Hangul

The annals record Sejong's creation of a 28-letter Korean script

The earliest official notice of the alphabet is not a project announcement. It appears abruptly at the end of a lunar month and says the king had already made 28 letters.

The end of the twelfth lunar month

An undated entry at the close of the twelfth lunar month of King Sejong's twenty-fifth regnal year, 1443, records that the king had personally created 28 vernacular letters and called them Hunminjeongeum — 'Proper Sounds for the Instruction of the People'.

The entry records a script already substantially made, not the beginning of a project. The National Institute of Korean Language notes that no earlier annal entry documents the secret development.

The annals say only 'this month'. The commonly cited 30 December is the official database's placement of an undated monthly notice, and that lunar month ran into early 1444 in Western conversion.

Seventeen consonants, eleven vowels

The original system comprised 17 consonants and 11 vowels. Basic consonant forms reflected the articulatory organs; basic vowel forms represented heaven, earth and humanity.

Sejong's later preface explains that Korean speech differed from Chinese and that people unable to master Chinese writing often could not express what they wished, so he sought letters that could be learned and used conveniently.

'Hangul' is the modern name. In 1443 the script was called Hunminjeongeum, and also eonmun — vernacular writing.

Who made it, and who objected

The record attributes the creation to Sejong himself, as does Jeong Inji's later postface. Hall of Worthies scholars were afterwards ordered to prepare detailed explanations and examples, and their documented role is clearest in that explanation, testing and implementation rather than in the invention.

In the second lunar month of 1444, Choe Malli and other Hall of Worthies officials submitted a formal memorial objecting to aspects of the project.

The explanatory manuscript promulgating the alphabet was published in the ninth lunar month of 1446, three years after the creation recorded here.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 7 sources not yet audited Date corrected

How this was checked

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Date corrected. The research places this at ~1443-12.

What the sources leave uncertain

The creation year is secure, but the annals give only “this month” at the end of the twelfth lunar month, not a day.
The official database often assigns the monthly notice to the last calendrical entry, producing a conventional 30 December 1443 citation. The lunar month extended into early 1444 in Western calendar conversion, so that should not be treated as a securely observed completion day.
The source says Sejong had created the letters; it does not say he started creating them in 1443.
Authorship has been debated, but the annals and Jeong Inji’s postface attribute invention to Sejong. The Hall of Worthies’ documented role is clearest in the subsequent explanation, testing, and implementation.