Hangul Day at 100: New Coinages Deepen Korea's Generational Language Gap

Korean outlets reported on Oct 6, ahead of Hangul Day on Oct 9, that this year marks 100 years since the first commemorative event for the holiday, which Asia Economy said was created by linguists a century ago under the name “가갸날”. Asia Economy added that the year is also the 580th anniversary of the promulgation of Hunminjeongeum and the 150th birth anniversary of linguist Ju Si-gyeong. [ 1 , 2 ]

Yonhap reported that new coinages keep appearing online and in daily life, ranging from simple abbreviations to reshaped characters to blends of foreign and Korean words. It said 밤티 (bamti) derives from an online game user's nickname and is used to mean “ugly” or “not good”; that 늙크크 (neulkeukeu) is the opposite of the song “영크크” (Young Creator Crew) by idol group Cortis and describes people unfamiliar with the latest trends; and that 느좋 (neujot) shortens “느낌 좋다” and describes something stylish or beautiful. Both reports also cite 야민정음, in which similar-looking Hangul letters are swapped, producing forms such as 댕댕이 for 멍멍이 and 띵작 for 명작, and blends such as 뇌피셜 and 갓생. [ 1 , 2 ]

Both reports say such words are familiar to younger users but feel like a foreign language to older generations, and that the gap is widening. Yoo Seong-ho, a professor of Korean language and literature at Hanyang University, told Yonhap that in the past the meaning of a new word could be inferred to some degree, but that recently older generations often cannot grasp it at all, describing what he called a generational division among language users. Asia Economy attributed to Yoo a similar analysis, saying many new expressions now originate in limited online communities, games or idol culture and spread quickly, so their meaning is hard to grasp without that background. [ 1 , 2 ]

The reports note that each new coinage brings criticism that “Hangul is being destroyed” or that it lowers the dignity of Hangul. Experts quoted in both documents say Hangul and Korean should be viewed separately: Hangul is the writing system created to record Korean, while Korean is the language people speak. They give the example that writing “I love you” in Hangul letters changes the script but not the language, while writing “사랑해” in Latin letters keeps the language Korean. Yonhap also cites the late Yeon Gyu-dong, a professor at Kyungsung University's Korean Chinese Character Research Institute, who wrote in a 2017 National Hangeul Museum newsletter that such confusion shows how large a role script plays in language life, and that Korean and Hangul, or language and script, should not be conflated. [ 1 , 2 ]

Yoo told Yonhap that new words appearing and disappearing is a natural property of language, with some fading over time and others lasting, and that they are better left to the vitality of language than deliberately banned or regulated. The provided text of the Yonhap article ends mid-sentence. [ 1 ]