and feedback, in February 1930, it promulgated the Hangul Orthography. Linguist Park Chang-won evaluated the various revisions of these orthographies as relatively minor.

Cover of a revision of the Unified Hangul Orthography

The Korean Language Society (KLS) had been using its own orthography since at latest December 1926. It also had been advocating for revising the Government-General's various orthographies. In December 1930, they officially resolved to begin work on developing their own orthography. This resulted in the 1933 Unified Hangul Orthography (UHO). The orthography eliminated the use of ㆍ, changed complex consonant digraphs to simpler double consonants (e.g. ㅺ → ㄲ), and permitted the dual function of ㅇ (which had absorbed ㆁ). Its spelling reforms attempted to be morphophonemic. The orthography proved controversial; it received opposition especially from KLS's rivaling Korean Language Research Society (조선어학연구회). The UHO was particularly controversial in the northern regions of Korea, as it was thought particularly unsuitable for their dialects. Despite such opposition, the UHO gradually garnered support. In 1937, the Presbyterian Council of Korean voted unanimously to adopt the UHO, although some members continued to stiffly oppose it. Upon the 1945 liberation of Korea, it became the standard orthography on both sides of the division. The UHO was revised twice before the liberation: on March 1, 1937 and on June 15, 1940.

Southern and South Korea

Upon the 1945 liberation and division of Korea, the UHO continued to be used in the southern half of the peninsula: the United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK). This was in part because KLS member Choe Hyeon-bae, a central figure in the UHO's design, was placed in charge of education in USAMGIK. The UHO saw three more revisions: on September 8, 1946, on October 9, 1948, and on February 20, 1958. A number of newspaper articles indicated that orthographic standards were in flux in the years following the liberation, with some following the UHO and others following older standards. Mixed script was then the dominant practice in government documents.

In 1970, the South Korean government established a commission to develop a new orthography. It conducted a survey for three years (1972–1974). A draft of the orthography was published in 1978. It immediately proved highly controversial and was debated and challenged for years afterwards. Finally, in January 1988 it was announced that the new orthography, Hangul orthography, would be officially adopted by March 1, 1989. Several linguists have argued that the draft was largely pushed through in close to its original form, despite the opposition.

From the liberation and even into the 1990s, southern and South Korea had lacked a dedicated government agency to oversee language planning. Such matters were often overseen by the various education ministries and debated by multiple private organizations, particularly the Korean Language Society and the Society of Korean Linguistics (국어학회). In 1990, such language planning efforts were transferred to the Ministry of Culture (predecessor to the current Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), which established the Department of National Language Policy. This organization eventually developed into the National Institute of Korean Language in 1991.

Hangul simplification movement

Syngman Rhee, first president of South Korea, initiated the Hangul simplification movement

Syngman Rhee, first president of South Korea, strongly wished to reform Hangul orthography to a form that he felt was simpler. His reform efforts around the late 1940s to mid-1950s, dubbed the Hangul simplification movement, sparked what has been dubbed the "Hangul crisis".

On October 8, 1949, Rhee expressed his desire for a reformed Hangul orthography for the first time. On February 3, 1950, he reiterated his desire to implement orthographic reforms, and warned that resistance would be met with strong government action. With the outbreak of the Korean War later that year, such efforts were put on hold. On April 11, 1953, even before the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed, the government announced that all government documents and textbooks would employ a new simplified spelling system. Historian Michael Kim evaluated the orthography as similar to the 1921 Summary of the Hangul Orthography for Use in Elementary Schools. The announcement was met with widespread anger, even from within the government. The Rhee administration relented and announced that the orthography would be reexamined by a new National Language Review Committee (NLRC; 국어심의회; 國語審議會). On December 29, 1953, the committee concluded that the simplification proposed, as well as other simplifications, were not necessary at that time.

Despite the NLRC's decision, the Rhee administration continued to push for simplification. The debate grew increasingly heated. Two government figures significant in orthographic reform, Choe Hyeon-bae and Kim Beop-rin, resigned from their posts in protest. The government tried to recruit replacements, but failed to in a timely manner. On March 27, 1954, Rhee announced that he would abandon his preferred simplified orthography in favor of one used by Western missionaries in the late 19th century to translate the New Testament. Michael Kim evaluated this as Rhee wanting to return to a spelling system he was personally familiar with. This was again met with backlash; Rhee was accused of acting unilaterally in a dictatorial manner.

On April 21, 1954, Lee Seon-geun was appointed education minister. He quietly pushed forward Rhee's desired reforms. On July 2, he proposed an orthography that was again similar to the 1921 Summary of the Hangul Orthography for Use in Elementary Schools. It was approved by the Rhee administration without changes and announced to the public on July 3. It provoked even fiercer backlash than previous such actions. For example, American linguist in Korea Samuel E. Martin was critical of Rhee's reform efforts; he wrote that the orthography was so confused and haphazard that, if implemented, it would damage the reputation of not only the Rhee government but also all Koreans. On July 14, despite Rhee's Liberal Party holding the majority in the National Assembly, 109 out of 192 assembly members voted to approve a resolution that called for a commission of experts to decide on the orthography issue.

On September 19, 1955, Rhee finally relented and announced that he would abandon orthographic reform efforts. He wrote, "It appears that the practice of writing [Hangul] in a complicated manner has already become an ingrained habit, and many people continue to write in this way... I'm not sure what they see in this practice, but I will not make an issue out of it during these busy times and let the people do as they wish".

A 1953 editorial in the newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun argued that Rhee's sentiments reflected generational differences around the education of Hangul. People learned different orthographies in school, and some expressed dislike of newer orthographies that they found confusing. Michael Kim evaluated this argument positively.

Northern and North Korea

Writing sample of the North Korean New Korean Orthography, which was never put into effect.

The UHO was adopted by the northern occupation zone: the Soviet Civil Administration. While the USAMGIK in the south made another revision to the UHO in 1946, the North continued to follow the 1940 version until 1954. The north's leader Kim Il Sung was significantly personally involved in language and script reform efforts from early on. In 1946, the Research Society for Korean Language and Literature (조선어문연구회) was established; it worked on matters of language regulation. In 1948, North Korea proposed the New Korean Orthography, a slightly modified version of the UHO, although it was heavily debated and ultimately never put into effect. In 1954, North Korea adopted the Korean Orthography, another slight modification of the UHO. This orthography asked for the replacement of the saisiot with an apostrophe. This system was replaced by the 1966 Compendium of Korean Language Norms, which reversed some of Korean Orthography's changes. That standard received minor revisions in 1987 and in 2000.

North Korea persisted in using vertical writing for decades after the liberation. Significant linguist Kim Tu-bong was a strong advocate for horizontal writing, but he was purged in 1956. Even as late as 1980, Kim Il Sung expressed his preference for horizontal writing.

Russia and the USSR

See also: Koryo-mar and Koryo-saram

As in Korea, Hangul orthography among Koryo-saram was in flux around the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Linguist Kim Min-su reviewed writings from around this time, and felt that while orthography was in general inconsistent, there were some commonalities, including the 25 letters in use (ㆆ, ㅿ, and ㆁ were not used) and the 7 final consonants (ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅅ, and ㅇ).

In March 1914, the journal Taehanin chŏnggyobo, which was published from 1912 to 1914 from Chita, Zabaykalsky, outlined the journal's preferred orthography. It apparently took inspiration from pureosseugi proposals descended from Chu Sigyŏng's. It preferred horizontal writing and pureosseugi. It proposed a variety of changes, including making the shape of ㅡ curved to resemble that of the Latin "U", the use of a breve (◌̆) diacritic over vowels that were easy to visually mistake (for example, breve over ㅔ to distinguish it from ㅓ and ㅣ together), and the use of hyphens (-) and apostrophes (') in various scenarios. A similar orthography was adopted by the newspaper Sŏnbong.

After the establishment of the Soviet Union (USSR), the korenizatsiia policy, particularly the likbez campaign, sought to eliminate illiteracy through a variety of efforts, including orthographic reform. Such efforts were done on local languages and scripts, including Korean and Hangul. Early in the USSR's history, while many other languages and scripts of the USSR had established experts in Leningrad and Moscow, no such experts existed for Korean and Hangul. Many tasks related to language regulation and orthography fell to Koreans themselves. The first Soviet Korean-language book for adults was a 1925 Korean translation of the text Doloj negramotnost (Долой неграмотность), titled in Korean Musigŭl ŏpsihanŭn charaniŭi tokpon (무식을 없이하는 자란이의 독본). It had its own unique preferred orthography, and bemoaned the lack of orthographic consistency around that time.

Linguist Ross King argued that, while pre-1930 textbooks had relatively consistent orthographies with only minor variations, such variations largely ended with the 1930 publication of Koryŏ munjŏn (고려문전; 高麗文典) by O Ch'anghwan (오창환), which detailed his vision of Hangul orthography and education. King argued it seemed likely O was influenced by Kim Tu-bong's orthographic ideas. Ke Pongu (게봉우) criticized O's ideas in a series of articles in Sŏnbong. After much debate and updates to the orthography, it was functionally approved as the official orthography for Soviet Koreans. The orthography was based on Seoul speech and orthography, although King evaluated it as being noticeably different.

On March 13, 1938, resolution No. 324 of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union ordered that Korean textbooks cease to be published. After the 1937 forced migration, Korean-language education was discouraged in favor of Russian-language. The newspaper Sŏnbong, which renamed to Lenin Kichi in 1938 and Koryo Ilbo in 1990, continues to publish in Hangul and has served as a center for Koryo-saram Korean-language literature.

References

Sources

In English

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• Gale, James Scarth (1912). "The Korean Alphabet". Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch. 4 (1). Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch: 13–61.
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• Hope, E. R. (1957). "Letter Shapes in Korean Önmun and Mongol hPhagspa Alphabets". Oriens. 10 (1): 150–159. doi:10.2307/1578766. ISSN 0078-6527 – via JSTOR.
• Kim, Chin-Woo (2000). "The Legacy of King Sejong the Great". Studies in the Linguistic Sciences. 30 (1): 3–12. ISSN 0049-2388 – via University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University Library.
• Kim, Dahye (2025). "Korean Writing in the Age of Multilingual Word Processing: A History of the Non-Linear Alphabet". Grey Room (99). MIT Press: 6–45. doi:10.1162/grey_a_00423. ISSN 1536-0105.
• Kim, Michael (2017-03-01). "The Han'gŭl Crisis and Language Standardization: Clashing Orthographic Identities and the Politics of Cultural Construction". Journal of Korean Studies. 22 (1): 5–31. doi:10.1215/21581665-4153412. ISSN 0731-1613. Archived from the original on 2020-11-23.
• Kim-Renaud, Young-Key (2000). "Sejong's Theory of Literacy and Writing". Studies in the Linguistic Sciences. 30 (1): 13–45. ISSN 0049-2388 – via University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University Library.
• King, Ross (May 2024). "Another 'language that failed'? The beginnings of 'Soviet' Korean in the Russian Far East, 1922–1937". Korean Linguistics. 20 (1). John Benjamins Publishing Company: 33–81. doi:10.1075/kl.00007.kin. eISSN 2212-9731. ISSN 0257-3784.
• Ledyard, Gari Keith (1990). The Cultural Work of Sejong the Great (PDF) (Report) (published November 2002). pp. 7–18. Retrieved 2025-07-26 – via Korea Society.
• Lee, Ki-Moon (September 2009). "Reflections on the Invention of the Hunmin jeongeum". Scripta. 1. The Hunmin jeongeum Society: 1–34. ISSN 2092-7215.
• Paek, Doohyeon (September 2011). "Hunmin jeongeum: Dissemination Policy and Education". Scripta. 2. The Hunmin jeongeum Society: 1–23. ISSN 2092-7215.
• Son, Zhanna (2020). "Korean-language Textbooks (Hangul) Published in the USSR (1920-1930)". Journal of Multiculture and Education. 5 (1): 23–35 – via Higher School of Economics.
• Volpe, Giovanni (2025-05-01). "The Power of Sound: Rethinking the Invention of the Korean Vernacular Script". Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies. 25 (1): 51–74. doi:10.1215/15982661-11631558. ISSN 1598-2661 – via Duke University Press.
• Yoo, Mi-rim (2006-09-01). "King Sejong's Leadership and the Politics of Inventing the Korean Alphabet". The Review of Korean Studies. 9 (3): 7–38. ISSN 2733-9351 – via AccessON.

In Korean

Books

• 홍윤표 (2019-12-13). 한글 [Hangul] (in Korean) (Ebook ed.). 세창출판사. ISBN 978-89-8411-924-6.

Academic articles

• 안경상 (2020). 어학고전 《훈몽자회》의 몇가지 특징 [Some Features of "Hunmong Jahoe"]. Korean Language in China (in Korean). 225: 38–51 – via DBpia.
• 이관규 (2024). "한글 자음자의 명칭에 대한 고찰" [A Study on the Names of Korean Consonants]. 문법 교육 (in Korean). 51. 한국문법교육학회: 41–71. doi:10.21850/kge.2024.51..41 – via Korea Citation Index.
• 최호철 (1988). "북한의 맞춤법" [North Korea's orthography]. 국어생활 (in Korean). 13: 33–48 – via National Institute of Korean Language.
• 홍윤표 (2016). "한글 자모의 명칭과 배열순서에 대한 역사적 연구" [A Historical Study of the Names and Alphabetical Orders of Hangul Letters]. 한국어사 연구 (in Korean). 2. 국어사연구회: 259–321. ISSN 2383-4978 – via DBpia.
• 황경수 (2005). 훈민정음의 기원설 [A Study on the Origin of Hunminjeongum]. 새국어교육 (70). 한국국어교육학회: 221–238 – via Korea Open Access Journals.
• Ahn, Pyong-hi (2004). "世宗의 訓民正音 創製와 그 協贊者" [On Se-jong's creation of Hunminjeongeum(訓民正音) and his supporters]. 국어학 (in Korean) (44). 국어학회: 3–39.
• Chong, Che-mun (March 2015). 파스파 문자와 훈민정음 [The ḥPʽags-pa Script and Hunminjeongeum]. 한글 (in Korean) (307): 5–43. doi:10.22557/HG.2015.03.307.5. ISSN 1225-0449 – via DBpia.

Primary sources

• 조선말규범집 [Compendium of Korean Language Norms] (Report) (in Korean). 국어사정위원회. 2010 – via Wikisource.

External links

• South Korea's Hangeul Orthography (in Korean)
• Texts on Wikisource:
  • ko:한글 맞춤법 South Korea's orthography, 2014 version
  • ko:조선말 규범집 North Korea's orthography, 2010 version