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Concept
Hunminjeongeum
Summary
rr () is a 15th century historical document that introduced a script that became the Hangul script for writing the Korean language. An original copy of the document is currently located at the Gansong Art Museum in Seoul, South Korea.
Hunminjeongeum was commissioned and supervised by Sejong the Great based on a writing system he invented in 1443. The original spelling of the title was Húnminjyéongeum (in North Korea, Húnminjyéonghʼeum). The script it introduced was actually originally named "Hunminjeongeum" after the document, but its name was later changed to its present form. It was intended to be a simpler alternative to the incumbent Chinese-based Hanja, in order to promote literacy among the general populace. It originally included 28 letters , but over time, four of those were abandoned, leading to the current 24 letters of Hangul.
The date of the document's publication is subject to some debate. The South Korean government considers October 9, 1446 to be the date; that day is now the holiday Hangul Day in South Korea. However, there is a record in the 102nd volume of the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty that announces the publication of the text in the 25th year of Sejong's reign, which corresponds to 1443–1444.
On December 20, 1962, the document was designated a National Treasure in South Korea. In 1997, the document was registered by UNESCO in the Memory of the World Programme.
Before Hangul, the Korean alphabet, was created, Koreans used Chinese characters to record their words. Since Chinese language and Korean language share few similarities, borrowing Chinese characters proved to be inefficient to reflect the spoken language. In addition, at the time when King Sejong was inventing Hangul the Ming dynasty had just come to power in China, which changed the pronunciation of Chinese characters, making it harder for Koreans to learn the new standard pronunciation to record their words. The illiteracy level also stayed high since reading and learning Chinese characters was restricted among the ordinary people.
Official source
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