Hancha is the Korean name for Chinese characters and words whose pronunciation has been Koreanized. Many of them are based on Chinese and Japanese words that were once recorded with their help. Unlike Japanese and mainland Chinese, which use simplified characters, Korean characters remain very similar to the traditional ones used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and foreign communities. From the moment of their appearance, the Hanche played a role in the formation of the early writing systems, but subsequent reforms of the language led to a decrease in their importance.
History of occurrence
Chinese characters in the Korean language appeared through contact with China between 108 BC. e. and 313 g. e., when the Han Dynasty organized several districts in the territory of modern North Korea. In addition, the text “A Thousand Classic Symbols”, written by many unique hieroglyphs, had another great influence on the distribution of the hunch. This close contact with China, combined with the spread of the culture of a neighboring country, had a strong influence on the Korean language, as it was the first foreign culture to borrow Chinese words and characters into its own writing system. In addition, the Koryo empire further facilitated the use of hieroglyphs, when in 958 exams were introduced for public servants requiring the possession of Chinese writing and Confucius' literary classics. Although Korean writing was created through the introduction of Hancha and the dissemination of Chinese literature, they did not properly reflect the syntax and could not be used to spell words.
Phonetic transcription coming
The earliest writing systems designed to spell Korean words using hunch were go, kugl and simplified hunch. I go was a transcription system based on the meaning or sound of Chinese logograms. In addition, there may be times when one character represented several sounds and several characters had the same sound. The system was used to write official documents, legal agreements, as well as personal letters during the Koryo and Joseon dynasties and was used until 1894, despite the fact that it was not able to correctly reflect Korean grammar.
The disadvantages of hunch
Although the system was going and allowed to transcribe the words of the Korean language, based on their meaning and sound, the Kugle system was developed. She helped to better understand Chinese texts by adding her own grammatical words to sentences. Like going, they used the meaning and sound of logograms. Later, the most commonly used Hancha for grammar words were simplified, and sometimes merged, to create new simplified Korean characters. The main problem of going and kugel was the use of either only sound without communication with the semantic meaning of the character, or only values ​​with the complete rejection of sound. These early writing systems were replaced by the Korean alphabet and the 1894 reform of Cape, which resulted in the use of a mixture of Hancha and Hangul to convey the morphology of words. After the end of World War II in 1945, the use of the Korean language was restored, and the governments of North and South Korea began implementing programs to reform it.
Northern option
The policy of language reform in the DPRK was based on communist ideology. North Korea called its standard “munghwao,” or “cultural language,” in which many Japanese and Chinese borrowings were replaced by new fictitious words. In addition, the DPRK government was able to solve the “homophones problem” that existed in Sino-Korean words by simply removing some words with the same sound from the vocabulary. In 1949, the government officially abolished the use of hunch in favor of hangeul, but later in 1960 allowed them to be taught because Kim Il Sung wanted to maintain cultural ties with foreign Koreans and because it was necessary to master the “cultural language” in which still contains a lot of borrowing. As a result, in the DPRK, they study 3,000 hunchbacks: 1,500 for 6 years of schooling, 500 for 2 years of technical, and finally 1,000 for four years of university studies. Nevertheless, not many people use the hieroglyphs in North Korea, since they encounter them only when they are studied.
Southern option
Like the leadership of the North, the South Korean government tried to reform the language, saving the vocabulary from Japanese borrowings and encouraging the use of primordial words. However, unlike the DPRK, the republic’s policy towards the khancha was inconsistent. Between 1948 and 1970, the government tried to abolish the Korean characters, but failed due to the influence of borrowing and pressure from academic institutions. Due to these unsuccessful attempts, the Ministry of Education in 1972 allowed the optional study of 1800 hunch, of which 900 characters are taught in elementary school and 900 characters in secondary. In addition, the Supreme Court in 1991 allowed only 2854 characters to be used for personal names. The various Hancha policies show how language reforms can be harmful if they are politically and nationalistically motivated.
Despite this, Korean characters continue to be used. Since many borrowings are often consonant, the Hunchah clarify terms, helping to establish the meaning of words. Usually they are placed next to the Hangul in brackets, where they specify personal names, names of places and terms. In addition, logograms distinguish similarly sounding personal names, especially in official documents, where they are written in both scripts. Hancha is used not only to clarify the meaning and distinguish homonyms, but also in the names of railways and freeways. In this case, the first character is taken from the name of one city and another is attached to it to show which cities are connected.
Korean characters and their meaning
Although Hancha are still in use, government policies regarding their role in the language have led to long-term problems. Firstly, this created age-related literacy restrictions for the population, when the older generation hardly reads texts in Hangeul, and the younger generation is difficult to get mixed. He is called the "generation of hangeul". Secondly, state policy has led to a sharp reduction in the use of hunch in the print media, while young people are trying to get rid of Sinism. This tendency also takes place in the DPRK, where hieroglyphs are no longer used, and their place was taken by ideologized words of ancestral origin. However, these reforms are becoming a serious problem, as states have replaced the words of Chinese origin in different ways (for example, vertical letters in South Korea are called serossygs compared to nearessy in the DPRK). Finally, recently in the language there has been a proliferation of English borrowings due to globalization and a large number of South Korean Internet users, which led to the replacement of words of Chinese origin by them.
Hangul is the future
Chinese characters in the form of khanch that came to Korea at the beginning of the Han Dynasty reign gradually influenced the Korean language. Although this gave writing, it was not possible to achieve the correct translation of some words and grammar until the Korean Hangul alphabet was developed. After World War II, North and South Korea began to reform the language in an attempt to clear it of Japanese words and historical Chinese borrowings. As a result of this, the DPRK no longer uses the hunch, and the South changed its policy on them several times, which led to poor public ownership of this writing system. Nevertheless, both countries managed to replace many words spelled with Chinese characters with Korean, and there is a tendency to increase the use of Hangul and words of Korean origin, which is associated with an increase in national identity.