Comments on: More on Korean linguistic exports

By: Thor May

Thor May — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:51:09 +0000

Hangeul is fine for Korean. Centuries ago it was consciously made to fit Korean phonology. That is what makes it “scientific”. If you happen to have a language with the same range of phonemes, or a phoneme set that is a subset of Korean sounds, then there is no technical reason not to use it for another language. In practice, the sound systems of no two languages are quite the same, and often they diverge widely. The practical effect of applying hangeul to other languages would be to assign new sound values to existing hangeul symbols and, very likely, to find it necessary to invent new “hangeul” symbols. Of course, all of this confusion has happened countless times with so-called Latin alphabets to the point that the term “Latin” is no more than a courtesy salute to ancient history. Indonesians, for example, certainly don’t see their “Latin” alphabet as having anything to do with some branch of European languages. It is just a convenient set of symbols available on the mass market.

By: Kimie

Kimie — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:35:46 +0000

Fascinating – thanks for bringing this, a new twist on the discourse of linguistic imperialism, to our attention. I know it’s highly unlikely, but I can easily imagine what kind of response there would be if the Japanese joined in this language competition;-)

Congratulations for being selected as the Editor’s selections! How exciting!

By: ResearchBlogging.org News » Blog Archive » Editor’s selections: exporting language, speaking with your mind, reversing streams, and money vs. happiness

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:49:05 +0000

[...] More on Korean linguistic exports. Ingrid Piller at Language on the Move discusses an interesting project undertaken by a Korean organization: the “saving” of small languages by giving them a written form using the Korean Hangul characters. But does the project help, or make things worse? [...]

By: Joanne Hong

Joanne Hong — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:23:35 +0000

In Free Ling conference held in Sydney university in October 2009, I attended a presentation by a Korean PhD student, Beam Lim, in Korea University in Seoul. According to Lim, there are several groups of people who try to distribute Korean writing system to speakers of endangered languages, mainly in the Philippines, China and Indonesia, and who mainly are missionaries. He studies Nurigeul writing system which is an extended version of the Hunminjeongeum, the original form of ‘Hangeul (Korean writing system)’.
Lim, also a missionary, has been teaching the Nurigeul writing system to Vajao speakers in the Philippines. Vajao is one of the preliterate language, which is spoken in South-Eastern Asia and has 52,000 native speakers in the Philippines. And, some years ago, Roman alphabet was introduced for writing and reading for this language, but failed due to the difficulties in learning the writing systems and no chances of formal education, Lim said. As Hangeul is known one of the most scientific writing system, so easy to learn. Actually, some years ago, I taught my friend who speaks only English the Korean writing system, and she could write her name in Korean after my only 3 min. description of the writing system. Also, when I lived with Chinese housemate, I sometimes taught her the Korean writing system and she could read and write some letters following some very short Korean expressions, although she couldn’t speak Korean. Also, Lim said that the Hangeul writing system is now used in the village in which he used to teach, and 90% of people are literate now. In this regard, the Korean writing system may powerfully contribute to halt or hasten a language’s demise, as Peter Muhlhausler mentioned. I found that Tagalog, Malay and Indonesian languages in South-Eastern Asia have implemented Roman writing system which is the most globalized, and I am very curious about what consequences it has brought to the languages.