Korean language

Language of Korea, written from the 5th century AD in Chinese characters until the invention of an alphabet by King Sejong 1443. The linguistic affiliations of Korean are unclear, but it may be distantly related to Japanese.

The alphabet was discouraged as ‘vulgar letters’ (onmun) and banned by the colonizing Japanese of the early 20th century. After World War II it was revived and called ‘top letters’ (hangul).