The Script That Tried to Write Everything It Heard Close your eyes for a moment and think about rain. Not the concept of rain — the actual sound of it. There is the light drizzle that barely r…

Moasseugi : The Art of Writing in Squares If you have ever glanced at a line of Korean text next to a line of English, you may have noticed something that is difficult to name immediately. The…

Five Letters, Five Parts of Your Mouth — A Design 600 Years Ahead of Its Time Most alphabets do not explain themselves. You memorize the letters, you learn the sounds they carry, and eventuall…

The Letter That Knows When to Disappear There is a moment early on in learning any new writing system when you encounter a rule that stops you completely — not because it is difficult, but bec…

When a Writing System Carries a Philosophy Inside It Most people encounter Hangul the way they encounter a new city — navigating by feel, reading signs without quite understanding the grid ben…

Three Marks, Twenty-One Vowels: The Design Logic of Korean Vowel Shapes When linguists describe writing systems, they tend to separate two questions: where the letters came from historically, …

Hangul: The Writing System That Came With a Manual Most writing systems have no known inventor. Latin evolved from Etruscan, which borrowed from Greek, which adapted Phoenician script over the…

Five Systems That Run Korean Daily Life — and How They Fit Together Korea is a country that rewards a second look. The first impression is often about speed — the delivery that arrives before …