A few days ago I put cat /usr/share/calendar/* | grep `date +"%m/%d"` in my ~/.bash_profile after reading this tidbit from Forwarding Address: OS X. Whenever I open Terminal.app it spits some “on this day” trivia. Theres a lot of mundane stuff but occasionally you come accross a little gem. Today is Korean Alphabet Day:
Korean Alphabet Day (Hangul Nal in Korean) is on October 9th. It commemorates the publication of the Korean national alphabet, which was invented in 1443 and published in 1446 by King Sejong (Yi dynasty) and a group of scholars that he entrusted with this task (“Institute of Correct Sounds”).
The unique feature of the Korean alphabet is that it is directly iconic. The basic shapes of the consonants are based on the shapes of the speech organs when the sounds are being pronounced. Even distinctive features were recognized. It is thus a superb achievement of linguistic science, anticipating modern phonology by several centuries.
Since the Korean alphabet is so much easier to learn than the Chinese characters that had been the only writing system before, The Korean alphabet (Hangul) also had the effect of democratizing writing.
Published at 8:03 pm on October 9th, 2003.
Topics: Foo Typography
14 Comments
Comments are closed for this entry.
For MacOS 10.3 use this: cat /usr/share/calendar/calendar* | grep
date +"%m/%d"Comment by Tim at 2:03 pm on November 17th, 2003 #link
are there any korean alphabets… if there is then please email me and tell me how they look like and how they sound like. because im doing a report on it but i want to know how to speack korea too. so if there is then can i have a copy if the korean alphabet to show my class how different your alphabets are from ours in america
Comment by david at 5:37 pm on March 29th, 2004 #link
How would i write my name in korean (Claudia) Thanks!
Comment by Claudia at 2:28 pm on April 7th, 2004 #link
How would i write my name in korean (irence wong siow chooi)Thanks
Comment by irence wong siow chooi at 7:38 am on May 19th, 2004 #link
I want to get a tattoo of either my initials (DCB) or my first name (Danielle) in Korean next month, and I want to make sure the letters are correct. Could you show me how to write either the initials or my name in Korean? Thanks so much!
Comment by Danielle Black at 1:46 am on July 9th, 2004 #link
hello
i was wondering if you can send me how to spell ALEX in korean cause i want to learn
Comment by Alex at 10:14 pm on August 19th, 2004 #link
Could you tell me if there is any translation of my name (Mariona) and/or write in Hangul? I also would like the same with the name Alex. Thanks
Comment by Mariona at 6:19 pm on January 12th, 2005 #link
Can you please write my name “MARIE” in Korean for me? Thanks.
Comment by Marie at 3:51 am on April 29th, 2005 #link
Could you please write these names into korean hangul for me. Brett Simon Bong Hee Park
thanks
Comment by Nellie at 1:51 am on June 12th, 2005 #link
what’s my korean name
Comment by dragon at 8:36 pm on July 1st, 2005 #link
I want to get my sons name tattoo’d on my arm, I want the correct Korean writing for this. His name is Braxton, cum sa mida
Comment by Tim at 1:21 am on August 30th, 2005 #link
Hey folks, I can’t translate anything for you into Korean! Try an online translation tool (like http://babelfish.altavista.com/), or take some nightclasses!
Comment by Tim at 8:22 am on August 30th, 2005 #link
spikey hair guy
Comment by kevin at 11:11 pm on September 25th, 2005 #link
Hey, nice comment Kevin! That‘s the last one I‘m allowing on this post. Bye folks.
Comment by Tim Brayshaw at 12:02 am on September 26th, 2005 #link