Language Lessons: Writing Systems of the World

Written languages typically develop over a long period of time, evolving as amalgamations of oral tradition, modifications of existing alphabets, and social custom. In every corner of the world, you’ll find a different style of communication, and though there are some overlaps, all languages seem to have their own unique style and story. The Korean language, for example, has an interesting history…

Korean Hangul

Up until the mid-15th century, Koreans wrote in Chinese, the language of their dominant neighbor. But the Chinese characters did not entirely translate all of the Korean cultural understandings. King Sejong the Great decided his nation needed a language of its own. He turned to top scholars for advice before beginning a two-year process to create Hangul, which gives every symbol its own sound and meaning, so that anyone—scholar or pauper—could sound it out once they memorized each symbol. The shape of each consonant even resembles the shape of the speaker’s mouth, for easier memorization. 

Street art depicting the Korean alphabet.

This democratization was popular with the people, but it took a while to become the norm: Chinese remained the official language for generations. Even after Hangul was universally adopted, it was deemed a threat: Japan banned its use while occupying Korea during World Wars I and II. But, in the end, Hangul has prevailed, used in both North and South Korea, yielding near 100% literacy.

Hangul has 14 consonants and 10 vowels that are grouped into syllabic blocks and arranged both vertically and horizontally. It was traditionally written from top to bottom, and from right to left, but today it mimics Western-style orientation and punctuation.

Fun Facts about Other Language and Writing Systems

• Devanagari, used in Nepal and India, is a script comprised of two words meaning “god” and “city.” Used to write more than 120 languages, it is among the most widely used in the world. It has 47 primary characters—14 vowels and 33 consonants—and one character unit represents a consonant-vowel sequence (known as an “abugida” writing system). It is written from left to right
  
  
• Arabic is the second-most widely used script in the world by number of countries, and third-most by number of users. It is an example of an “abjad” writing system, in which each symbol stands for a consonant, leaving the reader to infer the vowel; the term “abjad” was derived from the first four letters of this alphabet. There is no “p” sound, so some languages add their own letter to represent it. It is written from right to left.
  
  
• Chinese is the world’s oldest continually used writing system. It has tens of thousands of characters, though most of them are archaic; functional literacy requires knowledge of between three and four thousand. It is logographic vs. phonetic, meaning each character represents a word or concept rather than a sound. It is written from right to left in vertical columns.
  
  
• Another abugida writing system where each unit represents a consonant-vowel sequence is Thai. This was the first script in the world to use markers to indicate distinctive tones, which change the meaning of a word. There are no spaces between words, except to denote the end of a clause or sentence. A now-obsolete punctuation mark known as a “bird’s eye” was once used to indicate a new paragraph.
  
  
• Japanese is a combination of three different scripts—and there are many exceptions to the rules around when to use each one. It can be written in either vertical or horizontal orientation; in general, vertical is traditional and horizontal is contemporary, but the two may be combined to maximize space. If the main text of a book is set vertically, it is read from left to right, back to front.
  
  
• Greek was the first alphabetic script to have distinct letters for both vowels and consonants. It was the ancestor to the Latin script—and while it originally had no distinction between uppercase and lowercase letters, it developed case forms in parallel with Latin. Outside of language, the letters are used as symbols in mathematics and science—including the identification of stars and constellations.
  
  
• The Hebrew alphabet has just 22 letters and no case distinction, though five letters take different forms when used at the end of a word. While it was originally a pure abjad script, certain consonants were eventually used to represent vowels, and a modern trend toward “full spelling” now treats them as actual vowels. Different styles of this alphabet exist, including cursive. It is written from right to left.

Experience the culture of South Korea and its relationship with neighboring China during South Korea & Japan: Temples, Shrines & Seaside Treasures.