Inventing an alphabet

by @pkqk

Latin alphabet

Won

One

Through

Tough

한글

Hangul

  • Commissioned by Sejong the Great (세종) in 1443
  • Each box of shapes represents a syllable
  • Featural, shapes hint at how they sound
    • Vowels and Consonants are distinguishable
    • Consonants with similar articulations have the same base shape
  • Designed to be easy to learn

A syllable

김

(kim)

ᄀ

(g/k)

ᅵ

(i)

ᄆ

(m)

김

(kim)

삼성

Sam-sung

삼성

Consonants

ᄉs
ᄆm
ᄋng

삼성

Vowels

ᅡa
ᅥeo/ö

삼성

Sam-sung

서울

Seo-ul

서울

Consonants

ᄉs
ᄋ(actually silent)
ㄹr/l (at the same time 😱)

서울

Vowels

ㅓeo
ㅡeu/ü

서울

Seo-ul

Velar consonants ㄱ(g/k), ㅋ(k)
Coronal consonants ㄴ(n), ㄷ(d), ㅌ(t), ㄹ(r/l)
Bilabial consonants ㅁ(m), ㅂ(b), ㅍ(p)
Sibilant consonants ㅅ(s), ㅈ(sh), ㅊ(ch)
Dorsal consonants ㅇ(ng), ㅎ(h)
Simple vowels from
the front of the mouth		 ㅣ(i), ㅏ(a), ㅓ(eo)
Simple vowels from
the back of the mouth		 ㅡ(eu), ㅗ(o), ㅜ(u)



There are more complex vowels too though 🙁.

감사합니다

Kam-sa-hap-ni-da

(Thank you)




ps. I am not a linguist, this is all either simplified or wrong.