One of the principal characteristics of human beings is their ability
to use language. Human beings not only express their inner ideas,
thoughts, and feelings, they also understand other people's ideas,
thoughts, and feelings through language. In this way communication
is established. Communication usually takes place either verbally or
through writing.
Koreans have their own writing system, called tril" (hangul). Hangul is an alphabetic writing system; that is, thinking is ex pressed verbally, and what is heard is in turn expressed in phonemic letters. The advantage of alphabetic letters is that they are easy to learn and easy to write. Furthermore, the sounds may be expressed precisely. The Koreans' great pride in hangul is based on its scientific, philosophical, and rational nature. In fact, Choi Hyon-bai (1971) has noted that hangul has special connotations for Koreans, such as "great written language, outstanding letters, and the language of the people of Korea." The hangul system of writing was the culmination of research by group of scholars and was first introduced in 1445 by ^^(King Sejong). At that time it was called the ^^-fr (hunmin-jongum). Before this time, Chinese ideographs were used almost exclusively although some earlier attempts had been made at phonetic writing (Buzo 1980).
The scholar who first used the word *# was (Chu Si-gyong, 1876-1914). Even after the invention of the alphabet, the literati continued to use Chinese ideographs and the phonetic writing was relegated to the use of women, children, and the lower classes. In modern times, however, hangul has come to be used more and more and now forms the basis of Korean education and much of the written language. Articulated sounds are given visual shape in phonemic symbols which can be read, and although the focus of this book is on verbal language, it is the author's opinion that Korean is better learned through Korean symbols than through Roman letters. The alphabet is often called the ka-na-da (7} 14 c+) after the first three syllables. That is, the vowel (ah) is combined with the consonants ~i (k), 1- (n) and (t) and so forth through all the consonants, and then the next vowel is combined with all the consonants until the table is completed (see Frontispiece). guide to the pronunciation of the Korean letters is given in Tables and 2.
While there is no substitute for learning pronunciation from native speaker of Korean, these tables may assist the student in remembering the approximate pronunciation of the various letters. These tables also include two of the most commonly used Romanization systems: the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the McCune-Reischauer (McC-R). Using several current Romanization systems, Klein (1981) compared accuracy of pronunciation by unini tiated Americans. He found that the perception by Koreans of sound production by non-Koreans using the McCune-Reischauer was much better than that of other romanization systems. For this reason,
Koreans have their own writing system, called tril" (hangul). Hangul is an alphabetic writing system; that is, thinking is ex pressed verbally, and what is heard is in turn expressed in phonemic letters. The advantage of alphabetic letters is that they are easy to learn and easy to write. Furthermore, the sounds may be expressed precisely. The Koreans' great pride in hangul is based on its scientific, philosophical, and rational nature. In fact, Choi Hyon-bai (1971) has noted that hangul has special connotations for Koreans, such as "great written language, outstanding letters, and the language of the people of Korea." The hangul system of writing was the culmination of research by group of scholars and was first introduced in 1445 by ^^(King Sejong). At that time it was called the ^^-fr (hunmin-jongum). Before this time, Chinese ideographs were used almost exclusively although some earlier attempts had been made at phonetic writing (Buzo 1980).
The scholar who first used the word *# was (Chu Si-gyong, 1876-1914). Even after the invention of the alphabet, the literati continued to use Chinese ideographs and the phonetic writing was relegated to the use of women, children, and the lower classes. In modern times, however, hangul has come to be used more and more and now forms the basis of Korean education and much of the written language. Articulated sounds are given visual shape in phonemic symbols which can be read, and although the focus of this book is on verbal language, it is the author's opinion that Korean is better learned through Korean symbols than through Roman letters. The alphabet is often called the ka-na-da (7} 14 c+) after the first three syllables. That is, the vowel (ah) is combined with the consonants ~i (k), 1- (n) and (t) and so forth through all the consonants, and then the next vowel is combined with all the consonants until the table is completed (see Frontispiece). guide to the pronunciation of the Korean letters is given in Tables and 2.
While there is no substitute for learning pronunciation from native speaker of Korean, these tables may assist the student in remembering the approximate pronunciation of the various letters. These tables also include two of the most commonly used Romanization systems: the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the McCune-Reischauer (McC-R). Using several current Romanization systems, Klein (1981) compared accuracy of pronunciation by unini tiated Americans. He found that the perception by Koreans of sound production by non-Koreans using the McCune-Reischauer was much better than that of other romanization systems. For this reason,
