| Idu script | |
 A page from the 19th-century yuseopilji. | |
| Korean name | |
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| Hangul | 이두 |
| Hanja | |
| Revised Romanization | Idu |
| McCune–Reischauer | Idu |
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Idu (Korean: 이두; Hanja: 吏讀 "official's reading") is an archaic writing system that represents the Korean language using Chinese characters ("hanja"). The script, which was developed by Buddhist monks, made it possible to record Korean words through their equivalent meaning or sound in Chinese.[1]
The term idu may refer to various systems of representing Korean phonology through hanja, which were used from the early Three Kingdoms to Joseon periods. In this sense, it includes hyangchal,[2] the local writing system used to write vernacular poetry[2] and gugyeol writing. Its narrow sense only refers to idu proper[3] or the system developed in the Goryeo (918–1392), and first referred to by name in the Jewang ungi.
Background
The idu script was developed to record Korean expressions using Chinese graphs borrowed in their Chinese meaning but it was read as the corresponding Korean sounds or by means of Chinese graphs borrowed in their Chinese sounds.[4] This is also known as Hanja and was used along with special symbols to indicate indigenous Korean morphemes,[5] verb endings and other grammatical markers that were different in Korean from Chinese. This made both the meaning and pronunciation difficult to parse, and was one reason the system was gradually abandoned, to be replaced with hangul, after its invention in the 15th century. In this respect, it faced problems analogous to those that confronted early efforts to represent the Japanese language with kanji, due to grammatical differences between these languages and Chinese. In Japan, the early use of Chinese characters for Japanese grammar was in man'yōgana, which was replaced by kana, the Japanese syllabic script.
Characters were selected for idu based on their Korean sound, their adapted Korean sound, or their meaning, and some were given a completely new sound and meaning. At the same time, 150 new Korean characters were invented, mainly for names of people and places. Idu system was used mainly by members of the Jungin class.
One of the primary purposes of the script was the clarification of Chinese government documents that were written in Chinese so that they can be understood by the Korean readers.[6] Idu was also used to teach Koreans the Chinese language.[6] The Ming legal code was translated in its entirety into Korean using idu in 1395.[7] The same script was also used to translate the Essentials of agriculture and sericulture (Nongsan jiyao) after it was ordered by the King Taejong in 1414.[7]
Hyangchal
| Idu script | |
| Hangul | |
|---|---|
| Hanja | |
| Revised Romanization | hyangchal |
| McCune–Reischauer | hyangch'al |
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Hyangchal (Korean: 향찰, literally "vernacular letters", "local letters", or "corresponded sound") is an archaic writing system of Korea and was used to transcribe the Korean language in Chinese characters. Using the hyangchal system, Chinese characters were given a Korean reading based on the syllable associated with the character.[8] The hyangchal writing system is often classified as a subgroup of the Idu script.[9]
The first mention of hyangchal is the monk Kyun Ye's biography during the Goryeo period. Hyangchal is best known as the method Koreans used to write hyangga poetry. Twenty-five such poems still exist and show that vernacular poetry used native Korean words and 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 hyangchal continued during the Goryeo era, where it was used to record native Korean poetry as well.[10]
References
- ^ Lowe, Roy & Yasuhara, Yoshihito (2016). The Origins of Higher Learning: Knowledge Networks and the Early Development of Universities. Oxon: Taylor & Francis. p. 80. ISBN 978-1-138-84482-7.
- ^ a b Grimshaw-Aagaard, Mark; Walther-Hansen, Mads & Knakkergaard, Martin (2019). The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 426. ISBN 978-0-19-046016-7.
- ^ Li, Yu (2019-11-04). The Chinese Writing System in Asia: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-00-069906-7.
- ^ Sohn, Ho-Min & Lee, Peter H. (2003). "Language, forms, prosody and themes". In Lee, Peter H. (ed.). A History of Korean Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 27. ISBN 9780521828581.
- ^ Hannas, William C. (2013-03-26). The Writing on the Wall: How Asian Orthography Curbs Creativity. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-0216-8.
- ^ a b Allan, Keith (2013). The Oxford Handbook of the History of Linguistics. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 222. ISBN 9780199585847.
- ^ a b Kornicki, Peter Francis (2018). Languages, scripts, and Chinese texts in East Asia. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 197. ISBN 9780198797821.
- ^ Coulmas 2002, p. 67.
- ^ Sohn 2001, pp. 125, 128.
- ^ Sohn 2001, p. 125.
- Coulmas, Florian (2002). Writing Systems: An Introduction to Their Linguistic Analysis. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521787376.
- Sohn, Ho-Min (2001). The Korean Language. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521369435.
Gugyeol
Gugyeol, or kwukyel, is a system for rendering texts written in Classical Chinese into understandable Korean. It was used chiefly during the Joseon dynasty, when readings of the Chinese classics were of paramount social importance. Thus, in gugyeol, the original text in Classical Chinese was not modified, and the additional markers were simply inserted between phrases.
The parts of the Chinese sentence would then be read in Korean out of sequence to approximate Korean (SOV) rather than Chinese (SVO) word order. A similar system for reading Classical Chinese is still used in Japan and is known as kanbun kundoku.
Gugyeol is derived from the cursive and simplified style of Chinese characters.
Etymology
The name gugyeol can be rendered as "phrase parting" and may refer to the separation of one Chinese phrase from another. This name is itself believed to originate from the use of hanja characters to represent the Middle Korean phrase ipgyeot (입겿), with a similar meaning. Gugyeol is also sometimes referred to as to (토, 吐), or hyeonto (현토, 懸吐), since to is also used to refer to the morphological affixes themselves or as seogui (석의, 釋義), which can be rendered as "interpretation of the classics."
History
Gugyeol is first attested from the 11th century in the early Goryeo dynasty, but evidence indicates it likely dates back to the 7th century or earlier.[1] In this period, certain hanja characters were used (along with specialized symbols) to represent Korean sounds through their meaning. For example, the syllable '잇' (is) was represented with the hanja character 有 since that character has the Korean meaning '있다.' This technique came to be replaced in the late Goryeo period with using hanja characters according to their sound. The later version of the gugyeol system was formalized by Jeong Mong-ju and Gwon Geun around 1400 in the early Joseon Dynasty, at the behest of King Taejong. Many Confucian classics, including the Classic of Poetry, were rendered into gugyeol at the time.
The term gugyeol is often extended beyond this early system to similar uses of hangul following the introduction of the Hunminjeongeum in the 15th century. In this respect, gugyeol remains in occasional use in contemporary South Korea, where such techniques are still sometimes used to render the Confucian classics into readable form.
Gugyeol should be distinguished from the idu and hyangchal systems, which preceded it. Gugyeol used specialized markings, together with a subset of hanja, to represent Korean morphological markers as an aid for Korean readers to understand the grammar of Chinese texts. Also, the idu and the hyangchal systems appear to have been used primarily to render Korean into hanja; on the other hand, gugyeol sought to render Chinese texts into Korean with a minimum of distortion.
Table of Gugyeol
References
- ^ Vovin, Alexander (2010). "Is Japanese Katakana Derived from Korean Kwukyel?". In Lee, Sang-Oak (ed.). Contemporary Korean Linguistics: International Perspectives. Thaehaksa Publishing. ISBN 978-89-5966-389-7.
Further reading
- Kim Mu-rim (김무림) (2004). 국어의 역사 [History of the Korean language]. Seoul: Hankook Munhwasa. ISBN 89-5726-185-0.
- Kwon Jae-seon (권재선) (1989). 간추린 국어학 발전사 [An abridged history of Korean language studies]. Seoul: Ugoltap.
External links
See also
References
- Lee, Peter H., ed. (2003). A History of Korean Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521828581.
- Nam Pung-hyeon (남풍현) (2000), Idu Study [吏讀研究], Seoul, Korea: Taehak Publishing (太學社)
