Korean mixed script () is a form of writing the Korean language that uses a mixture of the Korean alphabet or hangul () and hanja (, ), the Korean name for Chinese characters. The distribution on how to write words usually follows that all native Korean words, including suffixes, particles, and honorific markers are generally written in hangul and never in hanja. Sino-Korean vocabulary or hanja-eo (), either words borrowed from Chinese or created from Sino-Korean roots, were generally always written in hanja, although very rare or complex characters were often substituted with hangul. Although the Korean alphabet was introduced and taught to people beginning in 1446, most literature until the early twentieth century was written in literary Chinese known as hanmun ().
Although examples of mixed-script writing are as old as hangul itself, the mixing of hangul and hanja together in sentences became the official writing system of the Korean language at the end of the nineteenth century, when reforms ended the primacy of literary Chinese in literature, science, and government. This style of writing, in competition with hangul-only writing, continued as the formal written version of Korean for most of the twentieth century. The script slowly gave way to hangul-only usage in North Korea by 1949, while it continued in South Korea to a limited extent. However, with the decrease in hanja education, the number of hanja in use has slowly dwindled, and in the twenty-first century, very few hanja are used at all.Song, J. (2015). "Language Policies in North and South Korea" in The Handbook of Korean Linguistics. Brown, L. & Yuen, J. (eds.) (pp. 477–492). Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. In Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China, local newspaper Northeast Korean People's Daily published the "workers and peasants version" which used all-hangul in text, in addition to the existing "cadre version" that had mixed script, for the convenience of . Starting on April 20, 1952, the newspaper abolished the "cadre version" and published in hangul only. Soon, the entire publishing industry adopted the hangul-only style.
History and development
The development of required two major developments in orthographic traditions of the Korean Peninsula. The first was the adoption of , around the beginning of the Three Kingdom period of Korea. The second was the introduction of in 1446.
Promulgation of Introduction
Despite the advent of vernacular writing in Korean using , these publications remained the dominion of the literate class, comprising royalty and nobility, Buddhist monks, Confucian scholars, civil servants and members of the upper classes as the ability to read these texts required proficient ability to understand the meaning of the Chinese characters, with both their adopted Sino-Korean pronunciation and their native gloss. To rectify this, King Sejong the Great () summoned a team of scholars to devise a new script for the Korean language, leading to the 1446 promulgation of the (, 'correct pronunciation for teaching the people') which is later critiqued in . The problems surrounding literacy in Literary Chinese to the common populace was summarized in the Sejong's preface, written in Literary Chinese:
[Because] the spoken language of this country is different from that of China, it does not flow well with [Chinese] characters. Therefore, even if the ignorant want to communicate, many of them in the end cannot state their concerns. Saddened by this, I have [had] 28 letters newly made. It is my wish that all the people may easily learn these letters and that [they] be convenient for daily use.
Spread
The new script rapidly spread to all parts of society, including the segments of the population formerly denied access to education such as farmers, fishermen, women of the lower classes, rural merchants and young children. It was known as vernacular script, (, and ), or national script (), by the state. Several attempts to ban or over-turn the use of were initiated but failed to halt its spread, the most notable being during the 10th year of the tyrannical reign of prince Yeonsan, where he banned the use, learning, and teaching of Hangul on 19 July 1504 after the public mocked and insulted him in posters; the total ban ended five months later in December of the same year, when he ordered the translation of calendar-books () into Hangul. These attempts were initiated by several rulers, who discovered disparaging remarks about their reigns, and the upper classes, whose grip on power and influence was predicated upon their ability to read, write and interpret classical Chinese texts and commentaries thereof. Some scholarly elite mocked the sole use of pseudo-deferentially as (), 'real script'. Other insults such as 'women's script', 'children's script' and 'farmer's hand' are known anecdotally but are not found in the literature.Taylor, I. & Taylor, M. M. (1994). pp. 180–182.
Despite the fears from the upper classes and scholarly elite, the introduction of the early actually increased proficiency in literary Chinese. New-style dictionaries appeared, arranging words according to their alphabetic order when spelled out in , and showing compound words containing the as well as its Sino-Korean and its native, sometimes archaic, pronunciation — a system still in use for many contemporary Korean-language dictionaries. The syllable blocks could be written easily between meaningful units of Chinese characters, as annotations, but also began to replace the complex notation of the early and , including , although and were not officially abolished until the end of the 19th century in part because literary Chinese was still the official written language of the royal court, nobility, governance and diplomacy until its usage was finally abolished in the early twentieth century and its local production mostly ceased by mid-century.
The real spread of to all elements of Korean society was the late eighteenth century beginning of two literary trends. The ancient (), 'seasonal tune', poetry. Although , heavily influenced by Chinese Tang dynasty poetry, was long written in Chinese, authors began writing poems in Korean written solely with hangul, previously only possible with and . At the same time, (), 'song lyric', poetry was similarly spread. Korean women of the upper classes created by translating or finding inspiration in the old poems, written in literary Chinese, and translating them into Korean, but as the name suggests, were popularly sung.Kim, K. (1996). pp. 76–81. Although Catholic and Protestant missionaries initially attempted to evangelise the Korean Peninsula starting with the nobility using Chinese translations and works, in the early nineteenth century, Bishop Siméon-François Berneux, or () mandated that all publications be written only in and all students in the missionary schools were required to use it. Protestant and other Catholic missionaries followed suit, facilitating the spread of Christianity in Korea, but also created a large corpus of Korean-language material written in only.
The script is now the primary and most commonplace method to write the Korean language, and is known as () in South Korea, from (), as in 'Korea', and (), 'script'. In North Korea, the script is known as (). The promulgation of the indigenous script is celebrated as a national holiday on 9 October in the south and 15 January in the north, respectively.
Mixed script or
The practice of mixing into began as early as the introduction of . Even King Sejong's promulgation proclamation was written in literary Chinese and passages to explain the alphabet and mixed passages that help 'ease' the reader into the use of the alphabet. The first novel written in , (, Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven) is actually mostly written in what would now be considered mixed-script writing. Another major literary work touted as a masterpiece of -based literature, the 1590 translation of The Analects of Confucius () by Yi Yulgok () is also written entirely in .
Many Koreans today attribute to the Japanese occupation of Korea. This is in part due to the visual similarity of Chinese characters interspersed with alphabetic text of Japanese-language texts to Korean-language texts in mixed script, and the numerous assimilation and suppression schemes of the occupational government carried out against the Korean people, language and culture. In fact, was commonplace amongst the royalty, () and classes for personal records and informal letters shortly after the introduction of the alphabet, and replaced the routine use of by the . The heyday of arrived with the Gap-o reforms () passed in 1894–1896 after the Donghak Peasant Rebellion (). The reforms ended the client status of Korea to the Qing dynasty emperors, elevating King Gojong to Emperor Gwangmu (), ended the supremacy of literary Chinese and script, ended the imperial examinations. In place of literary Chinese, the Korean language written in the 'national letters' ()—now understood as an alternate name for but at the time referred to —was now the language of governance.
Due to over a thousand years of literary Chinese supremacy, the early texts were written in a stiff, prosaic style, with a preponderance of Sino-Korean terms barely removed from , but the written language was quickly adapted into the current format with a more natural style, using only where a Sino-Korean loan word was read in Sino-Korean pronunciation and for native words and grammatical particles. One of the most important publications at the end of the Joseon period was the weekly newspaper, (), one of the first written in the more natural style several years before the reforms. The popular newspaper was originally started as a -only publication that lasted only a few weeks before they switched formats. During the reforms, Yu Giljun () published his travel diaries, () or Observations on Travels to the West was a best-seller at this time. The success of and urged the literati to switch to vernacular Korean in .Taylor, I. & Taylor, M. M. (1994). pp. 268–270.
Decline of mixed script
Mixed script was a commonly used means of writing, although exclusive writing has been used concurrently, in Korea after the decline of literary Chinese, known as (). Mixed script could be commonly found in non-fiction writing, newspapers, etc. until the enacting of President Park Chung-hee's 5-Year Plan for Hangul Exclusivity () in 1968 banned the use and teaching of in public schools, as well as forbade its use in the military, with the goal of eliminating in writing by 1972 through legislative and executive means. However, due to public backlash in 1972, Park's government allowed for the teaching of Hanja in special classes but maintained a ban on use in textbooks and other learning materials outside of the classes. This reverse step however, was optional so the availability of education was dependent on the school one went to.