Hi Peter (and others),

Of course, you are right. Writing in syllables is the conventional USE of the alphabet in writing Korean. The featural aspect in the Korean script is the DESIGN feature in creating the letters of the alphabet. There is no clear one-to-one correspondence between a specific linguistic feature and a specific shape (That would have complicated the letter shapes terribly!). However, the general principle of letter formation follows a featural theory, 500 years before the Prague School "discovered" it. Again this theory is clearly recorded in the text I mentioned a while ago, _Hunmin chong'um haerye_ (1446), in the section explaining the design principles underlying the creation of each letter form.

Young-Key Kim-Renaud

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@...>
Date: Wednesday, June 9, 2004 7:35 am
Subject: Re: functional classification of writing systems // Korean; Turkish F-type kbd. layout

> Nicholas Bodley wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 01:27:34 -0400, Young-Key Kim-Renaud
> > <kimrenau@...> wrote:
>
> > > The Korean alphabet is really easy to learn. It is worth
> investing half
> > > a day of your life to learning it, especially if you are
> interested in
> > > the typology of writing systems.
> >
> > Easy, indeed, and very likely easier that the Japanese kanas.
> > I'm so glad that someone as articulate and well-informed as you
> calls it
> > an alphabet; I'll feel free to do so, from here on! (Don't
> worry: I do
> > understand, basically, how Han'gul is formed.)
> > Your clear and interesting messages have been very welcome;
> they're much
> > appreciated.
>
> Of course it's an alphabet! It's _also_ syllabically organized, and,
> uniquely outside shorthands and phonetic transcription schemes, it's
> featural!
> --
> Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...