Hanja
Hanja | |
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Script type | Logographic
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Time period | 400 BCE – present |
Languages | Korean, Classical Chinese |
Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Sister systems | Kanji, traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, Khitan script, Chữ Hán, Chữ Nôm, Jurchen script, Tangut script |
ISO 15924 | |
ISO 15924 | Hani (500), Han (Hanzi, Kanji, Hanja) |
Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Han |
Hanja | |
Hangul | 한자 |
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Hanja | 漢字 |
Revised Romanization | Hanja |
McCune–Reischauer | Hancha |
Korean writing systems |
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Hangul |
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Hanja |
Mixed script |
Braille |
Transcription |
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Transliteration |
Hanja (
Hanja-eo (한자어, 漢字語) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, which can be written with Hanja, and hanmun (한문, 漢文) refers to Classical Chinese writing, although Hanja is also sometimes used to encompass both concepts. Because Hanja characters have never undergone any major reforms, they more closely resemble traditional Japanese (구자체, 舊字體) and traditional Chinese characters, although the stroke orders for certain characters are slightly different. Such examples are the characters 教 and 敎, as well as 研 and 硏.[1] Only a small number of Hanja characters were modified or are unique to Korean, with the rest being identical to the traditional Chinese characters. By contrast, many of the Chinese characters currently in use in mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore have been simplified, and contain fewer strokes than the corresponding Hanja characters.
Until the contemporary period, Korean documents, history, literature and records were written primarily in
Hanja were once used to write native Korean words, in a variety of systems collectively known as idu, but by the 20th century Koreans used hanja only for writing Sino-Korean words, while writing native vocabulary and loanwords from other languages in Hangul. By the 21st century, even Sino-Korean words are usually written in the Hangul alphabet, with the corresponding Chinese character sometimes written next to it to prevent confusion if there are other characters or words with the same Hangul spelling. According to the Standard Korean Language Dictionary published by the National Institute of Korean Language (NIKL), approximately half (50%) of Korean words are Sino-Korean, mostly in academic fields (science, government, and society).[5] Other dictionaries, such as the Urimal Keun Sajeon, claim this number might be as low as roughly 30%.[6][7]
History
Introduction of literary Chinese to Korea
There is traditionally no accepted date for when
From 108 BC to 313 AD, the
Some western writers claimed that knowledge of Chinese entered Korea with the spread of Buddhism, which occurred around the 4th century.[9] Traditionally Buddhism is believed to have been introduced to Goguryeo in 372, Baekje in 384, and Silla in 527.[13]
Another major factor in the adoption of hanmun was the adoption of the (문선; 文選; Munseon).
The Korean scholars were very proficient in literary Chinese. The craftsmen and scholars of
Adaptation of hanja to Korean
The Chinese language, however, was quite different from the Korean language, consisting of terse, often monosyllabic words with a strictly analytic, SVO structure in stark contrast to the generally polysyllabic, very synthetic, SOV structure, with various grammatical endings that encoded person, levels of politeness and case found in Korean. Despite the adoption of literary Chinese as the written language, Chinese never replaced Korean as the spoken language, even amongst the scholars that had immersed themselves into its study.
The first attempts to make literary Chinese texts more accessible to Korean readers were hanmun passages written in Korean word order. This would later develop into the gugyeol (구결; 口訣) or 'separated phrases,' system. Chinese texts were broken into meaningful blocks, and in the spaces were inserted hanja used to represent the sound of native Korean grammatical endings. As literary Chinese was very terse, leaving much to be understood from context, insertion of occasional verbs and grammatical markers helped to clarify the meaning. For instance, the hanja '爲' was used for its native Korean gloss whereas '尼' was used for its Sino-Korean pronunciation, and combined into '爲尼' and read hani (하니), 'to do (and so).'[14] In Chinese, however, the same characters are read in Mandarin as the expression wéi ní, meaning 'becoming a nun'. This is a typical example of Gugyeol words where the radical (爲) is read in Korean for its meaning (hă—'to do'), whereas the suffix 尼, ni (meaning 'nun'), is used phonetical. Special symbols were sometimes used to aid in the reordering of words in approximation of Korean grammar. It was similar to the kanbun (漢文) system developed in Japan to render Chinese texts. The system was not a translation of Chinese into Korean, but an attempt to make Korean speakers knowledgeable in hanja overcome the difficulties in interpreting Chinese texts. Although it was developed by scholars of the early Goryeo Kingdom (918–1392), gugyeol was of particular importance during the Joseon period, extending into the first decade of the twentieth century, since all civil servants were required to be able to read, translate and interpret Confucian texts and commentaries.[15]
The first attempt at transcribing Korean in hanja was the
A subset of idu was known as hyangchal (향찰; 鄕札), 'village notes,' and was a form of idu particularly associated with the hyangga (향가; 鄕歌) the old poetry compilations and some new creations preserved in the first half of the Goryeo period when its popularity began to wane.[9] In the hyangchal or 'village letters' system, there was free choice in how a particular hanja was used. For example, to indicate the topic of Princess Seonhwa, a daughter of King Jinpyeong of Silla was recorded as '善化公主主隱' in hyangchal and was read as (선화공주님은), seonhwa gongju-nim-eun where '善化公主' is read in Sino-Korean, as it is a Sino-Korean name and the Sino-Korean term for 'princess' was already adopted as a loan word. The hanja '主隱,' however, were read according to their native pronunciation but was not used for its literal meaning signifying 'the prince steals' but to the native postpositions (님) nim, the honorific marker used after professions and titles, and eun, the topic marker. In mixed script, this would be rendered as '善化公主님은'.[16][15]
Hanja were the sole means of writing Korean until King Sejong the Great invented and tried promoting Hangul in the 15th century. Even after the invention of Hangul, however, most Korean scholars continued to write in hanmun, although Hangul did see considerable popular use. Idu and its hyangchal variant were mostly replaced by mixed-script writing with hangul although idu was not officially discontinued until 1894 when reforms abolished its usage in administrative records of civil servants. Even with idu, most literature and official records were still recorded in literary Chinese until 1910.[16][15]
Decline of Hanja
The Hangul-Hanja mixed script was a commonly used means of writing, and Hangul effectively replaced Hanja in official and scholarly writing only in the 20th century. Hangŭl exclusive writing has been used concurrently in Korea after the decline of literary Chinese. Mixed script could be commonly found in non-fiction writing, news papers, etc., until the enacting of Park Chung Hee's 5 Year Plan for Hangŭl Exclusivity[17] hangŭl jŏnyong ogaenyŏn gyehuik an (Korean: 한글전용 5개년 계획안; Hanja: 한글專用 5個年 計劃案) in 1968 banned the use and teaching of Hanja in public schools, as well as forbade its use in the military, with the goal of eliminating Hanja in writing by 1972 through legislative and executive means. However, due to public backlash, in 1972, Park's government allowed for the teaching of Hanja in special classes but maintained a ban on Hanja use in textbooks and other learning materials outside of the classes. This reverse step, however, was optional so the availability of Hanja education was dependent on the school one went to. Park's Hanja ban was not formally lifted until 1992 under the government of Kim Young-sam. In 1999, the government of Kim Dae-jung actively promoted Hanja by placing it on signs on the road, at bus stops, and in subways. In 1999, Han Mun was reintroduced as a school elective and in 2001 the Hanja Proficiency Test hanja nŭngryŏk gŏmjŏng sihŏm (Korean: 한자능력검정시험; Hanja: 漢字能力檢定試驗) was introduced. In 2005, an older law, the Law Concerning Hangul Exclusivity hangŭl jŏnyonge gwahak pŏmnyul (Korean: 한글전용에 관한 법률; Hanja: 한글專用에 關한 法律) was repealed as well. In 2013 all elementary schools in Seoul started teaching Hanja. However, the result is that Koreans who were educated in this period having never been formally educated in Hanja are unable to use them, and thus the use of Hanja has plummeted in orthography until the modern day. Where Hanja is now very rarely used and is almost only used for abbreviations in newspaper headlines (e.g. 中 for China, 韓 for Korea, 美 for the United States, 日 for Japan, etc.), for clarification in text where a word might be confused for another due to homophones (e.g. 이사장(李 社長) vs. 이사장(理事長)), or for stylistic use such as the 辛 (Korean: 신라면; Hanja: 辛拉麵) used on Shin Ramyŏn packaging.
Since June 1949, Hanja has not officially been used in
Character formation
Each Hanja is composed of one of 214
The historical use of Hanja in Korea has had a change over time. Hanja became prominent in use by the elite class between the 3rd and 4th centuries by the Three Kingdoms. The use came from Chinese that migrated into Korea. With them they brought the writing system Hanja. Thus the hanja being used came from the characters already being used by the Chinese at the time.
Since Hanja was primarily used by the elite and scholars, it was hard for others to learn, thus much character development was limited. Scholars in the 4th century used this to study and write Confucian classics. Character formation is also coined to the idu form which was a Buddhist writing system for Chinese characters. This practice however was limited due to the opinion of Buddhism whether it was favorable at the time or not.
Eumhun
To aid in understanding the meaning of a character, or to describe it orally to distinguish it from other characters with the same pronunciation, character dictionaries and school textbooks refer to each character with a combination of its sound and a word indicating its meaning. This dual meaning-sound reading of a character is called eumhun (음훈; 音訓; from 音 'sound' + 訓 'meaning,' 'teaching').
The word or words used to denote the meaning are often—though hardly always—words of native Korean (i.e., non-Chinese) origin, and are sometimes archaic words no longer commonly used.
Education
South
South Korean primary schools ceased the teaching of Hanja in elementary schools in the 1970s, although they are still taught as part of the mandatory curriculum in grade 6. They are taught in separate courses in South Korean high schools, separately from the normal Korean-language curriculum. Formal Hanja education begins in grade 7 (junior high school) and continues until graduation from senior high school in grade 12.
A total of 1,800 Hanja are taught: 900 for junior high, and 900 for senior high (starting in grade 10).
South Korea's Ministry of Education generally encourages all primary schools to offer Hanja classes. Officials said that learning Chinese characters could enhance students' Korean-language proficiency.[22] Initially announced as a mandatory requirement, it is now considered optional.[23]
North
Though North Korea rapidly abandoned the general use of Hanja soon after independence,[24] the number of Hanja taught in primary and secondary schools is actually greater than the 1,800 taught in South Korea.[25] Kim Il Sung had earlier called for a gradual elimination of the use of Hanja,[26] but by the 1960s, he had reversed his stance; he was quoted as saying in 1966, "While we should use as few Sinitic terms as possible, students must be exposed to the necessary Chinese characters and taught how to write them."[27]
As a result, a Chinese-character textbook was designed for North Korean schools for use in grades 5–9, teaching 1,500 characters, with another 500 for high school students.[28] College students are exposed to another 1,000, bringing the total to 3,000.[29]
Uses
Because many different Hanja—and thus, many different words written using Hanja—often share the
Print media
In South Korea, Hanja are used most frequently in ancient literature, legal documents, and scholarly monographs, where they often appear without the equivalent Hangul spelling. Usually, only those words with a specialized or ambiguous meaning are printed in Hanja. In mass-circulation books and magazines, Hanja are generally used rarely, and only to gloss words already spelled in Hangul when the meaning is ambiguous. Hanja are also often used in newspaper headlines as abbreviations or to eliminate ambiguity.[31]
In formal publications, personal names are also usually glossed in Hanja in parentheses next to the Hangul. Aside from academic usage, Hanja are often used for advertising or decorative purposes in South Korea, and appear frequently in athletic events and cultural parades, packaging and labeling, dictionaries and atlases. For example, the Hanja 辛 (sin or shin, meaning 'spicy') appears prominently on packages of Shin Ramyun noodles.[32] In contrast, North Korea eliminated the use of Hanja even in academic publications by 1949 on the orders of Kim Il Sung, a situation that has since remained unchanged.[27]
Dictionaries
In modern Korean dictionaries, all entry words of Sino-Korean origin are printed in Hangul and listed in Hangul order, with the Hanja given in parentheses immediately following the entry word.
This practice helps to eliminate ambiguity, and it also serves as a sort of shorthand etymology, since the meaning of the Hanja and the fact that the word is composed of Hanja often help to illustrate the word's origin.
As an example of how Hanja can help to clear up ambiguity, many homophones can be distinguished by using hanja. An example is the word 수도 (sudo), which may have meanings such as:[33]
- 修道: spiritual discipline
- 囚徒: prisoner
- 水都: 'city of water' (e.g. Venice or Suzhou)
- paddy rice
- 水道: drain, rivers, path of surface water
- 隧道: tunnel
- 首都: capital (city)
- 手刀: hand knife
Hanja dictionaries for specialist usage – Jajeon (자전, 字典) or Okpyeon (옥편, 玉篇) – are organized by
Personal names
Korean personal names, including all Korean surnames and most Korean given names, are based on Hanja and are generally written in it, although some exceptions exist.[4] On business cards, the use of Hanja is slowly fading away, with most older people displaying their names exclusively in Hanja while most of the younger generation using both Hangul and Hanja. Korean personal names usually consist of a one-character family name (seong, 성, 姓) followed by a two-character given name (ireum, 이름). There are a few two-character family names (e.g. 남궁, 南宮, Namgung), and the holders of such names—but not only them—tend to have one-syllable given names. Traditionally, the given name in turn consists of one character unique to the individual and one character shared by all people in a family of the same sex and generation (see Generation name).[4]
During the
Toponymy
Due to standardization efforts during
- The Gyeongbu (경부, 京釜) corridor connects Seoul (gyeong, 京) and Busan (bu, 釜);
- The Gyeongin (경인, 京仁) corridor connects Seoul and Incheon (in, 仁);
- The former Jeolla (전라, 全羅) Province took its name from the first characters in the city names Jeonju (전주, 全州) and Naju(나주, 羅州) (Naju is originally Raju, but the initial "r/l" sound in South Korean is simplified to "n").
Most atlases of Korea today are published in two versions: one in Hangul (sometimes with some English as well), and one in Hanja. Subway and railway station signs give the station's name in Hangul, Hanja, and English, both to assist visitors (including Chinese or Japanese who may rely on the Hanja spellings) and to disambiguate the name.
Academia
Hanja are still required for certain disciplines in academia, such as
Art and culture
For the traditional creative arts such as calligraphy and painting, a knowledge of Hanja is needed to write and understand the various scripts and inscriptions, as is the same in China and Japan. Many old songs and poems are written and based on Hanja characters.
On 9 September 2003, the celebration for the 55th anniversary of North Korea featured a float decorated with the scenario for welcoming
Popular usage
Opinion surveys in South Korea regarding the issue of Hanja use have had mixed responses in the past. Hanja terms are also expressed through Hangul, the standard script in the Korean language. Hanja use within general Korean literature has declined since the 1980s because formal Hanja education in South Korea does not begin until the seventh year of schooling, due to changes in government policy during the time.
In 1956, one study found mixed-script Korean text (in which Sino-Korean nouns are written using Hanja, and other words using Hangul) were read faster than texts written purely in Hangul; however, by 1977, the situation had reversed.[36] In 1988, 65% of one sample of people without a college education "evinced no reading comprehension of any but the most common hanja" when reading mixed-script passages.[37]
Gukja
A small number of characters were invented by the Koreans themselves. These characters are called gukja (국자, 國字, literally 'national characters'). Most of them are for proper names (place-names and people's names) but some refer to Korean-specific concepts and materials. They include 畓 (답; dap; 'paddy field'), 欌 (장; jang, 'wardrobe'), 乭 (돌; Dol, a character only used in given names), 㸴 (소; So, a rare surname from Seongju), and 怾 (기; Gi, an old name referring to Kumgangsan).
Further examples include 巭 (부 bu), 頉 (탈 tal), 䭏 (편 pyeon), 哛 (뿐 ppun), and 椧 (명 myeong). See Korean gukja characters at Wiktionary for more examples.
Compare to the parallel development in Japan of kokuji (国字), of which there are hundreds, many rarely used. These were often developed for native Japanese plants and animals.
Yakja
Some Hanja characters have simplified forms (약자, 略字, yakja) that can be seen in casual use. An example is , which is a cursive form of 無 (meaning 'nothing').
Pronunciation
Each Hanja character is pronounced as a single syllable, corresponding to a single composite character in Hangul. The pronunciation of Hanja in Korean is by no means identical to the way they are pronounced in modern Chinese, particularly Mandarin, although some Chinese dialects and Korean share similar pronunciations for some characters. For example, 印刷 "print" is yìnshuā in Mandarin Chinese and inswae (인쇄) in Korean, but it is pronounced insah in Shanghainese (a Wu Chinese dialect).
One difference is the loss of
Due to divergence in pronunciation since the time of borrowing, sometimes the pronunciation of a Hanja and its corresponding
There are some pronunciation correspondence between the onset, rhyme, and coda between Cantonese and Korean.[38]
When learning how to write Hanja, students are taught to memorize the native Korean pronunciation for the Hanja's meaning and the Sino-Korean pronunciations (the pronunciation based on the Chinese pronunciation of the characters) for each Hanja respectively so that students know what the syllable and meaning is for a particular Hanja. For example, the name for the Hanja 水 is 물 수 (mul-su) in which 물 (mul) is the native Korean pronunciation for 'water', while 수 (su) is the Sino-Korean pronunciation of the character. The naming of Hanja is similar to if water, horse and gold were named "water-aqua", "horse-equus", or "gold-aurum" based on a hybridization of both the English and the Latin names. Other examples include 사람 인 (saram-in) for 人 'person/people', 클 대 (keul-dae) for 大 'big/large/great', 작을 소 (jageul-so) for 小 'small/little', 아래 하 (arae-ha) for 下 'underneath/below/low', 아비 부 (abi-bu) for 父 'father', and 나라이름 한 (naraireum-han) for 韓 'Han/Korea'.
See also
- Chinese characters
- Chinese influence on Korean culture
- Chinese-language literature of Korea
- East Asian cultural sphere
- Kanji – Chinese characters used for writing Japanese (Japanese equivalent of Hanja)
- McCune–Reischauer
- Korean mixed script
- New Korean Orthography
- Revised Romanization of Korean
- Yale romanization of Korean
References
Citations
- ^ "Korean Hanja Characters". SayJack. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ "알고 싶은 한글". National Institute of Korean Language. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
- ISBN 1-86189-101-6. Retrieved 3 April 2009.
- ^ ISBN 978-1351741293.
- ISBN 0824818156.
- ^ "사전소개 | 겨레말큰사전남북공동편찬사업회". www.gyeoremal.or.kr (in Korean). Retrieved 23 November 2022.
- ^ "우리말 70%가 한자말? 일제가 왜곡한 거라네". The Hankyoreh (in Korean). 11 September 2009. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
- ^ Ledyard 1998, p. 32-33.
- ^ Writing and Literacy in Chinese, Korean and Japanese: Revised Edition . (pp. 172–174.) Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins North America. p. 172
- ^ Ledyard 1998, p. 34.
- ^ Ledyard 1998, p. 34-36.
- ^ Ledyard 1998, p. 36-37.
- ^ Ledyard 1998, p. 37.
- ^ Li, Y. (2014). The Chinese Writing System in Asia: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Chapter 10. New York, NY: Routledge Press.
- ^ a b c Nam, P. (1994). 'On the Relations between Hyangchal and Kwukyel' in The Theoretical Issues in Korean Linguistics. Kim-Renaud, Y. (ed.) (pp. 419–424.) Stanford, CA: Leland Stanford University Press.
- ^ a b c Hannas, W. C. (1997). Asia's Orthographic Dilemma. O`ahu, HI: University of Hawai`i Press. pp. 55–64.
- ^ "문자 생활과 한글" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 March 2023.
- ^ "New Korean-English Dictionary published". Korean Central News Agency. 28 May 2003. Archived from the original on 12 October 2007.
- ^ Hannas 1997: 71. "A balance was struck in August 1976, when the Ministry of Education agreed to keep Chinese characters out of the elementary schools and teach the 1,800 characters in special courses, not as part of Korean language or any other substantive curricula. This is where things stand at present"
- ^ Hannas 1997: 68–69
- ^ 한문 교육용 기초 한자 (2000), page 15 (추가자: characters added, 제외자: characters removed)
- ^ "Hangeul advocates oppose Hanja classes", The Korea Herald, 2013-07-03.
- Hankyoreh(in Korean). Retrieved 15 October 2020.
- ^ Hannas 1997: 67. "By the end of 1946 and the beginning of 1947, the major newspaper Nodong sinmun, mass circulation magazine Kulloja, and similar publications began appearing in all-hangul. School textbooks and literary materials converted to all-hangul at the same time or possibly earlier (So 1989:31)."
- ^ Hannas 1997: 68. "Although North Korea has removed Chinese characters from its written materials, it has, paradoxically, ended up with an educational program that teachers more characters than either South Korea or Japan, as Table 2 shows."
- ^ Hannas 1997: 67. "According to Ko Yong-kun, Kim went on record as early as February 1949, when Chinese characters had already been removed from most DPRK publications, as advocating their gradual abandonment (1989:25)."
- ^ a b Hannas 1997: 67
- ^ Hannas 1997: 67. "Between 1968 and 1969, a four-volume textbook appeared for use in grades 5 through 9 designed to teach 1,500 characters, confirming the applicability of the new policy to the general student population. Another five hundred were added for grades 10 through 12 (Yi Yun-p'yo 1989: 372)."
- ^ Hannas 2003: 188–189
- Xinhua. Archived from the originalon 4 March 2016.
- ^ Brown 1990: 120
- ^ "신라면, 더 쫄깃해진 면발…세계인 울리는 '국가대표 라면'". The Korea Economic Daily. 17 February 2016. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
- ^ (in Korean) Naver Hanja Dictionary query of sudo
- ISBN 978-1139471398.
- ^ 2003年9月9日朝鲜阅兵 on Bilibili. Retrieved 18 Sep 2020.
- ^ Taylor and Taylor 1983: 90
- ^ Brown 1990: 119
- ^ Patrick Chun Kau Chu. (2008). Onset, Rhyme and Coda Corresponding Rules of the Sino-Korean Characters between Cantonese and Korean Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Paper presented at the 5th Postgraduate Research Forum on Linguistics (PRFL), Hong Kong, China, March 15–16.
Sources
- Brown, R. A. (1990). "Korean Sociolinguistic Attitudes in Japanese Comparative Perspective". Journal of Asian Pacific Communication. 1: 117–134.
- DeFrancis, John (1990). The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy. Honolulu: ISBN 0-8248-1068-6.
- Hannas, William C. (1997). Asia's Orthographic Dilemma. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1842-3.
- Hannas, William C. (2003). The Writing on the Wall: How Asian Orthography Curbs Creativity. Philadelphia: ISBN 0-8122-3711-0.
- Ledyard, Gari K. (1998), The Korean Language Reform of 1446
- Taylor, Insup; Taylor, Martin M. (1983). The psychology of reading. New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-684080-6.