Language for the People

During the Middle Ages, the established written language in Europe was Latin. With the overwhelming majority of people illiterate, however, only a tiny handful were well versed in the language. In Italy, as in all other countries, the majority would instead speak the vernacular of their region. Dante's The Divine Comedy is significant not only because it was written in the vernacular, but it also helped make the Tuscan/Florentine language the standard one for Italy. Through his poem, Dante standardized the Italian language and demonstrated that such a masterpiece can be born from language used by the common people.

The emergence of Italian culture and language with the help of Dante is actually similar to the evolution of a very different language: Korean. Before the 15th century, the main script for writing Korean was Hanja (한자), which was an adapted version of Chinese characters (arrived in Korea together with Buddhism). Mainly privileged elites were educated to read and write Hanja, however, and most of the population was illiterate. In the 15th century, King Sejong the Great (세종대왕) felt that Hanja was not adequate to write Korean and lamented the fact that there were no letters native to the country. He also realized how ignorant the general public were, so he wanted to create a writing system that would be easy for commoners to learn. The result in 1443 was the alphabetic featural writing system known today as Hangul (한글). Introduced in the document Hunminjeongeum (훈민정음), it became popular and increased literacy in Korea, but due to its suppression by the aristocratic class during the Joseon (조선) era, Hangul as a national script truly took hold later.

Like Dante, Sejong the Great has had huge influences on national language and culture. Today, Hangul remains the only letter system for which the creator, date of publication, and principles of invention are known. It has been praised for being one of the most efficient and scientific letters in the world, as each character resembles the oral cavity's shape when it is pronounced. In terms of efficiency, one example is enough to explain: "see you tomorrow" = "내일 봐" in Korean (this is especially useful if you hate the character limit on Twitter). Unsurprisingly, Hangul is also one of the most digital-friendly letters, meaning that it is easy to type, unlike Chinese or Japanese. But it is true that Hangul (or Korean in general) is hard for westerners to learn, much as easterners struggle to learn English and pronunciation.

But getting back to Dante's use of the vernacular and his contributions to the Italian language, I think it is best when a language/writing system is designed for the public.