The Story of Hangul: How King Sejong Created the Korean Alphabet
Most alphabets in the world grew slowly, shaped by centuries of use. Hangul is a rare exception: it was designed, on purpose, by a king and a team of scholars, with a clear goal. Knowing that story makes the letters easier to understand, and easier to remember.
Before Hangul: writing was for the few
For most of early Korean history, writing meant Classical Chinese. Korean and Chinese are completely different languages, so reading and writing in Chinese characters took years of study. Only a small educated elite had the time and training for it.
There were clever workarounds. Systems such as idu used Chinese characters to write Korean sounds and grammar. But they were complicated and were still tied to the characters themselves. Ordinary people had no practical way to write down what they said.
King Sejong and his goal
King Sejong the Great ruled the Joseon dynasty from 1418 to 1450, and is remembered for supporting science, music, and scholarship. He worked with scholars of the royal research institute, the Hall of Worthies (Jiphyeonjeon, 집현전), on many projects. A new writing system for Korean was the most lasting of them.
His reasoning was practical. The spoken language of Korea was different from Chinese, so common people could not express their thoughts in writing. Sejong wanted a script that anyone could learn without years of schooling and use in daily life.
1443 and 1446: creation and announcement
The new script is traditionally dated to 1443. In 1446 it was announced to the public in a document called the Hunminjeongeum (훈민정음), which means "The Correct Sounds for the Instruction of the People". Note that this name refers both to the book and to the script itself, which is why you will see the script called by that name in older sources.
The book opens with a short preface in which the king explains his reason for the new letters, in his own words. Together with it came a longer explanation of how the letters were designed, known as the Haerye.
Designed from the sounds themselves
What makes Hangul unusual is how it was built. The basic consonants were designed to reflect the shape of the mouth and tongue when you make the sound, and further letters were made by adding strokes to show related sounds. The vowels were built from three simple ideas: a dot for heaven, a horizontal line for earth, and a vertical line for a standing person. We explain this in more detail in Learn the Korean Alphabet in 1 Hour and in Confusing Hangul Letters.
28 letters then, 24 today
The original set had 28 letters: 17 consonants and 11 vowels. Over the following centuries, four of them fell out of use as the sounds they represented changed in the spoken language. The modern alphabet has 24 basic letters: 14 consonants and 10 vowels. These are the 24 letters you learn in Hangul Harvest.
Not everyone welcomed it
The new script was not accepted by everyone. Some officials and scholars, who valued Classical Chinese as the proper language of learning, objected to it. A well-known example is a group of scholars who submitted a written protest against the project soon after the script was revealed.
As a result, Hangul spread slowly. For a long time it was used mainly in letters, popular writing, and by people outside the elite, while official documents continued to use Chinese characters. Only in 1894, during a period of reform, did Hangul gain official status, and in the twentieth century it became the standard script of Korea. The name "Hangul" itself, which can be read as "great script", came into common use in the early twentieth century.
Rediscovery and recognition
A copy of the original Hunminjeongeum with the full explanation was rediscovered in 1940. It is now recognized by UNESCO in its Memory of the World register, listed in 1997. UNESCO also awards a prize in the king's honor, the King Sejong Literacy Prize, for work that promotes literacy.
In South Korea, October 9 is Hangul Day, a national holiday that commemorates the 1446 announcement.
Why the history helps you learn
When you know that Hangul was designed to be learned quickly by ordinary people, the letters stop looking arbitrary. The shapes follow the sounds, the vowels follow simple ideas, and the rules are consistent. That is why a beginner can learn to read in about an hour: the system was built for exactly that purpose.
If you want to see how the letters are best learned in practice, read Why Learn Hangul Letters by Frequency.
Read the preface in the game
In Hangul Harvest, the final epilogue has you read the preface of the Hunminjeongeum, and finishing the game earns you a certificate with King Sejong's seal. It is a way of ending the journey where the alphabet began.