March 1, 2005 

This lecture described the unique characteristics of han'gul, the alphabet many consider to be one of the treasures of Korea. Drawing on a commentary that accompanied the original 1446 proclamation of the han'gul alphabet, which was discovered in 1940, Lee Sang-Oak, a professor of language and literature at Seoul National University, illustrated the relationships between the shape of the letters and the corresponding positions of the tongue, throat, lips and teeth when the sounds the letters represent are produced. He argued that the scientifically sound nature of these relationships establishes han'gul as a true alphabet: one with optimally designed symbols for each consonant and vowel in the Korean language.