Why do linguists say the Hangul is the most logical....

[arpee]

Why do linguists say the Hangul is the most logical writing system? I learned the Hangul writing system but I don't see how it's better than other writing systems? Can someone elaborate on this?

[lishaoxuan]

I think it may because that Hangul system uses an alphabet, yet in the same time still make each character look square.

[Psi-Lord]

Maybe it’s because of things like this as well:

For instance, the consonant jamo ㅌ t [tʰ] is composed of three strokes, each one meaningful: the top stroke indicates ㅌ is a plosive, like ㆆ ’, ㄱ g, ㄷ d, ㅂ b, ㅈ j, which have the same stroke (the last is an affricate, a plosive-fricative sequence); the middle stroke indicates that ㅌ is aspirated, like ㅎ h, ㅋ k, ㅍ p, ㅊ ch, which also have this stroke; and the curved bottom stroke indicates that ㅌ is coronal, like ㄴ n, ㄷ d, and ㄹ l. Two consonants, ㆁ and ㅱ, have dual pronunciations, and appear to be composed of two elements, stacked one over the other, to represent these two pronunciations: [ŋ]/silence for ㆁ and [m]/[w] for obsolete ㅱ.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangul

[polishboy]

hmmm.. I think Korean would be very irregular if written in Latin alphabet:

for axample

mat = taste

but masi with i particle, Korea nwritting system makes learning Korean easier.
맛 맛이.

[ILuvEire]

Maybe it’s because of things like this as well:

For instance, the consonant jamo ㅌ t [tʰ] is composed of three strokes, each one meaningful: the top stroke indicates ㅌ is a plosive, like ㆆ ’, ㄱ g, ㄷ d, ㅂ b, ㅈ j, which have the same stroke (the last is an affricate, a plosive-fricative sequence); the middle stroke indicates that ㅌ is aspirated, like ㅎ h, ㅋ k, ㅍ p, ㅊ ch, which also have this stroke; and the curved bottom stroke indicates that ㅌ is coronal, like ㄴ n, ㄷ d, and ㄹ l. Two consonants, ㆁ and ㅱ, have dual pronunciations, and appear to be composed of two elements, stacked one over the other, to represent these two pronunciations: [ŋ]/silence for ㆁ and [m]/[w] for obsolete ㅱ.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangul

I believe this is the reason.

[Karavinka]

The belief is largely a product of blind nationalism. Koreans are justly proud of their script, but some of them just go too far. Yes, Hangul has its logic. But any script designed for its native language would have as much logic as Hangul. For example, Devanagari is a practical map of Sanskrit phonetics, even their arrangement is a phonetical table. If you're devising a script for your language, you would first conduct a thorough phonetical study of it and make a script that best fits. I don't see why Latin script cannot be the most fitting and logically sound script for Latin.

There are a number of myth related with this.

1. "Korean is the most logical language" -- Many people do not distinguish "Korean language" and "Korean script" and see the two as one. So the above sentence may read as "Hangul is the most logical language" as well.

2. "All sounds can be written in Hangul" -- Although we can't blame the general populace for not having a training in phonetics, this is quite widespread as well. A variant is that "Hangul can be used to write the most sounds" - while it is true that the script can write anything in Korean language, this is a clear misuse of extrapolation. I believe this partly stems from the hangulised phonetic keys of foreign language materials. As long as they pronounce in the hangulised forms, everything can be written seemingly perfectly in Hangul as well...

3. "Many linguists agree that Korean should be the international language because of its logicalness." -- and nobody can give citations. When they do, it's about the script, not the language. Some linguists did write how logical Korean script is, but this misbelief comes from the confusion between Korean script and Korean language. Similar phenomenon is observed with English language and script, and the conclusion is that "English language is not logical."

The confusion largely stems from the common use. Something that is written in Hangul means (for the most cases) it is written in Korean, as there is no other language which employs this script. "Hangulisation" (한글화) means localising a software by translating it into Korean language, not just transcribing into Hangul. Likewise, transcribing Korean into Latin alphabet is "writing it in English" - the script is most often associated with English. While there are many people who use the language cautiously, still there is a lot who don't. I personally have been in many flame wars regarding this issue, and I came to develop a disdain for the Hangul enthusiasts.

[polishboy]

And Korean is much easier to write!
You can write much faster!
Latin has more letters, and they are more complicated in writting.