Saw this at the Newburyport library and was intrigued. "Long ago in Korea, most children could not read and write. Neither could their parents, or their grandparents....All because Korea did not have an alphabet. One king set out to change that." Royalty used Hanja, complex Chinese characters, to read and write. But the king believed his people ought to be able to read and write, so he decided to invent an alphabet. "No one had ever invented an alphabet before. Other alphabets slowly developed over hundreds of years." Eventually, he came up with an alphabet of 28 letters, later called Hangeul, based on the shape of the tongue, lips, and teeth when making different consonant and vowel sounds. Now it is the official Korean alphabet.

Back matter: Why Hangeul Is Unique, An Ingenious Design, The Great Debate, A Long Journey to Acceptance, selected sources, source notes. ( )

Korean alphabet ( )