Are Korean names written in Chinese?
The names of Koreans in ancient and modern times were written in Chinese. Now they are written in Korean, but they can also be written in Chinese characters.
After the Korean Peninsula was restored on August 15, 1945, it was divided into the northern and southern parts of the peninsula, today's North and South Korea. In order to standardize the use of characters, North Korea and South Korea respectively carried out reforms in the use of characters after establishing their political power.
One of the key points of the reform is how to treat Chinese characters. As mentioned earlier, the Korean peninsula has a very long history of using Chinese characters, so even after the invention of "Hunminjeongeum", Chinese characters are still in use. The writing of court documents of the Joseon Dynasty and the records of historical classics all have Chinese characters sandwiched in them (similar to today's Japanese). In this regard, North Korea has adopted reform measures to completely abolish Chinese characters, that is, all written characters will be written in Korean letters and no longer mixed with Chinese characters. In terms of vocabulary, North Korea also strictly limits the use of Chinese characters and tries to create as many new words as possible using North Korean inherent vocabulary.
South Korea is not that thorough.
Although South Korea promulgated the "Korean Exclusive Act" in 1948, prohibiting the public use of Chinese characters, the use of Chinese characters has never completely stopped. Whether it is Chinese language education in schools or national writing, the use of Chinese characters is mixed is long-standing. The policy on the use of Chinese characters in Korean textbooks is also constantly changing. For example, a presidential decree in 1968 required the deletion of Chinese characters in primary and secondary school textbooks. However, in 1972, Chinese characters were made a compulsory course in junior high schools and included in the regular curriculum. In 1973, middle school textbooks stipulated the reuse of Chinese characters, and in 1995 it was changed to an elective course. In February 1999, the then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung signed a presidential decree approving the use of Chinese characters in government documents and road signs. The promulgation of this presidential decree broke the Korean government's ban on the use of Chinese characters for more than 50 years. At present, the number of "new common Chinese characters" promulgated by the Ministry of Education of South Korea for education is 1,800, and the number of "commonly used Chinese characters" for daily use is 1,300.
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Many people want to know whether the current Korean and Korean are the same language, and whether Korean characters and Korean characters are the same What kind of writing? Why are there so many Chinese characters on the plaques of ancient buildings in Korea?
King Sejong and "Hunminjeongeum"
The Korean Peninsula has a long history, but over a long period of time But it is a country that only has its own national language but no national script. Around the 3rd century AD, Chinese characters were introduced to North Korea, and later the pronunciation and meaning of Chinese characters were used to record the Korean language, that is, "Liduwen". But due to the influence of the feudal social hierarchy concept. Those who can learn and use Chinese characters are mostly aristocrats, and it is difficult for ordinary people to have access to them. Moreover, some of the "official reading texts" created by combining Chinese characters are not suitable for the phonetic system and grammatical structure of Korean, so it is sometimes difficult to accurately mark the Korean language. Therefore, people at that time very much hoped to have a script that was suitable for the Korean phonetic system and grammatical structure and was easy to learn. From the perspective of the ruling class, in order to facilitate the people to implement their ruling policies, it is also necessary to invent a phonetic script that is easy for the people to master. In this way, under the active initiative of King Sejong of the fourth generation of the Joseon Dynasty, a group of outstanding scholars such as Zheng Linzhi, Shen Shuzhou, Cui Heng, and Cheng Sanwen, based on many years of research on the phonology of Korean and some foreign characters, came to The 28-letter Korean alphabet was created in 1444. During this period, Korean scholars came to Ming Dynasty China dozens of times to conduct research on phonology. In 1446, North Korea officially announced the creation of Korean characters, called "Hunminjeongyin", which means to teach the people the correct pronunciation of the characters. After the new writing was invented, King Sejong advocated the use of "Hunminjeongyin" in official documents and personal letters, and ordered the use of "Hunminjeongyin" to compose "Yongfeiyutiange". He also made "Hunmin Zhengyin" a required subject in the imperial examination for recruiting officials, and engraved "Hunmin Zhengyin" on coins. The creation of "Hunminjeongeum" provided good conditions for the development of Korean written language and the development of Korean literature.
"Hunminjeongeum" is one of the few characters in the world where it is known who created it and when exactly it was created. Therefore, it was designated as National Treasure No. 70 by South Korea and was designated by UNESCO in October 1997. The organization is listed as a world cultural heritage.
"Hunminjeongeum" is a phonetic script consisting of 17 consonants and 11 vowels. The 17 consonant characters are created according to the shape of the mouth and the tongue position of the articulator. They are divided into dental, lingual, labial, dental, etc. according to different pronunciations. This is basically consistent with the classification of modern phonetics. According to the clearness and voicing of the sound, the consonants are divided into fully voiceless, sub-voiceless, fully voiced, and unclear and unvoiced; there are 3 basic vowels among the 11 vowels. They are based on the formation of the universe "heaven, earth, and man" as believed by the ancients. Created in sequence, other vowels are created based on these three basic vowels. After 560 years of development of these 28 letters, 3 consonants and 1 vowel have been eliminated. Currently, only 24 consonants and vowels are used in North and South Korea. With 24 consonants and vowels, 70,000 Korean characters can be formed, and these characters can in turn form more than 700 million words. Such a vast text is inexhaustible.
"Chinese characters" in the Korean writing reform
Traditional Korean vocabulary includes two categories: inherent words and loanwords. Intrinsic words refer to native words that originally existed in Korean; loanwords refer to words originating from other languages, of which nearly 70% originate from Chinese Chinese characters. These words can be written in Chinese characters in Korean. of.
After the Japanese imperialists implemented colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula in 1910, they banned the Korean language. In the 1940s, they intensified their efforts. They carried out the so-called "Chinese name change". Koreans born during this period People are not allowed to use Korean, and their surnames must be changed to Japanese surnames.
After the Korean Peninsula was restored on August 15, 1945, it was divided into the northern and southern parts of the peninsula, today's North and South Korea. In order to standardize the use of characters, North Korea and South Korea respectively carried out reforms in the use of characters after establishing their political power.
One of the key points of the reform is how to treat Chinese characters. As mentioned earlier, the Korean peninsula has a very long history of using Chinese characters, so even after the invention of "Hunminjeongeum", Chinese characters are still in use. The writing of court documents of the Joseon Dynasty and the records of historical classics all have Chinese characters sandwiched in them (similar to today's Japanese). In this regard, North Korea has adopted reform measures to completely abolish Chinese characters, that is, all written characters will be written in Korean letters and no longer mixed with Chinese characters. In terms of vocabulary, North Korea also strictly limits the use of Chinese characters and tries to create as many new words as possible using North Korean inherent vocabulary.
South Korea is not that thorough.
Although South Korea promulgated the "Korean Exclusive Act" in 1948, prohibiting the public use of Chinese characters, the use of Chinese characters has never completely stopped. Whether it is Chinese language education in schools or national writing, the use of Chinese characters is mixed is long-standing. The policy on the use of Chinese characters in Korean textbooks is also constantly changing. For example, a presidential decree in 1968 required the deletion of Chinese characters in primary and secondary school textbooks. However, in 1972, Chinese characters were made a compulsory course in junior high schools and included in the regular curriculum. In 1973, middle school textbooks stipulated the reuse of Chinese characters, and in 1995 it was changed to an elective course. In February 1999, the then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung signed a presidential decree approving the use of Chinese characters in government documents and road signs. The promulgation of this presidential decree broke the Korean government's ban on the use of Chinese characters for more than 50 years. At present, the number of "new common Chinese characters" promulgated by the Ministry of Education of South Korea for education is 1,800, and the number of "commonly used Chinese characters" for daily use is 1,300.
In fact, whether to abolish or use Chinese characters should be considered based on whether it is beneficial to the cultural development of the nation. The disadvantage of abolishing Chinese characters is that it makes it impossible for Koreans to study the original ancient historical classics, because the vast majority of Korean historical classics are written in Chinese characters. In addition, there are also some inconveniences in real life, because there are many homophones and homonyms in Korean vocabulary. It is sometimes difficult to correctly understand the meaning of these characters just by looking at them, and it is easy to cause misunderstandings. Before the abolition of Chinese characters, These words can be represented by Chinese characters. Of course, there are benefits to abolition of Chinese characters, that is, it will facilitate the popularization of Korean characters and facilitate the spread of culture.
Split leads to differences in writing
Some friends may ask whether North Korea and South Korea also have dialects? Are there any differences in the writing between the two countries? Yes, like the languages of many countries, language There are always local differences. At present, North Korea uses the Pyongyang dialect as its standard pronunciation, called Bunhuahua, while South Korea uses the Gyeonggi-do dialect of Seoul as its standard pronunciation. There are differences in tone between the two sides. In terms of speaking habits, Koreans use more foreign words in their speech, especially English words.
Generally speaking, the grammar of Korean and Korean is the same. The differences are mainly reflected in the writing format of vocabulary and individual sentence patterns, as well as the spelling of some foreign words. North Korea and South Korea have different spellings on many words, and some are even so different that each other cannot correctly understand the meaning of each other's words.
In today's "computer age" where information is highly developed, the characters of many ethnic groups are difficult to process on computers, but the opposite is true of Korean characters. Because when Korean characters are written, one consonant is written first, and then a vowel is written (or a consonant is written after the vowel), so the consonants and vowels with the same number are evenly arranged on the left and right operating parts of the computer keyboard, so that when typing, The left and right hands can be used almost the same number of times without any discomfort. I believe that the 560-year-old Korean script will also develop further in the information age.
(Li Ping is excerpted from "World Knowledge" Issue 23, 2004, by Li Xinwen)