호머 헐버트. 1863-1949, 한국 독립을 위해 싸운 미국 언론인, 선교사. 한글 띄어쓰기 기원 (헐버트, 주시경) 독립신문 적용. 한글 최초 교과서 '사민필지'

우리말 띄어쓰기와 마침표 기원. 1896년 독립신문 제작시 적용. 

호머 헐버트가 한국어에 기여한 점. 

 

 

 

 

언론보도.

 

Homer B. Hulbert

 

한글을 사랑한 첫 외국인, 헐버트
2015년 10월 05일 시 분 댓글


1443년 세종실록의 기록에는 '임금께서 언문 28자를 친히 만드셨다'는 내용을 찾아볼 수 있습니다.

이것은 조선의 4대 임금 세종대왕이 한글을 창제했다는 기록.

그로부터 3년 후, 세종대왕은 글자를 지은 뜻과 사용법 등이 풀이된 훈민정음을 반포했습니다.

 

하지만 훈민정음을 비롯해 허균의 홍길동전 최초의 한글조리서 음식 디미방 등을 살펴보면 지금과 다른 점을 발견할 수 있습니다.

바로 당시에는 띄어쓰기가 없었다는 사실!

그렇다면 지금의 띄어쓰기는 언제부터 시작 된 걸까요?

 

놀랍게도 그 해답은 미국 출신 선교사 호머 헐버트에게 있었습니다.

헐버트는 1886년 우리나라에 온 교육자겸 선교사로 우리나라 문화를 세계에 알리고 독립을 지원할 정도로 한국을 사랑했습니다.

 그런 그가 어떻게 띄어쓰기 해답을 갖고 있을까?

본격적으로 우리말에 띄어쓰기를 사용한 건 1896년 창간 된 '독립신문'에서 였는데 헐버트는 당시 서재필, 주시경과 함께 독립신문을 만들었습니다.

독립신문은 띄어쓰기를 실천한 최초의 순 한글 신문.

헐버트는 주시경과 함께 한글을 연구했고 그 과정에서 띄어쓰기와 점찍기를 도입했습니다.

 

최초의 한글 교과서 '사민필지'를 만들고 미국에 한글교본을 출간한 한글학자 헐버트는 다수의 논문 등을 통해 한글의 우수성을 세계에 알리기 시작했습니다.

 

 

 

 

 

'문자사에서 한글보다 더 간단하게, 더 과학적으로 발명된 문자는 없다' 헐버트는 한글의 우수성을 알아본 첫 번째 외국인이었습니다.

 

한글이 만들어진 지 올해로 569주년.

한글의 우수성은 우리의 자랑스러운 문화유산입니다.

 

 

 

호머 헐버트 관련 뉴스.

 

이회영, 헐버트 등 독립유공자 훈격 높아질 듯…60년만에 재평가
CBS노컷뉴스 홍제표 기자 메일보내기2023-03-05 14:11 

최초 포상 후 수십년 지나며 새 공적 밝혀졌지만 반영하지 못해
김상옥, 박상진, 이상룡, 최재형, 나철 등 대표적…보훈처, 7일 첫 회의

 

왼쪽부터 김상옥 의사와 이회영 선생. 국가보훈처 제공

 

일제 경찰 1천여명과 홀로 맞서다 장렬히 순국한 김상옥 의사와 온가족을 이끌고 만주로 건너가 신흥무관학교를 세우며 헌신한 이회영 선생 등 일부 독립운동가들의 훈격이 뒤늦게나마 상향 조정될 것으로 보인다.
 
국가보훈처는 5일 독립유공자 포상이 본격 실시된 1962년 이후 60여년 만에 처음으로 정부 주도로 독립운동에 대한 훈격 재평가를 추진하기로 했다고 밝혔다. 
 
보훈처는 이를 위해 역사학계와 법조계, 언론계 등의 전문가로 '독립운동 훈격 국민공감위원회'를 구성하고 오는 7일 첫 회의를 개최할 예정이다. 
 
보훈처는 일부 독립유공자의 경우 공적에 비해 낮은 훈격으로 포상되거나 공적에 비례해 서훈되지 않았다는 공정성 논란이 지속적으로 제기돼왔다고 추진 배경을 설명했다. 
 
왼쪽부터 박상진, 이상룡, 나철 선생. 국가보훈처 제공

훈격 상향 주장이 제기돼온 대표적인 독립유공자는 김상옥(대통령장, 1962), 박상진(독립장, 1963), 이상룡(독립장, 1962), 이회영(독립장, 1962), 최재형(독립장, 1962), 나철(독립장, 1962), 헐버트(독립장, 1950) 등이다.
 
김상옥 의사는 1920년 미국 의원단의 한국 방문을 계기로 조선총독부 고관 처단을 시도했고, 1922년에는 조선 총독 처단과 총독부 폭파 등을 재차 시도하다 홀로 1천명의 경찰 체포대에 맞서며 격렬히 저항하다 순국했다. 
 
이회영 선생은 1907년 안창호, 양기탁 선생 등과 함께 독립운동 비밀결사인 신민회를 결성하고, 경술국치 직후에는 중국 만주로 건너가 1912년 신흥강습소(신흥무관학교의 전신)를 설립했다. 
 
1924년 북경에서 재중국조선무정부주의자연맹을 결성한데 이어 1932년 만주사변 이후에는 고령의 나이에도 주만 일본군 사령관 처단을 목적으로 활동하던 중 체포돼 혹독한 고문 끝에 옥사했다. 
 
왼쪽부터 최재형 선생과 헐버트 박사. 국가보훈처 제공

최재형 선생은 1906년 러시아 연해주에서 최초의 의병부대를 창설하고 1909년 한인신문 '대동공보'를 발행하는 한편, 안중근 의사에게 이토 히로부미 처단 장소로 하얼빈을 추천하고 사후 대책을 준비했다.
 
1911년 권업회 초대 회장에 추대되고 1910년대 막대한 재산을 들여 일본군에 대항하는 의병 세력을 지원하다 일본군에 체포된 뒤 피살됐다. 
 
미국인인 헐버트 박사는 1907년 네덜란드 헤이그에서 '제4의 특사'로 활약하고, 1912년 '뉴욕헤랄드'에 105인 사건이 날조됐음을 폭로하는 등 미국 내 여론에 호소한 공적이 상당하다. 
 
보훈처는 이런 문제 제기에도 불구하고 상훈법상 동일 공적에 대해 훈장이나 포장을 중복 수여할 수 없도록 규정돼 법적, 제도적 어려움이 있었지만 '동일하지 않은 공적'에 대한 추가 포상까지 금지하는 것은 아니라고 취지를 설명했다. 
 
정부의 독립유공자 포상은 1949년 최초 실시돼 1960년대 대규모로 이뤄졌지만, 이후 관련 연구 등으로 인해 새로운 공적 사실 등이 발굴됐음에도 이를 반영하는데 한계가 있었다.

 

 

Homer Bezaleel Hulbert.jpg

 

Born   January 26, 1863

New Haven, Vermont, United States

Died    August 5, 1949 (aged 86)

Seoul, South Korea

Nationality       American

 

Homer Bezaleel Hulbert (January 26, 1863 – August 5, 1949) was an American missionary, journalist, and political activist who advocated for the independence of Korea.

 

 

Biography

Hulbert was born in New Haven, Vermont, in 1863 to Calvin and Mary Hulbert. His mother, Mary Elizabeth Woodward Hulbert, was a granddaughter of Mary Wheelock, daughter of Eleazar Wheelock, the founder of Dartmouth College. After graduating from St. Johnsbury Academy and Dartmouth College, Hulbert attended Union Theological Seminary in 1884. He originally visited Korea in 1886 with two other instructors, Delzell A. Bunker and George W. Gilmore, to teach English at the Royal English School.[1] In 1901 he founded the magazine The Korea Review. Before 1905, his attitude towards Japanese involvement in Korea was positive, as he saw the Japanese as agents of reform, in contrast to Russia, which he saw as reactionary. He changed his position in September 1905, when he criticized Japanese plans to turn the Korean Empire into a protectorate.

 

He resigned his position as a teacher in a public middle school, and in October 1905, he went to the United States as an emissary of Emperor Gojong to protest Japan's actions.[2] After returning to the Korean Empire in 1906, he was sent as part of a secret delegation from Gojong to the Second International Peace Conference in The Hague in June 1907. The Korean delegation failed to gain a hearing with other world powers, and the Japanese used Gonjong's actions as a pretext to force him to abdicate.

 

Hulbert's 1906 book, The Passing of Korea, criticized Japanese rule. He was not so much theoretically opposed to colonialism as he was concerned that modernization under the secular Japanese was inferior to a Christian-inspired modernization.[3] He was expelled by the Japanese resident-general for Korea on May 8, 1907.

 

 

Tombstone at Yanghwajin Foreigners' Cemetery

Legacy

Hulbert contributed to the advancement of hangeul with his research and study into the orthography and the grammar of Hangul with Ju Si-gyeong.[4] He also made the first hangeul (Korean) textbook Sămin p'ilji 사민필지 ("Essential Knowledge for Scholars and Commoners").[5]

 

He was reported to have been a close personal friend of Gojong.

 

Syngman Rhee, one of his middle school students, became the first President of Korea and invited Hulbert back to Korea in 1948. It was on that trip that Hulbert developed pneumonia and died. Hulbert's tombstone reads, "I would rather be buried in Korea than in Westminster Abbey." He is interred at Yanghwajin Foreigners' Cemetery in Seoul.[6] He was the recipient of the Order of Merit for National Foundation by the Korean government. He is referred to in the Republic of Korea as a 독립유공자 (contributor to independence). A statue of Hulbert was established in his honor, the only such statue dedicated to an American civilian in Seoul.[2]

 

Anthropology

Homer Hulbert said that Korea and Japan have the same two racial types, but Japan is mostly Malay and Korea is mostly Manchu-Korean. Hulbert said that Korea is physically mostly of the northern type but also said that the nation, being physically mostly of the northern type, did not disprove Hulbert's claim that the Malay element developed Korea's first civilization although it was not necessarily originating Korea's first civilization, and the Malay element imposed its language in its main features in the entire peninsula.[7] Hulbert said that in Korea there was a genetic admixture with Chinese blood that stopped more than 1000 years ago.[8]

 

Selected bibliography

1892 The Korean Repository (He was the editor of this monthly magazine)

1889 Knowledge Necessary for All

1903 Sign of the Jumna

1903 Search for a Siberian Klondike

1905 The History of Korea

1905 Comparative Grammar of Korean and Dravidian

1906 The Passing of Korea

1907 The Japanese in Korea: Extracts from the Korea Review

1925 Omjee - The Wizard

1926 The Face in the Mist

See also

Royal English School (육영공원 Korean Wikipedia)