Korean language

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The Korean language (한국어 or 조선어, see below) is the most widely used language in Korea, and is the official language of both North and South Korea. The language is also spoken widely in neighbouring Yanbian, China. Worldwide, there are around 78 million Korean speakers, including large groups in the former Soviet Union, Australia, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Japan, and more recently the Philippines. The language is strongly associated with the Korean people.

The genealogical classification of Korean is debated. It is sometimes placed by linguists in the Altaic language family, though others considered it to be a language isolate. Korean is agglutinative in its morphology and SOV in its syntax.

This article is mainly about the spoken Korean language. See hangul for details on the native Korean writing system.

The Korean names for the language are based on the names for Korea used in North and South Korea.

In North Korea, the language is most often called Chosŏnmal (조선말), or more formally, Chosŏnŏ (조선어).

In South Korea, the language is most often called Hangungmal (한국말), or more formally, Hangugeo (한국어) or Gugeo (국어, national or domestic language). It is sometimes colloquially called Urimal ("our language"; 우리말 in one word in South Korea, 우리 말 with a space in North Korea).

Korean classification is often debated. Many Korean and Western linguists recognize a kinship to the Altaic languages. However, this is not well demonstrated, and many consider Korean a language isolate. Others believe that Japanese and Korean may be related.

The Korean relationship with Altaic and proto-Altaic have been much argued as of late. Korean is similar to Altaic languages in that they both have the absence of 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 Eastern Turkic group, namely Yakut.

The possibility of a Korean-Japanese linguistic relationship is a delicate subject because of the complex historical relationship between the two countries. The possibility of a Baekje-Japanese linguistic relationship has been studied, with Korean linguists pointing out similarities in phonology, including a general lack of consonant-final sounds. There are plenty of apparent cognates between Baekje and Japanese, such as mir and mi, respectively, for "three". Furthermore, there are cultural links between Baekje and Japan: the people of Baekje used two Chinese characters for their surnames, like the people of Japan today.

Goguryeo and Baekje languages are considered related, likely descended from Gojoseon (see Fuyu languages). Less is known about the relationship between the languages of Gojoseon, Goguryo, and Baekje on one hand, and the Samhan and Silla on the other, although many Korean scholars believe they were mutually intelligible, and the collective basis of modern Korean.

Most of the speakers of the Korean language live in North and South Korea. However, there are some ethnic Koreans in China, Australia, the former Soviet Union, Japan, Brazil, Canada and the United States.

Korean has several dialects (called mal (literally speech), bangeon, or saturi 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'yŏngyang. These dialects are similar, and in fact all dialects except that of Jeju Island are largely mutually intelligible. The dialect spoken there is 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 stress very little, and standard South Korean has a very flat intonation; on the other hand, speakers of Gyeongsang Dialect have a very pronounced intonation that makes their dialect sound more like a European language to western ears.

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:

Example words for consonants:

The IPA symbol < ̬> (a subscript wedge) is used to denote the tensed consonants /b̬, d̬, ɡ̬, d̬s, z̬/. Its official IPA usage is for voiced consonants, which the tensed stops in Korean are not. The use of this diacritic along with the symbols for voiced consonants indicates that the glottal constriction is greater than that found in modal voicing. This is called stiff voice. The Korean tensed stops are produced with a partially constricted glottis and additional subglottal pressure, elements of stiff voice, which is how they are sometimes analysed.

Sometimes the tense consonants are indicated with the apostrophe-like symbol <ʼ>, but this is inappropriate, as IPA <ʼ> represents the ejective consonants, with their glottal movement and non-pulmonic air pressure, which the Korean tense consonants do not have.

There is ongoing debate as to whether the "tense" consonants are fortis or lenis, partially because those are poorly defined terms, and much of the academic literature is in a state of confusion.

Korean has 8 different vowel qualities and a length distinction. Two more vowels, the close-mid front rounded vowel /ø/ and the close front rounded vowel /y/, can still be heard in the speech of some older speakers, but they have been largely replaced by the diphthongs [we] and [wi] respectively. In a 2003 survey of 350 speakers from Seoul, nearly 90% pronounced the vowel 'ㅟ' as [wi]. Length distinction is almost completely lost; length distinction for all vowels can still be heard from older speakers, but almost all younger speakers either do not distinguish length consistently or do not distinguish it at all. The distinction between /e/ and /ɛ/ is another decreasing element in the speech of some younger speakers, mostly in the area of Seoul, whereas in other dialectal areas the two vowels can be disticntly heard. For those speakers who do not make the difference [e] seems to be the dominant form. Long /ʌː/ is actually [əː] for most speakers.

/j/ and /w/ are considered to be components of diphthongs rather than separate consonant phonemes.

Source: Handbook of the International Phonetic Association

/s/ becomes an alveolo-palatal [ɕ] before [j] or [i]. This occurs with the tense fricative and all the affricates as well.

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

/p, t, tʃ, k/ become voiced [b, d, dʒ, ɡ] between voiced sounds.

/l/ becomes alveolar flap [ɾ] between vowels, [l] or [ɭ] at the end of a syllable or next to another /l/, disappears at the beginning of a word before [j] in normal speech, and otherwise becomes [n] in normal speech.

All obstruents (plosives, affricates, fricatives) are unreleased [p̚, t̚, k̚] at the end of a word.

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

Some of these phonetic assimilation rules can be seen in the following:

• /tʃoŋlo/ is pronounced as [tʃoŋ.no]
• /hankukmal/ as [haŋ.guŋ.mal]

Hangul spelling does not reflect these assimilatory pronunciation rules, but rather maintains the underlying morphology.

One difference between the pronunciation standards of North and South Korea is the treatment of initial [r], and initial [n] before [i] or [y]. For example,

• "labour" - north: rodong (로동), south: nodong (노동)
• "history" - north: ryŏksa (력사), south: yeoksa (역사)
• "lady" - north: nyŏja (녀자), south: yeoja (여자)

Korean syllables may not start or end with consonant clusters, except in a few cases. Consequently, consonant clusters in Korean are usually limited to clusters of two consonants where two syllables have been joined.

Only seven consonant allophones are found at the end of syllables: /p, m, t, n, l, k/ and /ŋ/.

Traditionally, the Korean language has had strong vowel harmony; that is, in pre-modern Korean, as in most Altaic languages, not only did the inflectional and derivational affixes (such as postpositions) change in accordance to the main root vowel, but native words also adhered to vowel harmony. It is not as prevalent in modern usage, although it remains strong in onomatopoeia, adjectives and adverbs, interjections, and conjugation. There are also other traces of vowel harmony in Korean.

There are three classes of vowels in Korean: positive, negative, and neutral. The vowel ŭ is considered partially a neutral and negative vowel. The vowel classes loosely follow the mid (negative) and front (positive) vowels; they also follow orthography. Exchanging positive vowels with negative vowels usually creates different nuances of meaning, with positive vowels sounding diminuitive and negative vowels sounding crude.

Some examples:

• Onomatopoeia:
  • 퐁당퐁당 (pongdangpongdang) and 풍덩풍덩 (pungdeongpungdeong), water splashing
• Adjectives/Adverbs:
  • 모락모락 (morangmorak) and 무럭무럭 (mureongmureok) can both be translated as "rapidly" or "densely", but they are not interchangeable:
    • 연기가 모락모락 난다. (yeongiga morangmorak nanda) Smoke rises up.
    • 나무가 무럭무럭 자란다. (Namuga mureongmureok jaranda) The tree grows well.
• Emphasised Adjectives:
  • 노랗다 (norata) means plain yellow, while its negative, 누렇다 (nureota) means very yellow
  • 파랗다 (parata) means plain blue, while its negative, 퍼렇다 (peoreota) means deep blue
• Particles at the end of verbs:
  • 잡다 (Japda) (to catch) → 잡았다 (Jabatda) (caught)
  • 접다 (Jeopda) (to fold) → 접었다 (Jeobeotda) (folded)
• Interjections:
  • 아이고 (Aigo) and 어이구 (Eoigu) meaning "oh my!"
  • 아하 (Aha) and 어허 (Eoheo) meaning "indeed" and "well" respectively

Korean is an agglutinative language. The basic form of a Korean sentence is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV), and modifiers precede the modified word. As a side note, a sentence can break the SOV word order, however, it must end with the verb. In contrast to the Korean word order, in English, one would say, "I'm going to the store to buy some food," in Korean it would be: *"I food to-buy in-order-to store-to going-am."

In Korean, "unnecessary" words (see theme and rheme) can be left out of a sentence as long as the context makes the meaning clear. A typical exchange might translate word-for word to the following:

H: "가게에 가세요?" (gage-e gaseyo?)

G: "예." (ye.)

H: *"store-to going?"

G: "yes."

which in English would translate to:

H: "Going to the store?"

G: "Yes."

Unlike most 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 and on the relation between the people speaking. When talking to or about friends, you would use one conjugate ending, to your parents, another, and to nobility/honoured persons, another. This loosely echoes the T-V distinction of most Indo-European languages.

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 is reflected in honorifics, while that between speaker/writer and audience is reflected in speech level.

When talking about someone superior in status, a speaker or writer has to use 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. On rare occasions (like when someone wants to pick a fight), a speaker might speak to a superior or stranger in a way normally only used for, say, animals, but it would be foolhardy to do so without seriously considering the consequences to one's physical safety first.

One way of using honorifics is to use special nouns in place of regular nouns with "honorific" ones. A common example is using 진지 (jinji) instead of 밥 (bap) for "food". More often, special nouns are used when speaking about relatives. Thus, the speaker/writer may address his own grandmother as 할머니 (halmeoni) but refer to someone else's grandmother as 할머님 (halmeonim). The honorific suffix -님 (-nim) is affixed to many kinship terms to make them honorific; thus, 형님 (hyeongnim) is the formal term for an older sibling of the same sex (derived from 형 (hyeong,) the informal term for man's older brother; 언니 (eonni) is the informal term for a woman's older sister).

All verbs can be converted into an honorific form by adding the infix -시- (-si-, pronounced shi) after the stem and before the verb ending. Thus, 가다 (gada, "go") becomes 가시다 (gasida). A few verbs have special honorific equivalents. Therefore 계시다 (gyesida) is the honorific form of 있다 (itda, "exist"); 드시다 (deusida) and 잡수시다 (japsusida) is the honorific form of 먹다 (meokda, "eat"); and 주무시다 (jumushida) is the honorific form of 자다 (jada, "sleep").

A few verbs have special humble forms, used when the speaker is referring to him/herself in polite situations. These include 드리다 (deurida) and 올리다 (ollida) for 주다 (juda, "give"). Deurida is substituted for juda when the latter is used as an auxiliary verb, while ollida — which literally means "raise up" — is used for juda in the sense of "offer".

Pronouns in Korean have their own set of polite equivalents: thus, 저 (jeo) is the humble form of 나 (na, "I"); 저희 (jeoheui) is the humble form of 우리 (uri, "we"); and 당신 (dangshin, "friend," but only used as a form of address and more polite than "chingu", the usual word for "friend"; also, whereas uses of other humble forms are straightforward, "dangsin" must be used only in specific social contexts, such as between two married couples — "dangsin" can often be used in an ironic sense when used between strangers) is the honorific form of 너 (neo, "you" (singular). Note: in general, Koreans avoid using the second person singular pronoun, especially when using honorific forms, and either i) use the person's name, kinship term, or title in place of "you" in English, ii) use plural 여러분 yeoreobun where applicable, or iii) avoid using a pronoun, relying on context to supply meaning instead).

There are no fewer than 7 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 a subject — 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 하다 (hada, "do") in each level, plus the suffix 체 ('che'), which means "style."

The highest 5 levels use final verb endings, while the lowest 2 levels (해요체 haeyoche and 해체 haeche) use non-final endings and are called 반말 (banmal, "half-words") in Korean. (The haeyoche in turn is formed by simply adding the non-final ending -요 (-yo) to the haeche form of the verb.)

Taken together, honorifics and speech levels form a cartesian product of 14 basic verb stems. Here is a table giving the 7 levels, the present indicative form of the verb 하다 (hada, "do" in English) in each level in both its honorific and non-honorific forms, and the situations in which each level is used.

The core of the Korean vocabulary is made up of native Korean words. More than 50% of the vocabulary, however, especially scholarly terminology, consists of Sino-Korean words, borrowed from Chinese. Like Japanese, Korean has two number systems — one native and one borrowed from the Chinese.

To a much lesser extent, words have also been borrowed from Mongolian, Sanskrit, and other languages. In modern times, some words have also been borrowed from Japanese, Western languages such as German and, more recently, English.

The Korean language was originally written using "Hanja", or Chinese characters; it is now mainly written in Hangul, the Korean alphabet, optionally mixing in Hanja to write Sino-Korean words. South Korea still teaches 1800 Hanja characters to its children, while the North has abolished the use of hanja decades ago.

Hangul consists of 24 letters — 14 consonants and 10 vowels that are written in syllabic blocks of 2 to 5 components. Unlike the Chinese writing system (including Japanese Kanji), Hangul is not an ideographic system.

Below is a chart of the Korean alphabet's symbols and their canonical IPA values:

See also: Hangul consonant and vowel tables

Modern Korean is written with spaces between words, a feature not found in Chinese and 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.

The Korean language used in the North and the South exhibits differences in pronunciation, spelling, grammar and vocabulary.

In North Korea, palatization of /si/ is optional, and /tʃ/ can be pronounced as [z] 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.

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

Some words have different spellings and pronunciations in the North and the South, some of which were given in the "Phonology" section above:

Some grammatical constructions are also different:

Some vocabulary is different between the North and the South:

In the North, 《 and 》 are the symbols used for quotes; in the South, quotation marks equivalent to the English ones, “ and ”, are used.

• Common phrases in Korean
• Korean romanization
  • Revised Romanization of Korean
  • McCune-Reischauer
  • Yale Romanization
• Korean numerals
• Korean count word
• Korean language and computers
• List of English words of Korean origin
• List of Korea-related topics

Korean edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Wikibook [[wikibooks:|]] has a page on the topic of: Korean

• Let's Learn Korean at KBS WORLD Radio (available in English, German, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese)
• Korean language overview
• kangmi | extensive list of links for English-speaking students of Korean
• Learn Korean
• Korean lessons
• English-Korean Dictionary
• Ethnologue report for Korean
• Korea Fan Translated Term Handbook
• Korean Language Institute at Yonsei University
• Korean Course at Sogang University
• http://www.ickl.or.kr/ International Circle of Korean Linguistics (ICKL)
• International Association for Korean Language Education (IAKLE)
• Korean Language Study on the InterNET
• KOREAN through ENGLISH at Ministry of Culture and Tourism
• Dongari Korean-English Conversation Exchange Group, San Francisco, CA, USA
• Learn and listen to useful expressions in Korean
• Naver dictionary site: Korean <=> Korean / English / Chinese / Japanese, English <=> English and Thesaurus (Collins), a Hanja dictionary, a terminology dictionary and a Korean encyclopaedia