[KS] India and Hangeul references

[Young-Key Kim-Renaud]

Hi Werner,

Thanks for introducing Prasanna Chandrasekhar's very interesting 2004/2005
work, “7. The Ancient Indian Phonological Classification” (
samskrta.com/scripts/Ch7_IndianScripts-b.pdf, last retr. 2012.06.16).

Reading your posting and his/her chapter, I am compelled to note the
following among other things:

(1) The Korean alphabet was not created to represent all sounds like the
International Phonetic Alphabet, but to represent the phonological
structure of the Korean language, using the letter shapes that make sense
(if subconsciously) by native speakers of Korean. So, those who are trying
to prove or disprove the "power" of the Korean alphabet to "represent any
language" is completely missing the point.

(2) King Sejong was a true scholar. His linguistic analyses of various
Korean as well as general phonological phenomena were remarkable, but it
didn't just happen with some Divine intervention. He did his homework, and
no one should be surprised if he was aware of various other writing systems
and phonological theories that existed at the time. However, we now have
the proclamation document, proving this invention was completely original
in that it was designed based on his knowledge of how the Korean
phonological system worked. So, if there are chance (or even intentional)
similarities between the Korean letter shapes and those in any other
writing system and people make a big deal out of it, again, the most
important aspect of this invention is forgotten/misunderstood.

I have skimmed through Chandrasekhar's chapter, but unfortunately s/he does
not seem to have gotten a hold of my (edited) book, *The Korean alphabet:
Its History and Structure* (
http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/p-293-9780824817237.aspx). Since his/her
chapter is said to be work in progress, I hope the author can include it in
the references consulted.

Cheers!
Young-Key


On Sat, Aug 31, 2013 at 9:22 AM, Werner Sasse <werner_sasse at hotmail.com>wrote:

>  Sorry, I was too quick in sending my last posting. I should have added
> at least two footnotes giving the most important papers which started to
> make me think the way I do (in the order of me reading them):
>
> Staal, Frits (2006). “Artificial Languages across Sciences and
> Civilisations”, *Journal of Indian Philosophy*, 34: 87-139****
> Chandrasekhar, Prasanna (2004/2005), “7. The Ancient Indian Phonological
> Classification”, samskrta.com/scripts/Ch7_IndianScripts-b.pdf, last retr.
> 2012.06.16
>
>
>
> I should also add that I actually already presented most of this 2008 at
> 제2회 한국어학회 국제학술대회 (The 2nd International Conference of  [the] Association
> for Korean Linguistics) in Seoul. The reaction was as seems to be normal at
> occasions like this: no negative remarks, friendly patting on the back for
> the effort (only Kim Minsu reacted positively to the ideas saying this
> looked like it should be studied further)
>
>  Final note: I should also add that the excerpts are not from a scholarly
> publication but a couple of essays directed to a non-scholarly public, so I
> tried to be as little technical as a dull scholar like me can manage to
> be...
>
> Thank you
> Werner
>
>
>
> ** **
>
>


-- 
Young-Key Kim-Renaud, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures
Professor of Korean Language and Culture and International Affairs
The George Washington University
801 22nd Street, N.W. (Academic Center, Rome Hall 452)
Washington, DC 20052
kimrenau at gwu.edu <kimrenau at email.gwu.edu>
http://departments.columbian.gwu.edu/eall/people/109
Tel: (O) 202-994-7107
Fax: (O) 202-994-1512
Editor, *Korean Linguistics*
http://benjamins.com/#catalog/journals/kl
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