Hangul alphabet

What it is

An alphabet deliberately designed so that the shape of the consonants represents the position of the speech organs, with letters grouped into syllabic blocks. It was promulgated in 1446 with the Hunminjeongeum so that anyone could learn to read.

It is one of the few writing systems with a known author and date; the elite continued using classical Chinese until the late 19th century.

What it led to

• popular literacy in Korea
• the official script of both Koreas in the 20th century
• the linguistic study of 'featural' writing systems

Made possible

• Gong Byeong-u's syllable-block Hangul typewriter1949

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