Debate on the use of Korean mixed script

An article written in Korean mixed script on the July 16, 1937 issue of the Donga Ilbo.

There has been much debate over the use of Chinese characters (domestically known as Hanja (漢字) in Korea), in Korean orthography, otherwise known as Korean mixed script (hanja honyong, Korean: 한자혼용; Hanja: 漢字混用). The questions surrounding the use and relevance of the format over Hangŭl exclusivity (hangŭl jŏnyong, Korean: 한글전용; Hanja: 한글專用) are still hotly contested topics to this day in Korea and garners the attention of many, as it is an issue which concerns education from its earliest years to university.

The debate itself is a question as to whether Korean should be written with Hanja mixed into the text, or purely in Hangŭl (e.g. 大韓民國을~ vs. 대한민국을~). The debate also oftentimes centres around the education of Hanja in schools, the effects of which are also debated. It is a controversial debate which concerns the orthography, vocabulary, and other aspects of the written language.

History of mixed script

During the early years following its creation by Sejong the Great, Hangul only saw limited use by the Korean peasantry, or by scholars in mixed script, most notably in translations of Chinese text. Literary Chinese, known as hanmun (한문; 漢文) was used in most formal writing. In November 1894, King Gojong declared all texts in the Korean code of law to be written primarily in Hangul with a hanmun translation as reference, and optionally through mixed script.

However, as literary Chinese declined in use, mixed script and Hangŭl exclusive writing started being used concurrently. Mixed script was commonly found in non-fiction writing and newspapers. In 1968, South Korean president Park Chung Hee announced the 5 Year Plan for Hangŭl Exclusivity (hangŭl jŏnyong ogaenyŏn gyehuik an, Korean: 한글전용 5개년 계획안; Hanja: 한글專用 5個年 計劃案), which banned the use and teaching of Hanja in public schools, as well as forbade its use in the military. The plan aimed to eliminate hanja in writing by 1972 through legislative and executive means. However, in 1972, due to public backlash, Park's government allowed for the teaching of Hanja in special classes but maintained a ban on Hanja use in textbooks and other learning materials outside of the classes.

Park's Hanja ban was not formally lifted until 1992 under the government of Kim Young-Sam. In 1999, the Kim Dae-Jung administration actively promoted Hanja use by placing Hanja letters on signs on the road, at bus stops, and in subways. In 1999, hanmun was reintroduced as a school elective, and in 2001 the Hanja Proficiency Test (hanja nŭngryŏk gŏmjŏng sihŏm, Korean: 한자능력검정시험; Hanja: 漢字能力檢定試驗) was introduced. In 2005, an older law, the Law Concerning Hangul Exclusivity (hangŭl jŏnyonge gwahak pŏmnyul, Korean: 한글전용에 관한 법률; Hanja: 한글專用에 關한 法律) was repealed as well. In 2013, all elementary schools in Seoul started teaching hanja.

Nevertheless, due to a decline in Hanja use, most Koreans who were educated during this period were unable to read and write in hanmun script, and the use of Hanja plummeted. In modern-day Korea, Hanja is now almost exclusively used for abbreviations in newspaper headlines, for clarification of homophones, or for stylistic use, such as the 辛 used on Shin Ramyŏn (신라면; 辛拉麵) packaging.

Literacy

Hangŭl exclusivity

• Proponents of Hangŭl exclusive policies commonly cite literacy rates and refer to them as a display of Hangŭl's success. Using Hangŭl exclusively drastically simplifies the language down to the use of the 24 aforementioned letters of the alphabet and allows for everyone to read.
• For example, before the introduction of Hangŭl, most outside of Korea's elite class were illiterate. Hangŭl allowed for these people to learn to read and write in their language. Hangŭl also saves students time because they don't have to learn complex Hanja to be able to read.

Mixed script

• Proponents of mixed script argue that literacy rates of a modern nation are not dependent on its writing system, but rather its access to education. For the first 500 years of Hangŭl's existence, Korea's literacy rates were not higher than that of other pre-industrialized states or even that of its character-using neighbors.
• Countries that also use alphabetic scripts but have more letters have higher literacy rates. Russia's Cyrillic alphabet has 66 letters (upper and lower case) and has a higher literacy rate than that of South Korea.
• China, Japan, and Taiwan, which are all users of Chinese characters, have higher or near equal (in the case of China, this can still be appreciated due to its vast size and numerous ethnic non-Han Chinese-speaking minorities) literacy rates.
• Another argument commonly made by mixed script advocates is that of functional literacy. Functional illiteracy concerns with reading skills above the basic level necessary to manage daily life and employment. It is different from pure illiteracy, the measure discussed above, which is the inability to read at all. In a 2005 study, South Korean adults had the highest rate of functional illiteracy out of 22 OECD member states surveyed with a rate of 38%, much higher than the average of 22%. Almost three in four Korean adults had difficulty reading information necessary for their occupation or skill. Some Korean education experts, including those in favor of Hangul-Hanja mixed script, have attributed the high rate of functional illiteracy to the lack of Hanja education in Korean public education system. This claim is somewhat substantiated by the fact that 60-70% of the Korean vocabulary is derived from Hanja, many of which appear more often in technical fields. Another Korean poll reports that 58% of college-aged Koreans, most of whom have never been taught Hanja, have felt inconvenienced by their lack of knowledge of Hanja at some point in their lives.

Vocabulary and information

Hangŭl exclusivity

• Proponents of Hangul exclusivity argue that it is a thorough understanding of the text, acquired through reading experience and literary analysis, that determines one's ability to accurately interpret the meaning of a word, not the writing system itself.
• To combat the homophonic ambiguity of Sino-Korean vocabulary, proponents of Hangul exclusivity proposed the adaptation of more obscure native Korean words for homophonic Sino-Korean words or the creation of new words to disambiguate the language. Along with this proponents claim that Hangŭl exclusivity has made the language both more understandable and easier to comprehend.

Mixed script

• It is estimated that up to 60% of the Korean vocabulary is composed of Sino-Korean words; according to these estimates, native Korean words form a minority of the vocabulary in the spoken Korean language.
• Each character of Hanja conveys more information than each letter of Hangul as there are still many more Hanja characters than Hangul letters. The fact that Hanja conveys more information than Hangul has ramifications in the semantic meaning of each character. The word "일", for example, is composed of three Hangŭl letters ㅇ, ㅣ, and ㄹ. In only three letters, there is much ambiguity over the meaning of the Hangul block, as "일" could mean "one" (一) or "day" (日) in Sino-Korean vocabulary or a native Korean word for "work" (일). As shown, writing the Hanja makes it clear which "일" is in context.
  • Similarly, when comparing the words 전부/全部 ("entirety") and 전쟁/戰爭 ("war"), the "전" in both words describe the pronunciation of two completely different Hanja characters with different meanings.
  • As another example, Latin roots in the English language have very few homonyms. For example, words that have pyro- as a root will almost always mean fire. However, the Sino-Korean root for fire, 화 (火), shares the same Hangul spelling with many other roots. As a result, many words as a whole are spelled identically in Hangul but vary widely in meaning. The sheer number of homonyms causes severe limitations to vocabulary acquisition when homophonous words are being transcribed entirely phonetically, and purely phonetic transcription reduces understanding and depth of knowledge of Sino-Korean words.
• Many Korean speakers cannot tell apart Sino-Korean words from “pure” Korean words, many Sino-Korean words are of Korean coinage, and many so-called “pure” Korean words were originally Sino-Korean words.
• There is a large quantity of Sino-Korean words that are unique/exclusive to Korean or differ drastically in usage in comparison to Chinese or Japanese.
• In addition to Sino-Korean words only used in Korean, many native Korean words are suggested to have originated from Sino-Korean words themselves, whose pronunciations have since deviated from their Hanja pronunciation. For instance, the word kimchi (김치) from (침채; 沈菜) has its origins in a Hanja word.
• The use of Hanja allows easier interpretation of complex terms, as it is more helpful for the reader to assume an unknown vocabulary in context.
• Attempting to completely replace Hanja with native words has been done before; these attempts have ultimately returned to the use of Sino-Korean vocabulary.

Politics

Hangŭl exclusivity

• Supporters of Hangŭl exclusivity argue that mixed script is an invention that was made and forced upon the Korean people by the Japanese during World War II. This argument is used as a call to action against mixed script. As, if true, it would be a legacy of the Japanese colonial past and an embarrassment on the part of Korea for upholding Japan's legacy of oppression.

Mixed script

• Arguments against the notion that mixed script was a Japanese creation include the fact that the concept of a "mixed script" predates Hangŭl in the forms of Idu, Kugyŏl, and Hyangchal. These were used to transcribe Korean grammatical particles to aid in reading in Classical Chinese texts. All three of these scripts were "mixed scripts". For example, Idu used either the pronunciation or the Korean native reading of the character to transcribe the grammatical particles, while kugyŏl used specialised marking characters based on simplifications of Hanja for the same purpose.
• Mixed script has been in continual use since the introduction of Hangŭl. The Songs of Dragons Flying to Heaven (용비어천가; 龍飛御天歌), Sŏkbosangjŏl (석보상절; 釋譜祥節), Wŏl’insŏkbo (월인석보; 月印釋譜), and A Vernacular Translation of the Lotus Sutra (법경화언해; 法華經諺解), are all pioneering Hangŭl works written in Korean mixed script.
• Mixed script advocates sometimes point out that Hangŭl itself was standardized under the Japanese colonial administration by Japanese collaborators who sought to make propaganda that could be consumed by all Koreans.
• Furthermore, mixed script proponents use the fact that Hangŭl exclusivity had been enacted under dictatorships. In South Korea, Hangŭl exclusivity was brought upon by the government of Park Chung Hee who came to power from a military coup d'état. Similarly, in North Korea, Hangŭl exclusivity was enacted by Kim Il-Sung after taking power in 1949.