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Korean language
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Korean (see below) is the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers. It was formerly written using Hanja, borrowed Chinese characters pronounced in the Korean way. In the 15th century a national writing system was developed by Sejong the Great, nowadays called Hangul.
The genealogical classification of the Korean language is debated.
Discussion
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Encyclopedia
Korean (see below) is the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers. It was formerly written using Hanja, borrowed Chinese characters pronounced in the Korean way. In the 15th century a national writing system was developed by Sejong the Great, nowadays called Hangul.
The genealogical classification of the Korean language is debated. Some linguists place it in the Altaic language family, while others consider it to be a language isolate. It is agglutinative in its morphology and SOV in its syntax.
Names
The Korean names for the language are based on the names for Korea used in North and South Korea.
In South Korea, the language is most often called Hangungmal
(; ), or more formally, Hangugeo (; ) or Gugeo (; ; literally "national language").
In North Korea and Yanbian in China, the language is most often called Chosonmal (; with hanja: ), or more formally, Chosono (; ).
On the other hand, Korean people in the former USSR, who refer to themselves as Koryo-saram (also Goryeoin [; ; literally, "Goryeo person(s)"]) call the language Goryeomal (; ).
In mainland China, following the establishment of diplomatic relations with South Korea in 1992, the term Cháoxianyu ( or short form: Cháoyu ) has normally been used to refer to the language spoken in North Korea and Yanbian, while Hánguóyu ( or short form: Hányu ) 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.
History
Korean is descended from Old Korean and Middle Korean.
Classification
The classification of the modern Korean language is uncertain, and due to the lack of any one generally accepted theory, it is sometimes described conservatively as a language isolate.
On the other hand, since the publication of the article of Ramstedt in 1926, many linguists support the hypothesis that Korean can be classified as an Altaic language, or as a relative of proto-Altaic. Korean is similar to Altaic languages in that they both lack certain grammatical elements, including number, gender, articles, fusional morphology, voice, and relative pronouns (Kim Namkil). Korean especially bears some morphological resemblance to some languages of the Northern Turkic group, namely Sakha (Yakut). Vinokurova, a scholar of the Sakha language, noted that like in Korean, and unlike in other Turkic languages or a variety of other languages surveyed, adverbs in Sakha are derived from verbs with the help of derivational morphology; however, she did not suggest this implied any relation between the two languages.
It is also considered likely that Korean is related in some way to Japanese, since the two languages have nearly identical grammatical structures, and share a number of possible phonological cognates (though a majority of them are likely due to local pronunciations of the Chinese characters from which they are derived), as noted by such researchers as Samuel E. Martin and Roy Andrew Miller in the late 1960s. Sergei Starostin (1991) found about 25% of potential cognates in the Japanese-Korean 100-word Swadesh list, which places these two languages closer together than other possible members of the Altaic family.
Genetic relationships have been postulated both directly and indirectly, the latter either through placing both languages in the Altaic family, or by arguing for a relationship between Japanese and the Buyeo languages of Goguryeo and Baekje (see below); the proposed Baekje relationship is supported by cognates such as Baekje mir, Japanese mi- "three".
The possible relationship between Korean and Japanese can be exemplified by such basic vocabularly items as J. ? mizu (Old J. midu) : K. ? mul (Middle K. mirh) "water", mot "lake"; J. ?? ku-ru "come" (Old J. ku, also cf. irregular root changes as in past tense ?? ki-ta, negative ??? ko-nai in Modern J.) : K. ?? ka-da ("go"); J. ?? kata-i "hard" (whence ? kata-na "knife, sword") : K. kud-yn (hard); J. ?? i-ru "to be" (past tense ?? i-ta) : K. ?? i-da "to be"; J. na, -en : K. anh "not", J. minna (Old J. mynna) "all, everyone" : K. manh- "many" (predicate mana-da), etc. . The same possible cognates are often observed in other members of the potential Altaic family, esp. in the Tungusic languages. Cf. Nanay mue "water", giagda- "to walk", anaa, anna "not".
Others argue, however, that the similarities are not due to any genetic relationship, but rather to a sprachbund effect. See East Asian languages for morphological features shared among languages of the East Asian sprachbund, and Classification of Japanese for further details on the possible relationship. However, it is very difficult to argue that similarities in such key terms like "water" and the verbs "to be" "to go" would arise from sprachbund effects.
It is presumed that modern Korean may be more closely related to the languages of Samhan and Silla than the Buyeo languages; many Korean scholars believe they were mutually intelligible, and the collective basis of what in the Goryeo period would merge to become Middle Korean (the language before the changes that the Seven-Year War brought) and eventually Modern Korean. The Jeju dialect preserves some archaic features that can also be found in Middle Korean, whose arae a is retained in the dialect as a distinct vowel.
There are also more marginal hypotheses proposing various other relationships; for example, a few scholars, such as (1905), have tried to relate Korean to the Dravidian languages through the similar syntax in both.
Though not related to Chinese, it has borrowed heavily; see the Vocabulary section below.
Dialects
Korean has several dialects (called mal [literally "speech"], saturi, or bang-eon in Korean). The standard language (pyojuneo or pyojunmal) of South Korea is based on the dialect of the area around Seoul, and the standard for North Korea is based on the dialect spoken around P'yongyang. 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 Island (see Jeju dialect). 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 dialect use very little stress, and standard South Korean has a very flat intonation; on the other hand, speakers of the Gyeongsang dialect have a very pronounced intonation.
It is also worth noting that 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, such as South Jeolla dialect /kur/ vs. Standard Korean ? "mouth" or Gyeongsang dialect vs. Standard Korean "garlic chives." 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 languages hypothesis.
There is a very close connection between the dialects of Korean and the regions of Korea, 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 | Seoul, Incheon (??/??), most of Gyeonggi (??/??) | | P'yongan (??/??) | P'yongyang, P'yongan region, Chagang (North Korea) | | Regional dialect | Where used |
|---|
| Gyeonggi | limited areas of the Gyeonggi region (South Korea) | | Chungcheong | Daejeon, Chungcheong region (South Korea) | | Gangwon | Gangwon-do (South Korea)/Kangwon (North Korea) | | Gyeongsang | Busan, Daegu, Ulsan, Gyeongsang region (South Korea) | | Hamgyong | Rason, Hamgyong region, Ryanggang (North Korea) | | Hwanghae | Hwanghae region (North Korea) | | Jeju | Jeju Island/Province (South Korea) | | Jeolla | Gwangju, Jeolla region (South Korea) |
Phonology
Consonants
The IPA 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' 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.
Vowels
| Monophthongs | |
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Vowels preceded by intermediaries,
or Diphthongs | |
|---|
Allophones
becomes an alveolo-palatal 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 'mushroom').
may become a bilabial before or , a palatal before or , a velar 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 '?', when followed by a vowel or a glide (i.e., when the next character starts with '?'), 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" in South Korea, which pertains to Sino-Korean vocabulary. Such words retain their word-initial in North Korea.
All obstruents (plosives, affricates, fricatives) are unreleased at the end of a word.
Plosive stops become nasal stops before nasal stops.
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 , and initial . For example,
- "labour" - north: rodong, south: nodong
- "history" - north: ryoksa, south: yeoksa
- "female" - north: nyoja, south: yeoja
Morphophonemics
Grammatical morphemes may change shape depending on the preceding sounds. Examples include -eun/-neun (-?/-?) and -i/-ga (-?/-?). Sometimes sounds may be inserted instead. Examples include -eul/-reul (-?/-?), -euro/-ro (-??/-?), -eseo/-seo (-??/-?), -ideunji/-deunji (-???/-??) and -iya/-ya (-??/-?). 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 (-?) | | -eun (-?) | -neun (-?) | | -i (-?) | -ga (-?) | | -eul (-?) | -reul (-?) | | -gwa (-?) | -wa (-?) | | -euro (-??) | -ro (-?) |
Some verbs may also change shape morphophonemically.
Grammar
Sentence structure
Korean is an agglutinative language. 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 Verb, but the verb is the only required and immovable element.
| A: | | ??-? | | ??-?? | | | | kage-e | | kasseo-yo | | | | store + [location marker] | | [go (verb root)]+[conjunctive]+[past]+[conjunctive]+ [polite marker] |
- "Did [you] go to the store?" (with "you" implied by context)
- "Yes."
Parts of speech
Verb
Korean verbs (tongsa, ) 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 distinction of most Indo-European languages. For example, different endings are used based on the speaker's relation with the person they are talking to or the person about which they are talking. Politeness is a critical part of Korean language and Korean culture, therefore, when talking to someone esteemed, the correct verb ending, which should have a lot of respect, must be chosen.
Adjective
Words categorized as Korean adjectives (hyeong-yongsa, ) conjugate similarly to verbs, so some English texts call them "descriptive verbs" or "stative verbs", 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 determiners (gwanhyeongsa, ) 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
A large body of Korean nouns (myeongsa, ) stem from Chinese characters, e.g. (?, san, mountain), (?, yeok, station), (??, munhwa, culture), etc. Others are native to the Korean language, e.g. (nara, country), (nal, day). Many Sino-Korean words have a native Korean equivalent and vice versa, but not always. Nouns do not have grammatical gender and can be made plural by adding ? to the end of the word, however in most instances the singular 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 ?? ?? ???? (sagwa segae isssumnida) maintains the word ?? (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 pronouns (daemyeongsa, ) 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 adverbs (busa, ) include (tto, "also") and (gadeuk, "fully"). For a larger list, see wikt:Category:Korean adverbs.
Particle
Korean particles (josa, ) are also known in English as "postpositions". Examples include (neun, topic marker) and (reul, object marker). For a larger list, see wikt:Category:Korean particles.
Interjection
Korean interjections (gamtansa, ) are also known in English as "exclamations". Examples include (ani, "no"). For a larger list, see wikt:Category:Korean interjections.
Number
Korean numbers or numerals (susa, ) consitute two regularly used sets: a native Korean set and a Sino-Korean set. The Sino-Korean system is nearly entirely based on the Chinese numerals. 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 (? ?) means "ten times" while sip beon (?(?) ?(?)) 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 honorifics, 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 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. 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 7 levels are derived from the non-honorific imperative form of the verb ?? (hada, "do") in each level, plus the suffix ? ('che', hanja: ?), which means "style."
The highest 6 levels are generally grouped together as jondaenmal, while the lowest level (haeche, ??) is called banmal in Korean.
Vocabulary
The core of the Korean vocabulary is made up of native Korean words. Like Japanese and Vietnamese, more than 50% of the vocabulary (up to 60% by some estimates), 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. Korean has two number systems: one native, and one borrowed from Chinese.
To a much lesser extent, words have also occasionally been borrowed from Mongolian, Sanskrit, 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 English. Many words have also been borrowed from Japanese and Western languages such as German (areubaiteu ‘part-time job’, allereugi ‘allergy’). Some Western words were borrowed indirectly via Japanese, taking a Japanese sound pattern, for example ‘dozen’ > dasu > 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 endonym the Japanese approximated using the kanji 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
In ancient times, the languages of the Korean peninsula were written using Chinese characters, using hyangchal or idu. Such systems were not popular because hanja is not well suited to the Korean language. Its use is now limited.
Korean is now mainly written in Hangul, the Korean alphabet promulgated in 1446 by Sejong the Great; hanja may be mixed in to write Sino-Korean words. South Korea still teaches 1800 hanja characters in its schools, while the North abolished the use of hanja decades ago.
Below is a chart of the Korean alphabet's symbols and their canonical IPA values:
Consonants | Hangul | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | | ? | |
|---|
| RR | b,p | d,t | j | g,k | pp | tt | jj | kk | p | t | ch | k | s | h | ss | m | n | ng | | r,l | |
|---|
| IPA | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|---|
Vowels | Hangul | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
|---|
| RR | i | e | oe | ae | a | o | u | eo | eu | ui | ye | yae | ya | yo | yu | yeo | wi | we | wae | wa | wo |
|---|
| IPA | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|---|
Modern Korean is written with spaces between words, a feature not found in Chinese or Japanese. Korean punctuation 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, palatalization of is optional, and can be pronounced as in 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 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) |
|---|
| ?? | wide | neoptta (nopta) | ?? | neoltta (nolta) | ?? | | ?? | to read
(continuative form) | ilkko (ilko) | ?? | ilkko (ilko) | ?? | | ??? | Amnok River | amrokgang (amrokkang) | ??? | amnokkang (amnokkang) | ??? | | ?? | independence | dongrip (tongrip) | ?? | dongnip (tongnip) | ?? | | ?? | idea / sense / conception | gwallyeom (kwallyom) | ?? | gwannyeom (kwannyom) | ?? | | ???* | innovative | hyeoksinjjeok (hyoksintchok) | ??? | hyeoksinjeok (hyoksinjok) | ??? |
* Similar pronunciation is used in the North 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 spelling | Meaning | Pronunciation (RR/MR) | Remarks |
|---|
| North | South |
|---|
| | sunshine | haeppit (haepit) | The "sai siot" ('?' used for indicating sound change) is almost never written out in the North. | | | cherry blossom | beotkkot (potkkot) | | | | cannot read | monnikda (monnikta) | Spacing. | | | Hallasan | hallasan (hallasan) | When a ?-? 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 "?" 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, some of which were given in the "Phonology" section above:
| Word | Meaning | Remarks |
|---|
| North spelling | North pronun. | South spelling | South pronun. |
|---|
| ryeongryang (ryongryang) | | yeongnyang (yongnyang) | strength | Korean words originally starting in r or n have their r or n dropped in the South Korean version if the sound following it is an i or y sound. | | rodong (rodong) | | nodong (nodong) | work | Korean words originally starting in r have their r changed to n in the South Korean version if the sound following it is a sound other than i or y. | | wonssu (wonssu) | | wonsu (wonsu) | mortal enemy | "Mortal enemy" and "head of state" are homophones in the South. Possibly to avoid referring to Kim Il-sung / Kim Jong-il as the enemy, the second syllable of "enemy" is written and pronounced ? in the North. | | rajio (rajio) | | radio (radio) | radio | | | u (u) | | wi (wi) | on; above | | | anhae (anhae) | | anae (anae) | wife | | | kkuba (kkuba) | | 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 | All hanja pronounced as pye (p'ye) or pe (p'e) in the South are pronounced as pe (p'e) in the North. The spelling is also accordingly different. |
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 |
|---|
| Ulaanbaatar | ????? | ullanbattareu (ullanbattaru) | Ulan Bator | ????? | ullanbatoreu (ullanbat'oru) | | København | ???? | koeppenhabeun (k'oeppenhabun) | Copenhagen | ???? | kopenhagen (k'op'enhagen) | | al-Qahirah | ??? | kkahira (kkahira) | Cairo | ??? | kairo (k'airo) |
Grammar
Some grammatical constructions are also different:
| Word | Meaning | Remarks |
|---|
| North spelling | North pronun. | South spelling | South pronun. |
|---|
| doeyeotda (toeyotta) | | doeeotda (toeotta) | past tense of ?? (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 ?. | | gomawayo (komawayo) | | gomawoyo (komawoyo) | 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. | | halgayo (halkayo) | | halkkayo (halkkayo) | Shall we do? | Although the Hangul differ, the pronunciations are the same (i.e. with the tensed ? 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'u) | Apartment | | | joseonmal (chosonmal) | | 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 States' Defense Language Institute classifies Korean alongside Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese as a Category IV language, meaning that 63 weeks of instruction (as compared to just 25 weeks for French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian) 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 American 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, Mongolian and Turkic languages; in Japan, it is more widely studied by non-heritage learners. 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.
See also
Bibliography
- (Volume 4 of the London Oriental and African Language Library).
- Hulbert, Homer B. (1905). A Comparative Grammar of the Korean Language and the Dravidian Dialects in India. Seoul.
- Sohn, H.-M. (1999). The Korean Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Song, J.J. (2005). The Korean Language: Structure, Use and Context. London: Routledge.
External links
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