In Korean, the symbol is silent at the beginning of a syllable, pronounced ṅ at the end of a syllable, and the only other consonant formed by adding strokes to this symbol is ㅎ h.Įqually significant is the fact that the Korean alphabet not only has the same symbol to indicate both voiced and unvoiced sounds (e.g. The similarity to the Devanagari scheme lies in the fact that in Devanagari the tiny circle or dot is used to indicate the nasal sound when placed above a letter (as ṅ in sa ṅgha संघ), and an emphasized silent sound ( du :kha दुःख) or an aspirated "h" sound ( sa h सः) when two such tiny circles or dots are placed after a letter. it functions as the base to which vowel signs are affixed to express pure initial vowel sounds, somewhat like the Devanagari अ ). This symbol, pronounced ṅ at the end of a syllable, is worth noting because when placed at the beginning of a syllable it is not pronounced, and denotes a silent or unpronounced consonant (i.e. ┴ न ನ (Brahmi, Devanagari proper, Kannada). र ર ல (Devanagari proper, Gujarati, Tamil). The first four are immediately obvious, but the others are also reasonably obvious, sometimes in the form of the Indian symbols being turned sideways in a different angle: The Devanagari (Brahmi-family) inspiration for the shapes of most of the basic consonant symbols is clear and obvious. There are two special forms for varieties of the first and third symbols above:ĭoubled forms are formed by doubling the symbols, but other distinct consonants are formed by adding a horizontal stroke or two above some of the single consonants: The nine basic Korean consonant symbols are as follows: I will try to demonstrate this point in this article. Nevertheless, the Korean alphabet (apart from being a relatively simple and logical alphabet, and a picturesque one) still exercises a fascination because it is clear that, whatever the approved or official history of the alphabet, this alphabet was definitely influenced by our own Devanagari alphabet (with touches of other related Indian alphabets like Brahmi). With the passage of time, my familiarity with most of these alphabets has rusted very much. The Chinese alphabet was impossible for me. The different varieties of the Arabic alphabet (including for example the variety used in Sindhi) proved much more difficult and my fluency over them was more superfluous and the Khmer and Thai alphabets with their complicated techniques and combination rules were a really big problem, and I will not dare to claim that I was ever proficient in them. (and even the relatively new Cherokee alphabet). About alphabets, I did learn practically all the major alphabets of India (including Ashokan Brahmi) and many others as well: from Sinhalese, Lepcha, Ahom, Tibetan and Burmese to Japanese (Katakana), Mongolian, Manchu(rian) and Korean to Greek, Amharic, Somali, Cyrillic, Gaelic, Georgian (Mkhedruli), Armenian, Hebrew, etc. The latter predilection will become apparent from my article " India's Unique Place in the World of Numbers and Numerals". In my college days (in the late seventies), the vista of different alphabets and languages of the world fascinated me so much that, although too lazy to go the whole hog in learning any particular language fully, it became my hobby to learn different scripts/alphabets of the world as well as the numbers 1-100 in different languages of the world (admittedly a case of "Jack of all trades, master of none"). It is being said that there is a sudden fad (whether it is temporary one or whether it will have an important lasting effect is yet to be seen) of people all over the world wanting to learn the Korean language.
Recently, there is a wave of Korean films and serials sweeping the world in 2021, especially demonstrated, or triggered, by the sudden worldwide popularity of a Netflix serial "The Squid Game".