Hanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters and words whose pronunciation has been Koreanised. Many of them are based on Chinese and Japanese words that were once written with their help. Unlike Japanese and Mainland Chinese, which use simplified characters, Korean characters remain very similar to those used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and overseas communities. Since their inception, hancha played a role in shaping early writing systems, but subsequent language reforms have reduced their importance.
History of occurrence
Chinese characters appeared in Korean through contact with China between 108 B. C. e. and 313 AD e., when the Han Dynasty organized several districts on the territory of modern North Korea. In addition, another great influence on the distribution of khanch was the text “Thousand Classical Symbols”, written in many unique hieroglyphs. This close contact with Chinacombined with the spread of the culture of a neighboring country, had a strong influence on the Korean language, as it was the first foreign culture to borrow Chinese words and characters into its own writing system. In addition, the Goryeo Empire further promoted the use of characters when, in 958, examinations were introduced for civil servants that required proficiency in Chinese writing and the literary classics of Confucius. Although the Korean script was created thanks to the introduction of hanja and the spread of Chinese literature, they did not properly reflect the syntax and could not be used to write words.
Phonetic transcription going
Early writing systems developed for writing Korean words using hanja were idu, kugyeol, and simplified hanja. Idu was a transcription system based on the meaning or sound of Chinese logograms. In addition, there are cases in Idu when one character represented several sounds and several hieroglyphs had the same sound. The system was used for writing official documents, legal agreements, and personal letters during the Goryeo and Joseon dynasties and continued until 1894, despite not being able to correctly reflect Korean grammar.
Disadvantages of hancha
Although the idu system allowed Korean words to be transcribed based on their meaning and sound, the kugyeol system was developed. She helped me understand better. Chinese texts by adding their own grammatical words to sentences. Like idus, they used the meaning and sound of logograms. Later, the most commonly used hanja for grammar words were simplified and sometimes merged to create new simplified Korean characters. The main problem of idu and kugel was the use of either only sound without any connection with the semantic meaning of the character, or only meaning with complete rejection of sound. These early writing systems were replaced by the Korean alphabet and the Kabo reform of 1894, which resulted in the use of a mixture of hanja and hangul to convey word morphology. After the end of World War II in 1945, the use of the Korean language was restored, and the governments of North and South Korea embarked on programs to reform it.
North option
The policy of language reform in the DPRK was based on communist ideology. North Korea called its standard "munhwao," or "cultural language," in which many Japanese and Chinese loanwords were replaced with new fictitious words. In addition, the government of the DPRK managed to solve the “problem of homophones” that existed in Sino-Korean words by simply removing some words with a similar sound from the lexicon. In 1949, the government officially abolished the use of hanch in favor of hangul, but later allowed them to be taught in 1960 because Kim Il Sung wanted to maintain cultural ties with overseas Koreans and because it was necessary to master the "cultural language" inwhich still contains many borrowings. As a result, 3,000 hancha are studied in the DPRK: 1,500 during 6 years of high school education, 500 during 2 years of technical education, and finally 1,000 during four years of university studies. However, not many people in North Korea know hieroglyphs, as they only come across them when studying them.
Southern option
Like the leadership of North Korea, the South Korean government has tried to reform the language, ridding the lexicon of Japanese borrowings and encouraging the use of indigenous words. However, unlike the DPRK, the republic's policy towards the khancha was inconsistent. Between 1948 and 1970, the government attempted to abolish Korean characters, but failed due to the influence of borrowing and pressure from academic institutions. Because of these unsuccessful attempts, the Ministry of Education in 1972 allowed the optional study of 1,800 khanch, of which 900 hieroglyphs are taught in elementary school and 900 characters in secondary school. In addition, the Supreme Court in 1991 allowed only 2,854 characters for personal names. The various hanch policies show how language reforms can be harmful if they are politically and nationalistically motivated.
Despite this, Korean characters continue to be used. Since many borrowings are often consonant, khanchas clarify terms, helping to establish the meaning of words. They are usually placed next to Hangul in brackets, where they specify personal names, place names, and terms. Besides,thanks to logograms, similar-sounding personal names are distinguished, especially in official documents, where they are written in both scripts. Hancha is used not only to clarify the meaning and distinguish between homonyms, but also in the names of railways and highways. In this case, the first character is taken from the name of one city and another is added to it to show which cities are connected.
Korean characters and their meanings
Although hancha is still consumed today, government policy regarding their role in the language has led to long-term problems. Firstly, this created age limits for the literacy of the population, when the older generation has difficulty reading Hangul texts, and the younger generation finds it difficult to read mixed texts. This is what they call it, the Hangul generation. Secondly, the policy of the state has led to a sharp reduction in the use of khanch in the print media, and young people are striving to get rid of sinisms. This trend also takes place in the DPRK, where hieroglyphs are no longer used, and their place has been taken by ideological words of original origin. However, these reforms are becoming a major problem as states have replaced words of Chinese origin in different ways (for example, vertical writing in South Korea is called serossygi compared to neressygi in the DPRK). Finally, the language has recently seen a proliferation of English borrowings due to globalization and a large number of South Korean Internet users, which has led to their replacement of Chinese words.origin.
Hangul is the future
Chinese characters that came to Korea in the form of hanja at the beginning of the Han Dynasty gradually influenced the Korean language. Although this gave rise to writing, the correct transmission of some words and grammar could not be achieved until the Korean alphabet Hangul was developed. After World War II, North and South Korea began to reform the language in an attempt to cleanse it of Japanese words and historical Chinese loanwords. As a result, the DPRK no longer uses hancha, and the South has changed its policy towards them several times, which has led to a poor command of this writing system by the population. However, both countries have succeeded in replacing many words written in Chinese characters with Korean, and there is an upward trend in the use of Hangul and words of Korean origin, due to the growth of national identity.
