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| Hanja | |
|---|---|
| Korean Name | |
| Revised Romanization/ McCune-Reischauer* | Hanja |
| Hangul | 한자 |
| Hanja | 漢字 |
| * Often erroneously spelled as "Hancha" in McCune-Reischauer | |
Hanja (lit. Han character(s)), or Hanmun (한문; 漢文), sometimes translated as Sino-Korean characters, are what Chinese characters (Hanzi) are called in Korean, but specifically, they refer to those that the Korean language borrowed and incorporated into their own language, changing their pronunciation. Unlike the Japanese Kanji, which has altered and simplified many characters, Hanja are almost entirely identical to modern traditional Chinese Hanzi, although a minority of the standard characters of Hanja are variant Hanzi also used in standard Kanji.
One of the major impetuses for the introduction of Hanja into Korea was the spread of Buddhism. The major text that introduced Hanja to Koreans, however, was not a religious work but the Cheonjamun (Thousand-Character Classic). Hanja was the sole means of writing Korean until King Sejong the Great invented Hangul in the 15th century. However, even after the invention of Hangul, most Korean scholars continued to write in Hanja.
There were some systems developed earlier, to use simplified forms of Chinese characters that phonetically transcribe Korean, namely, Hyangchal (향찰 ; 鄕札), Gugyeol (口訣), and Idu (이두 ; 吏讀), but for the most part Koreans had to learn Literary Chinese to be literate.
It was not until the 20th century that Hangul truly replaced Hanja. Officially, Hanja have not been in use in North Korea since 1949.
Each Hanja is composed of one of 214 radicals plus in most cases one or more additional elements. The vast majority of Hanja use the additional elements to indicate the sound of the character, but a few Hanja are purely pictographic, and some were formed in other ways.
When read in context, Hanja are sounded using their Sino-Korean (i.e., Chinese-derived) pronunciation. When treated as standalone characters, however (for example, in an education setting or in Okpyeon (Hanja dictionaries), each Hanja is referred to in Korean by its hun (훈 (訓), pronounced "hoon") and eum (음 (音)), that is, its native Korean meaning followed by its Sino-Korean pronunciation. (Hun is the Hanja for "meaning" or "teaching" and eum is the Hanja for "sound".) Thus, the Hanja for "tree" (木) is referred to as namu mok (나무 목), where namu (나무) is the native Korean word for "tree" and mok (목) is its Hanja equivalent. This meaning-sound pairing was devised hundreds of years ago, and sometimes the Hanja has replaced the its native Korean equivalent, making the first word archaic. Thus, the Hanja for "mountain" (山) is referred to as me san (메 산, pronounced "meh sahn"), where me (메) is a native Korean word for "mountain" that is no longer used (san (산) is used instead).
Hanja are still taught as courses (that have recently became non-compulsory) in South Korean high schools. Hanja education begins in grade 7 (junior high school) and continues until graduation from senior high school in grade 12. A total of 1800 Hanja (about 100 less than Kanji) are taught: 900 for junior high, and 900 for senior high (starting in grade 10). Post-secondary Hanja education continues in some liberal arts universities.
The 1972 promulgation on basic Hanja for educational purposes were altered in December 31, 2000 to replace 44 Hanja with 44 others. The choice of characters to eliminate and exclude caused heated debates prior to and after the 2000 promulgation.
In overseas universities, a sample of Hanja is a requirement for students of Korean Studies and Koreanology. Those who became graduate students usually acquire at least the 1800 basic Hanja.
Because many different Hanja—and thus, many different words derived from Hanja—often share the same sounds, two distinct Hanja words may be spelled identically in the phonetic Hangul alphabet. Thus, Hanja are often used to clarify meaning, either on their own without the equivalent Hangul spelling, or in parentheses after the Hangul spelling as a kind of gloss. Hanja are often also used as a form of shorthand in newspaper headlines, advertisements, and on signs. Some details of use follow.
Sino-Korean characters are used most frequently in academic literature, where they often appear without the equivalent Hangul spelling. Either all words of Sino-Korean origin may be spelled using Hanja (which is extremely rare), or only those words with a specialized or ambiguous meaning may be printed in Hanja (which is the more common way of using them.) In books and magazines, Hanja are generally used sparingly, and only to gloss words already spelled in Hangul when the meaning is ambiguous. Hanja are often used in newspaper headlines instead of Hangul to eliminate the ambiguity typical of newspaperese in any language. Hanja appear frequently in dictionaries and atlases; see below.
In modern Korean dictionaries, all entry words of Sino-Korean origin are printed in Hangul and listed in Hangul order, with the Hanja given in parentheses immediately following the entry word. (A similar practice is followed in Japanese dictionaries.) This practice helps to eliminate ambiguity, and it also serves as a sort of shorthand etymology, since the meaning of the Hanja and the fact that the word is composed of Hanja often help to illustrate the word's origin.
As an example of how Hanja can help to clear up ambiguity, many homophones are written in Hangul as 수도 (sudo), including:
Hanja dictionaries (Okpyeon) are organized by radicals, like Hanzi and Kanji.
Korean personal names generally use Hanja, although exceptions exist. Korean personal names usually consist of a one-character family name (seong, 姓) followed by a two-character given name ("ireum"). There are a few 2-character family names (eg 南宮, nam'gung), and the holders of such names — but not only them — tend to have one-syllable given names. Traditionally, the given name in turn consists of one character unique to the individual and one character shared by all people in a family of the same sex and generation (돌림자, tollimja). Things have changed, however, and while these rules are still largely followed, some people have given names that come are native Korean words (popular ones include "Haneul" — meaning "heaven" or "sky" — and "Iseul" — meaning "dew"). Nevertheless, on official documents, people's names are still recorded in both Hangul and in Hanja (if the name is composed of Hanja).
Placenames are almost universally composed of Hanja, but exceptions exist, the most significant of which is the name of the capital, Seoul. Disyllabic names of railway lines, freeways, and provinces are often formed by taking one character from each of the two locales' names. For Seoul, the abbreviation is the Hanja gyeong. Thus,
Most atlases of Korea today are published in two versions: one in Hangul (sometimes with some English as well), and one in Hanja. Subway and railway station signs give the station's name in Hangul, Hanja, and English, both to assist visitors and to disambiguate the name. (A similar practice occurs in Japan, where signs are written in Hiragana, Kanji, and English).
The pronunciations of Hanja is not entirely identical to the way the Chinese pronounce them. For example, 印刷 "print" is yìnshuā in Chinese and inswae (인쇄) in Hanja pronunciation.
Due to divergence in pronunciation since the time of borrowing, sometimes the pronunciation of a Hanja and its corresponding Hanzi may differ considerably. For example, 女 ("woman") is nü in Chinese and nyeo in Korean. However, in most modern Korean dialects (especially South Korean ones), 女 is pronounced as yeo (여), due to a systematic displacement of initial n's followed by y or i.
Sometimes, to represent grammatical particles unique to Korean, Hanja are used solely for their Chinese pronunciation, but not for their meaning at all. This partial use is the basis of vernacular Sino-Korean scripts like Gugyeol. For example, Gugyeol uses the Hanzi weini (爲尼) to transcribe the Korean word "hăni", "hani" in modern Korean, that means "does, and so". However, in Chinese, "weini" means "becoming a nun." This is a typical example of Gugyeol words where the radical (爲) is read in Korean for its meaning (hă — "to do") and the suffix 尼, ni, used phonetically.
Much like Japanese, a great deal of Hanja vocabulary were directly borrowed from Chinese vocabulary. A small number of Sino-Korean words were coined by the Koreans. Many academic and scientific terms were borrowed from Japanese. The Japanese translated numerous Western words (mainly English and German) into Sino-Japanese terms by coining or reusing words. Under the Japanese annexation, they were borrowed into Korean systematically changing their pronunciations.
The table below contains words different between Hanzi and Hanja:
| English | Hanja | Hanzi | Hangul |
|---|---|---|---|
| letter | 片紙 | 信 | 편지 (pyeonji) |
| tissue | 休紙 | 草紙 | 휴지 (hyuji) |
| gift | 膳物 | 贈品 | 선물 (seonmul) |
| bill | 外上 | 帳單 | 외상 (oesang) |
| dining table | 食卓 | 餐桌 | 식탁 (siktak) |
| cheque | 手票 | 支票 | 수표 (supyo) |
| name card, business card |
名啣 | 名片 or 咭片 | 명함 (myeongham) |
| maid | 食母 | 女傭 | 식모 (singmo) |
| prohibit, cancel | 休止 or __束 | 取締 or 取消 | 휴지 (hyuji) or ? (?) |
| study | 工夫 | 學習 | 공부 (gongbu) |
| very | 大端 | 非常 | 대단 (daedan) |
| prisoner | 囚徒 | 囚犯 | 수도 (sudo) |
| side room | 舍廊, 斜廊 | 側房 | 사랑 (sarang) |
Some Hanja have characters in different order from Hanzi.
| English | Hanja | Hanzi | Hangul | noon* | 午正 | 正午 | 오정 (ojeong) |
|---|---|---|---|
| compass | 羅針盤 | 羅盤針 | 나침반 (nachimban) |
* Note, however, that the Chinese order of jeong-o is used frequently in modern Korea as well.
Some Sino-Korean words derive from kun readings of Kanji. They consist of pure Japanese terms, so many of them are grammatically incorrect in Chinese. However, the pronounciations of these Korean words are, frequently, very similiar to their Chinese counterparts.
| English | Japanese | Hanja | Hangul | Hanzi pronounciation | Traditional Chinese |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aikido | 合気道 | 合氣道 | 합기도 |
合氣道 | 合氣道 |
| ai.ki.do |
hap.gi.do | he.qi.dao |
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| assemble | 組み立て |
組立 | 조립 |
組立 | 組裝 or 組合 |
| ku.mi.ta.te | cho.rip | zu.li |
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| big sale | 大売出し |
大賣出 | 대매출 |
大賣出 | 大拍賣 |
| ō.uri.da.shi | dae.mae.chul | da.mai.chu |
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| building | 建物 |
建物 | 건물 |
建物 | 建築物 or 建物 |
| tate.mono | geon.mul | jian.wu |
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| estimate | 見積もり |
見積 | 견적 |
見積 | 估算 |
| mi.tsu.mo.ri | gyeon.jeok | jian.ji |
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| share or stock | 株式 |
株式 | 주식 |
株式 | 股份 |
| kabu.shiki | ju.sik | zhu.shi |
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| match | 試合 |
試合 | 시합 |
試合 | 比賽 |
| shi.ai | si.hap | shi.he |
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| procedure | 手続き |
手續 | 수속 |
手續 | 程序 |
| te.tsuzu.ki | su.sok | shou.xu |
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