Voice of Korea

/ The World and Korea - Friendly Ties

Korean Language, a Pride of the Nation

In 1999 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization fixed February 21 every year as the International Day of Mother Tongue in order to preserve languages, accelerate the sustained development of diverse culture in the world and promote the mutual understanding between the peoples of different countries.
The Korean language has been developed and enriched along with the 5,000-year-long history of the Korean nation.

Sinji Characters

In the period of Ancient Joson which was founded in the early 30th century B.C. and existed until 108 B.C. the Korean people invented Sinji characters as letters peculiar to the homogeneous nation and widely used them in the whole territory of the Korean nation.
In December 1443 (January 1444 by the solar calendar) during the feudal Joson dynasty, Hunminjongum, the Korean alphabet which inherited the Sinji characters, was invented by renowned scholars under the direct involvement of King Sejong.

Hunminjongum

Hunminjongum means correct pronunciation for teaching the people.
When it was invented, Hunminjongum had 28 letters including 17 consonants and 11 vowels. Later, as the linguistic life became rich and diverse, the consonants increased to 19 and the vowels to 21, taking shape as the modern Korean.
Many linguists and IT experts of the world recognize that the Korean alphabet is most ideal as common letters of the world or common letters of computer.
A university professor of Japan said he feels as if King Sejong had made the Korean alphabet in anticipation of the emergence of computer.
A university of Europe rated the Korean alphabet as the first of all letters in the world on the basis of standards such as rationality, scientific accuracy and originality.
The standard of the Korean language is the cultured Pyongyang dialect.
The cultured Pyongyang dialect embraces the unique characteristics and excellence of the national language.
Doctor and Associate Professor Yang Ok Ju, Teacher of the Korean National Language Faculty of Kim Il Sung University, says:
"The cultured Pyongyang dialect has advantages largely in four aspects.
First, in phonetics, vocalism and consonantism have been well constructed and so the collocations are very elegant and beautiful.
Second, we can refer to vocabulary. There are native words, Koreanized Chinese words and borrowed words. The cultured Pyongyang dialect accounts for a large proportion of the native words.
Third, the grammar of the Korean language is characterized by the well-framed parts of speech, clear features and standard and its natural combination.
Lastly, we can touch on the literary style. Sentences can be written easily and commonly.
The Korean language can give rich, delicate and detailed expressions in a diverse way. So, the symbolic words of Korea took the first place in the Linguistic Olympics."
It is a great pride of the Korean nation to have the Korean language with a long history and excellent structure of language.