The 'Chinese' Theory: For and Against

[Battler]

On the other hand, any influence to or from Hangul seems unlikely, since Hangul was designed around 1440. Afaik there is no evidence that European alphabetic scripts influenced or inspired the development of Hangul.

I'm actually positing it may be a pre-Hangul attempt by King Sejong. I'd imagine he'd have tried several different things before settling on Hangul.

It is a completely original design, based on the mechanics of articulation of each sound -- an idea that does not seem to have occurred anywhere else in the world, not even in modern "phonetic" alphabets like Shavian and Inukitut.

That's King Sejong's official explanation, but there's the alternate explanation, with some evidence to it, that the consonants were actually based on phags-pa letters used by the Mongols. Given that it is known that naming the Mongols at the time was taboo to the point it would have angered the chinese, it's not surprising that he hid the true origins and that even contemporary sources simply speak of it having been inspired by a "guo" script.

This is a chart demonstrating the similarities between hangul and phags-pa:
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