Mango Languages

Happy belated Hangul Day!

Hangul Day or Korean Alphabet Day is celebrated October 9^th in Korea to honor the promulgation of the Korean alphabet, Hangul (한글), by King Sejong in 1446.

During his rule, the people of Korea were often unable to express themselves because understanding of the Chinese language was reserved for the elite.  By inventing Hangul and making it accessible to all, King Sejong made it possible for the masses to better communicate and feel a sense of unity around the language.

Do you celebrate Hangul Day or any other holiday related to a language?

Take a look at the language in these creative representations of the alphabet from all around the world!

Language List (Government)

Language List (Education)

Language List (Libraries)

Language List (Individuals)

Right to Left Languages

There are many languages that are written in a completely different direction than English.  Actually, the script is what decides directionality.

This can cause lots of confusion when learning a language.  When entering text, most of our computers won’t allow for changing text directions unless you create special settings.

Some examples of Right to Left Languages include:

1. Arabic
2. Hebrew
3. Farsi
4. Pashto
5. Urdu

Japanese, Chinese, and Korean are also challenging as they can be written either way depending on usage.

When learning a new language, be sure that you understand which direction the language should be written.

What other languages have interesting direction issues?