Author ｜
Mitsui Takashi, translated by Li Hsin-chieh
Abstract ｜
This paper attempts to grasp various facets of the conceptions of language revealed in Korea from the second half of the 19th century to the early 20th century, namely, the period of enlightenment and civilization,from the perspective of the transformations in the relations between Hanja/Hanmun (the Sino-graph/Sino-writing) and Hangul (the Korean alphabet)/ Korean language. From the opening of Korea, which was a consequence of the signing of the Japan-Korea Treaty of Amity, to the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, to the Annexation of Korea to Japan, it was a period when Korea was forced to change, domestically and diplomatically, and in this period the topology of Hanja/Hanmun changed as well on the scale of the nation-state. As Korea’s tributary relation with the Qing court faltered, the movement aiming for monopolized use of Hangul was re-estimated on the level of the nation-state, and the prestige of Hanja/Hanmun was impaired. The regulation of the “Format of the Official Document” issued in the Gabo Reform (1894) took place against the backdrop of the termination of the tributary relation with China. After that, the writing style coalescing the national language and Sino-writing was established, with which Sino-graphs came to be recognized as having the new value of serving as a medium for introducing modern knowledge.However, as before, resistance from Korean intellectuals who wished to recuperate the prestige attached to Sino-graph/Sino-writing was intense.The conflicts and entanglements of the language issue not only existed in the colonial period, but also consequently carried over into the time of emancipation.
keywords ｜
modernization, language nationalism, Sino-graph, Sino-writing, Hangul (the Korean alphabet)