Korean Alphabet (Hangul 한글)

Can you believe that Korean is related to Turkish?

Well, it’s true — Korean is considered to be a member of the Ural-Altaic family of languages, which means that it’s also related to Turkish and Tungusic. A lot of people think that Korean is similar to Chinese, but that is not correct, as grammatically Korean and Chinese couldn’t be further apart from each other. Having said that, since China has been the major influence in Korea’s literature and culture, many Korean words (not the grammar) indeed derive from the Chinese language.

Korean is the 13th most popular language in the world, with over 80 million speakers, most of which live in South and North Korea, and approximately 6 million people, who live outside the Korean peninsula — mainly in Japan, China, U.S.A., and Central Asia (the former USSR). The Korean language has a long history, and, like most languages, has constantly been evolving.

Following World War 2, North and South Korea were geographically split, and their language policies created slight linguistic differences. However, they still speak the same, mutually intelligible language. Grammatically Korean is related to Mongolian and Japanese (the structure of these three languages is quite similar).

A lot of people think that Korean is similar to Chinese, but that is not correct, as grammatically Korean and Chinese couldn’t be further apart from each other. Having said that, since China has been the major influence in Korea’s literature and culture, many Korean words (not the grammar) indeed derive from the Chinese language.

The Korean alphabet (Hangul 한글) was invented in 1443 by  King Sejong the Great, who decided to create from scratch a writing system that suited the Korean spoken language. However, because of the influence of Chinese culture, the scholars and upper classes didn’t use Hangul until after 1945. Korea is the only country in the world that celebrates its writing system. 9th of October is Hangul Day, a Public Holiday, which commemorates the introduction of the new writing system in the mid-15th century.

If you want to learn Korean, please contact us, and we will offer you a qualified teacher who will help you to achieve your dream in the shortest possible time! Face-to-Face and online lessons are available!