Hunmin Chongum (Proper Sound to Instruct the People)

Because Korean is a different language than Chinese,

there are things in it that are hard to represent in Chinese characters,

so that the common people cannot express their thoughts in writing.

Finding this unacceptable, I have newly invented 28 letters

which they can easily learn and comfortably use every day.

- King Sejong the Great, in the ninth lunar month of 1446