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Korean language

Korean (South Korean: 한국어, hangugeo; North Korean: 조선말, chosŏnmal) is the native language for about 80 million people, mostly of Korean descent.[a][1] It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea (geographically Korea), but over the past 75 years of political division, the two Koreas have developed some noticeable vocabulary differences. Beyond Korea, the language is recognised as a minority language in parts of China, namely Jilin Province, and specifically Yanbian Prefecture and Changbai County. It is also spoken by Sakhalin Koreans in parts of Sakhalin, the Russian island just north of Japan, and by the Koryo-saram in parts of Central Asia.[2] The language has a few extinct relatives which—along with the Jeju language (Jejuan) of Jeju Island and Korean itself—form the compact Koreanic language family. Even so, Jejuan and Korean are not mutually intelligible with each other. The linguistic homeland of Korean is suggested to be somewhere in contemporary Northeast China.[2] The hierarchy of the society from which the language originates deeply influences the language, leading to a system of speech levels and honorifics indicative of the formality of any given situation.

Korean
한국어 (South Korea)
조선말 (North Korea)
The Korean language written in Hangul:
South Korean: Hangugeo (left)
North Korean: Chosŏnmal (right)
PronunciationKorean pronunciation: [ha(ː)n.ɡu.ɡʌ] (South Korea)
Korean pronunciation: [tso.sɔn.mal] (North Korea)
Native toKorea
EthnicityKoreans
Native speakers
80.4 million (2020)[1]
Koreanic
  • Korean
Early forms
Standard forms
DialectsKorean dialects
Hangul / Chosŏn'gŭl (Korean script)
Hanja / Hancha (Historical)
Official status
Official language in
South Korea
North Korea
Recognised minority
language in
Regulated by
  • National Institute of Korean Language
    (국립국어원 / 國立國語院)
  • The Language Research Institute, Academy of Social Science
    (사회과학원 어학연구소)
  • China Korean Language Regulatory Commission
    (중국조선어규범위원회 / 中国朝鲜语规范委员会)
Language codes
ISO 639-1ko
ISO 639-2kor
ISO 639-3kor
kor
Glottologkore1280
Linguasphere45-AAA-a
Countries with native Korean-speaking populations (established immigrant communities in orange and green).
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Modern Korean is written in the Korean script (한글; Hangul in South Korea, 조선글; Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea), a system developed during the 15th century for that purpose, although it did not become the primary script until the 20th century. The script uses 24 basic letters (jamo) and 27 complex letters formed from the basic ones. When first recorded in historical texts, Korean was only a spoken language; all written records were maintained in Classical Chinese, which, even when spoken, is not intelligible to someone who speaks only Korean. Later, Chinese characters adapted to the Korean language, Hanja (漢字), were used to write the language for most of Korea's history and are still used to a limited extent in South Korea, most prominently in the humanities and the study of historical texts.

Since the turn of the 21st century, aspects of Korean culture have spread to other countries through globalization and cultural exports. As such, interest in Korean language acquisition (as a foreign language) is also generated by longstanding alliances, military involvement, and diplomacy, such as between South Korea–United States, China–North Korea and North Korea–Russia since the end of World War II and the Korean War. Along with other languages such as Chinese and Arabic, Korean is ranked at the top difficulty level for English speakers by the U.S. Department of Defense.

History

Modern Korean descends from Middle Korean, which in turn descends from Old Korean, which descends from the Proto-Koreanic language which is generally suggested to have its linguistic homeland.[3][4] Whitman (2012) suggests that the proto-Koreans, already present in northern Korea, expanded into the southern part of the Korean Peninsula at around 300 BC and coexisted with the descendants of the Japonic Mumun cultivators (or assimilated them). Both had influence on each other and a later founder effect diminished the internal variety of both language families.[5]

Since the Korean War, through 70 years of separation, North–South differences have developed in standard Korean, including variations in pronunciation and vocabulary chosen, but these minor differences can be found in any of the Korean dialects, which are still largely mutually intelligible.

Writing systems

 
The oldest Korean dictionary (1920)

Chinese characters arrived in Korea (see Sino-Xenic pronunciations for further information) together with Buddhism during the Proto-Three Kingdoms era in the 1st century BC. They were adapted for Korean and became known as Hanja, and remained as the main script for writing Korean for over a millennium alongside various phonetic scripts that were later invented such as Idu, Gugyeol and Hyangchal. Mainly privileged elites were educated to read and write in Hanja. However, most of the population was illiterate.

In the 15th century, King Sejong the Great personally developed an alphabetic featural writing system known today as Hangul.[6][7] He felt that Hanja was inadequate to write Korean and that caused its very restricted use; Hangul was designed to either aid in reading Hanja or to replace Hanja entirely. Introduced in the document Hunminjeongeum, it was called eonmun (colloquial script) and quickly spread nationwide to increase literacy in Korea. Hangul was widely used by all the Korean classes but was often treated as amkeul ("script for women") and disregarded by privileged elites, and Hanja was regarded as jinseo ("true text"). Consequently, official documents were always written in Hanja during the Joseon era. Since few people could understand Hanja, Korean kings sometimes released public notices entirely written in Hangul as early as the 16th century for all Korean classes, including uneducated peasants and slaves. By the 17th century, the elite class of Yangban had exchanged Hangul letters with slaves, which suggests a high literacy rate of Hangul during the Joseon era.[8]

Today, Hanja is largely unused in everyday life because of its inconvenience, but it is still important for historical and linguistic studies. Neither South Korea nor North Korea opposes the learning of Hanja, but they are not officially used in North Korea anymore, and their usage in South Korea is mainly reserved for specific circumstances like newspapers, scholarly papers, and disambiguation.

Names

The Korean names for the language are based on the names for Korea used in both South Korea and North Korea. The English word "Korean" is derived from Goryeo, which is thought to be the first Korean dynasty known to Western nations. Korean people in the former USSR refer to themselves as Koryo-saram and/or Koryo-in (literally, "Koryo/Goryeo person(s)"), and call the language Koryo-mal'. Some older English sources also use the spelling "Corea" to refer to the nation, and its inflected form for the language, culture and people, "Korea" becoming more popular in the late 1800s.[9]

In South Korea, the Korean language is referred to by many names including hanguk-eo ("Korean language"), hanguk-mal ("Korean speech") and uri-mal ("our language"); "hanguk" is taken from the name of the Korean Empire (대한제국; 大韓帝國; Daehan Jeguk). The "han" () in Hanguk and Daehan Jeguk is derived from Samhan, in reference to the Three Kingdoms of Korea (not the ancient confederacies in the southern Korean Peninsula),[10][11] while "-eo" and "-mal" mean "language" and "speech", respectively. Korean is also simply referred to as guk-eo, literally "national language". This name is based on the same Han characters (國語 "nation" + "language") that are also used in Taiwan and Japan to refer to their respective national languages.

In North Korea and China, the language is most often called Joseon-mal, or more formally, Joseon-o. This is taken from the North Korean name for Korea (Joseon), a name retained from the Joseon dynasty until the proclamation of the Korean Empire, which in turn was annexed by the Empire of Japan.

In mainland China, following the establishment of diplomatic relations with South Korea in 1992, the term Cháoxiǎnyǔ or the short form Cháoyǔ has normally been used to refer to the standard language of North Korea and Yanbian, whereas Hánguóyǔ or the short form Hányǔ is used to refer to the standard language of South Korea.[citation needed]

Classification

Korean is a member of the Koreanic family along with the Jeju language. Some linguists have included it in the Altaic family, but the core Altaic proposal itself has lost most of its prior support.[12] The Khitan language has several vocabulary items similar to Korean that are not found in other Mongolian or Tungusic languages, suggesting a Korean influence on Khitan.[13]

The hypothesis that Korean could be related to Japanese has had some supporters due to some overlap in vocabulary and similar grammatical features that have been elaborated upon by such researchers as Samuel E. Martin[14] and Roy Andrew Miller.[15] Sergei Anatolyevich Starostin (1991) found about 25% of potential cognates in the Japanese–Korean 100-word Swadesh list.[16] Some linguists concerned with the issue between Japanese and Korean, including Alexander Vovin, have argued that the indicated similarities are not due to any genetic relationship, but rather to a sprachbund effect and heavy borrowing, especially from Ancient Korean into Western Old Japanese.[17] A good example might be Middle Korean sàm and Japanese asá, meaning "hemp".[18] This word seems to be a cognate, but although it is well attested in Western Old Japanese and Northern Ryukyuan languages, in Eastern Old Japanese it only occurs in compounds, and it is only present in three dialects of the Southern Ryukyuan language group. Also, the doublet wo meaning "hemp" is attested in Western Old Japanese and Southern Ryukyuan languages. It is thus plausible to assume a borrowed term.[19] (See Classification of the Japonic languages or Comparison of Japanese and Korean for further details on a possible relationship.)

Hudson & Robbeets (2020) suggested that there are traces of a pre-Nivkh substratum in Korean. According to the hypothesis, ancestral varieties of Nivkh (also known as Amuric) were once distributed on the Korean peninsula before the arrival of Koreanic speakers.[20]

Phonology

Spoken Korean (adult man):
구매자는 판매자에게 제품 대금으로 20달러를 지급하여야 한다.
gumaejaneun panmaejaege jepum daegeumeuro isip dalleoreul ($20) jigeuphayeoya handa.
"The buyer must pay the seller $20 for the product."
lit. [the buyer] [to the seller] [the product] [in payment] [twenty dollars] [have to pay] [do]

Korean syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), consisting of an optional onset consonant, glide /j, w, ɰ/ and final coda /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ, l/ surrounding a core vowel.

Consonants

Bilabial Alveolar Alveolo-
palatal
Velar Glottal
Nasal /m/ /n/ /ŋ/[A]
Plosive/
Affricate
plain /p/ /t/ /t͡s/ or /t͡ɕ/ /k/
tense /p͈/ /t͈/ /t͡s͈/ or /t͡ɕ͈/ /k͈/
aspirated /pʰ/ /tʰ/ /t͡sʰ/ or /t͡ɕʰ/ /kʰ/
Fricative plain /s/ or /sʰ/ /h/
tense /s͈/
Approximant /w/[B] /j/[B]
Liquid /l/ or /ɾ/
  1. ^ only at the end of a syllable
  2. ^ a b The semivowels /w/ and /j/ are represented in Korean writing by modifications to vowel symbols (see below).

Assimilation and allophony

The IPA symbol ⟨◌͈⟩ (a subscript double straight quotation mark, shown here with a placeholder circle) is used to denote the Tensed consonants /p͈/, /t͈/, /k͈/, /t͡ɕ͈/, /s͈/. Its official use in the Extensions to the IPA is for 'strong' articulation, but is used in the literature for faucalized voice. The Korean consonants also have elements of stiff voice, but it is not yet known how typical this is of faucalized consonants. They are produced with a partially constricted glottis and additional subglottal pressure in addition to tense vocal tract walls, laryngeal lowering, or other expansion of the larynx.

/s/ is aspirated [sʰ] and becomes an alveolo-palatal [ɕʰ] before [j] or [i] for most speakers (but see North–South differences in the Korean language). This occurs with the tense fricative and all the affricates as well. At the end of a syllable, /s/ changes to /t/ (example: beoseot (버섯) 'mushroom').

/h/ may become a bilabial [ɸ] before [o] or [u], a palatal [ç] before [j] or [i], a velar [x] before [ɯ], a voiced [ɦ] between voiced sounds, and a [h] elsewhere.

/p, t, t͡ɕ, k/ become voiced [b, d, d͡ʑ, ɡ] between voiced sounds.

/m, n/ frequently denasalize at the beginnings of words.

/l/ becomes alveolar flap [ɾ] between vowels, and [l] or [ɭ] at the end of a syllable or next to another /l/. Note that a written syllable-final '', when followed by a vowel or a glide (i.e., when the next character starts with ''), migrates to the next syllable and thus becomes [ɾ].

Traditionally, /l/ was disallowed at the beginning of a word. It disappeared before [j], and otherwise became /n/. However, the inflow of western loanwords changed the trend, and now word-initial /l/ (mostly from English loanwords) are pronounced as a free variation of either [ɾ] or [l]. The traditional prohibition of word-initial /l/ became a morphological rule called "initial law" (두음법칙) in South Korea, which pertains to Sino-Korean vocabulary. Such words retain their word-initial /l/ in North Korea.

All obstruents (plosives, affricates, fricatives) at the end of a word are pronounced with no audible release, [p̚, t̚, k̚].

Plosive sounds /p, t, k/ become nasals [m, n, ŋ] before nasal sounds.

Hangul spelling does not reflect these assimilatory pronunciation rules, but rather maintains the underlying, partly historical morphology. Given this, it is sometimes hard to tell which actual phonemes are present in a certain word.

One difference between the pronunciation standards of North and South Korea is the treatment of initial [ɾ], and initial [n]. For example,

  • "labor" – north: rodong (로동), south: nodong (노동)
  • "history" – north: ryeoksa (력사), south: yeoksa (역사)
  • "female" – north: nyeoja (녀자), south: yeoja (여자)

Vowels

 
 
Monophthongs    /a/NOTE
   /ʌ/
   /o/
   /u/
   /ɯ/
   /i/
/e/ ,  /ɛ/ /ø/ ,  /y/
Vowels preceded by intermediaries,
or diphthongs
   /ja/
   /jʌ/
   /jo/
   /ju/
/je/ ,  /jɛ/ ,  /wi/ ,  /we/ ,  /wɛ/ ,  /wa/ ,  /ɰi/ ,  /wə/

^NOTE is closer to a near-open central vowel ([ɐ]), though ⟨a⟩ is still used for tradition.

Morphophonemics

Grammatical morphemes may change shape depending on the preceding sounds. Examples include -eun/-neun (-은/-는) and -i/-ga (-이/-가).

Sometimes sounds may be inserted instead. Examples include -eul/-reul (-을/-를), -euro/-ro (-으로/-로), -eseo/-seo (-에서/-서), -ideunji/-deunji (-이든지/-든지) and -iya/-ya (-이야/-야).

  • However, -euro/-ro is somewhat irregular, since it will behave differently after a (rieul consonant).
Korean particles
After a consonant After a ㄹ (rieul) After a vowel
-ui (-의)
-eun (-은) -neun (-는)
-i (-이) -ga (-가)
-eul (-을) -reul (-를)
-gwa (-과) -wa (-와)
-euro (-으로) -ro (-로)

Some verbs may also change shape morphophonemically.

Grammar

Korean is an agglutinative language. The Korean language is traditionally considered to have nine parts of speech. Modifiers generally precede the modified words, and in the case of verb modifiers, can be serially appended. The sentence structure or basic form of a Korean sentence is subject–object–verb (SOV), but the verb is the only required and immovable element and word order is highly flexible, as in many other agglutinative languages.

Question: "Did [you] go to the store?" ("you" implied in conversation)
     가게에    가셨어요?
gage-e ga-syeo-sseo-yo
store + [location marker ()] [go (verb root) ()] + [honorific ()] + [conjugated (contraction rule)()] + [past ()] + [conjunctive ()] + [polite marker ()]
Response: "Yes."
     예. (or 네.)
ye (or ne)
yes

The relationship between a speaker/writer and their subject and audience is paramount in Korean grammar. The relationship between the speaker/writer and subject referent is reflected in honorifics, whereas that between speaker/writer and audience is reflected in speech level.

Honorifics

When talking about someone superior in status, a speaker or writer usually uses special nouns or verb endings to indicate the subject's superiority. Generally, someone is superior in status if they are an older relative, a stranger of roughly equal or greater age, or an employer, teacher, customer, or the like. Someone is equal or inferior in status if they are a younger stranger, student, employee, or the like. Nowadays, there are special endings which can be used on declarative, interrogative, and imperative sentences, and both honorific or normal sentences.

Honorifics in traditional Korea were strictly hierarchical. The caste and estate systems possessed patterns and usages much more complex and stratified than those used today. The intricate structure of the Korean honorific system flourished in traditional culture and society. Honorifics in contemporary Korea are now used for people who are psychologically distant. Honorifics are also used for people who are superior in status. For example, older people, teachers, and employers.[21]

Speech levels

There are seven verb paradigms or speech levels in Korean, and each level has its own unique set of verb endings which are used to indicate the level of formality of a situation.[22] Unlike honorifics—which are used to show respect towards the referent (the person spoken of)—speech levels are used to show respect towards a speaker's or writer's audience (the person spoken to). The names of the seven levels are derived from the non-honorific imperative form of the verb 하다 (hada, "do") in each level, plus the suffix ("che", Hanja: ), which means "style".

The three levels with high politeness (very formally polite, formally polite, casually polite) are generally grouped together as jondaenmal (존댓말), whereas the two levels with low politeness (formally impolite, casually impolite) are banmal (반말) in Korean. The remaining two levels (neutral formality with neutral politeness, high formality with neutral politeness) are neither polite nor impolite.

Nowadays, younger-generation speakers no longer feel obligated to lower their usual regard toward the referent. It is common to see younger people talk to their older relatives with banmal (반말). This is not out of disrespect, but instead it shows the intimacy and the closeness of the relationship between the two speakers. Transformations in social structures and attitudes in today's rapidly changing society have brought about change in the way people speak.[21][page needed]

Gender

In general, Korean lacks grammatical gender. As one of the few exceptions, the third-person singular pronoun has two different forms: 그 geu (male) and 그녀 geu-nyeo (female). Before 그녀 was invented in need of translating 'she' into Korean, 그 was the only third-person singular pronoun and had no grammatical gender. Its origin causes 그녀 never to be used in spoken Korean but appearing only in writing.

To have a more complete understanding of the intricacies of gender in Korean, three models of language and gender that have been proposed: the deficit model, the dominance model, and the cultural difference model. In the deficit model, male speech is seen as the default, and any form of speech that diverges from that norm (female speech) is seen as lesser than. The dominance model sees women as lacking in power due to living within a patriarchal society. The cultural difference model proposes that the difference in upbringing between men and women can explain the differences in their speech patterns. It is important to look at the models to better understand the misogynistic conditions that shaped the ways that men and women use the language. Korean's lack of grammatical gender makes it different from most European languages. Rather, gendered differences in Korean can be observed through formality, intonation, word choice, etc.[23]

However, one can still find stronger contrasts between genders within Korean speech. Some examples of this can be seen in: (1) the softer tone used by women in speech; (2) a married woman introducing herself as someone's mother or wife, not with her own name; (3) the presence of gender differences in titles and occupational terms (for example, a sajang is a company president, and yŏsajang is a female company president); (4) females sometimes using more tag questions and rising tones in statements, also seen in speech from children.[24]

Between two people of asymmetric status in Korean society, people tend to emphasize differences in status for the sake of solidarity. Koreans prefer to use kinship terms, rather than any other terms of reference.[25] In traditional Korean society, women have long been in disadvantaged positions. Korean social structure traditionally was a patriarchically dominated family system that emphasized the maintenance of family lines. That structure has tended to separate the roles of women from those of men.[26]

Cho and Whitman (2019) explain that the different categories like male and female in social conditions influence Korean's features. What they noticed was the word jagi (자기). Before explaining the word jagi, one thing that needs to be clearly distinguished is that jagi can be used in a variety of situations, not all of which mean the same thing, but they depend on the context. Parallel variable solidarity and affection move the convention of speech style, especially terms of address that Jagi (자기 'you') has emerged as a gender-specific second-person pronoun used by women. However, young Koreans use the word jagi to their lovers or spouses regardless of gender. Among middle-aged women, the word jagi is sometimes used to call someone who is close to them.

Korean society's prevalent attitude towards men being in public (outside the home) and women living in private still exists today. For instance, the word for husband is bakkat-yangban (바깥양반 'outside' 'nobleman'), but a husband introduces his wife as an|saram (안사람 an 'inside' 'person'). Also in kinship terminology, we (외 'outside' or 'wrong') is added for maternal grandparents, creating oe-harabeoji and oe-hal-meoni (외할아버지, 외할머니 'grandfather and grandmother'), with different lexicons for males and females and patriarchal society revealed. Further, in interrogatives to an addressee of equal or lower status, Korean men tend to use haennya (했냐? 'did it?’)' in aggressive masculinity, but women use haenni (했니? 'did it?’)' as a soft expression.[27] However, there are exceptions. Korean society used the question endings -ni (니) and -nya (냐), the former prevailing among women and men until a few decades ago. In fact, -nya (냐) was characteristic of the Jeolla and Chungcheong dialects. However, since the 1950s, large numbers of people have moved to Seoul from Chungcheong and Jeolla, and they began to influence the way men speak. Recently, women also have also used the -nya (냐). As for -ni (니), it is usually used toward people to be polite even to someone not close or younger. As for -nya (냐), it is used mainly to close friends regardless of gender.

Like the case of "actor" and "actress," it also is possible to add a gender prefix for emphasis: biseo (비서 'secretary') is sometimes is combined with yeo (여 'female') to form yeo-biseo (여비서 'female secretary'); namja (남자 'man') often is added to ganhosa (간호사 'nurse') to form namja-ganhosa (남자간호사 'male nurse'). That is not about omission; it is about addition. Words without those prefixes neither sound awkward nor remind listeners of political correctness.

Another crucial difference between men and women is the tone and pitch of their voices and how they affect the perception of politeness. Men learn to use an authoritative falling tone; in Korean culture, a deeper voice is associated with being more polite. In addition to the deferential speech endings being used, men are seen as more polite as well as impartial, and professional. Compared to women who use a rising tone in conjunction with -yo (요), they are not perceived to be as polite as men. The -yo (요) also indicates uncertainty since the ending has many prefixes that indicate uncertainty and questioning. The deferential ending does not have any prefixes and do can indicate uncertainty. The -hamnida (합니다) ending is the most polite and formal form of Korea, and the -yo (요) ending is less polite and formal, which causes the perception of women as less professional.[27][28]

Hedges soften an assertion, and their function as a euphemism in women's speech in terms of discourse difference. Women are expected to add nasal sounds neyng, neym, ney-e, more frequently than men do in the last syllable. Often, l is often added in women's for female stereotypes and so igeolo (이거로 'this thing') becomes igeollo (이걸로 'this thing') to refer to a lack of confidence and passive construction.[21][page needed]

Women use more linguistic markers such as exclamation eomeo (어머 'oh') and eojjeom (어쩜 'what a surprise') than men do in cooperative communication.[27]

Vocabulary

The core of the Korean vocabulary is made up of native Korean words. However, a significant proportion of the vocabulary, especially words that denote abstract ideas, are Sino-Korean words (of Chinese origin).[29] To a much lesser extent, some words have also been borrowed from Mongolian and other languages.[30] More recent loanwords are dominated by English.

North Korean vocabulary shows a tendency to prefer native Korean over Sino-Korean or foreign borrowings, especially with recent political objectives aimed at eliminating foreign influences on the Korean language in the North. In the early years, the North Korean government tried to eliminate Sino-Korean words. Consequently, South Korean may have several Sino-Korean or foreign borrowings which are not in North Korean.

Number Sino-Korean cardinals Native Korean cardinals
Hangul Romanization Hangul Romanization
1 il 하나 hana
2 i dul
3 sam set
4 sa net
5 o 다섯 daseot
6 , yuk, ryuk 여섯 yeoseot
7 chil 일곱 ilgop
8 pal 여덟 yeodeol
9 gu 아홉 ahop
10 sip yeol

Sino-Korean

Sino-Korean vocabulary consists of:

Therefore, just like other words, Korean has two sets of numeral systems. English is similar, having native English words and Latinate equivalents such as water-aqua, fire-flame, sea-marine, two-dual, sun-solar, star-stellar. However, unlike English and Latin which belong to the same Indo-European languages family and bear a certain resemblance, Korean and Chinese are genetically unrelated and the two sets of Korean words differ completely from each other. All Sino-Korean morphemes are monosyllabic as in Chinese, whereas native Korean morphemes can be polysyllabic. The Sino-Korean words were deliberately imported alongside corresponding Chinese characters for a written language and everything was supposed to be written in Hanja, so the coexistence of Sino-Korean would be more thorough and systematic than that of Latinate words in English.

The exact proportion of Sino-Korean vocabulary is a matter of debate. Sohn (2001) stated 50–60%.[29] In 2006 the same author gives an even higher estimate of 65%.[31] Jeong Jae-do, one of the compilers of the dictionary Urimal Keun Sajeon, asserts that the proportion is not so high. He points out that Korean dictionaries compiled during the colonial period include many unused Sino-Korean words. In his estimation, the proportion of Sino-Korean vocabulary in the Korean language might be as low as 30%.[32]

Western loanwords

The vast majority of loanwords other than Sino-Korean come from modern times, approximately 90% of which are from English.[29] Many words have also been borrowed from Western languages such as German via Japanese (아르바이트 (areubaiteu) "part-time job", 알레르기 (allereugi) "allergy", 기브스 (gibseu or gibuseu) "plaster cast used for broken bones"). Some Western words were borrowed indirectly via Japanese during the Japanese occupation of Korea, taking a Japanese sound pattern, for example "dozen" > ダース dāsu > 다스 daseu. Most indirect Western borrowings are now written according to current "Hangulization" rules for the respective Western language, as if borrowed directly. There are a few more complicated borrowings such as "German(y)" (see names of Germany), the first part of whose endonym Deutschland [ˈdɔʏtʃlant] the Japanese approximated using the kanji 獨逸 doitsu that were then accepted into the Korean language by their Sino-Korean pronunciation:  dok +  il = Dogil. In South Korean official use, a number of other Sino-Korean country names have been replaced with phonetically oriented "Hangeulizations" of the countries' endonyms or English names.

Because of such a prevalence of English in modern South Korean culture and society, lexical borrowing is inevitable. English-derived Korean, or "Konglish" (콩글리쉬), is increasingly used. The vocabulary of the South Korean dialect of the Korean language is roughly 5% loanwords (excluding Sino-Korean vocabulary).[33] However, due to North Korea's isolation, such influence is lacking in North Korean speech.

Korean uses words adapted from English in ways that may seem strange or unintuitive to native English speakers. For example, fighting (화이팅 / 파이팅 hwaiting / paiting) is a term of encouragement, like 'come on'/'go (on)' in English. Something that is 'service' (서비스 seobiseu) is free or 'on the house'. A building referred to as an 'apart' (아파트 apateu) is an 'apartment' (but in fact refers to a residence more akin to a condominium) and a type of pencil that is called a 'sharp' (샤프) is a mechanical pencil. Like other borrowings, many of these idiosyncrasies, including all the examples listed above, appear to be imported into Korean via Japanese, or influenced by Japanese. Many English words introduced via Japanese pronunciation have been reformed, as in 멜론 (melon) which was once called 메론 (meron) as in Japanese.

Writing system

 
The Latin alphabet used in romanization on road signs, for foreigners in South Korea

Before the creation of the modern Korean alphabet, known as Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea and as Hangul in South Korea, people in Korea (known as Joseon at the time) primarily wrote using Classical Chinese alongside native phonetic writing systems that predate Hangul by hundreds of years, including idu, hyangchal, gugyeol, and gakpil.[34][35][36][37] However, the fundamental differences between the Korean and Chinese languages and the large number of characters to be learned made few people in the lower classes have the privilege of education, and they had much difficulty in learning how to write using Chinese characters. To assuage that problem, King Sejong (r. 1418–1450) created the unique alphabet known as Hangul to promote literacy among the common people.[38]

The Korean alphabet was denounced and looked down upon by the yangban aristocracy, who deemed it too easy to learn,[39][40] but it gained widespread use among the common class[41] and was widely used to print popular novels which were enjoyed by the common class.[42] With growing Korean nationalism in the 19th century, the Gabo Reformists' push, and the promotion of Hangul in schools,[43] in 1894, Hangul displaced Hanja as Korea's national script.[44] Hanja are still used to a certain extent in South Korea, where they are sometimes combined with Hangul, but that method is slowly declining in use even though students learn Hanja in school.[45]

Symbol chart

Below is a chart of the Korean alphabet's (Hangul) symbols and their Revised Romanization (RR) and canonical International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) values:

Consonants
Hangul 한글
RR b d j g pp tt jj kk p t ch k s h ss m n ng r, l
IPA p t t͡ɕ k t͡ɕ͈ t͡ɕʰ s h m n ŋ ɾ, l
Vowels
Hangul 한글
RR i e oe ae a o u eo eu ui ye yae ya yo yu yeo wi we wae wa wo
IPA i e ø, we ɛ a o u ʌ ɯ ɰi je ja jo ju ɥi, wi we wa

The letters of the Korean alphabet are not written linearly like most alphabets, but instead arranged into blocks that represent syllables. So, while the word bibimbap (Korean rice dish) is written as eight characters in a row in the Latin alphabet, in Korean it is written 비빔밥, as three "syllabic blocks" in a row. Mukbang (먹방 'eating show') is seven characters after romanization but only two "syllabic blocks" before.

Modern Korean is written with spaces between words, a feature not found in Chinese or Japanese (except when Japanese is written exclusively in hiragana, as in children's books). The marks used for Korean punctuation are almost identical to Western ones. Traditionally, Korean was written in columns, from top to bottom, right to left, like traditional Chinese. However, the syllabic blocks are now usually written in rows, from left to right, top to bottom, like English.

Dialects

 

Korean has numerous small local dialects (called mal () [literally 'speech'], saturi (사투리), or bang'eon (방언). The standard language (pyojun-eo or pyojun-mal) of both South Korea and North Korea is based on the dialect of the area around Seoul (which, as Hanyang, was the capital of Joseon-era Korea for 500 years), though the northern standard after the Korean War has been influenced by the dialect of P'yŏngyang. All dialects of Korean are similar to each other and largely mutually intelligible (with the exception of dialect-specific phrases or non-Standard vocabulary unique to dialects), though the dialect of Jeju Island is divergent enough to be sometimes classified as a separate language.[46][47][page needed][48][page needed] One of the more salient differences between dialects is the use of tone: speakers of the Seoul dialect make use of vowel length, whereas speakers of the Gyeongsang dialect maintain the pitch accent of Middle Korean. Some dialects are conservative, maintaining Middle Korean sounds (such as z, β, ə) which have been lost from the standard language, whereas others are highly innovative.

Kang Yoon-jung et al. (2013),[49] Kim Mi-ryoung (2013),[50] and Cho Sung-hye (2017)[51] suggest that the modern Seoul dialect is currently undergoing tonogenesis, based on the finding that in recent years lenis consonants (ㅂㅈㄷㄱ), aspirated consonants (ㅍㅊㅌㅋ) and fortis consonants (ㅃㅉㄸㄲ) were shifting from a distinction via voice onset time to that of pitch change; however, Choi Ji-youn et al. (2020) disagree with the suggestion that the consonant distinction shifting away from voice onset time is due to the introduction of tonal features, and instead proposes that it is a prosodically conditioned change.[52]

There is substantial evidence for a history of extensive dialect levelling, or even convergent evolution or intermixture of two or more originally distinct linguistic stocks, within the Korean language and its dialects. Many Korean dialects have basic vocabulary that is etymologically distinct from vocabulary of identical meaning in Standard Korean or other dialects, for example "garlic chives" translated into Gyeongsang dialect /t͡ɕʌŋ.ɡu.d͡ʑi/ (정구지; jeongguji) but in Standard Korean, it is /puːt͡ɕʰu/ (부추; buchu). This suggests that the Korean Peninsula may have at one time been much more linguistically diverse than it is at present.[53] See also the Japanese–Koguryoic languages hypothesis.

Nonetheless, the separation of the two Korean states has resulted in increasing differences among the dialects that have emerged over time. Since the allies of the newly founded nations split the Korean peninsula in half after 1945, the newly formed Korean nations have since borrowed vocabulary extensively from their respective allies. As the Soviet Union helped industrialize North Korea and establish it as a communist state, the North Koreans therefore borrowed a number of Russian terms. Likewise, since the United States helped South Korea extensively to develop militarily, economically, and politically, South Koreans therefore borrowed extensively from English.

The differences among northern and southern dialects have become so significant that many North Korean defectors reportedly have had great difficulty communicating with South Koreans after having initially settled into South Korea. In response to the diverging vocabularies, an app called Univoca was designed to help North Korean defectors learn South Korean terms by translating them into North Korean ones.[54] More information can be found on the page North-South differences in the Korean language.

Aside from the standard language, there are few clear boundaries between Korean dialects, and they are typically partially grouped according to the regions of Korea.[55][56]

Recently, both North and South Korea's usage rate of the regional dialect have been decreasing due to social factors. In North Korea, the central government is urging its citizens to use Munhwaŏ (the standard language of North Korea), to deter the usage of foreign language and Chinese characters: Kim Jong-un said in a speech "if your language in life is cultural and polite, you can achieve harmony and comradely unity among people."[57] In South Korea, due to relocation in the population to Seoul to find jobs and the usage of standard language in education and media, the prevalence of regional dialects has decreased.[58] Moreover, internationally, due to the increasing popularity of K-pop, the Seoul standard language has become more widely taught and used.

Standard language Locations of use
Pyojuneo (표준어) Standard language of ROK. Based on Seoul dialect; very similar to Incheon and most of Gyeonggi, west of Gangwon-do (Yeongseo region); also commonly used among younger Koreans nationwide and in online context.
Munhwaŏ (문화어) Standard language of DPRK. Based on Seoul dialect and P'yŏngan dialect.[59][page needed]
Regional dialects Locations of use and example compared to the standard language
Hamgyŏng/Northeastern
(함경/동북)
Rasŏn, most of Hamgyŏng region, northeast P'yŏngan, Ryanggang Province (North Korea), Jilin (China).
  • The Hamgyŏng dialect is a dialect with tones like the Yeongdong dialect and the Gyeongsang dialect.
  • It is also the most spoken dialect by North Korean defectors in South Korea, as about 80% of them are from Hamgyŏng Province.
  • Koryo-Mal, the moribund variety of Korean spoken mainly by elderly Koryo-saram in Central Asia and Russia, is descended from the Northern Hamgyong Dialect, as well as the Yukchin Dialect.
  • Honorific
Munhwaŏ Hamgyŏng Ryukjin
하십시오 (hasibsio) 합소(세) (Habso(se)) 합쇼 (Habsyo)
해요 (haeyo) 하오 (Hao) 하오 (Hao)
  • Ordinary way of speaking
    • The vowel 'ㅔ(e)' is changed to 'ㅓ(eo)'.
      • example: "Your daughter has come."
Munhwaŏ Hamgyŏng

당신네

dangsinne

딸이

ttal-i

찾아

chaj-a

왔소.

wattso.

당신네 딸이 찾아 왔소.

dangsinne ttal-i chaj-a wattso.

당신너

dangsinneo

딸이가

ttal-iga

찾아

chaj-a

왔슴메.

wattseumme.

당신너 딸이가 찾아 왔슴메.

dangsinneo ttal-iga chaj-a wattseumme.

    • When calling a superior person, always put the ending '요(yo)' after the noun.
      • example: "Grandpa, come quickly."
Munhwaŏ Hamgyŏng

할아버지,

hal-abeoji,

빨리

ppalli

오세요.

oseyo.

할아버지, 빨리 오세요.

hal-abeoji, ppalli oseyo.

클아바네요,

keul-abaneyo,

빨리

ppalli

오옵소.

oobso.

클아바네요, 빨리 오옵소.

keul-abaneyo, ppalli oobso.

    • The ending '-니까(-nikka)' is changed to '-길래(-gilrae)'.
      • example: "Come early because you have to cultivate the field."
Munhwaŏ Hamgyŏng

밭을

bat-eul

매야

maeya

하니까

hanikka

일찍

iljjig

오너라.

oneola.

밭을 매야 하니까 일찍 오너라.

bat-eul maeya hanikka iljjig oneola.

밭으

bat-eu

매야

maeya

하길래

hagilrae

일찍

iljjig

오나라.

onala.

밭으 매야 하길래 일찍 오나라.

bat-eu maeya hagilrae iljjig onala.

P'yŏngan/Northwestern
(평안/서북)
P'yŏngan region, P'yŏngyang, Chagang, northern North Hamgyŏng (North Korea), Liaoning (China)
  • The Pyongan dialect, along with the Gyeonggi dialect, is also a dialect that greatly influenced the formation of Munhwaŏ.
  • It is also the North Korean dialect best known to South Koreans.
  • Honorific
Munhwaŏ Pyongan

하십시오

hasibsio

하십시오

hasibsio

하시

hasi

하시

hasi

해요

haeyo

해요

haeyo

해요

haeyo

해요

haeyo

  • Ordinary way of speaking
    • The vowel 'ㅕ(yeo)' is changed to'ㅔ(e)'.
      • example: armpit
Munhwaŏ Pyongan

겨드랑이

gyeodeulang-i

겨드랑이

gyeodeulang-i

게드랑이

gedeulang-i

게드랑이

gedeulang-i

    • When '이(i)', '야(ya)', '여(yeo)', '요(yo)', '유(yu)', '에(e)' appear at the beginning, the consonant is changed to 'ㄴ(n)'.
      • example: 1) Summer 2) Seven 3) Trend
Munhwaŏ Pyongan

여름

yeoleum

여름

yeoleum

너름

neoleum

너름

neoleum

일곱

ilgob

일곱

ilgob

닐굽

nilgub

닐굽

nilgub

유행

yuhaeng

유행

yuhaeng

누행

nuhaeng

누행

nuhaeng

    • When representing the past, there is a dropout phenomenon of 'ㅆ(ss/tt)'.
      • example: "I brought this."
Munhwaŏ Pyongan

이거

igeo

내가

naega

가져왔어

gajyeowass-eo.

이거 내가 가져왔어

igeo naega gajyeowass-eo.

이거

igeo

내가

naega

개와서

gaewaseo

이거 내가 개와서

igeo naega gaewaseo

Hwanghae/Central
(황해/중부)
Hwanghae region (North Korea). Also in the Islands of Yeonpyeongdo, Baengnyeongdo and Daecheongdo in Ongjin County of Incheon.
  • Hwanghae dialect was originally more similar to the Gyeonggi dialect, but as the division between North and South Korea prolonged, it is now heavily influenced by the Pyongan dialect.
  • It is also the least existential dialect of all Korean dialects, and there has been little study regarding the dialect.
  • Due to a high amount of Korean war refugees, areas such as Incheon close to Hwanghae, have large populations of people originally from Hwanghae. Thus, certain phrases and words from the dialect can seldom be heard among older residents of such cities.
  • Honorific
Munhwaŏ Hwanghae

하십시오

hasibsio

하십시오

hasibsio

하서

haseo

하서

haseo

해요

haeyo

해요

haeyo

해요

haeyo

해요

haeyo

습니까

seubnikka

습니까

seubnikka

시꺄

shikkya

시꺄

shikkya

  • Ordinary way of speaking
    • Many of the vowels are pronounced as 'ㅣ(i)'.
      • example: habit
Munhwaŏ Hwanghae

습관

seubgwan

습관

seubgwan

십관

sibgwan

십관

sibgwan

    • '네(ne)' is used as a questionable form.
      • example: "Did you eat?"
Munhwaŏ Hwanghae

bab

먹었니?

meog-eossni?

밥 먹었니?

bab meog-eossni?

bab

먹었네?

meog-eossne?

밥 먹었네?

bab meog-eossne?

    • '-누만(-numan)' is often used as an exclamation sentence.
      • example: "It got a lot colder"
Munhwaŏ Hwanghae

많이

manh-i

추워졌구나

chuwojyeottguna

많이 추워졌구나

manh-i chuwojyeottguna

많이

manh-i

추어졌누만

chueojyeottnuman

많이 추어졌누만

manh-i chueojyeottnuman

Areas in Northwest Hwanghae, such as Ongjin County in Hwanghae Province, pronounced 'ㅈ' (j'), originally pronounced the letter more closely to tz. However, this has largely disappeared. The rest is almost similar to the Gyeonggi and Pyongan dialect.

Gyeonggi/Central
(경기/중부)
Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi region (South Korea), as well as Kaeseong, Gaepoong and Changpung in North Korea.
  • Seoul dialect, which was the basis of Pyojuneo, is a subdialect of Gyeonggi dialect.
  • About 70% of all Seoul dialect vocabulary has been adopted as Pyojuneo, and only about 10% out of 30% of Seoul dialect vocabulary that has not been adopted in Pyojuneo have been used so far.
  • Gyeonggi dialect is the least existential dialect in South Korea, and most people do not know that Gyeonggi dialect itself exists. So, Gyeonggi-do residents say they only use standard language, and many people know the language spoken by Gyeonggi-do residents as standard language in other regions.
  • Recently, young people have come to realize that there is a dialect in Seoul as they are exposed to the Seoul dialect through media such as YouTube.[60][61]
  • Among the Gyeonggi dialects, the best known dialect along with Seoul dialect is Suwon dialect. The dialects of Suwon and its surrounding areas are quite different from those of northern Gyeonggi Province and surrounding areas of Seoul.[62]
  • In some areas of the southern part of Gyeonggi Province, which is close to Chungcheong Province, such as Pyeongtaek and Anseong, it is also included in the Chungcheong dialect area. Local residents living in these areas also admit that they speak Chungcheong dialect.
  • Traditionally, coastal areas of Gyeonggi, particularly Incheon, Ganghwa, Ongjin and Gimpo have been recorded to have some influence from the dialects of Hwanghae and Chungcheong, due to historic intermixing with the two regions, as well as geographical proximity. This old influence, however, has largely died out among most middle aged and younger locals from the region.
  • Originally, northern Gyeonggi Province, including Seoul, received influence from Northern dialects (Areas of Kaeseong along the Ryesong River, or Ganghwa Island, received an especially high amount of influence from the Hwanghae dialect), while southern Gyeonggi Province was influenced from Chungcheong dialect. However, as a result of the prolonged division and the large number of migrants from Chungcheong Province and Jeolla Province to Seoul, the current way of speaking in Gyeonggi has been greatly influenced by Chungcheong and Jeolla.
  • Honorific
Pyojuneo Gyeonggi

하십시오

hasibsio

하십시오

hasibsio

-

하오

hao

하오

hao

하우/허우

hau/heou

하우/허우

hau/heou

해요

haeyo

해요

haeyo

해요

haeyo

해요

haeyo

  • Ordinary way of speaking
    • The vowel 'ㅏ(a)' is changed to 'ㅓ(eo)', and 'ㅓ(eo)' is changed to 'ㅡ(eu)'.
      • example: 1) "It hurts." 2) "It's dirty"
Pyojuneo Gyeonggi

아파

apa

아파

apa

아퍼

apeo

아퍼

apeo

더러워

deoleowo

더러워

deoleowo

드러워

deuleowo

드러워

deuleowo

    • The vowel 'ㅏ(a)' and 'ㅓ(eo)' are sometimes changed to 'ㅐ(ae)'.
      • example: 1) Sesame oil 2) "You look like a fool."
Pyojuneo Gyeonggi

참기름

chamgileum

참기름

chamgileum

챔기름

chaemgileum

챔기름

chaemgileum

neo

바보

babo

같아

gat-a

너 바보 같아

neo babo gat-a

neo

바보

babo

같애

gat-ae

너 바보 같애

neo babo gat-ae

    • The vowel 'ㅗ(o)' is mainly changed to 'ㅜ(u)'.
      • example: 1) "What are you doing?" 2) uncle
Pyojuneo Gyeonggi

뭐하고

mwohago

있어?

iss-eo?

뭐하고 있어?

mwohago iss-eo?

뭐허구

mwoheogu

있어?

iss-eo?

뭐허구 있어?

mwoheogu iss-eo?

삼촌

samchon

삼촌

samchon

삼춘

samchun

삼춘

samchun

  • Dialects of Suwon and its surrounding areas.
    • The ending '~거야(geoya)' ends briefly with '~거(geo)'
      • example: "Where will you go?"
Pyojuneo Suwon

어디

eodi

gal

거야?

geoya?

어디 갈 거야?

eodi gal geoya?

어디

eodi

gal

거?

geo?

어디 갈 거?

eodi gal geo?

Gangwon<Yeongseo/Yeongdong>/Central
(강원<영서/영동>/중부)
Yeongseo (Gangwon (South Korea)/Kangwŏn (North Korea) west of the Taebaek Mountains), Yeongdong (Gangwon (South Korea)/Kangwŏn (North Korea), east of the Taebaek Mountains)
  • Gangwon Province is divided between Yeongseo and Yeongdong due to the Taebaek Mountains, so even if it is the same Gangwon Province, there is a significant difference in dialect between the two regions.
  • In the case of the Yeongseo dialect, the accent is slightly different from the dialect of Gyeonggi Province, but most of the vocabulary is similar to the dialect of Gyeonggi Province.
  • Unlike the Yeongseo dialect, Yeongdong dialect has a tone, such as Hamgyeong dialect and Gyeongsang dialect.
  • Gangwon dialect is the least spoken dialect of all dialects in South Korea except Jeju.
  • Honorific
Pyojuneo Yeongseo Yeongdong

하십시오

hasibsio

하십시오

hasibsio

-Lack of data- -

하오

hao

하오

hao

하오,

hao,

하우

hau

하오, 하우

hao, hau

하오

hao

하오

hao

해요

haeyo

해요

haeyo

해오

haeyo

해오

haeyo

해요

haeyo

해요

haeyo

  • Ordinary way of speaking
    • There are pronunciations, such as 'ㆉ(yoi)' and 'ㆌ(yui)', that you cannot hear in most regions of Korea.
    • The vowel 'ㅠ(yu)' is changed to 'ㅟ(wi)' or 'ㆌ(yui)'.
      • example: Vacation
Pyojuneo Gangwon

휴가

hyuga

휴가

hyuga

휘가

hwiga

휘가

hwiga

    • Use '나(na)' a lot in questionable form.
      • example: "What are you doing lately?"
Pyojuneo Gangwon(Yeongdong)

요즘

yojeum

뭐해?

mwohae?

요즘 뭐해?

yojeum mwohae?

요즘

yojeum

뭐하나?

mwohana?

요즘 뭐하나?

yojeum mwohana?

Chungcheong/Central
(충청/중부)
Daejeon, Sejong, Chungcheong region (South Korea)
  • Chungcheong dialect is considered to be the softest dialect to hear among all dialects of Korean.
  • Chungcheong dialect is one of the most recognized dialects in South Korea, along with Jeolla dialect and Gyeongsang dialect.
  • Chungcheong dialect was the most commonly used dialect by aristocrats(Yangban) during the Joseon Dynasty, along with dialects in northern Gyeongsang Province.
  • In the case of Chungcheong dialect, it is a dialect belonging to the central dialect along with Gyeonggi, Gangwon, and Hwanghae dialects, but some scholars view it as a separate dialect separated from the central dialect. In addition, some scholars classify southern Chungcheong dialect regions such as Daejeon, Sejong, and Gongju as the southern dialect such as Jeolla and Gyeongsang dialects.
  • Honorific
Pyojuneo Chungcheong

하십시오

hasibsio

하십시오

hasibsio

하시오

hasio

(충남 서해안 일부 지역)

(Some areas on the west coast of South Chungcheong Province)

하시오

hasio

하오

hao

하오

hao

하게

hage

하게

hage

해요

haeyo

해요

haeyo

해유

haeyu

(기본)

(General)

해유 (기본)

haeyu (General)

  • Ordinary way of speaking
    • The vowel 'ㅑ(ya)' that comes to the ending is changed to 'ㅕ(yeo)'.
      • example: 1) "What are you talking about?" 2) "What are you doing?"
Pyojuneo Chungcheong

무슨

museun

소리야?

soliya?

무슨 소리야?

museun soliya?

mwon

소리여~?

soliyeo~?

뭔 소리여~?

mwon soliyeo~?

뭐하는

mwohaneun

거야?

geoya?

뭐하는 거야?

mwohaneun geoya?

뭐허는

mwoheoneun

거여~?

geoyeo~?

/

/

뭐하는

mwohaneun

겨~?

gyeo~?

뭐허는 거여~? / 뭐하는 겨~?

mwoheoneun geoyeo~? / mwohaneun gyeo~?

    • 'ㅔ(e)' is mainly changed to 'ㅣ(i)', and 'ㅐ(ae)' is mainly changed to 'ㅑ(ya)' or 'ㅕ(yeo)'.
      • example: 1) "He/She/They said he/she/they put it outside." 2) "Would you like to eat this?" 3) "Okay."
Pyojuneo Chungcheong

그거

geugeo

바깥에다가

bakkat-edaga

뒀대

dwossdae

그거 바깥에다가 뒀대

geugeo bakkat-edaga dwossdae

고거

gogeo

바깥이다가

bakkat-idaga

뒀댜~

dwossdya~

고거 바깥이다가 뒀댜~

gogeo bakkat-idaga dwossdya~

이거

igeo

먹을래?

meog-eullae?

이거 먹을래?

igeo meog-eullae?

여거

yeogeo

먹을려?

meog-eullyeo?

/

/

이거

igeo

먹을쳐?

meog-eulchyeo?

여거 먹을려? / 이거 먹을쳐?

yeogeo meog-eullyeo? / igeo meog-eulchyeo?

그래

geulae

그래

geulae

그려~

geulyeo~

/

/

그랴~

geulya~

/

/

기여~

giyeo~

/

/

겨~

gyeo~

그려~ / 그랴~ / 기여~ / 겨~

geulyeo~ / geulya~ / giyeo~ / gyeo~

    • The ending '겠(gett)' is mainly pronounced as '겄(geott)', and the ending'까(kka)' is mainly pronounced as '께(kke)'.
      • example: "I've put it all away, so it'll be okay."
Pyojuneo Chungcheong

내가

naega

da

치워뒀으니까

chiwodwoss-eunikka

괜찮겠지

gwaenchanhgettji

내가 다 치워뒀으니까 괜찮겠지

naega da chiwodwoss-eunikka gwaenchanhgettji

내가

naega

da

치워뒀으니께

chiwodwoss-eunikke

갠찮겄지

gaenchanhgeottji

내가 다 치워뒀으니께 갠찮겄지

naega da chiwodwoss-eunikke gaenchanhgeottji

The rest is almost similar to the Gyeonggi dialect.

Jeolla/Southwestern
(전라/서남)
Gwangju, Jeolla region (South Korea)
  • Jeolla dialect is a dialect that feels rough along with Gyeongsang dialect. Especially it is well known for its swearing.
  • Jeolla dialect speakers, along with Gyeongsang dialect speakers, have high self-esteem in their local dialects.
  • Many Jeolla dialect speakers can be found not only in Jeolla Province but also in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, because Jeolla Province itself was alienated from development, so many Jeolla residents came to Seoul and Gyeonggi Province.
  • Much of Northern Jeolla, especially in areas close to Southern Chungcheong like Jeonju, Gunsan and Wanju have traditionally had weaker accents compared to the south, and in some cases, might be more closer to the Chungcheong dialect in terms of vocabulary and intonation.
  • Honorific
Pyojuneo Jeolla

하십시오

hasibsio

하십시오

hasibsio

허씨요

heossiyo

(기본)

(General)

허씨요 (기본)

heossiyo (General)

하오

hao

하오

hao

허소

heoso

허소

heoso

해요

haeyo

해요

haeyo

허라(우)

heola(u)

(서중부 지역)

(West Central Region)

허라(우)

heola(u)

  • Ordinary way of speaking
    • The vowel 'ㅢ(ui)' is pronounced as 'ㅡ(eu)'.
      • example: Doctor
Pyojuneo Jeolla

의사

uisa

의사

uisa

으사

eusa

으사

eusa

    • The ending '지(ji)' is pronounced as '제(je)'.
      • example: "That's right."
Pyojuneo Jeolla

그렇지

geuleohji

그렇지

geuleohji

그라제

geulaje

/

/

글제

geulje

그라제 / 글제

geulaje / geulje

    • Use a lot of '잉(ing)' at the end of words.
      • example: "It's really pretty."
Pyojuneo Jeolla

진짜

jinjja

예쁘다

yeppeuda

진짜 예쁘다

jinjja yeppeuda

참말로

chammallo

이쁘다잉~

ippeudaing~

/

/

참말로

chammallo

귄있다잉~

gwin-ittdaing~

참말로 이쁘다잉~ / 참말로 귄있다잉~

chammallo ippeudaing~ / chammallo gwin-ittdaing~

Famously, natives of Southern Jeolla pronounce certain combinations of vowels in Korean more softly, or omit the latter vowel entirely.

Pyojuneo Jeolla

육학년

yoog-kak-nyeon

육학년

yoog-kak-nyeon

유각년

yoog-ag-nyeon

유각년

yoog-ag-nyeon

못해

mot-tae

못해

mot-tae

모대

mo-dae

모대

mo-dae

However, in the case of '모대(modae)', it is also observed in South Chungcheong Province and some areas of southern Gyeonggi Province close to South Chungcheong Province.

The rest is almost similar to the Chungcheong dialect.

Gyeongsang/Southeastern
(경상/동남)
Busan, Daegu, Ulsan, Gyeongsang region (South Korea)
  • Gyeongsang dialect is the best known dialect of all South Korean dialects. This is known not only by Koreans but also by foreigners interested in Korean culture.
  • Gyeongsang dialect is also known as the most rough and macho-like dialect of all South Korean dialects.
  • Gyeongsang dialect has a tone like Hamgyeong dialect and Yeongdong dialect.
  • Gyeongsang dialect is the most common dialect in dramas among all Korean dialects except for Gyeonggi dialect.
  • Honorific
Pyojuneo Gyeongsang

하십시오

hasibsio

하십시오

hasibsio

하이소

haiso

하이소

haiso

하오

hao

하오

hao

하소

haso

하소

haso

해요

haeyo

해요

haeyo

해예

haeye

/

/

해요

haeyo

해예 / 해요

haeye / haeyo

  • Ordinary way of speaking
    • In question, '노(no)' and '나(na)' are mainly used. Use '나(na)' when asking for a short answer, and '노(no)' when asking for a specific answer.
      • example: 1) "Have you eaten?" 2) "What did you eat?"
Pyojuneo Gyeongsang

neo

bab

먹었어?

meog-eott-eo?

너 밥 먹었어?

neo bab meog-eott-eo?

ni

bab

뭇나?

mutna?

니 밥 뭇나?

ni bab mutna?

mwo

먹었어?

meog-eoss-eo?

뭐 먹었어?

mwo meog-eoss-eo?

mwo

먹었노?

meog-eossno?

뭐 먹었노?

mwo meog-eossno?

    • When talking, the sentence often ends with '~다 아이가(~da aiga)'.
      • example: "You said so."
Pyojuneo Gyeongsang

네가

nega

그렇게

geuleohge

말했잖아.

malhaettjanh-a.

네가 그렇게 말했잖아.

nega geuleohge malhaettjanh-a.

니가

niga

그렇게

geuleohge

말했다

malhaettda

아이가.

aiga.

니가 그렇게 말했다 아이가.

niga geuleohge malhaettda aiga.

    • '~하다(~hada)' is pronounced as '~카다(~kada)'.
      • example: "Why are you doing that?"
Pyojuneo Gyeongsang

wae

그렇게

geuleohge

하는

haneun

거야?

geoya?

왜 그렇게 하는 거야?

wae geuleohge haneun geoya?

wa

geu

카는데?

kaneunde?

와 그 카는데?

wa geu kaneunde?

The rest is almost similar to the Jeolla dialect.

Jeju (제주)* Jeju Island/Province (South Korea); sometimes classified as a separate language in the Koreanic language family
  • example: Hangul[63][page needed]
    • Pyojuneo: 한글 (Hangul)
    • Jeju: ᄒᆞᆫ글 (Hongul)
  • Honorific
Pyojuneo Jeju

하십시오

hasibsio

하십시오

hasibsio

ᄒᆞᆸ서

hobseo

ᄒᆞᆸ서

hobseo

하오

hao

하오

hao

ᄒᆞᆸ소

hobso

ᄒᆞᆸ소

hobso

해요

haeyo

해요

haeyo

ᄒᆞ여마씀

hobyeomasseum

/

/

yang

/

/

ye

ᄒᆞ여마씀 / 양 / 예

hobyeomasseum / yang / ye

North–South differences

The language used in the North and the South exhibit differences in pronunciation, spelling, grammar and vocabulary.[64]

Pronunciation

In North Korea, palatalization of /si/ is optional, and /t͡ɕ/ can be pronounced [z] between vowels.

Words that are written the same way may be pronounced differently (such as the examples below). The pronunciations below are given in Revised Romanization, McCune–Reischauer and modified Hangul (what the Korean characters would be if one were to write the word as pronounced).

Word RR Meaning Pronunciation
North South
RR MR Chosungul RR MR Hangul
읽고 ilgo to read (continuative form) ilko ilko (일) ilkko ilkko (일)
압록강 amnokgang Amnok River amrokgang amrokkang (록) amnokkang amnokkang 암녹깡
독립 dongnip independence dongrip tongrip (립) dongnip tongnip 동닙
관념 gwannyeom idea / sense / conception gwallyeom kwallyŏm 괄렴 gwannyeom kwannyŏm (관)
혁신적* hyeoksinjeok innovative hyeoksinjjeok hyŏksintchŏk (혁)씬쩍 hyeoksinjeok hyŏksinjŏk (혁)(적)

* In the North, similar pronunciation is used whenever the hanja "" is attached to a Sino-Korean word ending in , or .

* In the South, this rule only applies when it is attached to any single-character Sino-Korean word.

Spelling

Some words are spelled differently by the North and the South, but the pronunciations are the same.

Word Meaning Pronunciation (RR/MR) Remarks
North spelling South spelling
해빛 햇빛 sunshine haeppit (haepit) The "sai siot" ('' used for indicating sound change) is almost never written out in the North.
벗꽃 벚꽃 cherry blossom beotkkot (pŏtkkot)
못읽다 못 읽다 cannot read modikda (modikta) Spacing.
한나산 한라산 Hallasan hallasan (hallasan) When a ㄴㄴ combination is pronounced as ll, the original Hangul spelling is kept in the North, whereas the Hangul is changed in the South.
규률 규율 rules gyuyul (kyuyul) In words where the original hanja is spelt "" or "" and follows a vowel, the initial is not pronounced in the North, making the pronunciation identical with that in the South where the is dropped in the spelling.

Spelling and pronunciation

Some words have different spellings and pronunciations in the North and the South. Most of the official languages of North Korea are from the northwest (Pyeongan dialect), and the standard language of South Korea is the standard language (Seoul language close to Gyeonggi dialect). some of which were given in the "Phonology" section above:

Word Meaning Remarks
North spelling North pronun. South spelling South pronun.
력량 ryeongryang (ryŏngryang) 역량 yeongnyang (yŏngnyang) strength Initial r's are dropped if followed by i or y in the South Korean version of Korean.
로동 rodong (rodong) 노동 nodong (nodong) work Initial r's are demoted to an n if not followed by i or y in the South Korean version of Korean.
원쑤 wonssu (wŏnssu) 원수 wonsu (wŏnsu) mortal enemy "Mortal enemy" and "field marshal" are homophones in the South. Possibly to avoid referring to Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il or Kim Jong-un as the enemy, the second syllable of "enemy" is written and pronounced in the North.[65]
라지오 rajio (rajio) 라디오 radio (radio) radio
u (u) wi (wi) on; above
안해 anhae (anhae) 아내 anae (anae) wife
꾸바 kkuba (kkuba) 쿠바 kuba (k'uba) Cuba When transcribing foreign words from languages that do not have contrasts between aspirated and unaspirated stops, North Koreans generally use tensed stops for the unaspirated ones while South Koreans use aspirated stops in both cases.
pe (p'e) pye (p'ye), pe (p'e) lungs In the case where ye comes after a consonant, such as in hye and pye, it is pronounced without the palatal approximate. North Korean orthography reflects this pronunciation nuance.

In general, when transcribing place names, North Korea tends to use the pronunciation in the original language more than South Korea, which often uses the pronunciation in English. For example:

Original name North Korea transliteration English name South Korea transliteration
Spelling Pronunciation Spelling Pronunciation
Ulaanbaatar 울란바따르 ullanbattareu (ullanbattarŭ) Ulan Bator 울란바토르 ullanbatoreu (ullanbat'orŭ)
København 쾨뻰하븐 koeppenhabeun (k'oeppenhabŭn) Copenhagen 코펜하겐 kopenhagen (k'op'enhagen)
al-Qāhirah 까히라 kkahira (kkahira) Cairo 카이로 kairo (k'airo)

Grammar

Some grammatical constructions are also different:

Word Meaning Remarks
North spelling North pronun. South spelling South pronun.
되였다 doeyeotda (toeyŏtta) 되었다 doeeotda (toeŏtta) past tense of 되다 (doeda/toeda), "to become" All similar grammar forms of verbs or adjectives that end in in the stem (i.e. , , , , and ) in the North use instead of the South's .
고마와요 gomawayo (komawayo) 고마워요 gomawoyo (komawŏyo) thanks -irregular verbs in the North use (wa) for all those with a positive ending vowel; this only happens in the South if the verb stem has only one syllable.
할가요 halgayo (halkayo) 할까요 halkkayo (halkkayo) Shall we do? Although the Hangul differ, the pronunciations are the same (i.e. with the tensed sound).

Punctuation

In the North, guillemets ( and ) are the symbols used for quotes; in the South, quotation marks equivalent to the English ones (" and ") are standard (although 『 』 and 「 」 are also used).

Vocabulary

Some vocabulary is different between the North and the South:

Word Meaning Remarks
North word North pronun. South word South pronun.
문화주택 munhwajutaek (munhwajut'aek) 아파트 apateu (ap'at'ŭ) Apartment 아빠트 (appateu/appat'ŭ) is also used in the North.
조선말 joseonmal (chosŏnmal) 한국어 han-guk'eo (han-guk'ŏ) Korean language The Japanese pronunciation of 조선말 was used throughout Korea and Manchuria during Japanese Imperial Rule, but after liberation, the government chose the name 대한민국 (Daehanminguk) which was derived from the name immediately prior to Japanese Imperial Rule. The syllable 한 (Han) was drawn from the same source as that name (in reference to the Han people). Read more.
곽밥 gwakbap (kwakpap) 도시락 dosirak (tosirak) lunch box
동무 dongmu (tongmu) 친구 chin-gu (ch'in-gu) Friend 동무 was originally a non-ideological word for "friend" used all over the Korean peninsula, but North Koreans later adopted it as the equivalent of the Communist term of address "comrade". As a result, to South Koreans today the word has a heavy political tinge, and so they have shifted to using other words for friend like chingu (친구) or beot (). South Koreans use chingu (친구) more often than beot ().

Such changes were made after the Korean War and the ideological battle between the anti-Communist government in the South and North Korea's communism.[66][67]

Geographic distribution

Korean is spoken by the Korean people in both South Korea and North Korea, and by the Korean diaspora in many countries including the People's Republic of China, the United States, Japan, and Russia. Currently, Korean is the fourth most popular foreign language in China, following English, Japanese, and Russian.[68] Korean-speaking minorities exist in these states, but because of cultural assimilation into host countries, not all ethnic Koreans may speak it with native fluency.

Official status

 
Highway sign in Korean and English, Daegu, South Korea

Korean is the official language of South Korea and North Korea. It, along with Mandarin Chinese, is also one of the two official languages of China's Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture.

In North Korea, the regulatory body is the Language Institute of the Academy of Social Sciences (사회과학원 어학연구소; 社會科學院語學硏究所, Sahoe Gwahagweon Eohag Yeonguso). In South Korea, the regulatory body for Korean is the Seoul-based National Institute of the Korean Language, which was created by presidential decree on 23 January 1991.

King Sejong Institute

Established pursuant to Article 9, Section 2, of the Framework Act on the National Language, the King Sejong Institute[69] is a public institution set up to coordinate the government's project of propagating Korean language and culture; it also supports the King Sejong Institute, which is the institution's overseas branch. The King Sejong Institute was established in response to:

  • An increase in the demand for Korean language education;
  • a rapid increase in Korean language education thanks to the spread of the culture (hallyu), an increase in international marriage, the expansion of Korean enterprises into overseas markets, and enforcement of employment licensing system;
  • the need for a government-sanctioned Korean language educational institution;
  • the need for general support for overseas Korean language education based on a successful domestic language education program.

TOPIK Korea Institute

The TOPIK Korea Institute is a lifelong educational center affiliated with a variety of Korean universities in Seoul, South Korea, whose aim is to promote Korean language and culture, support local Korean teaching internationally, and facilitate cultural exchanges.

The institute is sometimes compared to language and culture promotion organizations such as the King Sejong Institute. Unlike that organization, however, the TOPIK Korea Institute operates within established universities and colleges around the world, providing educational materials. In countries around the world, Korean embassies and cultural centers (한국문화원) administer TOPIK examinations.[70]

Foreign language

For native English-speakers, Korean is generally considered to be one of the most difficult foreign languages to master despite the relative ease of learning Hangul. For instance, the United States' Defense Language Institute places Korean in Category IV with Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), and Arabic, requiring 64 weeks of instruction (as compared to just 26 weeks for Category I languages like Italian, French, and Spanish) to bring an English-speaking student to a limited working level of proficiency in which they have "sufficient capability to meet routine social demands and limited job requirements" and "can deal with concrete topics in past, present, and future tense."[71][72] Similarly, the Foreign Service Institute's School of Language Studies places Korean in Category IV, the highest level of difficulty.[73]

The study of the Korean language in the United States is dominated by Korean American heritage language students, who in 2007 were estimated to form over 80% of all students of the language at non-military universities.[74] However, Sejong Institutes in the United States have noted a sharp rise in the number of people of other ethnic backgrounds studying Korean between 2009 and 2011, which they attribute to rising popularity of South Korean music and television shows.[75] In 2018, it was reported that the rise in K-Pop was responsible for the increase in people learning the language in US universities.[76]

Testing

There are two widely used tests of Korean as a foreign language: the Korean Language Proficiency Test (KLPT) and the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK). The Korean Language Proficiency Test, an examination aimed at assessing non-native speakers' competence in Korean, was instituted in 1997; 17,000 people applied for the 2005 sitting of the examination.[77] The TOPIK was first administered in 1997 and was taken by 2,274 people. Since then the total number of people who have taken the TOPIK has surpassed 1 million, with more than 150,000 candidates taking the test in 2012.[78] TOPIK is administered in 45 regions within South Korea and 72 nations outside of South Korea, with a significant portion being administered in Japan and North America, which would suggest the targeted audience for TOPIK is still primarily foreigners of Korean heritage.[79] This is also evident in TOPIK's website, where the examination is introduced as intended for Korean heritage students.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Measured as of 2020. The estimated 2020 combined population of North and South Korea was about 77 million.

References

  1. ^ a b Korean language at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)  
  2. ^ a b Hölzl, Andreas (29 August 2018). A typology of questions in Northeast Asia and beyond: An ecological perspective. Language Science Press. p. 25. ISBN 9783961101023.
  3. ^ Janhunen, Juha (2010). "Reconstructing the Language Map of Prehistorical Northeast Asia". Studia Orientalia (108). ... there are strong indications that the neighbouring Baekje state (in the southwest) was predominantly Japonic-speaking until it was linguistically Koreanized.
  4. ^ Vovin, Alexander (2013). "From Koguryo to Tamna: Slowly riding to the South with speakers of Proto-Korean". Korean Linguistics. 15 (2): 222–240. doi:10.1075/kl.15.2.03vov.
  5. ^ Whitman, John (1 December 2011). "Northeast Asian Linguistic Ecology and the Advent of Rice Agriculture in Korea and Japan". Rice. 4 (3): 149–158. doi:10.1007/s12284-011-9080-0. ISSN 1939-8433.
  6. ^ Kim-Renaud, Young-Key (1997). The Korean Alphabet: Its History and Structure. University of Hawaii Press. p. 15. ISBN 9780824817237. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  7. ^ "알고 싶은 한글". 국립국어원 (in Korean). National Institute of Korean Language. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  8. ^ "Archive of Joseon's Hangul letters – A letter sent from Song Gyuryeom to slave Guityuk (1692)".
  9. ^ According to Google's NGram English corpus of 2015, "Google Ngram Viewer".
  10. ^ 이기환 (30 August 2017). "[이기환의 흔적의 역사]국호논쟁의 전말…대한민국이냐 고려공화국이냐". 경향신문 (in Korean). The Kyunghyang Shinmun. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  11. ^ 이덕일. "[이덕일 사랑] 대~한민국". 조선닷컴 (in Korean). The Chosun Ilbo. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  12. ^ Cho & Whitman (2020), pp. 11–12.
  13. ^ Vovin, Alexander (June 2017). "Koreanic loanwords in Khitan and their importance in the decipherment of the latter" (PDF). Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 70 (2): 207–215. doi:10.1556/062.2017.70.2.4.
  14. ^ Martin (1966), Martin (1990)
  15. ^ e.g. Miller (1971), Miller (1996)
  16. ^ Starostin, Sergei (1991). Altaiskaya problema i proishozhdeniye yaponskogo yazika [The Altaic Problem and the Origins of the Japanese Language] (PDF) (in Russian). Moscow: Nauka.
  17. ^ Vovin (2008).
  18. ^ Whitman (1985), p. 232, also found in Martin (1966), p. 233
  19. ^ Vovin (2008), pp. 211–212.
  20. ^ Hudson, Mark J.; Robbeets, Martine (2020). "Archaeolinguistic Evidence for the Farming/Language Dispersal of Koreanic". Evolutionary Human Sciences. 2. e52. doi:10.1017/ehs.2020.49.
  21. ^ a b c Sohn (2006).
  22. ^ Choo, Miho (2008). Using Korean: A Guide to Contemporary Usage. Cambridge University Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-1-139-47139-8.
  23. ^ Cho (2006), p. 189.
  24. ^ Cho (2006), pp. 189–198.
  25. ^ Kim, Minju (1999). "Cross Adoption of language between different genders: The case of the Korean kinship terms hyeng and enni". Proceedings of the Fifth Berkeley Women and Language Conference. Berkeley: Berkeley Women and Language Group.
  26. ^ Palley, Marian Lief (December 1990). "Women's Status in South Korea: Tradition and Change". Asian Survey. 30 (12): 1136–1153. doi:10.2307/2644990. JSTOR 2644990.
  27. ^ a b c Brown (2015).
  28. ^ Cho (2006), pp. 193–195.
  29. ^ a b c Sohn (2001), Section 1.5.3 "Korean vocabulary", pp. 12–13
  30. ^ Lee & Ramsey (2011), p. 6.
  31. ^ Sohn (2006), p. 5.
  32. ^ Kim, Jin-su (11 September 2009). 우리말 70%가 한자말? 일제가 왜곡한 거라네 [Our language is 70% hanja? Japanese Empire distortion]. The Hankyoreh (in Korean). Retrieved 11 September 2009. The dictionary mentioned is 우리말 큰 사전. Seoul: Hangul Hakhoe. 1992. OCLC 27072560.
  33. ^ Sohn (2006), p. 87.
  34. ^ Hannas, Wm C. (1997). Asia's Orthographic Dilemma. University of Hawaii Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-8248-1892-0. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  35. ^ Chen, Jiangping (18 January 2016). Multilingual Access and Services for Digital Collections. ABC-CLIO. p. 66. ISBN 978-1-4408-3955-9. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  36. ^ "Invest Korea Journal". Invest Korea Journal. Vol. 23. Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency. 1 January 2005. Retrieved 20 September 2016. They later devised three different systems for writing Korean with Chinese characters: Hyangchal, Gukyeol and Idu. These systems were similar to those developed later in Japan and were probably used as models by the Japanese.
  37. ^ "Korea Now". The Korea Herald. Vol. 29. 1 July 2000. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
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Further reading

  • Argüelles, Alexander; Kim, Jong-Rok (2000). A Historical, Literary and Cultural Approach to the Korean Language. Seoul, South Korea: Hollym.
  • Argüelles, Alexander; Kim, Jongrok (2004). A Handbook of Korean Verbal Conjugation. Hyattsville, Maryland: Dunwoody Press.
  • Argüelles, Alexander (2007). Korean Newspaper Reader. Hyattsville, Maryland: Dunwoody Press.
  • Argüelles, Alexander (2010). North Korean Reader. Hyattsville, Maryland: Dunwoody Press.
  • Brown, L. (2015). "Expressive, Social and Gendered Meanings of Korean Honorifics". Korean Linguistics. 17 (2): 242–266. doi:10.1075/kl.17.2.04bro.
  • Chang, Suk-jin (1996). Korean. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1-55619-728-4. (Volume 4 of the London Oriental and African Language Library).
  • Cho, Young A. (2006). "Gender Differences in Korean Speech". In Sohn, Ho-min (ed.). Korean Language in Culture and Society. University of Hawaii Press. p. 189.
  • Cho, Sungdai; Whitman, John (2020). Korean: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-51485-9.
  • Hulbert, Homer B. (1905). A Comparative Grammar of the Korean Language and the Dravidian Dialects in India. Seoul.
  • Lee, Ki-Moon; Ramsey, S. Robert (2011). A History of the Korean Language. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-66189-8.
  • Martin, Samuel E. (1966). "Lexical Evidence Relating Japanese to Korean". Language. 42 (2): 185–251. doi:10.2307/411687. JSTOR 411687.
  • Martin, Samuel E. (1990). "Morphological clues to the relationship of Japanese and Korean". In Baldi, Philip (ed.). Linguistic Change and Reconstruction Methodology. Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs. Vol. 45. pp. 483–509.
  • Martin, Samuel E. (2006). A Reference Grammar of Korean: A Complete Guide to the Grammar and History of the Korean Language – 韓國語文法總監. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8048-3771-2.
  • Miller, Roy Andrew (1971). Japanese and the Other Altaic Languages. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-52719-0.
  • Miller, Roy Andrew (1996). Languages and History: Japanese, Korean and Altaic. Oslo, Norway: Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture. ISBN 974-8299-69-4.
  • Ramstedt, G. J. (1928). "Remarks on the Korean language". Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne. 58.
  • Rybatzki, Volker (2003). "Middle Mongol". In Janhunen, Juha (ed.). The Mongolic languages. London, England: Routledge. pp. 47–82. ISBN 0-7007-1133-3.
  • Starostin, Sergei A.; Dybo, Anna V.; Mudrak, Oleg A. (2003). Etymological Dictionary of the Altaic Languages. Leiden, South Holland: Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 90-04-13153-1. In 3 volumes.
  • Sohn, Ho-Min (2001) [1999]. The Korean Language. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521369435.
  • Sohn, Ho-Min (2006). Korean Language in Culture and Society. Boston, MA: Twayne Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8248-2694-9.
  • Song, J.-J. (2005). The Korean Language: Structure, Use and Context. London, England: Routledge.
  • Trask, R. L. (1996). Historical linguistics. Hodder Arnold.
  • Vovin, Alexander (2010). Koreo-Japonica: A Re-evaluation of a Common Genetic Origin. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press.
  • Whitman, John B. (1985). The Phonological Basis for the Comparison of Japanese and Korean (PhD thesis). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Unpublished Harvard University PhD dissertation.
  • Yeon, Jaehoon; Brown, Lucien (2011). Korean: A Comprehensive Grammar. London, England: Routledge.

External links

  • Linguistic and Philosophical Origins of the Korean Alphabet (Hangul)
  • Sogang University free online Korean language and culture course
  • Beginner's guide to Korean for English speakers
  • U.S. Foreign Service Institute Korean basic course
  • asianreadings.com, Korean readings with hover prompts
  • Linguistic map of Korea
  • dongsa.net, Korean verb conjugation tool
  • , a tool to visualize and study Korean vocabulary
  • Korean language at Curlie

korean, language, korean, south, korean, 한국어, hangugeo, north, korean, 조선말, chosŏnmal, native, language, about, million, people, mostly, korean, descent, official, national, language, both, north, korea, south, korea, geographically, korea, over, past, years, . Korean South Korean 한국어 hangugeo North Korean 조선말 chosŏnmal is the native language for about 80 million people mostly of Korean descent a 1 It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea geographically Korea but over the past 75 years of political division the two Koreas have developed some noticeable vocabulary differences Beyond Korea the language is recognised as a minority language in parts of China namely Jilin Province and specifically Yanbian Prefecture and Changbai County It is also spoken by Sakhalin Koreans in parts of Sakhalin the Russian island just north of Japan and by the Koryo saram code kor promoted to code ko in parts of Central Asia 2 The language has a few extinct relatives which along with the Jeju language Jejuan of Jeju Island and Korean itself form the compact Koreanic language family Even so Jejuan and Korean are not mutually intelligible with each other The linguistic homeland of Korean is suggested to be somewhere in contemporary Northeast China 2 The hierarchy of the society from which the language originates deeply influences the language leading to a system of speech levels and honorifics indicative of the formality of any given situation Korean한국어 South Korea 조선말 North Korea The Korean language written in Hangul South Korean Hangugeo left North Korean Chosŏnmal right PronunciationKorean pronunciation ha ː n ɡu ɡʌ South Korea Korean pronunciation tso sɔn mal North Korea Native toKoreaEthnicityKoreansNative speakers80 4 million 2020 1 Language familyKoreanic KoreanEarly formsProto Koreanic Old Korean Middle KoreanStandard formsPyojuneo South Korea Munhwa ŏ North Korea DialectsKorean dialectsWriting systemHangul Chosŏn gŭl Korean script Hanja Hancha Historical Official statusOfficial language inSouth KoreaNorth KoreaRecognised minoritylanguage inChina Yanbian Prefecture and Changbai County Japan MongoliaRegulated byNational Institute of Korean Language 국립국어원 國立國語院 The Language Research Institute Academy of Social Science 사회과학원 어학연구소 China Korean Language Regulatory Commission 중국조선어규범위원회 中国朝鲜语规范委员会 Language codesISO 639 1 span class plainlinks ko span ISO 639 2 span class plainlinks kor span ISO 639 3 a href https iso639 3 sil org code kor class extiw title iso639 3 kor kor a Linguist ListkorGlottologkore1280Linguasphere45 AAA aCountries with native Korean speaking populations established immigrant communities in orange and green This article contains IPA phonetic symbols Without proper rendering support you may see question marks boxes or other symbols instead of Unicode characters For an introductory guide on IPA symbols see Help IPA Modern Korean is written in the Korean script 한글 Hangul in South Korea 조선글 Chosŏn gŭl in North Korea a system developed during the 15th century for that purpose although it did not become the primary script until the 20th century The script uses 24 basic letters jamo and 27 complex letters formed from the basic ones When first recorded in historical texts Korean was only a spoken language all written records were maintained in Classical Chinese which even when spoken is not intelligible to someone who speaks only Korean Later Chinese characters adapted to the Korean language Hanja 漢字 were used to write the language for most of Korea s history and are still used to a limited extent in South Korea most prominently in the humanities and the study of historical texts Since the turn of the 21st century aspects of Korean culture have spread to other countries through globalization and cultural exports As such interest in Korean language acquisition as a foreign language is also generated by longstanding alliances military involvement and diplomacy such as between South Korea United States China North Korea and North Korea Russia since the end of World War II and the Korean War Along with other languages such as Chinese and Arabic Korean is ranked at the top difficulty level for English speakers by the U S Department of Defense Contents 1 History 1 1 Writing systems 2 Names 3 Classification 4 Phonology 4 1 Consonants 4 1 1 Assimilation and allophony 4 2 Vowels 4 3 Morphophonemics 5 Grammar 5 1 Honorifics 5 2 Speech levels 5 3 Gender 6 Vocabulary 6 1 Sino Korean 6 2 Western loanwords 7 Writing system 7 1 Symbol chart 8 Dialects 9 North South differences 9 1 Pronunciation 9 2 Spelling 9 3 Spelling and pronunciation 9 4 Grammar 9 5 Punctuation 9 6 Vocabulary 10 Geographic distribution 10 1 Official status 10 2 King Sejong Institute 10 3 TOPIK Korea Institute 11 Foreign language 11 1 Testing 12 See also 13 Notes 14 References 15 Further reading 16 External linksHistory EditMain article History of the Korean language Modern Korean descends from Middle Korean which in turn descends from Old Korean which descends from the Proto Koreanic language which is generally suggested to have its linguistic homeland 3 4 Whitman 2012 suggests that the proto Koreans already present in northern Korea expanded into the southern part of the Korean Peninsula at around 300 BC and coexisted with the descendants of the Japonic Mumun cultivators or assimilated them Both had influence on each other and a later founder effect diminished the internal variety of both language families 5 Since the Korean War through 70 years of separation North South differences have developed in standard Korean including variations in pronunciation and vocabulary chosen but these minor differences can be found in any of the Korean dialects which are still largely mutually intelligible Writing systems Edit The oldest Korean dictionary 1920 Chinese characters arrived in Korea see Sino Xenic pronunciations for further information together with Buddhism during the Proto Three Kingdoms era in the 1st century BC They were adapted for Korean and became known as Hanja and remained as the main script for writing Korean for over a millennium alongside various phonetic scripts that were later invented such as Idu Gugyeol and Hyangchal Mainly privileged elites were educated to read and write in Hanja However most of the population was illiterate In the 15th century King Sejong the Great personally developed an alphabetic featural writing system known today as Hangul 6 7 He felt that Hanja was inadequate to write Korean and that caused its very restricted use Hangul was designed to either aid in reading Hanja or to replace Hanja entirely Introduced in the document Hunminjeongeum code kor promoted to code ko it was called eonmun code kor promoted to code ko colloquial script and quickly spread nationwide to increase literacy in Korea Hangul was widely used by all the Korean classes but was often treated as amkeul code kor promoted to code ko script for women and disregarded by privileged elites and Hanja was regarded as jinseo code kor promoted to code ko true text Consequently official documents were always written in Hanja during the Joseon era Since few people could understand Hanja Korean kings sometimes released public notices entirely written in Hangul as early as the 16th century for all Korean classes including uneducated peasants and slaves By the 17th century the elite class of Yangban code kor promoted to code ko had exchanged Hangul letters with slaves which suggests a high literacy rate of Hangul during the Joseon era 8 Today Hanja is largely unused in everyday life because of its inconvenience but it is still important for historical and linguistic studies Neither South Korea nor North Korea opposes the learning of Hanja but they are not officially used in North Korea anymore and their usage in South Korea is mainly reserved for specific circumstances like newspapers scholarly papers and disambiguation Names EditThe Korean names for the language are based on the names for Korea used in both South Korea and North Korea The English word Korean is derived from Goryeo which is thought to be the first Korean dynasty known to Western nations Korean people in the former USSR refer to themselves as Koryo saram code kor promoted to code ko and or Koryo in code kor promoted to code ko literally Koryo Goryeo person s and call the language Koryo mal code kor promoted to code ko Some older English sources also use the spelling Corea to refer to the nation and its inflected form for the language culture and people Korea becoming more popular in the late 1800s 9 In South Korea the Korean language is referred to by many names including hanguk eo code kor promoted to code ko Korean language hanguk mal code kor promoted to code ko Korean speech and uri mal code kor promoted to code ko our language hanguk code kor promoted to code ko is taken from the name of the Korean Empire 대한제국 大韓帝國 Daehan Jeguk The han code kor promoted to code ko 韓 code kor promoted to code ko in Hanguk code kor promoted to code ko and Daehan Jeguk code kor promoted to code ko is derived from Samhan in reference to the Three Kingdoms of Korea not the ancient confederacies in the southern Korean Peninsula 10 11 while eo code kor promoted to code ko and mal code kor promoted to code ko mean language and speech respectively Korean is also simply referred to as guk eo code kor promoted to code ko literally national language This name is based on the same Han characters 國語 code kor promoted to code ko nation language that are also used in Taiwan and Japan to refer to their respective national languages In North Korea and China the language is most often called Joseon mal code kor promoted to code ko or more formally Joseon o code kor promoted to code ko This is taken from the North Korean name for Korea Joseon a name retained from the Joseon dynasty until the proclamation of the Korean Empire which in turn was annexed by the Empire of Japan In mainland China following the establishment of diplomatic relations with South Korea in 1992 the term Chaoxiǎnyǔ or the short form Chaoyǔ has normally been used to refer to the standard language of North Korea and Yanbian whereas Hanguoyǔ or the short form Hanyǔ is used to refer to the standard language of South Korea citation needed Classification EditKorean is a member of the Koreanic family along with the Jeju language Some linguists have included it in the Altaic family but the core Altaic proposal itself has lost most of its prior support 12 The Khitan language has several vocabulary items similar to Korean that are not found in other Mongolian or Tungusic languages suggesting a Korean influence on Khitan 13 The hypothesis that Korean could be related to Japanese has had some supporters due to some overlap in vocabulary and similar grammatical features that have been elaborated upon by such researchers as Samuel E Martin 14 and Roy Andrew Miller 15 Sergei Anatolyevich Starostin 1991 found about 25 of potential cognates in the Japanese Korean 100 word Swadesh list 16 Some linguists concerned with the issue between Japanese and Korean including Alexander Vovin have argued that the indicated similarities are not due to any genetic relationship but rather to a sprachbund effect and heavy borrowing especially from Ancient Korean into Western Old Japanese 17 A good example might be Middle Korean sam and Japanese asa meaning hemp 18 This word seems to be a cognate but although it is well attested in Western Old Japanese and Northern Ryukyuan languages in Eastern Old Japanese it only occurs in compounds and it is only present in three dialects of the Southern Ryukyuan language group Also the doublet wo meaning hemp is attested in Western Old Japanese and Southern Ryukyuan languages It is thus plausible to assume a borrowed term 19 See Classification of the Japonic languages or Comparison of Japanese and Korean for further details on a possible relationship Hudson amp Robbeets 2020 suggested that there are traces of a pre Nivkh substratum in Korean According to the hypothesis ancestral varieties of Nivkh also known as Amuric were once distributed on the Korean peninsula before the arrival of Koreanic speakers 20 Phonology EditMain article Korean phonology source source Spoken Korean adult man 구매자는 판매자에게 제품 대금으로 20달러를 지급하여야 한다 gumaejaneun panmaejaege jepum daegeumeuro isip dalleoreul 20 jigeuphayeoya handa The buyer must pay the seller 20 for the product lit the buyer to the seller the product in payment twenty dollars have to pay do Korean syllable structure is C G V C consisting of an optional onset consonant glide j w ɰ and final coda p t k m n ŋ l surrounding a core vowel Consonants Edit Bilabial Alveolar Alveolo palatal Velar GlottalNasal ㅁ m ㄴ n ㅇ ŋ A Plosive Affricate plain ㅂ p ㄷ t ㅈ t s or t ɕ ㄱ k tense ㅃ p ㄸ t ㅉ t s or t ɕ ㄲ k aspirated ㅍ pʰ ㅌ tʰ ㅊ t sʰ or t ɕʰ ㅋ kʰ Fricative plain ㅅ s or sʰ ㅎ h tense ㅆ s Approximant w B j B Liquid ㄹ l or ɾ only at the end of a syllable a b The semivowels w and j are represented in Korean writing by modifications to vowel symbols see below Assimilation and allophony Edit The IPA symbol a subscript double straight quotation mark shown here with a placeholder circle is used to denote the Tensed consonants p t k t ɕ s Its official use in the Extensions to the IPA is for strong articulation but is used in the literature for faucalized voice The Korean consonants also have elements of stiff voice but it is not yet known how typical this is of faucalized consonants They are produced with a partially constricted glottis and additional subglottal pressure in addition to tense vocal tract walls laryngeal lowering or other expansion of the larynx s is aspirated sʰ and becomes an alveolo palatal ɕʰ before j or i for most speakers but see North South differences in the Korean language This occurs with the tense fricative and all the affricates as well At the end of a syllable s changes to t example beoseot 버섯 mushroom h may become a bilabial ɸ before o or u a palatal c before j or i a velar x before ɯ a voiced ɦ between voiced sounds and a h elsewhere p t t ɕ k become voiced b d d ʑ ɡ between voiced sounds m n frequently denasalize at the beginnings of words l becomes alveolar flap ɾ between vowels and l or ɭ at the end of a syllable or next to another l Note that a written syllable final ㄹ when followed by a vowel or a glide i e when the next character starts with ㅇ migrates to the next syllable and thus becomes ɾ Traditionally l was disallowed at the beginning of a word It disappeared before j and otherwise became n However the inflow of western loanwords changed the trend and now word initial l mostly from English loanwords are pronounced as a free variation of either ɾ or l The traditional prohibition of word initial l became a morphological rule called initial law 두음법칙 in South Korea which pertains to Sino Korean vocabulary Such words retain their word initial l in North Korea All obstruents plosives affricates fricatives at the end of a word are pronounced with no audible release p t k Plosive sounds p t k become nasals m n ŋ before nasal sounds Hangul spelling does not reflect these assimilatory pronunciation rules but rather maintains the underlying partly historical morphology Given this it is sometimes hard to tell which actual phonemes are present in a certain word One difference between the pronunciation standards of North and South Korea is the treatment of initial ɾ and initial n For example labor north rodong 로동 south nodong 노동 history north ryeoksa 력사 south yeoksa 역사 female north nyeoja 녀자 south yeoja 여자 Vowels Edit Short vowel chart Long vowel chart Monophthongs ㅏ a NOTEㅓ ʌ ㅗ o ㅜ u ㅡ ɯ ㅣ i e ㅔ ɛ ㅐ o ㅚ y ㅟVowels preceded by intermediaries or diphthongs ㅑ ja ㅕ jʌ ㅛ jo ㅠ ju je ㅖ jɛ ㅒ wi ㅟ we ㅞ wɛ ㅙ wa ㅘ ɰi ㅢ we ㅝ NOTE ㅏ is closer to a near open central vowel ɐ though a is still used for tradition Morphophonemics Edit Main article Morphophonology Grammatical morphemes may change shape depending on the preceding sounds Examples include eun neun 은 는 and i ga 이 가 Sometimes sounds may be inserted instead Examples include eul reul 을 를 euro ro 으로 로 eseo seo 에서 서 ideunji deunji 이든지 든지 and iya ya 이야 야 However euro ro is somewhat irregular since it will behave differently after a ㄹ rieul consonant Korean particles After a consonant After a ㄹ rieul After a vowel ui 의 eun 은 neun 는 i 이 ga 가 eul 을 reul 를 gwa 과 wa 와 euro 으로 ro 로 Some verbs may also change shape morphophonemically Grammar EditMain article Korean grammar Korean is an agglutinative language The Korean language is traditionally considered to have nine parts of speech Modifiers generally precede the modified words and in the case of verb modifiers can be serially appended The sentence structure or basic form of a Korean sentence is subject object verb SOV but the verb is the only required and immovable element and word order is highly flexible as in many other agglutinative languages Question Did you go to the store you implied in conversation 가게에 가셨어요 gage e ga syeo sseo yostore location marker 에 go verb root 가 honorific 시 conjugated contraction rule 어 past ㅆ conjunctive 어 polite marker 요 Response Yes 예 or 네 ye or ne yesThe relationship between a speaker writer and their subject and audience is paramount in Korean grammar The relationship between the speaker writer and subject referent is reflected in honorifics whereas that between speaker writer and audience is reflected in speech level Honorifics Edit Main article Korean honorifics When talking about someone superior in status a speaker or writer usually uses special nouns or verb endings to indicate the subject s superiority Generally someone is superior in status if they are an older relative a stranger of roughly equal or greater age or an employer teacher customer or the like Someone is equal or inferior in status if they are a younger stranger student employee or the like Nowadays there are special endings which can be used on declarative interrogative and imperative sentences and both honorific or normal sentences Honorifics in traditional Korea were strictly hierarchical The caste and estate systems possessed patterns and usages much more complex and stratified than those used today The intricate structure of the Korean honorific system flourished in traditional culture and society Honorifics in contemporary Korea are now used for people who are psychologically distant Honorifics are also used for people who are superior in status For example older people teachers and employers 21 Speech levels Edit Main article Korean speech levels There are seven verb paradigms or speech levels in Korean and each level has its own unique set of verb endings which are used to indicate the level of formality of a situation 22 Unlike honorifics which are used to show respect towards the referent the person spoken of speech levels are used to show respect towards a speaker s or writer s audience the person spoken to The names of the seven levels are derived from the non honorific imperative form of the verb 하다 hada do in each level plus the suffix 체 che Hanja 體 which means style The three levels with high politeness very formally polite formally polite casually polite are generally grouped together as jondaenmal 존댓말 whereas the two levels with low politeness formally impolite casually impolite are banmal 반말 in Korean The remaining two levels neutral formality with neutral politeness high formality with neutral politeness are neither polite nor impolite Nowadays younger generation speakers no longer feel obligated to lower their usual regard toward the referent It is common to see younger people talk to their older relatives with banmal 반말 This is not out of disrespect but instead it shows the intimacy and the closeness of the relationship between the two speakers Transformations in social structures and attitudes in today s rapidly changing society have brought about change in the way people speak 21 page needed Gender Edit In general Korean lacks grammatical gender As one of the few exceptions the third person singular pronoun has two different forms 그 geu male and 그녀 geu nyeo female Before 그녀 was invented in need of translating she into Korean 그 was the only third person singular pronoun and had no grammatical gender Its origin causes 그녀 never to be used in spoken Korean but appearing only in writing To have a more complete understanding of the intricacies of gender in Korean three models of language and gender that have been proposed the deficit model the dominance model and the cultural difference model In the deficit model male speech is seen as the default and any form of speech that diverges from that norm female speech is seen as lesser than The dominance model sees women as lacking in power due to living within a patriarchal society The cultural difference model proposes that the difference in upbringing between men and women can explain the differences in their speech patterns It is important to look at the models to better understand the misogynistic conditions that shaped the ways that men and women use the language Korean s lack of grammatical gender makes it different from most European languages Rather gendered differences in Korean can be observed through formality intonation word choice etc 23 However one can still find stronger contrasts between genders within Korean speech Some examples of this can be seen in 1 the softer tone used by women in speech 2 a married woman introducing herself as someone s mother or wife not with her own name 3 the presence of gender differences in titles and occupational terms for example a sajang is a company president and yŏsajang is a female company president 4 females sometimes using more tag questions and rising tones in statements also seen in speech from children 24 Between two people of asymmetric status in Korean society people tend to emphasize differences in status for the sake of solidarity Koreans prefer to use kinship terms rather than any other terms of reference 25 In traditional Korean society women have long been in disadvantaged positions Korean social structure traditionally was a patriarchically dominated family system that emphasized the maintenance of family lines That structure has tended to separate the roles of women from those of men 26 Cho and Whitman 2019 explain that the different categories like male and female in social conditions influence Korean s features What they noticed was the word jagi 자기 Before explaining the word jagi one thing that needs to be clearly distinguished is that jagi can be used in a variety of situations not all of which mean the same thing but they depend on the context Parallel variable solidarity and affection move the convention of speech style especially terms of address that Jagi 자기 you has emerged as a gender specific second person pronoun used by women However young Koreans use the word jagi to their lovers or spouses regardless of gender Among middle aged women the word jagi is sometimes used to call someone who is close to them Korean society s prevalent attitude towards men being in public outside the home and women living in private still exists today For instance the word for husband is bakkat yangban 바깥양반 outside nobleman but a husband introduces his wife as an saram 안사람 an inside person Also in kinship terminology we 외 outside or wrong is added for maternal grandparents creating oe harabeoji and oe hal meoni 외할아버지 외할머니 grandfather and grandmother with different lexicons for males and females and patriarchal society revealed Further in interrogatives to an addressee of equal or lower status Korean men tend to use haennya 했냐 did it in aggressive masculinity but women use haenni 했니 did it as a soft expression 27 However there are exceptions Korean society used the question endings ni 니 and nya 냐 the former prevailing among women and men until a few decades ago In fact nya 냐 was characteristic of the Jeolla and Chungcheong dialects However since the 1950s large numbers of people have moved to Seoul from Chungcheong and Jeolla and they began to influence the way men speak Recently women also have also used the nya 냐 As for ni 니 it is usually used toward people to be polite even to someone not close or younger As for nya 냐 it is used mainly to close friends regardless of gender Like the case of actor and actress it also is possible to add a gender prefix for emphasis biseo 비서 secretary is sometimes is combined with yeo 여 female to form yeo biseo 여비서 female secretary namja 남자 man often is added to ganhosa 간호사 nurse to form namja ganhosa 남자간호사 male nurse That is not about omission it is about addition Words without those prefixes neither sound awkward nor remind listeners of political correctness Another crucial difference between men and women is the tone and pitch of their voices and how they affect the perception of politeness Men learn to use an authoritative falling tone in Korean culture a deeper voice is associated with being more polite In addition to the deferential speech endings being used men are seen as more polite as well as impartial and professional Compared to women who use a rising tone in conjunction with yo 요 they are not perceived to be as polite as men The yo 요 also indicates uncertainty since the ending has many prefixes that indicate uncertainty and questioning The deferential ending does not have any prefixes and do can indicate uncertainty The hamnida 합니다 ending is the most polite and formal form of Korea and the yo 요 ending is less polite and formal which causes the perception of women as less professional 27 28 Hedges soften an assertion and their function as a euphemism in women s speech in terms of discourse difference Women are expected to add nasal sounds neyng neym ney e more frequently than men do in the last syllable Often l is often added in women s for female stereotypes and so igeolo 이거로 this thing becomes igeollo 이걸로 this thing to refer to a lack of confidence and passive construction 21 page needed Women use more linguistic markers such as exclamation eomeo 어머 oh and eojjeom 어쩜 what a surprise than men do in cooperative communication 27 Vocabulary EditThe core of the Korean vocabulary is made up of native Korean words However a significant proportion of the vocabulary especially words that denote abstract ideas are Sino Korean words of Chinese origin 29 To a much lesser extent some words have also been borrowed from Mongolian and other languages 30 More recent loanwords are dominated by English North Korean vocabulary shows a tendency to prefer native Korean over Sino Korean or foreign borrowings especially with recent political objectives aimed at eliminating foreign influences on the Korean language in the North In the early years the North Korean government tried to eliminate Sino Korean words Consequently South Korean may have several Sino Korean or foreign borrowings which are not in North Korean Number Sino Korean cardinals Native Korean cardinalsHangul Romanization Hangul Romanization1 일 il 하나 hana2 이 i 둘 dul3 삼 sam 셋 set4 사 sa 넷 net5 오 o 다섯 daseot6 육 륙 yuk ryuk 여섯 yeoseot7 칠 chil 일곱 ilgop8 팔 pal 여덟 yeodeol9 구 gu 아홉 ahop10 십 sip 열 yeolSino Korean Edit Main article Sino Korean vocabulary Sino Korean vocabulary consists of words directly borrowed from written Chinese and compounds coined in Korea or Japan and read using the Sino Korean reading of Chinese characters Therefore just like other words Korean has two sets of numeral systems English is similar having native English words and Latinate equivalents such as water aqua fire flame sea marine two dual sun solar star stellar However unlike English and Latin which belong to the same Indo European languages family and bear a certain resemblance Korean and Chinese are genetically unrelated and the two sets of Korean words differ completely from each other All Sino Korean morphemes are monosyllabic as in Chinese whereas native Korean morphemes can be polysyllabic The Sino Korean words were deliberately imported alongside corresponding Chinese characters for a written language and everything was supposed to be written in Hanja so the coexistence of Sino Korean would be more thorough and systematic than that of Latinate words in English The exact proportion of Sino Korean vocabulary is a matter of debate Sohn 2001 stated 50 60 29 In 2006 the same author gives an even higher estimate of 65 31 Jeong Jae do one of the compilers of the dictionary Urimal Keun Sajeon asserts that the proportion is not so high He points out that Korean dictionaries compiled during the colonial period include many unused Sino Korean words In his estimation the proportion of Sino Korean vocabulary in the Korean language might be as low as 30 32 Western loanwords Edit See also Konglish The vast majority of loanwords other than Sino Korean come from modern times approximately 90 of which are from English 29 Many words have also been borrowed from Western languages such as German via Japanese 아르바이트 areubaiteu part time job 알레르기 allereugi allergy 기브스 gibseu or gibuseu plaster cast used for broken bones Some Western words were borrowed indirectly via Japanese during the Japanese occupation of Korea taking a Japanese sound pattern for example dozen gt ダース dasu gt 다스 daseu Most indirect Western borrowings are now written according to current Hangulization rules for the respective Western language as if borrowed directly There are a few more complicated borrowings such as German y see names of Germany the first part of whose endonym Deutschland ˈdɔʏtʃlant the Japanese approximated using the kanji 獨逸 doitsu that were then accepted into the Korean language by their Sino Korean pronunciation 獨 dok 逸 il Dogil In South Korean official use a number of other Sino Korean country names have been replaced with phonetically oriented Hangeulizations of the countries endonyms or English names Because of such a prevalence of English in modern South Korean culture and society lexical borrowing is inevitable English derived Korean or Konglish 콩글리쉬 is increasingly used The vocabulary of the South Korean dialect of the Korean language is roughly 5 loanwords excluding Sino Korean vocabulary 33 However due to North Korea s isolation such influence is lacking in North Korean speech Korean uses words adapted from English in ways that may seem strange or unintuitive to native English speakers For example fighting 화이팅 파이팅 hwaiting paiting is a term of encouragement like come on go on in English Something that is service 서비스 seobiseu is free or on the house A building referred to as an apart 아파트 apateu is an apartment but in fact refers to a residence more akin to a condominium and a type of pencil that is called a sharp 샤프 is a mechanical pencil Like other borrowings many of these idiosyncrasies including all the examples listed above appear to be imported into Korean via Japanese or influenced by Japanese Many English words introduced via Japanese pronunciation have been reformed as in 멜론 melon which was once called 메론 meron as in Japanese Writing system Edit The Latin alphabet used in romanization on road signs for foreigners in South Korea Main articles Hangul Korean Braille and Hanja See also Hangul consonant and vowel tables Before the creation of the modern Korean alphabet known as Chosŏn gŭl in North Korea and as Hangul in South Korea people in Korea known as Joseon at the time primarily wrote using Classical Chinese alongside native phonetic writing systems that predate Hangul by hundreds of years including idu hyangchal gugyeol and gakpil 34 35 36 37 However the fundamental differences between the Korean and Chinese languages and the large number of characters to be learned made few people in the lower classes have the privilege of education and they had much difficulty in learning how to write using Chinese characters To assuage that problem King Sejong r 1418 1450 created the unique alphabet known as Hangul to promote literacy among the common people 38 The Korean alphabet was denounced and looked down upon by the yangban aristocracy who deemed it too easy to learn 39 40 but it gained widespread use among the common class 41 and was widely used to print popular novels which were enjoyed by the common class 42 With growing Korean nationalism in the 19th century the Gabo Reformists push and the promotion of Hangul in schools 43 in 1894 Hangul displaced Hanja as Korea s national script 44 Hanja are still used to a certain extent in South Korea where they are sometimes combined with Hangul but that method is slowly declining in use even though students learn Hanja in school 45 Symbol chart Edit Below is a chart of the Korean alphabet s Hangul symbols and their Revised Romanization RR and canonical International Phonetic Alphabet IPA values Consonants Hangul 한글 ㅂ ㄷ ㅈ ㄱ ㅃ ㄸ ㅉ ㄲ ㅍ ㅌ ㅊ ㅋ ㅅ ㅎ ㅆ ㅁ ㄴ ㅇ ㄹRR b d j g pp tt jj kk p t ch k s h ss m n ng r lIPA p t t ɕ k p t t ɕ k pʰ tʰ t ɕʰ kʰ s h s m n ŋ ɾ lVowels Hangul 한글 ㅣ ㅔ ㅚ ㅐ ㅏ ㅗ ㅜ ㅓ ㅡ ㅢ ㅖ ㅒ ㅑ ㅛ ㅠ ㅕ ㅟ ㅞ ㅙ ㅘ ㅝRR i e oe ae a o u eo eu ui ye yae ya yo yu yeo wi we wae wa woIPA i e o we ɛ a o u ʌ ɯ ɰi je jɛ ja jo ju jʌ ɥi wi we wɛ wa wʌThe letters of the Korean alphabet are not written linearly like most alphabets but instead arranged into blocks that represent syllables So while the word bibimbap Korean rice dish is written as eight characters in a row in the Latin alphabet in Korean it is written 비빔밥 as three syllabic blocks in a row Mukbang 먹방 eating show is seven characters after romanization but only two syllabic blocks before Modern Korean is written with spaces between words a feature not found in Chinese or Japanese except when Japanese is written exclusively in hiragana as in children s books The marks used for Korean punctuation are almost identical to Western ones Traditionally Korean was written in columns from top to bottom right to left like traditional Chinese However the syllabic blocks are now usually written in rows from left to right top to bottom like English Dialects EditMain articles Korean dialects and Koreanic languages Regional dialects of Korean Korean has numerous small local dialects called mal 말 literally speech saturi 사투리 or bang eon 방언 The standard language pyojun eo or pyojun mal of both South Korea and North Korea is based on the dialect of the area around Seoul which as Hanyang was the capital of Joseon era Korea for 500 years though the northern standard after the Korean War has been influenced by the dialect of P yŏngyang All dialects of Korean are similar to each other and largely mutually intelligible with the exception of dialect specific phrases or non Standard vocabulary unique to dialects though the dialect of Jeju Island is divergent enough to be sometimes classified as a separate language 46 47 page needed 48 page needed One of the more salient differences between dialects is the use of tone speakers of the Seoul dialect make use of vowel length whereas speakers of the Gyeongsang dialect maintain the pitch accent of Middle Korean Some dialects are conservative maintaining Middle Korean sounds such as z b e which have been lost from the standard language whereas others are highly innovative Kang Yoon jung et al 2013 49 Kim Mi ryoung 2013 50 and Cho Sung hye 2017 51 suggest that the modern Seoul dialect is currently undergoing tonogenesis based on the finding that in recent years lenis consonants ㅂㅈㄷㄱ aspirated consonants ㅍㅊㅌㅋ and fortis consonants ㅃㅉㄸㄲ were shifting from a distinction via voice onset time to that of pitch change however Choi Ji youn et al 2020 disagree with the suggestion that the consonant distinction shifting away from voice onset time is due to the introduction of tonal features and instead proposes that it is a prosodically conditioned change 52 There is substantial evidence for a history of extensive dialect levelling or even convergent evolution or intermixture of two or more originally distinct linguistic stocks within the Korean language and its dialects Many Korean dialects have basic vocabulary that is etymologically distinct from vocabulary of identical meaning in Standard Korean or other dialects for example garlic chives translated into Gyeongsang dialect t ɕʌŋ ɡu d ʑi 정구지 jeongguji but in Standard Korean it is puːt ɕʰu 부추 buchu This suggests that the Korean Peninsula may have at one time been much more linguistically diverse than it is at present 53 See also the Japanese Koguryoic languages hypothesis Nonetheless the separation of the two Korean states has resulted in increasing differences among the dialects that have emerged over time Since the allies of the newly founded nations split the Korean peninsula in half after 1945 the newly formed Korean nations have since borrowed vocabulary extensively from their respective allies As the Soviet Union helped industrialize North Korea and establish it as a communist state the North Koreans therefore borrowed a number of Russian terms Likewise since the United States helped South Korea extensively to develop militarily economically and politically South Koreans therefore borrowed extensively from English The differences among northern and southern dialects have become so significant that many North Korean defectors reportedly have had great difficulty communicating with South Koreans after having initially settled into South Korea In response to the diverging vocabularies an app called Univoca was designed to help North Korean defectors learn South Korean terms by translating them into North Korean ones 54 More information can be found on the page North South differences in the Korean language Aside from the standard language there are few clear boundaries between Korean dialects and they are typically partially grouped according to the regions of Korea 55 56 Recently both North and South Korea s usage rate of the regional dialect have been decreasing due to social factors In North Korea the central government is urging its citizens to use Munhwaŏ the standard language of North Korea to deter the usage of foreign language and Chinese characters Kim Jong un said in a speech if your language in life is cultural and polite you can achieve harmony and comradely unity among people 57 In South Korea due to relocation in the population to Seoul to find jobs and the usage of standard language in education and media the prevalence of regional dialects has decreased 58 Moreover internationally due to the increasing popularity of K pop the Seoul standard language has become more widely taught and used Standard language Locations of usePyojuneo 표준어 Standard language of ROK Based on Seoul dialect very similar to Incheon and most of Gyeonggi west of Gangwon do Yeongseo region also commonly used among younger Koreans nationwide and in online context Munhwaŏ 문화어 Standard language of DPRK Based on Seoul dialect and P yŏngan dialect 59 page needed Regional dialects Locations of use and example compared to the standard languageHamgyŏng Northeastern 함경 동북 Rasŏn most of Hamgyŏng region northeast P yŏngan Ryanggang Province North Korea Jilin China The Hamgyŏng dialect is a dialect with tones like the Yeongdong dialect and the Gyeongsang dialect It is also the most spoken dialect by North Korean defectors in South Korea as about 80 of them are from Hamgyŏng Province Koryo Mal the moribund variety of Korean spoken mainly by elderly Koryo saram code kor promoted to code ko in Central Asia and Russia is descended from the Northern Hamgyong Dialect as well as the Yukchin Dialect HonorificMunhwaŏ Hamgyŏng Ryukjin하십시오 hasibsio 합소 세 Habso se 합쇼 Habsyo 해요 haeyo 하오 Hao 하오 Hao Ordinary way of speakingThe vowel ㅔ e is changed to ㅓ eo example Your daughter has come Munhwaŏ Hamgyŏng당신네dangsinne딸이ttal i찾아chaj a왔소 wattso 당신네 딸이 찾아 왔소 dangsinne ttal i chaj a wattso 당신너dangsinneo딸이가ttal iga찾아chaj a왔슴메 wattseumme 당신너 딸이가 찾아 왔슴메 dangsinneo ttal iga chaj a wattseumme When calling a superior person always put the ending 요 yo after the noun example Grandpa come quickly Munhwaŏ Hamgyŏng할아버지 hal abeoji 빨리ppalli오세요 oseyo 할아버지 빨리 오세요 hal abeoji ppalli oseyo 클아바네요 keul abaneyo 빨리ppalli오옵소 oobso 클아바네요 빨리 오옵소 keul abaneyo ppalli oobso The ending 니까 nikka is changed to 길래 gilrae example Come early because you have to cultivate the field Munhwaŏ Hamgyŏng밭을bat eul매야maeya하니까hanikka일찍iljjig오너라 oneola 밭을 매야 하니까 일찍 오너라 bat eul maeya hanikka iljjig oneola 밭으bat eu매야maeya하길래hagilrae일찍iljjig오나라 onala 밭으 매야 하길래 일찍 오나라 bat eu maeya hagilrae iljjig onala P yŏngan Northwestern 평안 서북 P yŏngan region P yŏngyang Chagang northern North Hamgyŏng North Korea Liaoning China The Pyongan dialect along with the Gyeonggi dialect is also a dialect that greatly influenced the formation of Munhwaŏ It is also the North Korean dialect best known to South Koreans HonorificMunhwaŏ Pyongan하십시오hasibsio하십시오hasibsio 하시hasi하시hasi해요haeyo해요haeyo 해요haeyo해요haeyoOrdinary way of speakingThe vowel ㅕ yeo is changed to ㅔ e example armpitMunhwaŏ Pyongan겨드랑이gyeodeulang i겨드랑이gyeodeulang i 게드랑이gedeulang i게드랑이gedeulang iWhen 이 i 야 ya 여 yeo 요 yo 유 yu 에 e appear at the beginning the consonant is changed to ㄴ n example 1 Summer 2 Seven 3 TrendMunhwaŏ Pyongan여름yeoleum여름yeoleum 너름neoleum너름neoleum일곱ilgob일곱ilgob 닐굽nilgub닐굽nilgub유행yuhaeng유행yuhaeng 누행nuhaeng누행nuhaengWhen representing the past there is a dropout phenomenon of ㅆ ss tt example I brought this Munhwaŏ Pyongan이거igeo내가naega가져왔어gajyeowass eo 이거 내가 가져왔어igeo naega gajyeowass eo 이거igeo내가naega개와서gaewaseo이거 내가 개와서igeo naega gaewaseoHwanghae Central 황해 중부 Hwanghae region North Korea Also in the Islands of Yeonpyeongdo Baengnyeongdo and Daecheongdo in Ongjin County of Incheon Hwanghae dialect was originally more similar to the Gyeonggi dialect but as the division between North and South Korea prolonged it is now heavily influenced by the Pyongan dialect It is also the least existential dialect of all Korean dialects and there has been little study regarding the dialect Due to a high amount of Korean war refugees areas such as Incheon close to Hwanghae have large populations of people originally from Hwanghae Thus certain phrases and words from the dialect can seldom be heard among older residents of such cities HonorificMunhwaŏ Hwanghae하십시오hasibsio하십시오hasibsio 하서haseo하서haseo해요haeyo해요haeyo 해요haeyo해요haeyo습니까seubnikka습니까seubnikka 시꺄shikkya시꺄shikkyaOrdinary way of speakingMany of the vowels are pronounced as ㅣ i example habitMunhwaŏ Hwanghae습관seubgwan습관seubgwan 십관sibgwan십관sibgwan 네 ne is used as a questionable form example Did you eat Munhwaŏ Hwanghae밥bab먹었니 meog eossni 밥 먹었니 bab meog eossni 밥bab먹었네 meog eossne 밥 먹었네 bab meog eossne 누만 numan is often used as an exclamation sentence example It got a lot colder Munhwaŏ Hwanghae많이manh i추워졌구나chuwojyeottguna많이 추워졌구나manh i chuwojyeottguna 많이manh i추어졌누만chueojyeottnuman많이 추어졌누만manh i chueojyeottnumanAreas in Northwest Hwanghae such as Ongjin County in Hwanghae Province pronounced ㅈ j originally pronounced the letter more closely to tz However this has largely disappeared The rest is almost similar to the Gyeonggi and Pyongan dialect Gyeonggi Central 경기 중부 Seoul Incheon Gyeonggi region South Korea as well as Kaeseong Gaepoong and Changpung in North Korea Seoul dialect which was the basis of Pyojuneo is a subdialect of Gyeonggi dialect About 70 of all Seoul dialect vocabulary has been adopted as Pyojuneo and only about 10 out of 30 of Seoul dialect vocabulary that has not been adopted in Pyojuneo have been used so far Gyeonggi dialect is the least existential dialect in South Korea and most people do not know that Gyeonggi dialect itself exists So Gyeonggi do residents say they only use standard language and many people know the language spoken by Gyeonggi do residents as standard language in other regions Recently young people have come to realize that there is a dialect in Seoul as they are exposed to the Seoul dialect through media such as YouTube 60 61 Among the Gyeonggi dialects the best known dialect along with Seoul dialect is Suwon dialect The dialects of Suwon and its surrounding areas are quite different from those of northern Gyeonggi Province and surrounding areas of Seoul 62 In some areas of the southern part of Gyeonggi Province which is close to Chungcheong Province such as Pyeongtaek and Anseong it is also included in the Chungcheong dialect area Local residents living in these areas also admit that they speak Chungcheong dialect Traditionally coastal areas of Gyeonggi particularly Incheon Ganghwa Ongjin and Gimpo have been recorded to have some influence from the dialects of Hwanghae and Chungcheong due to historic intermixing with the two regions as well as geographical proximity This old influence however has largely died out among most middle aged and younger locals from the region Originally northern Gyeonggi Province including Seoul received influence from Northern dialects Areas of Kaeseong along the Ryesong River or Ganghwa Island received an especially high amount of influence from the Hwanghae dialect while southern Gyeonggi Province was influenced from Chungcheong dialect However as a result of the prolonged division and the large number of migrants from Chungcheong Province and Jeolla Province to Seoul the current way of speaking in Gyeonggi has been greatly influenced by Chungcheong and Jeolla HonorificPyojuneo Gyeonggi하십시오hasibsio하십시오hasibsio 하오hao하오hao 하우 허우hau heou하우 허우hau heou해요haeyo해요haeyo 해요haeyo해요haeyoOrdinary way of speakingThe vowel ㅏ a is changed to ㅓ eo and ㅓ eo is changed to ㅡ eu example 1 It hurts 2 It s dirty Pyojuneo Gyeonggi아파apa아파apa 아퍼apeo아퍼apeo더러워deoleowo더러워deoleowo 드러워deuleowo드러워deuleowoThe vowel ㅏ a and ㅓ eo are sometimes changed to ㅐ ae example 1 Sesame oil 2 You look like a fool Pyojuneo Gyeonggi참기름chamgileum참기름chamgileum 챔기름chaemgileum챔기름chaemgileum너neo바보babo같아gat a너 바보 같아neo babo gat a 너neo바보babo같애gat ae너 바보 같애neo babo gat aeThe vowel ㅗ o is mainly changed to ㅜ u example 1 What are you doing 2 unclePyojuneo Gyeonggi뭐하고mwohago있어 iss eo 뭐하고 있어 mwohago iss eo 뭐허구mwoheogu있어 iss eo 뭐허구 있어 mwoheogu iss eo 삼촌samchon삼촌samchon 삼춘samchun삼춘samchunDialects of Suwon and its surrounding areas The ending 거야 geoya ends briefly with 거 geo example Where will you go Pyojuneo Suwon어디eodi갈gal거야 geoya 어디 갈 거야 eodi gal geoya 어디eodi갈gal거 geo 어디 갈 거 eodi gal geo Gangwon lt Yeongseo Yeongdong gt Central 강원 lt 영서 영동 gt 중부 Yeongseo Gangwon South Korea Kangwŏn North Korea west of the Taebaek Mountains Yeongdong Gangwon South Korea Kangwŏn North Korea east of the Taebaek Mountains Gangwon Province is divided between Yeongseo and Yeongdong due to the Taebaek Mountains so even if it is the same Gangwon Province there is a significant difference in dialect between the two regions In the case of the Yeongseo dialect the accent is slightly different from the dialect of Gyeonggi Province but most of the vocabulary is similar to the dialect of Gyeonggi Province Unlike the Yeongseo dialect Yeongdong dialect has a tone such as Hamgyeong dialect and Gyeongsang dialect Gangwon dialect is the least spoken dialect of all dialects in South Korea except Jeju HonorificPyojuneo Yeongseo Yeongdong하십시오hasibsio하십시오hasibsio Lack of data 하오hao하오hao 하오 hao 하우hau하오 하우hao hau 하오hao하오hao해요haeyo해요haeyo 해오haeyo해오haeyo 해요haeyo해요haeyoOrdinary way of speakingThere are pronunciations such as ㆉ yoi and ㆌ yui that you cannot hear in most regions of Korea The vowel ㅠ yu is changed to ㅟ wi or ㆌ yui example VacationPyojuneo Gangwon휴가hyuga휴가hyuga 휘가hwiga휘가hwigaUse 나 na a lot in questionable form example What are you doing lately Pyojuneo Gangwon Yeongdong 요즘yojeum뭐해 mwohae 요즘 뭐해 yojeum mwohae 요즘yojeum뭐하나 mwohana 요즘 뭐하나 yojeum mwohana Chungcheong Central 충청 중부 Daejeon Sejong Chungcheong region South Korea Chungcheong dialect is considered to be the softest dialect to hear among all dialects of Korean Chungcheong dialect is one of the most recognized dialects in South Korea along with Jeolla dialect and Gyeongsang dialect Chungcheong dialect was the most commonly used dialect by aristocrats Yangban during the Joseon Dynasty along with dialects in northern Gyeongsang Province In the case of Chungcheong dialect it is a dialect belonging to the central dialect along with Gyeonggi Gangwon and Hwanghae dialects but some scholars view it as a separate dialect separated from the central dialect In addition some scholars classify southern Chungcheong dialect regions such as Daejeon Sejong and Gongju as the southern dialect such as Jeolla and Gyeongsang dialects HonorificPyojuneo Chungcheong하십시오hasibsio하십시오hasibsio 하시오hasio 충남 서해안 일부 지역 Some areas on the west coast of South Chungcheong Province 하시오hasio하오hao하오hao 하게hage하게hage해요haeyo해요haeyo 해유haeyu 기본 General 해유 기본 haeyu General Ordinary way of speakingThe vowel ㅑ ya that comes to the ending is changed to ㅕ yeo example 1 What are you talking about 2 What are you doing Pyojuneo Chungcheong무슨museun소리야 soliya 무슨 소리야 museun soliya 뭔mwon소리여 soliyeo 뭔 소리여 mwon soliyeo 뭐하는mwohaneun거야 geoya 뭐하는 거야 mwohaneun geoya 뭐허는mwoheoneun거여 geoyeo 뭐하는mwohaneun겨 gyeo 뭐허는 거여 뭐하는 겨 mwoheoneun geoyeo mwohaneun gyeo ㅔ e is mainly changed to ㅣ i and ㅐ ae is mainly changed to ㅑ ya or ㅕ yeo example 1 He She They said he she they put it outside 2 Would you like to eat this 3 Okay Pyojuneo Chungcheong그거geugeo바깥에다가bakkat edaga뒀대dwossdae그거 바깥에다가 뒀대geugeo bakkat edaga dwossdae 고거gogeo바깥이다가bakkat idaga뒀댜 dwossdya 고거 바깥이다가 뒀댜 gogeo bakkat idaga dwossdya 이거igeo먹을래 meog eullae 이거 먹을래 igeo meog eullae 여거yeogeo먹을려 meog eullyeo 이거igeo먹을쳐 meog eulchyeo 여거 먹을려 이거 먹을쳐 yeogeo meog eullyeo igeo meog eulchyeo 그래geulae그래geulae 그려 geulyeo 그랴 geulya 기여 giyeo 겨 gyeo 그려 그랴 기여 겨 geulyeo geulya giyeo gyeo The ending 겠 gett is mainly pronounced as 겄 geott and the ending 까 kka is mainly pronounced as 께 kke example I ve put it all away so it ll be okay Pyojuneo Chungcheong내가naega다da치워뒀으니까chiwodwoss eunikka괜찮겠지gwaenchanhgettji내가 다 치워뒀으니까 괜찮겠지naega da chiwodwoss eunikka gwaenchanhgettji 내가naega다da치워뒀으니께chiwodwoss eunikke갠찮겄지gaenchanhgeottji내가 다 치워뒀으니께 갠찮겄지naega da chiwodwoss eunikke gaenchanhgeottjiThe rest is almost similar to the Gyeonggi dialect Jeolla Southwestern 전라 서남 Gwangju Jeolla region South Korea Jeolla dialect is a dialect that feels rough along with Gyeongsang dialect Especially it is well known for its swearing Jeolla dialect speakers along with Gyeongsang dialect speakers have high self esteem in their local dialects Many Jeolla dialect speakers can be found not only in Jeolla Province but also in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province because Jeolla Province itself was alienated from development so many Jeolla residents came to Seoul and Gyeonggi Province Much of Northern Jeolla especially in areas close to Southern Chungcheong like Jeonju Gunsan and Wanju have traditionally had weaker accents compared to the south and in some cases might be more closer to the Chungcheong dialect in terms of vocabulary and intonation HonorificPyojuneo Jeolla하십시오hasibsio하십시오hasibsio 허씨요heossiyo 기본 General 허씨요 기본 heossiyo General 하오hao하오hao 허소heoso허소heoso해요haeyo해요haeyo 허라 우 heola u 서중부 지역 West Central Region 허라 우 heola u Ordinary way of speakingThe vowel ㅢ ui is pronounced as ㅡ eu example DoctorPyojuneo Jeolla의사uisa의사uisa 으사eusa으사eusaThe ending 지 ji is pronounced as 제 je example That s right Pyojuneo Jeolla그렇지geuleohji그렇지geuleohji 그라제geulaje 글제geulje그라제 글제geulaje geuljeUse a lot of 잉 ing at the end of words example It s really pretty Pyojuneo Jeolla진짜jinjja예쁘다yeppeuda진짜 예쁘다jinjja yeppeuda 참말로chammallo이쁘다잉 ippeudaing 참말로chammallo귄있다잉 gwin ittdaing 참말로 이쁘다잉 참말로 귄있다잉 chammallo ippeudaing chammallo gwin ittdaing Famously natives of Southern Jeolla pronounce certain combinations of vowels in Korean more softly or omit the latter vowel entirely Pyojuneo Jeolla육학년yoog kak nyeon육학년yoog kak nyeon 유각년yoog ag nyeon유각년yoog ag nyeon못해mot tae못해mot tae 모대mo dae모대mo daeHowever in the case of 모대 modae it is also observed in South Chungcheong Province and some areas of southern Gyeonggi Province close to South Chungcheong Province The rest is almost similar to the Chungcheong dialect Gyeongsang Southeastern 경상 동남 Busan Daegu Ulsan Gyeongsang region South Korea Gyeongsang dialect is the best known dialect of all South Korean dialects This is known not only by Koreans but also by foreigners interested in Korean culture Gyeongsang dialect is also known as the most rough and macho like dialect of all South Korean dialects Gyeongsang dialect has a tone like Hamgyeong dialect and Yeongdong dialect Gyeongsang dialect is the most common dialect in dramas among all Korean dialects except for Gyeonggi dialect HonorificPyojuneo Gyeongsang하십시오hasibsio하십시오hasibsio 하이소haiso하이소haiso하오hao하오hao 하소haso하소haso해요haeyo해요haeyo 해예haeye 해요haeyo해예 해요haeye haeyoOrdinary way of speakingIn question 노 no and 나 na are mainly used Use 나 na when asking for a short answer and 노 no when asking for a specific answer example 1 Have you eaten 2 What did you eat Pyojuneo Gyeongsang너neo밥bab먹었어 meog eott eo 너 밥 먹었어 neo bab meog eott eo 니ni밥bab뭇나 mutna 니 밥 뭇나 ni bab mutna 뭐mwo먹었어 meog eoss eo 뭐 먹었어 mwo meog eoss eo 뭐mwo먹었노 meog eossno 뭐 먹었노 mwo meog eossno When talking the sentence often ends with 다 아이가 da aiga example You said so Pyojuneo Gyeongsang네가nega그렇게geuleohge말했잖아 malhaettjanh a 네가 그렇게 말했잖아 nega geuleohge malhaettjanh a 니가niga그렇게geuleohge말했다malhaettda아이가 aiga 니가 그렇게 말했다 아이가 niga geuleohge malhaettda aiga 하다 hada is pronounced as 카다 kada example Why are you doing that Pyojuneo Gyeongsang왜wae그렇게geuleohge하는haneun거야 geoya 왜 그렇게 하는 거야 wae geuleohge haneun geoya 와wa그geu카는데 kaneunde 와 그 카는데 wa geu kaneunde The rest is almost similar to the Jeolla dialect Jeju 제주 Jeju Island Province South Korea sometimes classified as a separate language in the Koreanic language family example Hangul 63 page needed Pyojuneo 한글 Hangul Jeju ᄒᆞᆫ글 Hongul HonorificPyojuneo Jeju하십시오hasibsio하십시오hasibsio ᄒᆞᆸ서hobseoᄒᆞᆸ서hobseo하오hao하오hao ᄒᆞᆸ소hobsoᄒᆞᆸ소hobso해요haeyo해요haeyo ᄒᆞ여마씀hobyeomasseum 양yang 예yeᄒᆞ여마씀 양 예hobyeomasseum yang yeNorth South differences EditMain article North South differences in the Korean language The language used in the North and the South exhibit differences in pronunciation spelling grammar and vocabulary 64 Pronunciation Edit In North Korea palatalization of si is optional and t ɕ can be pronounced z between vowels Words that are written the same way may be pronounced differently such as the examples below The pronunciations below are given in Revised Romanization McCune Reischauer and modified Hangul what the Korean characters would be if one were to write the word as pronounced Word RR Meaning PronunciationNorth SouthRR MR Chosungul RR MR Hangul읽고 ilgo to read continuative form ilko ilko 일 코 ilkko ilkko 일 꼬압록강 amnokgang Amnok River amrokgang amrokkang 암 록 깡 amnokkang amnokkang 암녹깡독립 dongnip independence dongrip tongrip 동 립 dongnip tongnip 동닙관념 gwannyeom idea sense conception gwallyeom kwallyŏm 괄렴 gwannyeom kwannyŏm 관 념혁신적 hyeoksinjeok innovative hyeoksinjjeok hyŏksintchŏk 혁 씬쩍 hyeoksinjeok hyŏksinjŏk 혁 씬 적 In the North similar pronunciation is used whenever the hanja 的 is attached to a Sino Korean word ending in ㄴ ㅁ or ㅇ In the South this rule only applies when it is attached to any single character Sino Korean word Spelling Edit See also Korean spelling alphabet Some words are spelled differently by the North and the South but the pronunciations are the same Word Meaning Pronunciation RR MR RemarksNorth spelling South spelling해빛 햇빛 sunshine haeppit haepit The sai siot ㅅ used for indicating sound change is almost never written out in the North 벗꽃 벚꽃 cherry blossom beotkkot pŏtkkot 못읽다 못 읽다 cannot read modikda modikta Spacing 한나산 한라산 Hallasan hallasan hallasan When a ㄴㄴ combination is pronounced as ll the original Hangul spelling is kept in the North whereas the Hangul is changed in the South 규률 규율 rules gyuyul kyuyul In words where the original hanja is spelt 렬 or 률 and follows a vowel the initial ㄹ is not pronounced in the North making the pronunciation identical with that in the South where the ㄹ is dropped in the spelling Spelling and pronunciation Edit Some words have different spellings and pronunciations in the North and the South Most of the official languages of North Korea are from the northwest Pyeongan dialect and the standard language of South Korea is the standard language Seoul language close to Gyeonggi dialect some of which were given in the Phonology section above Word Meaning RemarksNorth spelling North pronun South spelling South pronun 력량 ryeongryang ryŏngryang 역량 yeongnyang yŏngnyang strength Initial r s are dropped if followed by i or y in the South Korean version of Korean 로동 rodong rodong 노동 nodong nodong work Initial r s are demoted to an n if not followed by i or y in the South Korean version of Korean 원쑤 wonssu wŏnssu 원수 wonsu wŏnsu mortal enemy Mortal enemy and field marshal are homophones in the South Possibly to avoid referring to Kim Il sung Kim Jong il or Kim Jong un as the enemy the second syllable of enemy is written and pronounced 쑤 in the North 65 라지오 rajio rajio 라디오 radio radio radio우 u u 위 wi wi on above안해 anhae anhae 아내 anae anae wife꾸바 kkuba kkuba 쿠바 kuba k uba Cuba When transcribing foreign words from languages that do not have contrasts between aspirated and unaspirated stops North Koreans generally use tensed stops for the unaspirated ones while South Koreans use aspirated stops in both cases 페 pe p e 폐 pye p ye pe p e lungs In the case where ye comes after a consonant such as in hye and pye it is pronounced without the palatal approximate North Korean orthography reflects this pronunciation nuance In general when transcribing place names North Korea tends to use the pronunciation in the original language more than South Korea which often uses the pronunciation in English For example Original name North Korea transliteration English name South Korea transliterationSpelling Pronunciation Spelling PronunciationUlaanbaatar 울란바따르 ullanbattareu ullanbattarŭ Ulan Bator 울란바토르 ullanbatoreu ullanbat orŭ Kobenhavn 쾨뻰하븐 koeppenhabeun k oeppenhabŭn Copenhagen 코펜하겐 kopenhagen k op enhagen al Qahirah 까히라 kkahira kkahira Cairo 카이로 kairo k airo Grammar Edit Some grammatical constructions are also different Word Meaning RemarksNorth spelling North pronun South spelling South pronun 되였다 doeyeotda toeyŏtta 되었다 doeeotda toeŏtta past tense of 되다 doeda toeda to become All similar grammar forms of verbs or adjectives that end in ㅣ in the stem i e ㅣ ㅐ ㅔ ㅚ ㅟ and ㅢ in the North use 여 instead of the South s 어 고마와요 gomawayo komawayo 고마워요 gomawoyo komawŏyo thanks ㅂ irregular verbs in the North use 와 wa for all those with a positive ending vowel this only happens in the South if the verb stem has only one syllable 할가요 halgayo halkayo 할까요 halkkayo halkkayo Shall we do Although the Hangul differ the pronunciations are the same i e with the tensed ㄲ sound Punctuation Edit In the North guillemets and are the symbols used for quotes in the South quotation marks equivalent to the English ones and are standard although and are also used Vocabulary Edit Some vocabulary is different between the North and the South Word Meaning RemarksNorth word North pronun South word South pronun 문화주택 munhwajutaek munhwajut aek 아파트 apateu ap at ŭ Apartment 아빠트 appateu appat ŭ is also used in the North 조선말 joseonmal chosŏnmal 한국어 han guk eo han guk ŏ Korean language The Japanese pronunciation of 조선말 was used throughout Korea and Manchuria during Japanese Imperial Rule but after liberation the government chose the name 대한민국 Daehanminguk which was derived from the name immediately prior to Japanese Imperial Rule The syllable 한 Han was drawn from the same source as that name in reference to the Han people Read more 곽밥 gwakbap kwakpap 도시락 dosirak tosirak lunch box동무 dongmu tongmu 친구 chin gu ch in gu Friend 동무 was originally a non ideological word for friend used all over the Korean peninsula but North Koreans later adopted it as the equivalent of the Communist term of address comrade As a result to South Koreans today the word has a heavy political tinge and so they have shifted to using other words for friend like chingu 친구 or beot 벗 South Koreans use chingu 친구 more often than beot 벗 Such changes were made after the Korean War and the ideological battle between the anti Communist government in the South and North Korea s communism 66 67 Geographic distribution EditSee also Korean diaspora Korean is spoken by the Korean people in both South Korea and North Korea and by the Korean diaspora in many countries including the People s Republic of China the United States Japan and Russia Currently Korean is the fourth most popular foreign language in China following English Japanese and Russian 68 Korean speaking minorities exist in these states but because of cultural assimilation into host countries not all ethnic Koreans may speak it with native fluency Official status Edit Highway sign in Korean and English Daegu South Korea Korean is the official language of South Korea and North Korea It along with Mandarin Chinese is also one of the two official languages of China s Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture In North Korea the regulatory body is the Language Institute of the Academy of Social Sciences 사회과학원 어학연구소 社會科學院語學硏究所 Sahoe Gwahagweon Eohag Yeonguso In South Korea the regulatory body for Korean is the Seoul based National Institute of the Korean Language which was created by presidential decree on 23 January 1991 King Sejong Institute Edit Established pursuant to Article 9 Section 2 of the Framework Act on the National Language the King Sejong Institute 69 is a public institution set up to coordinate the government s project of propagating Korean language and culture it also supports the King Sejong Institute which is the institution s overseas branch The King Sejong Institute was established in response to An increase in the demand for Korean language education a rapid increase in Korean language education thanks to the spread of the culture hallyu an increase in international marriage the expansion of Korean enterprises into overseas markets and enforcement of employment licensing system the need for a government sanctioned Korean language educational institution the need for general support for overseas Korean language education based on a successful domestic language education program TOPIK Korea Institute Edit The TOPIK Korea Institute is a lifelong educational center affiliated with a variety of Korean universities in Seoul South Korea whose aim is to promote Korean language and culture support local Korean teaching internationally and facilitate cultural exchanges The institute is sometimes compared to language and culture promotion organizations such as the King Sejong Institute Unlike that organization however the TOPIK Korea Institute operates within established universities and colleges around the world providing educational materials In countries around the world Korean embassies and cultural centers 한국문화원 administer TOPIK examinations 70 Foreign language EditFor native English speakers Korean is generally considered to be one of the most difficult foreign languages to master despite the relative ease of learning Hangul For instance the United States Defense Language Institute places Korean in Category IV with Japanese Chinese Mandarin and Cantonese and Arabic requiring 64 weeks of instruction as compared to just 26 weeks for Category I languages like Italian French and Spanish to bring an English speaking student to a limited working level of proficiency in which they have sufficient capability to meet routine social demands and limited job requirements and can deal with concrete topics in past present and future tense 71 72 Similarly the Foreign Service Institute s School of Language Studies places Korean in Category IV the highest level of difficulty 73 The study of the Korean language in the United States is dominated by Korean American heritage language students who in 2007 were estimated to form over 80 of all students of the language at non military universities 74 However Sejong Institutes in the United States have noted a sharp rise in the number of people of other ethnic backgrounds studying Korean between 2009 and 2011 which they attribute to rising popularity of South Korean music and television shows 75 In 2018 it was reported that the rise in K Pop was responsible for the increase in people learning the language in US universities 76 Testing Edit There are two widely used tests of Korean as a foreign language the Korean Language Proficiency Test KLPT and the Test of Proficiency in Korean TOPIK The Korean Language Proficiency Test an examination aimed at assessing non native speakers competence in Korean was instituted in 1997 17 000 people applied for the 2005 sitting of the examination 77 The TOPIK was first administered in 1997 and was taken by 2 274 people Since then the total number of people who have taken the TOPIK has surpassed 1 million with more than 150 000 candidates taking the test in 2012 78 TOPIK is administered in 45 regions within South Korea and 72 nations outside of South Korea with a significant portion being administered in Japan and North America which would suggest the targeted audience for TOPIK is still primarily foreigners of Korean heritage 79 This is also evident in TOPIK s website where the examination is introduced as intended for Korean heritage students See also Edit Language portalOutline of Korean language Korean count word Korean Cultural Center KCC Korean dialects Korean language and computers Korean mixed script Korean particles Korean proverbs Korean sign language Korean romanization McCune Reischauer Revised romanization of Korean SKATS Yale romanization of Korean List of English words of Korean origin Vowel harmony History of Korean Korean films Cinema of South Korea Cinema of North KoreaNotes Edit Measured as of 2020 The estimated 2020 combined population of North and South Korea was about 77 million References Edit a b Korean language at Ethnologue 17th ed 2013 a b Holzl Andreas 29 August 2018 A typology of questions in Northeast Asia and beyond An ecological perspective Language Science Press p 25 ISBN 9783961101023 Janhunen Juha 2010 Reconstructing the Language Map of Prehistorical Northeast Asia Studia Orientalia 108 there are strong indications that the neighbouring Baekje state in the southwest was predominantly Japonic speaking until it was linguistically Koreanized Vovin Alexander 2013 From Koguryo to Tamna Slowly riding to the South with speakers of Proto Korean Korean Linguistics 15 2 222 240 doi 10 1075 kl 15 2 03vov Whitman John 1 December 2011 Northeast Asian Linguistic Ecology and the Advent of Rice Agriculture in Korea and Japan Rice 4 3 149 158 doi 10 1007 s12284 011 9080 0 ISSN 1939 8433 Kim Renaud Young Key 1997 The Korean Alphabet Its History and Structure University of Hawaii Press p 15 ISBN 9780824817237 Retrieved 16 May 2018 알고 싶은 한글 국립국어원 in Korean National Institute of Korean Language Retrieved 4 December 2017 Archive of Joseon s Hangul letters A letter sent from Song Gyuryeom to slave Guityuk 1692 According to Google s NGram English corpus of 2015 Google Ngram Viewer 이기환 30 August 2017 이기환의 흔적의 역사 국호논쟁의 전말 대한민국이냐 고려공화국이냐 경향신문 in Korean The Kyunghyang Shinmun Retrieved 2 July 2018 이덕일 이덕일 사랑 대 한민국 조선닷컴 in Korean The Chosun Ilbo Retrieved 2 July 2018 Cho amp Whitman 2020 pp 11 12 Vovin Alexander June 2017 Koreanic loanwords in Khitan and their importance in the decipherment of the latter PDF Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 70 2 207 215 doi 10 1556 062 2017 70 2 4 Martin 1966 Martin 1990 e g Miller 1971 Miller 1996 Starostin Sergei 1991 Altaiskaya problema i proishozhdeniye yaponskogo yazika The Altaic Problem and the Origins of the Japanese Language PDF in Russian Moscow Nauka Vovin 2008 sfnp error no target CITEREFVovin2008 help Whitman 1985 p 232 also found in Martin 1966 p 233 Vovin 2008 pp 211 212 sfnp error no target CITEREFVovin2008 help Hudson Mark J Robbeets Martine 2020 Archaeolinguistic Evidence for the Farming Language Dispersal of Koreanic Evolutionary Human Sciences 2 e52 doi 10 1017 ehs 2020 49 a b c Sohn 2006 Choo Miho 2008 Using Korean A Guide to Contemporary Usage Cambridge University Press p 3 ISBN 978 1 139 47139 8 Cho 2006 p 189 Cho 2006 pp 189 198 Kim Minju 1999 Cross Adoption of language between different genders The case of the Korean kinship terms hyeng and enni Proceedings of the Fifth Berkeley Women and Language Conference Berkeley Berkeley Women and Language Group Palley Marian Lief December 1990 Women s Status in South Korea Tradition and Change Asian Survey 30 12 1136 1153 doi 10 2307 2644990 JSTOR 2644990 a b c Brown 2015 Cho 2006 pp 193 195 a b c Sohn 2001 Section 1 5 3 Korean vocabulary pp 12 13 Lee amp Ramsey 2011 p 6 Sohn 2006 p 5 Kim Jin su 11 September 2009 우리말 70 가 한자말 일제가 왜곡한 거라네 Our language is 70 hanja Japanese Empire distortion The Hankyoreh in Korean Retrieved 11 September 2009 The dictionary mentioned is 우리말 큰 사전 Seoul Hangul Hakhoe 1992 OCLC 27072560 Sohn 2006 p 87 Hannas Wm C 1997 Asia s Orthographic Dilemma University of Hawaii Press p 57 ISBN 978 0 8248 1892 0 Retrieved 20 September 2016 Chen Jiangping 18 January 2016 Multilingual Access and Services for Digital Collections ABC CLIO p 66 ISBN 978 1 4408 3955 9 Retrieved 20 September 2016 Invest Korea Journal Invest Korea Journal Vol 23 Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency 1 January 2005 Retrieved 20 September 2016 They later devised three different systems for writing Korean with Chinese characters Hyangchal Gukyeol and Idu These systems were similar to those developed later in Japan and were probably used as models by the Japanese Korea Now The Korea Herald Vol 29 1 July 2000 Retrieved 20 September 2016 Koerner E F K Asher R E 28 June 2014 Concise History of the Language Sciences From the Sumerians to the Cognitivists Elsevier p 54 ISBN 978 1 4832 9754 5 Retrieved 13 October 2016 Montgomery Charles 19 January 2016 Korean Literature in Translation CHAPTER FOUR IT ALL CHANGES THE CREATION OF HANGUL ktlit com KTLit Retrieved 20 April 2016 Hangul was sometimes known as the language of the inner rooms a dismissive term used partly by yangban in an effort to marginalize the alphabet or the domain of women Chan Tak hung Leo 2003 One into Many Translation and the Dissemination of Classical Chinese Literature Rodopi p 183 ISBN 978 9042008151 Retrieved 26 December 2016 Korea Newsreview Korea News Review Korea Herald Incorporated 1 January 1994 Retrieved 26 December 2016 Lee Kenneth B 1997 Korea and East Asia The Story of a Phoenix Greenwood Publishing Group p 90 ISBN 978 0 275 95823 7 Retrieved 26 December 2016 Silva David J 2008 Missionary Contributions toward the Revaluation of Han geul in Late 19th Century Korea PDF International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2008 192 57 74 CiteSeerX 10 1 1 527 8160 doi 10 1515 ijsl 2008 035 S2CID 43569773 Archived from the original PDF on 3 March 2016 Korean History Korea assembly go kr Retrieved 26 April 2016 Korean Empire Edict No 1 All official documents are to be written in Hangul and not Chinese characters 현판 글씨들이 한글이 아니라 한자인 이유는 royalpalace go kr in Korean Archived from the original on 10 March 2017 Retrieved 26 April 2016 Source Unescopress New interactive atlas adds two more endangered languages United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization Unesco org Retrieved 11 December 2013 Lightfoot David 12 January 1999 Development of Language Wiley ISBN 978 0 631 21059 7 Janhunen Juha 1996 Manchuria An Ethnic History Finno Ugrian Society ISBN 978 951 9403 84 7 Kang Yoonjung Han Sungwoo September 2013 Tonogenesis in early Contemporary Seoul Korean A longitudinal case study Lingua 134 62 74 doi 10 1016 j lingua 2013 06 002 Kim Mi Ryoung 2013 Tonogenesis in contemporary Korean with special reference to the onset tone interaction and the loss of a consonant opposition The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 133 3570 3570 Bibcode 2013ASAJ 133 3570K doi 10 1121 1 4806535 Cho Sunghye 2017 Development of pitch contrast and Seoul Korean intonation PhD University of Pennsylvania Choi Jiyoun Kim Sahyang Cho Taehong 22 October 2020 An apparent time study of an ongoing sound change in Seoul Korean A prosodic account PLOS ONE 15 10 e0240682 Bibcode 2020PLoSO 1540682C doi 10 1371 journal pone 0240682 PMC 7580931 PMID 33091043 정 Jeong 상도 Sangdo 31 March 2017 도청도설 부추와 정구지 in Korean Kookje Newspaper Korean is virtually two languages and that s a big problem for North Korean defectors Public Radio International Retrieved 18 January 2016 Korean Language Asia Society Retrieved 22 January 2021 Han JiEun 18 March 2015 한국어 방언 제대로 알기 한국어 대방언과 일반론 in Korean Dokseo Newspaper 정 Jeong 아란 Aran 12 May 2020 북한 사투리 외래어 한자어 배격 고유한 평양말 쓰자 in Korean Yonhap News Agency 이 Lee 기갑 Kikab 표준어와 방언의 오늘과 내일 in Korean a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link Lee Iksop Ramsey S Robert 1 January 2000 The Korean Language SUNY Press ISBN 978 0 7914 4832 8 서울 사투리 방송 인터뷰 모음 zip Seoul dialect Collection of interviews zip YouTube in Korean Archived from the original on 11 December 2021 90년대 말투는 서울 사투리가 아니다 서울 사투리 특징 3가지 The way people talk in the 90s is not a Seoul dialect Three characteristics of Seoul dialect YouTube in Korean Archived from the original on 11 December 2021 수원 사투리 쓰는 이창섭 Lee Chang seop speaks Suwon dialect YouTube in Korean Archived from the original on 11 December 2021 Cho amp Whitman 2020 Kanno Hiroomi Society for Korean Linguistics in Japan eds 1987 朝鮮語を学ぼう Chōsengo o manabō in Japanese Tokyo Sanshusha ISBN 4 384 01506 2 Sohn 2006 p 38 Choe Sang hun 30 August 2006 Koreas Divided by a common language The New York Times Retrieved 16 August 2012 Beliefs that bind Korea JoongAng Daily 23 October 2007 Archived from the original on 1 May 2013 Retrieved 16 August 2012 Sohn 2001 p 6 누리 세종학당 TOPIK iSeodang Korean Language Center Retrieved 15 September 2020 Raugh Harold E The Origins of the Transformation of the Defense Language Program PDF Applied Language Learning 16 2 1 12 Archived from the original PDF on 30 June 2007 Retrieved 9 January 2008 DLI s language guidelines AUSA 1 August 2010 Retrieved 20 April 2021 Languages United States Department of State Retrieved 27 May 2016 Lee Saekyun H HyunJoo Han Issues of Validity of SAT Subject Test Korea with Listening PDF Applied Language Learning 17 1 33 56 Archived from the original PDF on 25 June 2008 Global popularity of Korean language surges The Korea Herald 22 July 2012 Retrieved 16 August 2012 Pickles Matt 11 July 2018 K pop drives boom in Korean language lessons BBC News Retrieved 12 July 2018 Korea Marks 558th Hangul Day The Chosun Ilbo 10 October 2004 Archived from the original on 19 February 2008 Retrieved 9 January 2008 Korean language test takers pass 1 mil The Korea Times 20 January 2013 Retrieved 25 January 2013 TOPIK 한국어능력시험 topik go kr in Korean Retrieved 24 October 2017 Further reading EditArguelles Alexander Kim Jong Rok 2000 A Historical Literary and Cultural Approach to the Korean Language Seoul South Korea Hollym Arguelles Alexander Kim Jongrok 2004 A Handbook of Korean Verbal Conjugation Hyattsville Maryland Dunwoody Press Arguelles Alexander 2007 Korean Newspaper Reader Hyattsville Maryland Dunwoody Press Arguelles Alexander 2010 North Korean Reader Hyattsville Maryland Dunwoody Press Brown L 2015 Expressive Social and Gendered Meanings of Korean Honorifics Korean Linguistics 17 2 242 266 doi 10 1075 kl 17 2 04bro Chang Suk jin 1996 Korean Philadelphia John Benjamins Publishing Company ISBN 978 1 55619 728 4 Volume 4 of the London Oriental and African Language Library Cho Young A 2006 Gender Differences in Korean Speech In Sohn Ho min ed Korean Language in Culture and Society University of Hawaii Press p 189 Cho Sungdai Whitman John 2020 Korean A Linguistic Introduction Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 51485 9 Hulbert Homer B 1905 A Comparative Grammar of the Korean Language and the Dravidian Dialects in India Seoul Lee Ki Moon Ramsey S Robert 2011 A History of the Korean Language Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 66189 8 Martin Samuel E 1966 Lexical Evidence Relating Japanese to Korean Language 42 2 185 251 doi 10 2307 411687 JSTOR 411687 Martin Samuel E 1990 Morphological clues to the relationship of Japanese and Korean In Baldi Philip ed Linguistic Change and Reconstruction Methodology Trends in Linguistics Studies and Monographs Vol 45 pp 483 509 Martin Samuel E 2006 A Reference Grammar of Korean A Complete Guide to the Grammar and History of the Korean Language 韓國語文法總監 Tuttle Publishing ISBN 978 0 8048 3771 2 Miller Roy Andrew 1971 Japanese and the Other Altaic Languages Chicago IL University of Chicago Press ISBN 0 226 52719 0 Miller Roy Andrew 1996 Languages and History Japanese Korean and Altaic Oslo Norway Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture ISBN 974 8299 69 4 Ramstedt G J 1928 Remarks on the Korean language Memoires de la Societe Finno Ougrienne 58 Rybatzki Volker 2003 Middle Mongol In Janhunen Juha ed The Mongolic languages London England Routledge pp 47 82 ISBN 0 7007 1133 3 Starostin Sergei A Dybo Anna V Mudrak Oleg A 2003 Etymological Dictionary of the Altaic Languages Leiden South Holland Brill Academic Publishers ISBN 90 04 13153 1 In 3 volumes Sohn Ho Min 2001 1999 The Korean Language Cambridge England Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0521369435 Sohn Ho Min 2006 Korean Language in Culture and Society Boston MA Twayne Publishers ISBN 978 0 8248 2694 9 Song J J 2005 The Korean Language Structure Use and Context London England Routledge Trask R L 1996 Historical linguistics Hodder Arnold Vovin Alexander 2010 Koreo Japonica A Re evaluation of a Common Genetic Origin Honolulu HI University of Hawai i Press Whitman John B 1985 The Phonological Basis for the Comparison of Japanese and Korean PhD thesis Cambridge MA Harvard University Unpublished Harvard University PhD dissertation Yeon Jaehoon Brown Lucien 2011 Korean A Comprehensive Grammar London England Routledge External links EditLinguistic and Philosophical Origins of the Korean Alphabet Hangul Sogang University free online Korean language and culture course Beginner s guide to Korean for English speakers U S Foreign Service Institute Korean basic course asianreadings com Korean readings with hover prompts Linguistic map of Korea dongsa net Korean verb conjugation tool Hanja Explorer a tool to visualize and study Korean vocabulary Korean language at CurlieKorean at Wikipedia s sister projects Definitions from Wiktionary Media from Commons News from Wikinews Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource Textbooks from Wikibooks Phrasebook from Wikivoyage Resources from Wikiversity Korean Edition from Wikipedia Data from Wikidata Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Korean language amp oldid 1132757841, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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