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Hyangchal

 

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Hyangchal



 
 
Hyangchal (literally vernacular letters or local letters) is an archaic writing system of Korea
Korea

Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries, a civilization, and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia....
 and was used to transcribe the Korean language
Korean language

Korean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China....
 in hanja
Hanja

Hanja is the Korean language name for Chinese characters. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese language and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation....
. Under the hyangchal system, Chinese characters were given a Korean reading based on the syllable associated with the character. The hyangchal writing system is often classified as a subgroup of Idu
Idu

Idu is an archaic writing system which represents the Korean language using hanja. The term "idu" is used in two senses. It may refer to various systems of representing Korean phonology through Chinese characters, which were used from the Three Kingdoms of Korea to Joseon Dynasty periods....
. The first mention of hyangchal is the monk Kyun Ye's biography during the Goryeo
Goryeo

The Goryeo Dynasty was a sovereign state established in 918 by Taejo of Goryeo. It united the Later Three Kingdoms in 936 and ruled most of the Korean peninsula until it was removed by the Joseon dynasty in 1392....
 period.






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Encyclopedia


Hyangchal (literally vernacular letters or local letters) is an archaic writing system of Korea
Korea

Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries, a civilization, and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia....
 and was used to transcribe the Korean language
Korean language

Korean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China....
 in hanja
Hanja

Hanja is the Korean language name for Chinese characters. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese language and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation....
. Under the hyangchal system, Chinese characters were given a Korean reading based on the syllable associated with the character. The hyangchal writing system is often classified as a subgroup of Idu
Idu

Idu is an archaic writing system which represents the Korean language using hanja. The term "idu" is used in two senses. It may refer to various systems of representing Korean phonology through Chinese characters, which were used from the Three Kingdoms of Korea to Joseon Dynasty periods....
. The first mention of hyangchal is the monk Kyun Ye's biography during the Goryeo
Goryeo

The Goryeo Dynasty was a sovereign state established in 918 by Taejo of Goryeo. It united the Later Three Kingdoms in 936 and ruled most of the Korean peninsula until it was removed by the Joseon dynasty in 1392....
 period. Hyangchal is best known as the method Koreans used to write vernacular poetry. Today, twenty-five such poems still exist and shows that vernacular poetry used native Korean words, Korean word order, and each syllable was "transcribed with a single graph". The writing system covered nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, particles, suffixes, and auxiliary verbs. The practice of hyanchal continued during the Goryeo
Goryeo

The Goryeo Dynasty was a sovereign state established in 918 by Taejo of Goryeo. It united the Later Three Kingdoms in 936 and ruled most of the Korean peninsula until it was removed by the Joseon dynasty in 1392....
 Dynasty where it was used to record native poetry as well.

See also

  • Idu
    Idu

    Idu is an archaic writing system which represents the Korean language using hanja. The term "idu" is used in two senses. It may refer to various systems of representing Korean phonology through Chinese characters, which were used from the Three Kingdoms of Korea to Joseon Dynasty periods....