Research Article
The Necessity of Hangul Globalization and Its Empirical Methods
Published: January 2008 · Vol. 37, No. 8 · pp. 75-98
Full Text
Abstract
This study aims to create writing systems for unwritten peoples through the re-creation of Hangul. Its significance lies in disseminating writing systems to peoples without scripts by re-creating Hangul, one of the greatest cultural contents of the Korean nation. To this end, this is an empirical study on methods to establish one-to-one correspondence rules for phonetic values that current Hangul cannot adequately express, thereby enabling the creation of written scripts for unwritten peoples through Hangul re-creation. According to varying scholarly estimates, approximately 5,800 to 7,000 languages currently exist on Earth, of which roughly 2,000 languages lack a writing system. More than 75% of these 2,000 unwritten peoples are located in Africa and Southeast Asia. The purpose of this study is to disseminate Hangul to these regions without writing systems. Naturally, the Hangul proposed here goes beyond the Hangul currently in use, as those peoples possess sounds that do not exist in our alphabet. In this respect, this effort differs fundamentally from some existing attempts to disseminate current Hangul as-is, which is incomplete because characters representing those sounds are needed—hence the necessity for "re-creation of Hunminjeongeum," and this study aims to present its feasibility and methodology. Through this endeavor, it becomes possible to envision a global village united through Hangul script by disseminating writing systems to all peoples on Earth. Culturally, it can also permanently preserve the languages of unwritten peoples, preventing precious global languages from disappearing. This undertaking also represents the most necessary and accessible path for Korea to become an advanced cultural nation. Hangul, to be recorded in human history, can spread our script to every corner of the globe. This will serve as an occasion for King Sejong's "spirit of love for the people," as expressed in the preface to the creation of Hunminjeongeum, to be elevated from love for one's own nation to love for all humanity. To this end, this study examines the Romanization process and orthographic issues of the Malay-Indonesian languages used by a population of 300 million, thereby presenting the feasibility and utility of replacing Romanization of Asian and African languages with Hangul script, and further, the possibility of converting these languages to Hangul script through the re-creation of Hangul.
