Korean is the official
languageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
of
North KoreaNorth Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer area between North Korea and South Korea...
and
South KoreaSouth Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often simply referred to as Korea, is a country in East Asia, located on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by China to the west, Japan to the east, and North Korea to the north. Its capital is Seoul, the second largest...
. It is also one of the two official languages in the
Yanbian Korean Autonomous PrefectureYanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture in Jilin province, in the northeastern China. Yanbian is south of Heilongjiang, east of Jilin's Baishan City, north of North Korea's North Hamgyong Province, and west of Russia. Yanbian is designated as an autonomous prefecture due...
in
ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
. There are about 78 million Korean speakers. It was formerly written using
HanjaHanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation...
, borrowed
Chinese characterA Chinese character, also known as a Han character , is a logogram used in writing Chinese , Japanese , less frequently Korean , and formerly Vietnamese , and other languages...
s pronounced in the Korean way. In the 15th century a national writing system was developed by Sejong the Great, currently called
HangulHangul is the native alphabet of the Korean language, as distinguished from the logographic Sino-Korean hanja system...
.
The genealogical classification of the Korean language is debated. Some linguists place it in the
AltaicAltaic is a language family that is generally held by its proponents to include the Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Korean, and Japonic language families . These languages are spoken in a wide arc stretching from northeast Asia through Central Asia to Anatolia and eastern Europe...
language family, while others consider it to be a
language isolateA language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
. It is
agglutinativeAn agglutinative language is a language that uses agglutination extensively: most words are formed by joining morphemes together. This term was introduced by Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1836 to classify languages from a morphological point of view...
in its morphology and
SOVIn linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb is the type of languages in which the subject, object, and verb of a sentence appear or usually appear in that order...
in its
syntaxIn linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing sentences in natural languages...
.
Names
The Korean names for the language are based on the
names for KoreaThere are various names of Korea in use today, derived from ancient kingdoms and dynasties. The modern English name Korea is an exonym derived from the Goryeo period and is used by both North Korea and South Korea in international contexts...
used in North and South Korea.
In South Korea, the language is most often called
Hangungmal
, or more formally,
Hangugeo or
Gugeo .
In North Korea and Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China, the language is most often called
Chosŏnmal ' onMouseout='HidePop("39145")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Hanja">hanja
Hanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation...
: ), or more formally,
Chosŏnŏ .
On the other hand, Korean people in the
former USSRThe post-Soviet states, also commonly known as the Former Soviet Union or former Soviet republics, are the 15 independent nations that split off from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in its breakup in December 1991...
, who refer to themselves as
Koryo-saramKoryo-saram is the name which ethnic Koreans in the post-Soviet states use to refer to themselves. Approximately 500,000 ethnic Koreans reside in the former Soviet Union, primarily in the now-independent states of Central Asia. There are also large Korean communities in southern Russia , the...
(also
Goryeoin [; ; literally, "Goryeo person(s)"]) call the language
GoryeomalKoryo-mar, Goryeomal or Koryŏmal is the dialect of the Korean language spoken by the Koryo-saram, ethnic Koreans in the former USSR. It is descended from the Hamgyŏng dialect...
.
In
mainland ChinaMainland China, Continental China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China , excluding Hong Kong and Macau, which are under the jurisdiction of the PRC but run on different economic and...
, following the establishment of diplomatic relations with South Korea in 1992, the term
Cháoxiǎnyǔ ( or short form:
Cháoyǔ ) has normally been used to refer to the language spoken in North Korea and Yanbian, while
Hánguóyǔ ( or short form:
Hányǔ ) is used to refer to the language spoken in South Korea.
Some older English sources also used the name "Korean" to refer to the language, country, and people. It is known that word Korean was referred from
GoryeoThe Goryeo Dynasty or Koryŏ was a sovereign state established in 918 by King Taejo. It united the Later Three Kingdoms in 936 and ruled most of the Korean peninsula until it was removed by the Joseon dynasty in 1392...
, which is thought to be first dynasty known to western countries.
Classification
The classification of the modern Korean language is uncertain, and due to the lack of any one generally accepted theory, a cautious classification will describe it as a
language isolateA language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
.
On the other hand, since the publication of the article of
RamstedtGustaf John Ramstedt was a Swedish-speaking Finnish linguist and diplomat.-Biography:Ramstedt was born in Ekenäs in Southern Finland....
in 1928, some linguists support the hypothesis that Korean can be classified as an
AltaicAltaic is a language family that is generally held by its proponents to include the Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Korean, and Japonic language families . These languages are spoken in a wide arc stretching from northeast Asia through Central Asia to Anatolia and eastern Europe...
language or as a relative of proto-Altaic. Korean is similar to the Altaic languages in that they both lack certain grammatical elements, including
articlesAn article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun, and may also specify the volume or numerical scope of that reference. there are only three articles, a, an and and. The articles in the English language are the and a...
, fusional morphology and
relative pronounA relative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause within a larger sentence. It is called a relative pronoun because it relates to the word that it modifies. In English, relative pronouns are who, whom, which, whose, and that....
s. However, linguists agree today on the fact that typological resemblances cannot be used to prove genetic relatedness of languages as these features are typologically connected and easily borrowed. Such factors of typological divergence as Middle Mongolian's exhibition of gender agreement can be used to argue that a genetic relationship is unlikely.
The hypothesis that Korean might be related to
Japaneseis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none have gained general acceptance...
has had some more supporters due to some considerable overlap in vocabulary and similar grammatical features that have been elaborated upon by such researchers as Samuel E. Martin and
Roy Andrew MillerRoy Andrew Miller is a linguist notable for his advocacy of Korean and Japanese as members of the Altaic group of languages....
.
Sergei StarostinDr. Sergei Anatolyevich Starostin was a Russian historical linguist and scholar, best known for his work with hypothetical proto-languages, especially the controversial theory of Altaic languages and the formulation of the Dené-Caucasian hypothesis, which assumes that Northwest Caucasian, Northeast...
(1991) found about 25% of potential cognates in the Japanese-Korean 100-word
Swadesh listA Swadesh list is one of several lists of vocabulary with basic meanings, developed by Morris Swadesh in the 1940–50s, which is used in lexicostatistics and glottochronology ....
, which - if true - would place these two languages closer together than other possible members of the Altaic family.
Other linguists, most notably
Alexander VovinAlexander Vovin is an American linguist and philologist in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, where he is a Professor of East Asian Languages and the future chair of the department from August 1, 2009.Alexander Vovin earned his M.A...
, argue, however, that the similarities are not due to any genetic relationship, but rather to a
sprachbundA Sprachbund , from the German word for “language union”, also known as a linguistic area, convergence area, diffusion area or language crossroads, is a group of languages that have become similar in some way because of geographical proximity and language contact. They may be genetically unrelated,...
effect and heavy borrowing especially from Korean into Western Old Japanese. A good example might be Middle Korean
sàm < Proto-Korean
asam ‘hemp’ and Japanese
asa ‘hemp’. This word seems to be cognate, but while it is well-attested in Western Old Japanese and Northern Ryūkyū, in Eastern Old Japanese it only occurs in compounds, and it is only present in three subdialects of the South-Ryūkyūan dialect group. Then, the doublet
wo ‘hemp’ is attested in Western Old Japanese and Southern Ryūkyū. It is thus plausible to assume a borrowed term. See East Asian languages for morphological features shared among languages of the East Asian
sprachbund, and Classification of Japanese for further details on the discussion of a possible relationship.
Though Korean and Chinese belong to different
language familiesA language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family.As with biological families, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics...
, Korean has borrowed heavily from Chinese, using thousands of Chinese words; see #Vocabulary below.
History
Korean is descended from
Old KoreanOld Korean corresponds to the Korean language from the beginning of Three Kingdoms of Korea to the latter part of the Unified Silla, of which period is roughly from 1 AD to 1000 AD. There are many theories to differentiate the Korean language histories. It is distinct from Proto-Korean , which is...
,
Middle KoreanMiddle Korean corresponds to the age from 10th century to 16th century, or from the era of Goryeo to the middle of Joseon.The language standard of this period is based on the dialect of Kaesong because the new Goryeo Dynasty moved its capital city to the north area of the Korean peninsula.One of...
and
Modern KoreanModern Korean correponds to the Korean language from after the era of Japanese invasions of Korea to the latter late of Joseon Dynasty period...
. Controversy remains over the proposed
AltaicAltaic is a language family that is generally held by its proponents to include the Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Korean, and Japonic language families . These languages are spoken in a wide arc stretching from northeast Asia through Central Asia to Anatolia and eastern Europe...
language family and its inclusion of Proto-Korean. Since the
Korean WarThe Korean War is a war that started between North Korea and South Korea on 25 June 1950 and paused with an armistice signed 27 July, 1953...
, contemporary
North-South differencesThe North-South differences in the Korean language refers to the differences in the Korean language used in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea From a linguistic point of view, the language used in the North and the South is one and the same...
in Korean have developed, including variance in pronunciation, verb inflection, and vocabulary.
Geographic distribution
Korean is spoken by the Korean people in
North KoreaNorth Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer area between North Korea and South Korea...
and
South KoreaSouth Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often simply referred to as Korea, is a country in East Asia, located on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by China to the west, Japan to the east, and North Korea to the north. Its capital is Seoul, the second largest...
and by the Korean diaspora in many countries including the
People's Republic of ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
,
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Korean-speaking minorities exist in these states, but because of
cultural assimilationCultural assimilation is a political response to the demographic fact of multi-ethnicity which encourages absorption of the minority into the dominant culture...
into host countries, not all ethnic Korean immigrants may speak it with native fluency.
Official status
Korean is the official language of
South KoreaSouth Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often simply referred to as Korea, is a country in East Asia, located on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by China to the west, Japan to the east, and North Korea to the north. Its capital is Seoul, the second largest...
and
North KoreaNorth Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer area between North Korea and South Korea...
. It is also one of the two official languages of the
Yanbian Korean Autonomous PrefectureYanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture in Jilin province, in the northeastern China. Yanbian is south of Heilongjiang, east of Jilin's Baishan City, north of North Korea's North Hamgyong Province, and west of Russia. Yanbian is designated as an autonomous prefecture due...
in China.
In South Korea, the regulatory body for Korean is the
SeoulSeoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest city of South Korea. With a population of over 10 million, it is one of the world's largest cities. The Seoul National Capital Area, which includes the major port city of Incheon and most of Gyeonggi-do, has 24.5 million...
-based
National Institute of the Korean LanguageThe National Institute of the Korean Language is the language regulator of the Korean language.It was created on January 23, 1991 by Presidential Decree No. 13163 . It is based in Seoul, South Korea....
, which was created by presidential decree on January 23, 1991. In North Korea, the regulatory body is the
Sahoe Kwahagwon Ŏhak Yŏnguso .
Dialects
Korean has several
dialectThe term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by scholars of language. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other...
s (called
mal [literally "speech"],
saturi, or
bang-eon in Korean). The
standard languageA standard language is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status...
(
pyojuneo or
pyojunmal) of South Korea is based on the dialect of the area around
SeoulSeoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest city of South Korea. With a population of over 10 million, it is one of the world's largest cities. The Seoul National Capital Area, which includes the major port city of Incheon and most of Gyeonggi-do, has 24.5 million...
, and the standard for North Korea is based on the dialect spoken around
P'yŏngyangPyongyang is the capital of North Korea, located on the Taedong River. According to preliminary results from the 2008 population census, it has a population of 3,255,388.The city was split from the South P'yŏngan province in 1946...
. All dialects of Korean are similar to each other, and are in fact all mutually intelligible, perhaps with the exception of the dialect of
Jeju IslandJeju-do is the only special autonomous province of South Korea, situated on and coterminous with the country's largest island. Jeju-do lies in the Korea Strait, southwest of Jeollanam-do Province, of which it was a part before it became a separate province in 1946...
(see
Jeju dialectJeju dialect or Jeju language is the dialect used on the island of Jeju in Korea, with the exception of Chuja in former Bukjeju County area of Jeju City. It differs greatly from the dialects of the mainland, and preserves many archaic words which have since been lost in other Korean dialects...
). The dialect spoken in Jeju is in fact classified as a different language by some Korean linguists. One of the most notable differences between dialects is the use of stress: speakers of
Seoul dialectThe Seoul dialect is the basis of the standard language of Korean in South Korea. It is spoken in the Seoul National Capital Area, which includes Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi. The dialect does not merely mean 'a standard accent'. The exact form of the South Korea's standard accent is that of...
use very little stress, and standard South Korean has a very flat intonation; on the other hand, speakers of the
Gyeongsang dialectThe Gyeongsang dialect is a dialect of the Korean language which is widely used in the Yeongnam region, which includes North and South Gyeongsang provinces. The Gyeongsang Dialect is considered the direct descendant of the Silla language by Korean linguists. A highly pronounced intonation...
have a very pronounced intonation.
It is also worth noting that there is substantial evidence for a history of extensive
dialect levellingDialect levelling is the means by which dialect differences decrease. For example, in rural areas of Britain, although English is widely spoken, the pronunciation and grammar have historically varied...
, or even
convergent evolutionConvergent evolution describes the acquisition of the same biological trait in unrelated lineages.The wing is a classic example of convergent evolution in action. Although their last common ancestor did not have wings, birds and bats do, and are capable of powered flight. The wings are similar in...
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, such as South Jeolla dialect /kur/ vs. Standard Korean 입 "mouth" or Gyeongsang dialect vs. Standard Korean "
garlic chivesGarlic chives are also known as Chinese chives, Chinese leek, ku chai, jiu cai, Oriental garlic chives or, in Japanese, nira ; in Kapampangan it is known as Kuse/Cu-se; in Korea known as buchu , sol , or jeongguji or in Vietnamese, hẹ...
." This suggests that the Korean Peninsula may have at one time been much more linguistically diverse than it is at present. See also the
Buyeo languagesBuyeo or Fuyu languages are a hypothetical language family that consists of ancient languages of the northern Korean Peninsula and southern Manchuria and possibly Japan. According to Chinese records, the languages of Buyeo, Goguryeo, Dongye, Okjeo, Baekje—and possibly Gojoseon—were similar...
hypothesisA hypothesis is a proposed explanation for an observable phenomenon. The term derives from the Greek, ὑποτιθέναι - hypotithenai meaning "to put under" or "to suppose." For a hypothesis to be put forward as a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it...
.
There is a very close connection between the dialects of Korean and the
regions of KoreaKorea has traditionally been divided into a number of unofficial regions that reflect historical, geographical, and dialect boundaries within the peninsula...
, since the boundaries of both are largely determined by mountains and seas. Here is a list of traditional dialect names and locations:
| Standard dialect |
Where used |
| Seoul The Seoul dialect is the basis of the standard language of Korean in South Korea. It is spoken in the Seoul National Capital Area, which includes Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi. The dialect does not merely mean 'a standard accent'. The exact form of the South Korea's standard accent is that of...
|
Seoul Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest city of South Korea. With a population of over 10 million, it is one of the world's largest cities. The Seoul National Capital Area, which includes the major port city of Incheon and most of Gyeonggi-do, has 24.5 million...
(서울), IncheonIncheon, officially the Incheon Metropolitan City, is South Korea's third largest metropolis, after Seoul and Busan. As the largest seaport on the west coast and home to the country's largest airport, Incheon International Airport, Incheon is South Korea's most important transport hub...
(인천/仁川), most of Gyeonggi (경기/京畿) |
| P'yŏngan The Pyongan dialect is the basis of the standard language of Korean in North Korea....
(평안/平壤) |
P'yŏngyang Pyongyang is the capital of North Korea, located on the Taedong River. According to preliminary results from the 2008 population census, it has a population of 3,255,388.The city was split from the South P'yŏngan province in 1946...
, P'yŏnganP'yŏngan was one of the Eight Provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. P'yŏngan was located in the northwest of Korea. The provincial capital was P'yŏngyang.-History:P'yŏngan Province was formed in 1413...
region, ChagangChagang is an province in North Korea; it is bordered by China on the north, Ryanggang and South Hamgyong on the east, South P'yŏngan on the south, and North P'yŏngan to the west. Chagang was formed in 1949, when it was separated from North P'yŏngan. The provincial capital is...
(North Korea) |
| Regional dialect |
Where used |
| Gyeonggi |
limited areas of the Gyeonggi region (South Korea) |
| Chungcheong |
Daejeon Daejeon is located in the center of South Korea. It is the fifth largest city in South Korea, with a population of 1,442,856 at the end of 2005. It is at the crossroads of Gyeongbu railway, Honam railway, Gyeongbu Expressway, and Honam Expressway...
, ChungcheongChungcheong was one of the eight provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. Chungcheong was located in the southwest of Korea...
region (South Korea) |
| Gangwon |
Gangwon-do (South Korea)Gangwon-do is a province of South Korea, with its capital at Chuncheon. Before the division of Korea in 1945, Gangwon and its North Korean neighbour Kangwŏn formed a single province.-History:...
/Kangwŏn (North Korea)Kangwŏn is a province of North Korea, with its capital at Wŏnsan. Before the division of Korea in 1945, Kangwŏn and its South Korean neighbour Gangwon-do formed a single province that excluded Wŏnsan.-History:...
|
| Gyeongsang The Gyeongsang dialect is a dialect of the Korean language which is widely used in the Yeongnam region, which includes North and South Gyeongsang provinces. The Gyeongsang Dialect is considered the direct descendant of the Silla language by Korean linguists. A highly pronounced intonation...
|
BusanBusan Metropolitan City, also known as Pusan is the largest port city in South Korea and the fifth largest port in the world. Busan has a population of about 3.6 million. It is South Korea's second largest metropolis, after Seoul. The city is located on the Southeasternmost tip of the Korean...
, DaeguDaegu , also spelled Taegu, and officially called the Daegu Metropolitan City, with over 2.5 million people, is the fourth largest city in South Korea after Seoul, Busan, and Incheon...
, UlsanUlsan, officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's seventh largest metropolis with a population of over 1.1 million. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighboring Busan to the south and facing the Sea of Japan to the east.Ulsan is the industrial powerhouse of South...
, GyeongsangGyeongsang was one of the eight provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. Gyeongsang was located in the southeast of Korea....
region (South Korea) |
| Hamgyŏng Hamgyŏng dialect is a dialect of the Korean language used in the North Hamgyŏng, South Hamgyŏng, and Ryanggang Provinces of North Korea, as well as the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of northeast China...
|
RasŏnRasŏn is a North-Korean city in the Kwanbuk region. In 2000 the name was shortened from "Rajin-Sŏnbong" to "Rasŏn". From 1993 to 2004 was administered separately from North Hamgyŏng as the Directly Governed City of Rasŏn. Prior to 1993 the city had been part of the North Hamgyŏng Province. Since...
, HamgyŏngHamgyŏng was one of the Eight Provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. Hamgyŏng was located in the northeast of Korea. The provincial capital was Hamhŭng.-History:...
region, RyanggangRyanggang is a province in North Korea. The province is bordered by China on the north, North Hamgyong on the east, South Hamgyong on the south, and Chagang on the west. Ryanggang was formed in 1954, when it was separated from South Hamgyŏng. The provincial capital is Hyesan...
(North Korea) |
| Hwanghae |
Hwanghae Hwanghae was one of the Eight Provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty, and one of the thirteen provinces of Korea during the Japanese Colonial Period. Hwanghae was located in the northwest of Korea. The provincial capital was Haeju....
region (North Korea) |
| Jeju Jeju dialect or Jeju language is the dialect used on the island of Jeju in Korea, with the exception of Chuja in former Bukjeju County area of Jeju City. It differs greatly from the dialects of the mainland, and preserves many archaic words which have since been lost in other Korean dialects...
|
Jeju Island/ProvinceJeju-do is the only special autonomous province of South Korea, situated on and coterminous with the country's largest island. Jeju-do lies in the Korea Strait, southwest of Jeollanam-do Province, of which it was a part before it became a separate province in 1946...
(South Korea) |
| Jeolla Jeolla dialect is used in the Jeolla region of South Korea, including the city of Gwangju.Along with Chungcheong dialect, it is considered non-standard by some Koreans. Perhaps the most obvious difference comes from common verb endings...
|
Gwangju Gwangju Metropolitan City is the sixth largest city in South Korea. It is a designated metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home Minister...
, JeollaJeolla was one of the eight provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. Jeolla was located in the southwest of Korea. The provincial capital was Jeonju.-History:...
region (South Korea) |
Consonants
|
BilabialIn phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...
|
AlveolarAlveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
|
Post-
alveolarPostalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate .Among the fricatives and affricates, a subtype called...
|
VelarVelars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....
|
GlottalGlottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricatives, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider...
|
| Nasal A nasal consonant is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The oral cavity still acts as a resonance chamber for the sound, but the air does not escape through the mouth as it is blocked by the lips or tongue...
|
|
| |
| |
Plosive
and
AffricateAffricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :...
|
plain |
|
|
|
| |
| tense |
|
|
|
| |
| aspirated |
|
|
|
| |
| Fricative Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or...
|
plain |
|
| |
|
|
| tense |
|
| |
|
|
| Liquid Liquid consonants, or liquids, are trills, taps, or approximant consonants that are not classified as semivowels because they do not correspond phonetically to specific vowels .The class of liquids can be divided into lateral liquids and rhotics...
|
|
| |
|
The
IPAThe International Phonetic Alphabet
["The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...]
symbol <> (a subscript double straight quotation mark, shown here with a placeholder circle) is used to denote the tensed consonants . Its official use in the Extensions to the IPA is for
'strong'Fortis and lenis are linguistic terms. They refer in a vague way to the opposition between "stronger" and "weaker" consonants, such as the distinction between p, t and b, d...
articulation, but is used in the literature for
faucalized voiceFaucalized voice, also called hollow or yawny voice, is the production of speech sounds with an expanded laryngeal cavity. It contrasts with harsh voice, in which the larynx is compressed....
. The Korean consonants also have elements of
stiff voiceThe term stiff voice describes the pronunciation of consonants with a glottal opening narrower, and the vocal cords stiffer, than what occurs in modal voice...
, but it is not yet known how typical this is of faucalized consonants. They are produced with a partially constricted
glottisThe glottis is defined as the combination of the vocal folds and the space in between the folds .-Function:As the vocal folds vibrate, the resulting vibration produces a "buzzing" quality to the speech, called voice or voicing or pronunciation.Sound production involving only the glottis is called...
and additional subglottal pressure in addition to tense vocal tract walls, laryngeal lowering, or other expansion of the larynx.
Vowels
| Monophthongs |
|
Vowels preceded by intermediaries,
or Diphthongs |
|
Allophones
becomes an
alveolo-palatalIn phonetics, alveolo-palatal consonants are palatalized postalveolar fricatives, articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue raised toward the palate...
before or for most speakers (but see Differences in the language between North Korea and South Korea). 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').
may become a
bilabialIn phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...
before or , a
palatalPalatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...
before or , a
velarVelars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....
before , a voiced between voiced sounds, and a elsewhere.
become voiced between voiced sounds.
becomes alveolar flap between vowels, and or at the end of a syllable or next to another . 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 .
Traditionally, was disallowed at the beginning of a word. It disappeared before , and otherwise became . However, the inflow of western loanword changed the trend, and now word-initial (mostly from English loanwords) are pronounced as a free variation of either or . The traditional prohibition of word-initial became a morphological rule called "initial law" (두음법칙) in South Korea, which pertains to Sino-Korean vocabulary. Such words retain their word-initial in North Korea.
All
obstruentAn obstruent is a consonant sound formed by obstructing airflow, causing increased air pressure in the vocal tract. In phonetics, articulation may be divided into two large classes, obstruents and sonorants....
s (plosives, affricates, fricatives) are
unreleasedAn unreleased stop or unreleased plosive is a plosive consonant without an audible release burst. That is, the oral tract is blocked to pronounce the consonant, and there is no audible indication of when that occlusion ends...
at the end of a word.
Plosive stops become nasal stops before nasal stops.
HangulHangul is the native alphabet of the Korean language, as distinguished from the logographic Sino-Korean hanja system...
spelling does not reflect these assimilatory pronunciation rules, but rather maintains the underlying, partly historical
morphologyMorphology is the identification, analysis and description of the structure of words . While words are generally accepted as being the smallest units of syntax, it is clear that in most languages, words can be related to other words by rules...
. 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 , and initial . For example,
- "labour" - north: rodong (로동), south: nodong (노동)
- "history" - north: ryŏksa (력사), south: yeoksa (역사)
- "female" - north: nyŏja (녀자), south: yeoja (여자)
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 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.
Sentence structure
Korean is an
agglutinative languageAn agglutinative language is a language that uses agglutination extensively: most words are formed by joining morphemes together. This term was introduced by Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1836 to classify languages from a morphological point of view...
. Modifiers generally precede the modified words, and in the case of verb modifiers, can be serially appended. The basic form of a Korean sentence is
Subject Object VerbIn linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb is the type of languages in which the subject, object, and verb of a sentence appear or usually appear in that order...
, but the verb is the only required and immovable element.
| A: |
|
가게-에 |
|
갔어-요? (가았어요?) |
| |
|
kage-e |
|
kasseo-yo |
| |
|
store + [location marker (에)] |
|
[go (verb root) (가)]+[conjunctive (아)]+[past (ㅆ)]+[conjunctive (어)]+ [polite marker (요)] |
- "Did [you] go to the store?" ("you" implied in conversation)
- "Yes."
Verb
Korean
verbkalleah hit meIn syntax, a verb is a word that usually denotes an action , an occurrence , or a state of being . Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its tense, aspect, mood and voice...
s are also known in English as "action verbs" or "dynamic verbs" to distinguish them from [,
hyeong-yongsa, "adjectives"]), which are also known as "descriptive verbs" or "stative verbs". Examples of action/dynamic verbs include (
hada, "to do") and (
kada, "to go") which constitute an action or movement as opposed to descriptive verbs such as (
yehppeuda, "to be beautiful"). For a larger list of Korean verbs, see wikt:Category:Korean verbs.
Unlike most of the European languages, Korean does not conjugate verbs using agreement with the subject, and nouns have no gender. Instead, verb conjugations depend upon the verb tense, aspect, mood, and the social relation between the speaker, the subjects, and the listeners.
The system of speech levels and honorifics loosely resembles the
T-V distinctionIn sociolinguistics, a T-V distinction describes the situation wherein a language has second-person pronouns that distinguish varying levels of politeness, social distance, courtesy, familiarity, or insult toward the addressee.-History and usage:...
of most
Indo-European languagesThe Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, Iran, and northern India, and historically also predominant in Anatolia and Central Asia...
. For example, different endings are used depending on the speaker's relation with their subject or audience. Politeness is a critical part of Korean language and Korean culture, therefore, when talking to someone esteemed, the correct verb ending must be chosen to indicate the proper respect.
Adjective
Words categorized as Korean
adjectiveIn grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's referent...
s conjugate similarly to verbs, so some English texts call them "descriptive verbs" or "
stative verbA stative verb is one which asserts that one of its arguments has a particular property . Statives differ from other aspectual classes of verbs in that they are static; they have no duration and no distinguished endpoint...
s", but they are distinctly separate from (
tongsa).
English does not have an identical grammatical category, so the English translation of Korean adjectives may misleadingly suggest that they are verbs. For example, (
pukda) translates literally as "to be red" and (
aswipda) often best translates as "to lack" or "to want for", but both are (
hyeong-yongsa, "adjectives"). For a larger list of Korean adjectives, see wikt:Category:Korean adjectives.
Determiner
Korean
determinersA determiner is a noun modifier that expresses the reference of a noun or noun phrase in the context, including quantity, rather than attributes expressed by adjectives...
are also known in English as "determinatives", "adnominals", "pre-nouns", "attributives", and "unconjugated adjectives". Examples include (
kak, "each"). For a larger list, see wikt:Category:Korean determiners.
Noun
Core and basic noun words are native to the Korean language, e.g. (
nara, country), (
nal, day). A large body of Korean
nounIn linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
s stem from
Chinese charactersHanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation...
, e.g. (山,
san, mountain), (驛,
yeok, station), (文化,
munhwa, culture), etc. Many Sino-Korean words have a native Korean equivalent and vice versa, but not always. Nouns do not have
grammatical genderIn linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once....
and can be made
pluralPlural, commonly abbreviated pl., is a grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the referent in the real world. In the English language, singular and plural are the only grammatical numbers.-English:...
by adding 들 to the end of the word, however in most instances the
singularSingular may refer to:* A grammatical number denoting a unit quantity * SINGULAR, a computer algebra system* gravitational singularity* technological singularity...
form is used even when in English it would be translated as plural. For example, while in English the sentence
"there are three apples" would use the plural
"apples" instead of the singular
"apple", the Korean sentence 사과 세개 있습니다 (
sagwa segae isssumnida) maintains the word 사과 (
sagwa, "apple") in its singular form, thus rendered in English as "apple three(things) exist." For a list of Korean nouns, see wikt:Category:Korean nouns.
Pronoun
Korean
pronounIn linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English...
s are highly influenced by the honorifics in the language. Pronouns change forms depending on the social status of the person or persons spoken to, e.g. the pronoun for "I" there is both the informal (
na) and the honorific/humble (
jeo). In general second person singular pronouns are avoided, especially when using honorific forms. For a larger list or Korean pronouns, see wikt:Category:Korean pronouns.
Adverb
Korean
adverbAn adverb is a part of speech. It is any word that modifies any other part of language, except for nouns: verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences and other adverbs. Modifiers of nouns are primarily determiners and adjectives....
s include (
tto, "also") and (
gadeuk, "fully"). For a larger list, see wikt:Category:Korean adverbs.
Particle
Korean
particlesA particle, in grammar, is a function word that is not assignable to any of the traditional grammatical word classes . The term is a catch-all term for a heterogeneous set of elements and lacks a precise universal definition...
are also known in English as "
postpositionsIn grammar, a preposition is a part of speech that introduces a prepositional phrase. For example, in the sentence "The cat sleeps on the sofa", the word "on" is a preposition, introducing the prepositional phrase "on the sofa". In English, the most used prepositions are "of", "to", "in", "for",...
". Examples include (
neun, topic marker) and (
reul, object marker). For a larger list, see wikt:Category:Korean particles.
Interjection
Korean
interjectionAn interjection or exclamation describes a noun with a grammatical connection with the rest of the sentence and simply expresses emotion on the part of the speaker, although most interjections have clear definitions...
s are also known in English as "exclamations". Examples include (
ani, "no"). For a larger list, see wikt:Category:Korean interjections.
Number
Korean
numberA number is a mathematical object used in counting and measuring. A notational symbol which represents a number is called a numeral, but in common usage the word number is used for both the abstract object and the symbol, as well as for the word for the number...
s or numerals constitute two regularly used sets: a native Korean set and a Sino-Korean set. The Sino-Korean system is nearly entirely based on the
Chinese numeralsChinese numerals are characters for writing numbers in Chinese. Today, speakers of Chinese use three numeral systems:the ubiquitous system of Arabic numerals, along with two ancient Chinese numeral systems....
. The distinction between the two numeral systems is very important. Everything that can be counted will use one of the two systems, but seldom both. Sino-Korean words are sometimes used to mark ordinal usage: yeol beon (열 번) means "ten times" while sip beon (십(十) 번(番)) means "number ten." The grouping of large numbers in Korean follow the Chinese tradition of myriads (10000) rather than thousands (1000) as is common in Europe and North America.
Speech levels and honorifics
The relationship between a speaker or writer and his or her subject and audience is paramount in Korean, and the grammar reflects this. The relationship between speaker/writer and subject referent is reflected in
honorificAn honorific is a word or expression that conveys esteem or respect when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes the term is used not quite correctly to refer to a title of honor...
s, while 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 he/she is 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 he/she is 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. They are made for easier and faster use of Korean.
Speech levels
There are seven verb
paradigmThe word paradigm has been used in linguistics and science to describe distinct concepts....
s 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. Unlike honorifics—which are used to show respect towards the referent—
speech levels are used to show respect towards a speaker's or writer's audience. The names of the seven levels are derived from the non-honorific
imperativeImperative can mean:*Imperative mood, a grammatical mood expressing commands, direct requests, and prohibitions * A morphological item expressing commands, direct requests, and prohibitions...
form of the verb 하다 (
hada, "do") in each level, plus the suffix 체 ("che",
hanjaHanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation...
:
體), which means "style".
The highest six levels are generally grouped together as
jondaenmal (존댓말), while the lowest level (
haeche, 해체) is called
banmal (반말) in Korean.
Vocabulary
The core of the Korean vocabulary is made up of native Korean words. Like Japanese and Vietnamese, a significant proportion of the vocabulary, especially words that denote abstract ideas, are Sino-Korean words, either
- directly borrowed from Written Chinese, or
- coined in Japan or Korea using Chinese characters,
in a similar way European languages borrow from Latin and Greek.
The exact proportion of Sino-Korean vocabulary is a matter of debate. Sohn (2001) stated 50-60%. However, Jeong Jae-do, one of the compilers of the dictionary
Urimal Kun Sajeon, asserts that the proportion is not so high. He points out that Korean dictionaries compiled during the
period of Japanese ruleKorea was under Japanese rule as part of Japan's 35-year imperialist expansion . Formally, Japanese rule ended on September 2, 1945 upon the Japanese defeat in World War II in 1945....
include many unused Sino-Korean words. In his estimation, the proportion of native Korean vocabulary in the Korean language might be as high as 70%.
Korean has two
number systemsThe Korean language has two regularly used sets of numerals, a Sino-Korean system and a native Korean system.-Construction:For both native and Sino-Korean numerals, the teens are represented by a combination of tens and the ones places...
: one native, and one borrowed from Chinese.
To a much lesser extent, words have also occasionally been borrowed from
MongolianThe Mongolian language is the best-known member of the Mongolic language family. It has about 5.7 million speakers, including over 90% of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region of China...
,
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
, and other languages. Conversely, the Korean language itself has also contributed some loanwords to other languages, most notably the Tsushima dialect of Japanese.
The vast majority of loanwords other than Sino-Korean come from modern times, 90% of which are from
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
. Many words have also been borrowed from
Japaneseis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none have gained general acceptance...
and Western languages such as
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
(
areubaiteu "part-time job",
allereugi "allergy", "gibsu" "plaster cast used for broken bones"). Some Western words were borrowed indirectly via Japanese, taking a Japanese sound pattern, for example "dozen" >
dāsu >
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 for Germany), the first part of whose
endonymAn exonym is a name for a place or a personal name that is not used within that place or for that person by the local inhabitants , or a name for a people or language that is not used by the people or language to which it refers...
the Japanese approximated using the
kanjiare the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet . The Japanese term kanji literally means "Han characters".- History :Chinese characters first came to Japan on...
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 Hangulizations of the countries' endonyms or English names.
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 (mostly Chinese) influences on the Korean language in the North. By contrast, South Korean may have several Sino-Korean or foreign borrowings which tend to be absent in North Korean.
Writing system
Formerly the languages of the Korean peninsula were written using
Chinese characterA Chinese character, also known as a Han character , is a logogram used in writing Chinese , Japanese , less frequently Korean , and formerly Vietnamese , and other languages...
s, using
hyangchalHyangchal is an archaic writing system of Korea and was used to transcribe the Korean language in hanja. Under the hyangchal system, Chinese characters were given a Korean reading based on the syllable associated with the character. The hyangchal writing system is often classified as a...
or
iduIdu is an archaic writing system that represents the Korean language using hanja. The term "idu" is used in two senses. It may refer to various systems of representing Korean phonology through Chinese characters, which were used from the Three Kingdoms to Joseon periods. In this sense it includes...
. Such systems were not popular because hanja was regulated to use by the ruling elite, and is not easily matched to the Korean spoken language. Its use is now limited to 1,800 characters taught at the high school level.
Korean is now mainly written in Hangul, the Korean alphabet promulgated in 1446 by
Sejong the GreatSejong the Great was the Third king of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea. He is best remembered for creating the Korean alphabet Hangul, despite strong opposition from the scholars educated in hanja...
;
hanja may be mixed inKorean mixed script is a form of writing that uses both Hangul and hanja .The script has never been used for languages other than Korean. In North Korea, writing in mixed script was replaced by writing only in Hangul in the middle of the 20th century and has not been used since...
to write Sino-Korean words. While South Korea schools still teach 1,800 hanja characters, North Korea had abolished the use of hanja decades ago.
Below is a chart of the Korean alphabet's symbols and their canonical
IPAThe International Phonetic Alphabet
["The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...]
values:
Consonants
HangulHangul is the native alphabet of the Korean language, as distinguished from the logographic Sino-Korean hanja system...
|
ㅂ |
ㄷ |
ㅈ |
ㄱ |
ㅃ |
ㄸ |
ㅉ |
ㄲ |
ㅍ |
ㅌ |
ㅊ |
ㅋ |
ㅅ |
ㅎ |
ㅆ |
ㅁ |
ㄴ |
ㅇ |
|
ㄹ |
|
| RR The Revised Romanization of Korean is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea, used as a replacement for the 1984 McCune-Reischauer–based romanization system...
|
b,p |
d,t |
j |
g,k |
pp |
tt |
jj |
kk |
p |
t |
ch |
k |
s |
h |
ss |
m |
n |
ng |
|
r,l |
|
IPAThe International Phonetic Alphabet ["The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Vowels
HangulHangul is the native alphabet of the Korean language, as distinguished from the logographic Sino-Korean hanja system...
|
ㅣ |
ㅔ |
ㅚ |
ㅐ |
ㅏ |
ㅗ |
ㅜ |
ㅓ |
ㅡ |
ㅢ |
ㅖ |
ㅒ |
ㅑ |
ㅛ |
ㅠ |
ㅕ |
ㅟ |
ㅞ |
ㅙ |
ㅘ |
ㅝ |
| RR The Revised Romanization of Korean is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea, used as a replacement for the 1984 McCune-Reischauer–based romanization system...
|
i |
e |
oe |
ae |
a |
o |
u |
eo |
eu |
ui |
ye |
yae |
ya |
yo |
yu |
yeo |
wi |
we |
wae |
wa |
wo |
IPAThe International Phonetic Alphabet ["The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Modern Korean is written with
spaceIn writing, a space is a blank area devoid of content, serving to separate words, letters, numbers, and punctuation. Conventions for interword and intersentence spaces vary among languages, and in some cases the spacing rules are quite complex....
s between
wordA word is the smallest free form in a language, in contrast to a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning. A word may consist of only one morpheme , but a single morpheme may not be able to exist as a free form A word is the smallest free form (an item that may be uttered in isolation with...
s, a feature not found in Chinese or Japanese. Korean
punctuationPunctuation is everything in written language other than the actual letters or numbers, white space, and indentation.Punctuation marks are symbols that correspond to neither phonemes of a language nor to lexemes , but which serve to indicate the structure and organization of writing, as well as...
marks are almost identical to Western ones. Traditionally, Korean was written in columns from top to bottom, right to left, but is now usually written in rows from left to right, top to bottom.
Differences between North Korean and South Korean
The Korean language used in the North and the South exhibits differences in pronunciation, spelling, grammar and vocabulary.
Pronunciation
In North Korea,
palatalizationPalatalization or palatalisation generally refers to two phenomena:*As a process or the result of a process, the effect that front vowels and the palatal approximant frequently have on consonants;...
of is optional, and can be pronounced 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 RomanizationThe Revised Romanization of Korean is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea, used as a replacement for the 1984 McCune-Reischauer–based romanization system...
,
McCune-ReischauerMcCune–Reischauer romanization is one of the two most widely used Korean language romanization systems, along with the Revised Romanization of Korean, which replaced McCune–Reischauer as the official romanization system in South Korea in 2000...
and Hangul, the last of which represents what the Hangul would be if one writes the word as pronounced.
| Word |
Meaning |
Pronunciation |
| North (RR/MR) |
North (Hangul) |
South (RR/MR) |
South (Hangul) |
| 넓다 |
wide |
neoltta (nŏlta) |
널따 |
neoptta (nŏpta) |
넙따 |
| 읽고 |
to read
(continuative form) |
ilko (ilko) |
일코 |
ilkko (ilkko) |
일꼬 |
| 압록강 |
Amnok RiverThe Yalu River or the Amnok River is a river on the border between China and North Korea. The Chinese name comes from a Manchu word meaning "the boundary between two countries"...
|
amrokgang (amrokkang) |
암록깡 |
amnokkang (amnokkang) |
암녹깡 |
| 독립 |
independence |
dongrip (tongrip) |
동립 |
dongnip (tongnip) |
동닙 |
| 관념 |
idea / sense / conception |
gwallyeom (kwallyŏm) |
괄렴 |
gwannyeom (kwannyŏm) |
관념 |
| 혁신적* |
innovative |
hyeoksinjjeok (hyŏksintchŏk) |
혁씬쩍 |
hyeoksinjeok (hyŏksinjŏk) |
혁씬적 |
* Similar pronunciation is used in the North 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
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 |
|
|
| sunshine |
haeppit (haepit) |
The "sai siot" ('ㅅ' used for indicating sound change) is almost never written out in the North. |
|
|
| cherry blossom |
beotkkot (pŏtkkot) |
|
|
|
| cannot read |
monnikda (monnikta) |
Spacing. |
|
|
| HallasanHallasan is a shield volcano on Jeju Island of South Korea. Hallasan is the highest mountain of South Korea. The area around the mountain is a designated national park, the Hallasan National Park...
|
hallasan (hallasan) |
When a ㄴ-ㄴ combination is pronounced as ll, the original Hangul spelling is kept in the North, while the Hangul is changed in the South. |
|
|
| 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
Some words have different spellings and pronunciations in the North and the South, some of which were given in the "Phonology" section above:
| Word |
Meaning |
Remarks |
| North spelling |
North pronun. |
South spelling |
South pronun. |
|
| ryeongryang (ryŏngryang) |
| yeongnyang (yŏngnyang) |
strength |
Initial rs are dropped if followed by i or y in the South Korean version of Korean. |
|
| rodong (rodong) |
| nodong (nodong) |
work |
Initial rs are demoted to an n if not followed by i or y in the South Korean version of Korean. |
|
| wonssu (wŏnssu) |
| wonsu (wŏnsu) |
mortal enemy |
"Mortal enemy" and "head of state" are homophones in the South. Possibly to avoid referring to Kim Il-sung Kim Il-sung was a Korean communist politician who led North Korea from its founding in 1948 until his death. He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to his death. He was also the General Secretary of the Workers Party of Korea, exercising autocratic power...
/ Kim Jong-ilKim Jong-il is the paramount leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea...
as the enemy, the second syllable of "enemy" is written and pronounced 쑤 in the North. |
|
| rajio (rajio) |
| radio (radio) |
radio |
|
|
| u (u) |
| wi (wi) |
on; above |
|
|
| anhae (anhae) |
| anae (anae) |
wife |
|
|
| kkuba (kkuba) |
| kuba (k'uba) |
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. Cuba is home to over 11 million people and is...
|
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 constant, such as in hye and pye, it is pronounced without the palatal approximate. North Korean orthography reflect 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 |
Pronunciaton |
UlaanbaatarUlan Bator, or Ulaanbaatar , is the capital and largest city of Mongolia. The city is an independent municipality not part of any province, and its population as of 2008 is just over 1 million....
|
울란바따르 |
ullanbattareu (ullanbattarŭ) |
Ulan Bator |
울란바토르 |
ullanbatoreu (ullanbat'orŭ) |
| København |
쾨뻰하븐 |
koeppenhabeun (k'oeppenhabŭn) |
CopenhagenCopenhagen ; ) is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban area with a population of 1,167,569 and a metropolitan area with a population of 1,875,179...
|
코펜하겐 |
kopenhagen (k'op'enhagen) |
| al-Qāhirah |
까히라 |
kkahira (kkahira) |
CairoCairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life...
|
카이로 |
kairo (k'airo) |
Grammar
Some grammatical constructions are also different:
| Word |
Meaning |
Remarks |
| North spelling |
North pronun. |
South spelling |
South pronun. |
|
| doeyeotda (toeyŏtta) |
| 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. |
|
| gomawayo (komawayo) |
| 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. |
|
| halgayo (halkayo) |
| halkkayo (halkkayo) |
Shall we do? |
Although the Hangul differ, the pronunciations are the same (i.e. with the tensed ㄲ sound). |
Vocabulary
Some vocabulary is different between the North and the South:
| Word |
Meaning |
Remarks |
| North spelling |
North pronun. |
South spelling |
South pronun. |
|
| munhwajutaek (munhwajut'aek) |
| apateu (ap'at'ŭ) |
Apartment |
|
|
| joseonmal (chosŏnmal) |
| han-gugeo(han'gugeo) |
Korean language |
|
|
| gwakbap (kwakpap) |
| dosirak (tosirak) |
lunch box |
|
Others
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 sometimes used in popular novels.
Study by non-native speakers
The
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
'
Defense Language InstituteThe Defense Language Institute is a United States Department of Defense educational and research institution, which provides linguistic and cultural instruction to the Department of Defense, other Federal Agencies and numerous and varied other customers...
classifies Korean alongside Arabic,
ChineseChinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, and
Japaneseis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none have gained general acceptance...
as a Category IV language, meaning that 63 weeks of instruction (as compared to just 25 weeks for
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
,
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
,
PortuguesePortuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and northern Portugal. It is derived from the Latin spoken by the romanized Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago...
, and
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
) are required to bring an English-speaking student to a limited working level of proficiency in which he or she has "sufficient capability to meet routine social demands and limited job requirements" and "can deal with concrete topics in past, present, and future tense." As a result, the study of the Korean language in the United States is dominated by
Korean AmericanKorean Americans are Americans of Korean descent. The Korean American community is the fifth largest Asian American subgroup, after the Chinese American, Filipino American, Indian American, and Vietnamese American communities...
heritage language students; they are estimated to form over 80% of all students of the language at non-military universities.
However, Korean is considerably easier for speakers of certain other languages, such as Japanese; in Japan, it is more widely studied by non-heritage learners. The
Korean Language Proficiency TestThe Korean Language Proficiency Test, or KLPT, tests people who are not native speakers of Korean on their grasp of the language. The goal is to determine whether the test-taker is proficient enough to live in Korea, work as an employee at a Korean company, etc...
, 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.
See also
- Hangul
Hangul is the native alphabet of the Korean language, as distinguished from the logographic Sino-Korean hanja system...
- Korean romanization
Korean romanization is a system for representing the Korean language using the Roman alphabet. In Korea, the Korean language is written using hangul, and sometimes hanja.-Systems:Many romanization schemes are in common use:...
- Revised romanization of Korean
The Revised Romanization of Korean is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea, used as a replacement for the 1984 McCune-Reischauer–based romanization system...
- McCune-Reischauer
McCune–Reischauer romanization is one of the two most widely used Korean language romanization systems, along with the Revised Romanization of Korean, which replaced McCune–Reischauer as the official romanization system in South Korea in 2000...
- Yale Romanization#Korean
- SKATS
SKATS stands for Standard Korean Alphabet Transliteration System. It is also known as Korean morse equivalents. Despite the name, SKATS is not a true transliteration system. SKATS maps the hangul characters through to the same codes in Morse code and back to their equivalents in the Roman alphabet...
- Korean numerals
The Korean language has two regularly used sets of numerals, a Sino-Korean system and a native Korean system.-Construction:For both native and Sino-Korean numerals, the teens are represented by a combination of tens and the ones places...
- Korean count word
Like Japanese and Chinese, Korean uses special measure or counting words to count objects and events, in Korean: 수분류사 .In English, one must say, "two sheets of paper" rather than "two papers". In Korean, the term jang is used to count sheets, or paper-like material in general...
- Korean language and computers
This article addresses how computers are used to read and write Korean, using Hangul.-Character encodings:In RFC 1557, a method known as ISO-2022-KR for a 7-bit encoding of Korean characters in email was described...
- Hanja
Hanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation...
- Sino-Korean vocabulary
- Korean mixed script
Korean mixed script is a form of writing that uses both Hangul and hanja .The script has never been used for languages other than Korean. In North Korea, writing in mixed script was replaced by writing only in Hangul in the middle of the 20th century and has not been used since...
- List of English words of Korean origin
- Altaic languages
Altaic is a language family that is generally held by its proponents to include the Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Korean, and Japonic language families . These languages are spoken in a wide arc stretching from northeast Asia through Central Asia to Anatolia and eastern Europe...
- List of Korea-related topics
- Vowel harmony
Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on what vowels may be found near each other....
External links