Idu script
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| Idu script | |
 A page from the 19th-century yuseopilji. | |
| Korean name | |
|---|---|
| Hangul | 이두 |
| Hanja | |
| Revised Romanization | Idu |
| McCune–Reischauer | Idu |
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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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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.
| Idu script | |
| Hangul | |
|---|---|
| Hanja | |
| Revised Romanization | hyangchal |
| McCune–Reischauer | hyangch'al |
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| Korean writing systems |
|---|
| Hangul |
|
| Hanja |
| Mixed script |
| Braille |
| Transcription |
| Transliteration |
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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.[4] The hyangchal writing system is often classified as a subgroup of the Idu script.[5]
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.[6]
Background[edit]
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.[7] This is also known as Hanja and was used along with special symbols to indicate indigenous Korean morphemes,[8] 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.[9] Idu was also used to teach Koreans the Chinese language.[9] The Ming legal code was translated in its entirety into Korean using idu in 1395.[10] 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.[10]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ 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.
- ^ Coulmas 2002, p. 67.
- ^ Sohn 2001, pp. 125, 128.
- ^ Sohn 2001, p. 125.
- ^ 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.
- 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)
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