History of the Korean Alphabet

Until the mid-15th century, literacy in the the Korean kingdom was limited to the intellectual elite, who communicated in Chinese. The invention of the alphabet transformed Korea with the introduction of literacy to ordinary citizens.

The Annals of King Sejong (as he is referred to posthumously) state that the king personally created the letters of the alphabet during the 25th year of his reign. Due to differences of opinion regarding the date calculation, no one knows whether the alphabet was created specifically in 1443 or 1444. However, due to the interest of Sejong in the written language, Korean has one of the few alphabets with births that can be traced so accurately to a particular time.

Regardless of the 1443/44 question, the script was made known to the world in 1446, with the publication of a treatise on the principles of the new writing system by a group of scholars from the Academy of Worthies commissioned by Sejong, attached to the Junmin chongum, written by Sejong himself. South Korea celebrates Alphabet Day on October 9, an approximation of the lunar date of promulgation of these documents.

While said annals proclaim that Sejong personally invented the alphabet, it is the opinion of some modern scholars that the credit is due to advisors commissioned with the task, and that Sejong, in his wisdom, either conceived of or was convinced of the potential value of the undertaking. It is worth noting, however, that no other grand creations or accomplishments were credited to kings of that era. In other words, it was not customary in South Korea at the time to attribute achievements of a monarch's scholars or staff to the king personally. Additionally, scholarly review of the evidence has convincingly argued that the project could not have been a collaboration, and that firsthand accounts document the king's intellect, learning, and detailed knowledge of orthography and phonology. For these reasons, most scholars continue to believe that Sejong himself played the principal role in the invention and development of the alphabet, laboring in isolation on the project even as he managed affairs of state.