한글의 아름다움에 대한 대중적인 인식이 시각적인 미의 판단에 기초한 것인지를 알아보기 위해, 세계적으로 많이 쓰이는 8종의 문자 세트를 비교하였다. 비교된 문자 세트는 한글, 한자, 가타카나(일본어), 로마자, 그리스문자, 키릴문자, Devanagari 문자(힌디어), 아랍문자 등이었다. 27명의 대학생이 각 문자 세트에 대한 경험 빈도, 시각적 미, 선호도를 자기보고식으로 평정한 다음, 문자 세트들 중 2개씩 조합하여 만든 28개 쌍에 대한 유사성을 판단하였다. 평정 자료 분석 결과, 한글은 시각적 미(와 선호도) 점수가 높았지만, 한자와 가타카나의 점수는 낮았다. 유사성 판단 자료에 대한 다차원척도화(ALSCAL) 평면에서 한글은 다른 문자 세트와 비교해서 한자 및 가타카나와 가까운 거리에 있었다. 자기보고 평정과 시각적 유사성 판단 자료가 불일치하는, 이런 결과는 한글의 아름다움에 대한 인식은 시각적인 판단에 기초한 것이 아니라 자국어 문자에 대한 한국인의 긍정적인 태도에 기초할 가능성을 시사한다.
To investigate whether popular recognition of Hangul’s typeface beauty is based on visual judgment or not, 27 college students were asked to rate and compare 8 letter sets with one another. Those letter sets include Hangul, Chinese character, katakana, Roman alphabet, Greek alphabet, Cyrillic alphabet, Devanagari, and Arabic alphabet. In the first session, frequency of experience with each letter set, visual beauty, and preference of it when decorating their belongings were rated in self-reporting style. In the second session participants rated similarity of every combinatorial pair derived from 8 letter sets. Analysis of ordinal data showed that Hangul was rated highly in visual beauty and preference, but judged to be similar to katakana and Chinese character which were rated less beautiful and less preferable. In the 2-dimensional plane derived by ALSCAL, Hangul was away from the other 7 letter sets but was relatively close to katakana and Chinese character. The result indicates that recognition of Hangul’s beauty is based not on visual judgment, but on positive attitude toward the native letter set by Koreans.
To investigate whether popular recognition of Hangul’s typeface beauty is based on visual judgment or not, 27 college students were asked to rate and compare 8 letter sets with one another. Those letter sets include Hangul, Chinese character, katakana, Roman alphabet, Greek alphabet, Cyrillic alphabet, Devanagari, and Arabic alphabet. In the first session, frequency of experience with each letter set, visual beauty, and preference of it when decorating their belongings were rated in self-reporting style. In the second session participants rated similarity of every combinatorial pair derived from 8 letter sets. Analysis of ordinal data showed that Hangul was rated highly in visual beauty and preference, but judged to be similar to katakana and Chinese character which were rated less beautiful and less preferable. In the 2-dimensional plane derived by ALSCAL, Hangul was away from the other 7 letter sets but was relatively close to katakana and Chinese character. The result indicates that recognition of Hangul’s beauty is based not on visual judgment, but on positive attitude toward the native letter set by Koreans.
