Hangul

The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul (Hangeul)[note 1] in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is a writing system for the Korean language created by King Sejong the Great in 1443.[2][3] The letters for the five basic consonants reflect the shape of the speech organs used to pronounce them, and they are systematically modified to indicate phonetic features; similarly, the vowel letters are systematically modified for related sounds, making Hangul a featural writing system.

Modern Hangul orthography uses 24 basic letters: 14 consonant letters (ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ) and 10 vowel letters (ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ). There are also 27 complex letters formed by combining the basic letters: 5 tense consonant letters (ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ), 11 complex consonant letters (ㄳ ㄵ ㄶ ㄺ ㄻ ㄼ ㄽ ㄾ ㄿ ㅀ ㅄ) and 11 complex vowel letters (ㅐ ㅒ ㅔ ㅖ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅢ). Four basic letters in the original alphabet are no longer used: 1 vowel letter (ㆍ) and 3 consonant letters (ㅿ ㆁ ㆆ)

The Korean letters are written in syllabic blocks with the alphabetic letters arranged in two dimensions. For example, Hangeul in Korean is spelled 한글, not ㅎㅏㄴㄱㅡㄹ. These syllables begin with a consonant letter, then a vowel letter, and then potentially another consonant letter. If the syllable begins with a vowel sound, then the consonant "ㅇ" will act as a silent placeholder. Syllables may begin with basic or tense consonants, but not complex ones. The vowel can be basic or complex, while the second consonant can be basic, complex or a limited number of tense consonants. The way the syllable is structured depends on if the vowel is a "tall" vowel (vertical base line) or a "fat" vowel (horizontal base line); if the vowel is "tall" then the first consonant and vowel are written above the second consonant (if there is one), whereas if a vowel is "fat" then all of the components are written individually top to bottom.

As it combines the features of alphabetic and syllabic writing systems, it has been described as an "alphabetic syllabary". As in traditional Chinese and Japanese writing, Korean texts were traditionally written top to bottom, right to left, and are occasionally still written this way for stylistic purposes. Today, it is typically written from left to right with spaces between words and western-style punctuation. It is the official writing system of Korea, including both North and South Korea. It is a co-official writing system in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and Changbai Korean Autonomous County in Jilin Province, China. It is also sometimes used to write the Cia-Cia language spoken near the town of Baubau, Indonesia. The Taiwanese linguist Hsu Tsao-te [zh] developed and used a modified Hangul alphabet to represent spoken Taiwanese Hokkien and was later supported by Ang Ui-jin (see Taiwanese Hangul).