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Examples
of Distortions
China:
¡°Many scholars worked together to create the 28 vowels and consonants by
studying the Korean language and the combining it with the Chinese
Language.¡±(Junior High School, World History (1), People¡¯s Education Press,
1993.)
US: ¡°The
Korean alphabet was created by borrowing from Chinese characters...¡± (Secondary
School History, History of the Human Community, Prentice Hall,
1993.)
Comment
Koreans have, since ancient times,
had a distinct language, different from Chinese; however, they lacked an
alphabet for the Korean language this caused much trouble, especially because
the Chinese characters, which were borrowed for a long time, were difficult to
learn and were not fully adequate for writing Korean. For this reason, King
Sejong (r.1415-1450), and a group of scholars commissioned by him, created
Hangeul, a unique alphabet for the Korean language and promulgated it in 1446.
It is considered the most scientific alphabet in existence and one of the
easiest to learn. Since this time, therefore, Koreans have been able to write
their language without using Chinese characters, although many characters are
used with Hangeul for words borrowed from Chinese. Korea is one of the few
nations that have an alphabet exclusively for its own
language.
Hangeul is a phonetic alphabet
created on scientific principles and can be used to transcribe almost any sound.
It is completely different from Chinese characters which are ideograms. It is
thus incorrect to say that the Hangeul alphabet borrowed from the
Chinese.
In a Philippine textbook, it is
wrongly stated that although Korean and Japanese do not belong to the same
language family, they are somehow interrelated. It goes on to state that the
Korean language has adopted the Chinese style of writing which is also
incorrect.
A mistake that foreigners often make is to search for the roots of
all elements of Korean culture in China. Textbooks that imply that the Hangeul
alphabet was influenced by Chinese characters must be corrected as a matter of
priority
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