The Power of an Alphabet to Define a Culture — Alice J. Lee
Channel: TypeCon
Date: 30/06/2022

Recorded during TypeCon2014: Capitolized in Washington, DC

In 1994 I visited my father in Seoul, South Korea, and he took me to where a large statue of King Sejong stands. He said that Sejong was the great king who created the Korean alphabet in 1446, helping Koreans free themselves from the influence of China. Before the Korean alphabet, many Koreans were illiterate because the difficult Chinese pictographic writing system was used. There are many dots to connect from an alphabet to freedom. My presentation will summarize the historical context, linguistic and visual analyses of the Korean alphabet in order to reveal the relationship between literacy and power. I will also present an investigation into disappearing languages, and specifically, the efforts to preserve a once dying Native American language, Tolowa. This comparative study between the two alphabets will demonstrate how a writing system documents both the language and its embedded culture and contributes to a culture’s proliferation and success, particularly in the face of assimilation or colonialism.