Korean language and computers - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

This article addresses how computer

Computer

A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

s are used to read and write Korean

Korean language

Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...

, using Hangul

Hangul

Hangul,Pronounced or ; Korean: 한글 Hangeul/Han'gŭl or 조선글 Chosŏn'gŭl/Joseongeul the Korean alphabet, is the native alphabet of the Korean language. It is a separate script from Hanja, the logographic Chinese characters which are also sometimes used to write Korean...

Character encodings

In RFC 1557, a method known as ISO-2022-KR for a 7-bit encoding of Korean characters in email

Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...

was described. Where 8 bits are allowed, the EUC-KR encoding is preferred. These two encodings combine US-ASCII (ISO 646

ISO/IEC 646

ISO/IEC 646:1991, Information technology — ISO 7-bit coded character set for information interchange, is an ISO standard that since its first edition in 1972 has specified a 7-bit character code from which several national standards are derived...

) with the Korean standard KS X 1001

KS X 1001

KS X 1001 is a South Korean coded character set standard to represent hangul and hanja characters on a computer. It is arranged as 94×94 table , therefore its code points are pairs of integers 1–94...

:1992 (previously named KS C 5601:1987). In North Korea

North Korea

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...

, a separate character set called KPS 9566

KPS 9566

KPS 9566 is a North Korean standard which specifies an ISO 2022-compliant 94x94 two-byte coded character set for the Hangul writing system used for the Korean language....

is in use, which is rather similar to KS X 1001.

The international Unicode

Unicode

Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...

standard contains special characters for representing the Korean language in the native Hangul

Hangul

phonetic system. There are two ways supported by Unicode. The way used by Windows is to have every one of the 11,172 syllable combinations as a code and a pre-formed font character. The other way is to encode jamos, and to let the software combine them into correct combinations, which is not supported in Windows. Of course the former way needs more font memory, but gives the possibility of getting better shapes, since it is complicated to create fully correct combinations which may be preferred when creating documents.

There is also the possibility of simply stacking a (sequence of) medial(s) (jungseong) – and then a (sequence of) final(s) (jongseong) and/or a Middle Korean pitch mark, if needed – on top of the (sequence of) initial(s) (choseong), if the font has medial and final jamos with zero-width spacing that are inserted to the left of the cursor or caret, thus appearing in the right place below or to the right of the initial. If a syllable has a horizontal medial , the initial will probably appear further left in a complete syllable than is the case in pre-formed syllables due to the space that must be reserved for a vertical medial, giving an aesthetically poor appearance to what may be the only way to display Middle Korean Hangul text without resorting to images, romanisation, replacement of obsolete jamo or non-standard encodings. However, most current fonts do not support this.

The Unicode

Unicode

Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...

standard also has attempted to create a unified CJK

CJK

CJK is a collective term for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, which is used in the field of software and communications internationalization.The term CJKV means CJK plus Vietnamese, which constitute the main East Asian languages.- Characteristics :...

character set that can represent Chinese (Hanzi) as well as the Japanese (Kanji

Kanji

Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...

) and Korean (Hanja

Hanja

Hanja is the Korean name for the Chinese characters hanzi. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation...

) derivatives of this script through the Han unification

Han unification

Han unification is an effort by the authors of Unicode and the Universal Character Set to map multiple character sets of the so-called CJK languages into a single set of unified characters. Han characters are a common feature of written Chinese , Japanese , Korean , and—at least historically—other...

process, which does not discriminate by language nor region for rendering Chinese characters, as long as the different typographic traditions have not resulted in major differences concerning what the character looks like – see :Image:Xin-jiu-zixing.png for examples of characters whose appearance recently underwent only minor changes in Mainland China. Han unification has met with some criticism.

Text input

On a Korean computer keyboard, text is typically entered by simply pushing a key for the appropriate Jamo; the operating system creates each composite character on the fly. Depending on the IME

Input method

An input method is an operating system component or program that allows any data, such as keyboard strokes or mouse movements, to be received as input. In this way users can enter characters and symbols not found on their input devices...

and keyboard layout, double consonants can be entered by holding the shift button. When all jamo making up a syllabic block have been entered, the user may initiate a conversion to Hanja or other special characters using a keyboard shortcut or interface button; South Korean keyboards have a separate key for this. Subsequent semi-automated hanja conversion is supported to varying degrees in word processors.

When using a keyboard from another language, most operating systems require the user to type using an original Korean keyboard layout, the most common of which is 2(du)-beolsik. This is in contrast to some other languages like Japanese, where text can be entered using a Romanization system on non-native keyboards.

Hanja

Apart from the conversion issues mentioned above, some Korean fonts do not include hanja to start with. At the same time, current word processors do not allow the user to specify which font to use as a fallback for any hanja that may occur in a text. In that case, each sequence of hanja must be manually formatted to appear in the desired font.

Special situations

Having text run in vertical lines is poorly or not at all supported by HTML and most word processors, although this is not an issue for modern Korean, as it is usually written horizontally. Until the second half of the 20th century, however, Korean was often written vertically. 15th century texts written in Hangul had pitch marks to the left of syllables, which are included in Unicode, although most current fonts do not adequately support them, either.

See the section on #Character encodings above for obsolete jamo.

Programs

Notable programs specifically designed for Korean language-related use include:

Language recognition
- A North Korean speech recognition
  Speech recognition
  Speech recognition converts spoken words to text. The term "voice recognition" is sometimes used to refer to recognition systems that must be trained to a particular speaker—as is the case for most desktop recognition software...
  
  program is said to recognise 100,000 words and to achieve a success rate of more than 90%.
- Mongnan ' onMouseout='HidePop("26752")' href="/topics/Korea_Computer_Center">KCC
  Korea Computer Center
  The Korea Computer Center is the leading North Korean government information technology research center. It was founded on October 24, 1990....
  
  , North Korea) – Optical character recognition software with an alleged success rate of 99% for printed text and 95% for handwriting recognition
  Handwriting recognition
  Handwriting recognition is the ability of a computer to receive and interpret intelligible handwritten input from sources such as paper documents, photographs, touch-screens and other devices. The image of the written text may be sensed "off line" from a piece of paper by optical scanning or...
  
  .
Input method editor
Input method editor
An input method is an operating system component or program that allows any data, such as keyboard strokes or mouse movements, to be received as input. In this way users can enter characters and symbols not found on their input devices...

s
- Tan'gun – Allows the use of Hangul on English editions of Windows.
- Nalgaeset Hangul Input Method Editor (날개셋 한글 입력기); Kim Yongmook, South Korea) - A Hangul input method which is especially made for the 3(se)-beolsik keyboard layout. (Only works on Microsoft Windows)
- Nabi , ami - Allows to type Hangul on Linux
  Linux
  Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
  
  .
- m17n - Allows to use revised romanization for Hangul input on Unix.
- SCIM Allows one to type hangul and hanja on POSIX
  POSIX
  POSIX , an acronym for "Portable Operating System Interface", is a family of standards specified by the IEEE for maintaining compatibility between operating systems...
  
  -style operating systems including Linux and BSD
  Berkeley Software Distribution
  Berkeley Software Distribution is a Unix operating system derivative developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group of the University of California, Berkeley, from 1977 to 1995...
  
  .
Word processor
Word processor
A word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....

s – All programs listed below include domestic Hangul fonts, non-Hangul fonts and a Hangul↔hanja
Hanja
Hanja is the Korean name for the Chinese characters hanzi. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation...

conversion utility.
- Hangul
  Hangul (word processor)
  Hangul is a proprietary word processing application published by the South Korean company Hancom Inc.. It is used extensively in South Korea, especially by the government....
  
  (Haansoft
  Haansoft Corporation
  Hancom is a computer software company headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It was established in 1990 at Hangul Culture Center.-Products:*Hangul Hancom (called Haansoft Corporation in English until early 2010; ; literally: Hangul and Computer) is a computer software company headquartered in Seoul,...
  
  , South Korea)
- Ch'angdŏk – This popular program exists in an MS-DOS
  MS-DOS
  MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
  
  version developed in April 1990 http://preview.britannica.co.kr/spotlights/nkorea/society/b20c1792n0.html and a Windows version developed in 1996. It includes a peculiar personality cult feature by which pressing Ctrl+I or Ctrl+J produces titles exalting Kim Il-sung
  Kim Il-sung
  Kim Il-sung was a Korean communist politician who led the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from its founding in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to his death...
  
  and Kim Jong-il
  Kim Jong-il
  Kim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, birth name Yuri Irsenovich Kim born 16 February 1941 or 16 February 1942 , is the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea...
  
  , respectively.

Hangul in Unicode

Hangul letters are detailed in several separate parts of the Unicode specification:

Hangul Jamo (1100–11FF)
Hangul Compatibility Jamo (3130-318F)
Hangul Syllables (AC00-D7AF)
Hangul Jamo Extended-A (A960-A97F)
Hangul Jamo Extended-B (D7B0-D7FF)

Hangul Syllables Area

To find Hangul Syllables in Unicode, you can apply a simple formula. The formula and tables are as follows:
[{(initial)×588}+{(medial)×28}+(final)]+44032

Initial Jamo

{

ㄱ 0
ㄲ 1
ㄴ 2
ㄷ 3
ㄸ 4
ㄹ 5
ㅁ 6
ㅂ 7
ㅃ 8
ㅅ 9
ㅆ 10
ㅇ 11
ㅈ 12
ㅉ 13
ㅊ 14
ㅋ 15
ㅌ 16
ㅍ 17
ㅎ 18

Medial Jamo

{

ㅏ 0
ㅐ 1
ㅑ 2
ㅒ 3
ㅓ 4
ㅔ 5
ㅕ 6
ㅖ 7
ㅗ 8
ㅘ 9
ㅙ 10
ㅚ 11
ㅛ 12
ㅜ 13
ㅝ 14
ㅞ 15
ㅟ 16
ㅠ 17
ㅡ 18
ㅢ 19
ㅣ 20

Final Jamo

{

no jamo 0
ㄱ 1
ㄲ 2
ㄳ 3
ㄴ 4
ㄵ 5
ㄶ 6
ㄷ 7
ㄹ 8
ㄺ 9
ㄻ 10
ㄼ 11
ㄽ 12
ㄾ 13
ㄿ 14
ㅀ 15
ㅁ 16
ㅂ 17
ㅄ 18
ㅅ 19
ㅆ 20
ㅇ 21
ㅈ 22
ㅊ 23
ㅋ 24
ㅌ 25
ㅍ 26
ㅎ 27

Example

For example, If you want to find the codepoint of “한” in Unicode:

The value of initial Jamo ㅎ is 18
The value of medial Jamo ㅏ is 0
The value of final Jamo ㄴ is 4

So, the formula will be {(18×588)+(0×28)+4}+44032, and the result is 54620. It means the Unicode value of 한 is 54620 in decimal, 한 by the numeric character reference

Numeric character reference

A numeric character reference is a common markup construct used in SGML and other SGML-related markup languages such as HTML and XML. It consists of a short sequence of characters that, in turn, represent a single character from the Universal Character Set of Unicode...

, and U+D55C in standard Unicode notation.

Hangul Compatibility Jamo Area

Hangul Compatibility Jamo Area is the part of Unicode which has been allocated for compatibility with the KS X 1001

KS X 1001

character set. Usually it is used for representing modern Hangul jamo and some obsolete Hangul Jamo, without distinguishing initial and final.

Hangul Jamo Area

Hangul Jamo Area is the range of Unicode between U+1100–U+11FF. It contains initial jamo, medial jamo and final jamo, including obsolete jamo. Nalgaeset Hangul IME and Un Jamo Batang represent obsolete Hangul using this area.

Hangul Jamo Extended Areas

Hangul Jamo Extended-A and Hangul Jamo Extended-B were added in Unicode 5.2. The areas contain obsolete Hangul jamo.

Hanyang Private Use Area codes

Hangul (word processor)

Hangul is a proprietary word processing application published by the South Korean company Hancom Inc.. It is used extensively in South Korea, especially by the government....

ships with fonts from Hanyang Information and Communication. Their fonts map obsolete Hangul characters to the Private Use Area of Unicode. Despite the use of the Private Use Area instead of dedicated codepoints, Hanyang’s mapping is currently the most popular way to represent obsolete Hangul in South Korea.

External links

Microsoft Help and Support: How To Add and Enable Additional Languages in Windows (explains how to enable Korean support in Windows)
InputKing Online Input System (An online tool for typing Korean)

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Character encodings

Text input

Hanja

Special situations

Programs

Hangul in Unicode

Hangul Syllables Area

Initial Jamo

Medial Jamo

Final Jamo

Example

Hangul Compatibility Jamo Area

Hangul Jamo Area

Hangul Jamo Extended Areas

Hanyang Private Use Area codes

See also

External links