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 | |
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Korean name | |
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Hangul | |
Hanja | |
Revised Romanization | Hanja |
McCune–Reischauer | Hancha |
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Korean writing systems |
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Hangul |
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Hanja |
Mixed script |
Braille |
Transcription |
Transliteration |
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Hanja (Korean: 한자; Hanja:
Hanja-eo (한자어,
Although a phonetic Hangul (also known as Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea) had been promulgated by Sejong the Great in 1446 through the Hunminjeongeum, it did not come into widespread official use until the late 19th and early 20th century.[2][3] Thus, until that time it was necessary to be fluent in reading and writing Hanja to be literate in Korean, as Korean documents, history, literature and records throughout its history until the contemporary period were written primarily in Literary Chinese using Hanja as its primary script. Therefore, a good working knowledge of Chinese characters is still important for anyone who wishes to interpret and study older texts from Korea, or anyone who wishes to read scholarly texts in the humanities. A high proficiency in Hanja is also useful for understanding the etymology of Sino-Korean words as well as to enlarge one's Korean vocabulary.[4]
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[edit]
Introduction of literary Chinese to Korea[edit]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/Chusa-Silsa_gusijang.jpg/220px-Chusa-Silsa_gusijang.jpg)
There is traditionally no accepted date for when literary Chinese (한문;
From 108 BC to 313 AD, the Han dynasty established the Four Commanderies of Han in northern Korea and institutionalized the Chinese language.[9] According to the Samguk Sagi, Goguryeo had hanmun from the beginning of its existence, which starts in 37 BC.[10] It also says that the king of Goguryeo composed a poem in 17 BC. The Gwanggaeto Stele, dated to 414, is the earliest securely dated relic bearing hanmun inscriptions. Hanmun became commonplace in Goguryeo during the 5th and 6th centuries and according to the Book of Zhou, the Chinese classics were available in Goguryeo by the end of the 6th century. The Samguk Sagi mentions written records in Baekje beginning in 375 and Goguryeo annals prior to 600.[11] Japanese chronicles mention Baekje people as teachers of hanmun. According to the Book of Liang, the people of Silla did not have writing in the first half of the 6th century but this may have been only referring to agreements and contracts, represented by notches on wood. The Bei Shi, covering the period 386–618, says that the writing, armour, and weapons in Silla were the same as those in China. The Samguk Sagi says that records were kept in Silla starting in 545.[12]
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 gwageo, copied from the Chinese imperial examination, open to all freeborn men. Special schools were set up for the well-to-do and the nobility across Korea to train new scholar officials for civil service. Adopted by Silla and Goryeo, the gwageo system was maintained by Goryeo until after the unification of Korea at the end of the nineteenth century. The scholarly élite began learning the hanja by memorising the Thousand Character Classic (천자문;
The Korean scholars were very proficient in literary Chinese. The craftsmen and scholars of Baekje were renowned in Japan, and were eagerly sought as teachers due to their proficiency in hanmun. Korean scholars also composed all diplomatic records, government records, scientific writings, religious literature and much poetry in hanmun, demonstrating that the Korean scholars were not just reading Chinese works but were actively composing their own. Well-known examples of Chinese-language literature in Korea include Three Kingdoms History (삼국사기;
Adaptation of hanja to Korean[edit]
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;
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9f/Korean_book-Jikji-Selected_Teachings_of_Buddhist_Sages_and_Seon_Masters-1377.jpg/220px-Korean_book-Jikji-Selected_Teachings_of_Buddhist_Sages_and_Seon_Masters-1377.jpg)
The first attempt at transcribing Korean in hanja was the idu (이두;
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 '
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[edit]
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:
Since June 1949, Hanja has not officially been used in North Korea, and, in addition, most texts are now commonly written horizontally instead of vertically. Many words borrowed from Chinese have also been replaced in the North with native Korean words, due to the North's policy of linguistic purism. Nevertheless, a large number of Chinese-borrowed words are still widely used in the North (although written in Hangul), and Hanja still appear in special contexts, such as recent North Korean dictionaries.[18] The replacement has been less total in South Korea where, although usage has declined over time, some Hanja remain in common usage in some contexts.
Character formation[edit]
Each Hanja is composed of one of 214 radicals plus in most cases one or more additional elements. The vast majority of Hanja use the additional elements to indicate the sound of the character, but a few Hanja are purely pictographic, and some were formed in other ways.
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[edit]
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;
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[edit]
South[edit]
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).[19] Post-secondary Hanja education continues in some liberal-arts universities.[20] The 1972 promulgation of basic Hanja for educational purposes changed on December 31, 2000, to replace 44 Hanja with 44 others.[21]
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[edit]
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[edit]
Because many different Hanja—and thus, many different words written using Hanja—often share the same sounds, two distinct Hanja words (Hanjaeo) may be spelled identically in the phonetic Hangul alphabet. Hanja's language of origin, Chinese, has many homophones, and Hanja words became even more homophonic when they came into Korean, since Korean lacks a tonal system, which is how Chinese distinguishes many words that would otherwise be homophonic. For example, while
Print media[edit]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/%EC%8B%A0%EB%9D%BC%EB%A9%B4%28%EB%B4%89%EC%A7%80%EB%A9%B4%29_%EA%B5%AC%EC%84%B1%ED%92%88.jpg/220px-%EC%8B%A0%EB%9D%BC%EB%A9%B4%28%EB%B4%89%EC%A7%80%EB%A9%B4%29_%EA%B5%AC%EC%84%B1%ED%92%88.jpg)
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
Dictionaries[edit]
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)水稻 : 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,
Personal names[edit]
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,
During the Japanese administration of Korea (1910–1945), Koreans were forced to adopt Japanese-style names, including polysyllabic readings of the Hanja, but this practice was reversed by post-independence governments in Korea. Since the 1970s, some parents have given their children given names that are simply native Korean words. Popular ones include Haneul—meaning 'sky'—and Iseul—meaning 'morning dew'. Nevertheless, on official documents, people's names are still recorded in both Hangul and in Hanja.[4]
Toponymy[edit]
Due to standardization efforts during Goryeo and Joseon eras, native Korean placenames were converted to Hanja, and most names used today are Hanja-based. The most notable exception is the name of the capital, Seoul, a native Korean word meaning 'capital' with no direct Hanja conversion; the Hanja gyeong (경,
- 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[edit]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/Joseon_Wangjo_Sillok_and_its_case_in_museum.jpg/220px-Joseon_Wangjo_Sillok_and_its_case_in_museum.jpg)
Hanja are still required for certain disciplines in academia, such as Oriental Studies and other disciplines studying Chinese, Japanese or historic Korean literature and culture, since the vast majority of primary source text material are written in Hanzi, Kanji or Hanja.[34]
Art and culture[edit]
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 welcoming Kim Il-Sung, including a banner with Kim Il-Sung's name written in Hanja.[35]
Popular usage[edit]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/8239th_AU_leaflet_2508.png/220px-8239th_AU_leaflet_2508.png)
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[edit]
A small number of characters were invented by the Koreans themselves. These characters are called gukja (국자,
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 (
Yakja[edit]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9d/Eopseul_mu_yakja.png/220px-Eopseul_mu_yakja.png)
Some Hanja characters have simplified forms (약자, , which is a cursive form of
Pronunciation[edit]
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,
One difference is the loss of tone from standard Korean while most Chinese dialects retain tone. In other aspects, the pronunciation of Hanja is more conservative than most northern and central Chinese dialects, for example in the retention of labial consonant codas in characters with labial consonant onsets, such as the characters
Due to divergence in pronunciation since the time of borrowing, sometimes the pronunciation of a Hanja and its corresponding hanzi may differ considerably. For example,
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
See also[edit]
- 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[edit]
Citations[edit]
- ^ "Korean Hanja Characters". SayJack. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ "알고 싶은 한글". National Institute of Korean Language. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
- ^ Fischer, Stephen Roger (4 April 2004). A History of Writing. Globalities. London: Reaktion Books. pp. 189–194. ISBN 1-86189-101-6. Retrieved 3 April 2009.
- ^ a b c d Byon, Andrew Sangpil (2017). Modern Korean Grammar: A Practical Guide. Taylor & Francis. pp. 3–18. ISBN 978-1351741293.
- ^ Choo, Miho; O'Grady, William (1996). Handbook of Korean Vocabulary: An Approach to Word Recognition and Comprehension. University of Hawaii Press. pp. ix. 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.
- ^ a b c Taylor, I. & Taylor, M. M. (2014). 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.
- ^ Kim, Mihyang (10 January 2018). "[단독] 교육부, 초등교과서 한자 병기 정책 폐기" [Exclusive: Ministry of Education drops the planned policy to allow Hanja in elementary school textbooks]. 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
- ^ Yang, Lina (29 April 2010). "S. Korea bids farewell to warship victims". Xinhua. Archived from the original on 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
- ^ Choo, Miho (2008). Using Korean: A Guide to Contemporary Usage. Cambridge University Press. pp. 85–92. ISBN 978-1139471398.
- ^ (in Chinese) (in Korean) 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[edit]
- 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: University of Hawaii Press. 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: University of Pennsylvania Press. 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.