Relationship between Hangeul and Hanguk-eo(Korean)

Hello everyone. Last class we learned that Hangeul can be written as it sounds, in phonemic units. This class we will look at the structures and names of the consonants and vowels in Hangeul. First, let’s review the relationship between Hangeul and Hanguk-eo (Korean). Hanguk-eo, or Korean, is the language used in Korea, which is located in Northeast Asia. Hanguk-eo is used not only in Korea, but also by Koreans overseas. There are 77 million Hanguk-eo speakers in the world. It is the 13th most commonly spoken language, in terms of number of speakers. Hanguk-eo is mostly spoken in North and South Korea. We don’t know exactly how old Hanguk-eo is or how long it has been spoken.

Since Hanguk-eo was spoken before it had its own alphabet, we can assume Hanguk-eo is older than Hangeul. Hangeul is the alphabet for the written language. In 1443, the fourth king of the Joseon dynasty, King Sejong, created Hangeul. Hangeul was created because at the time there was no separate alphabet to express Hanguk-eo. The Hanguk-eo language is usually written in Hangeul. Now you can distinguish the Hanguk-eo language from the Hangeul alphabet. Hanguk-eo is the Korean language and Hangeul is the alphabet to write Hanguk-eo.