The Language Index
The Place for Learning about the Languages of the World
Explore
Experience the fascination of the Language Index.
Contribute
Let us build the Language Index together.
Interact
Become a member of the social networks of the Language Index.
What is the Language Index?
Have you ever wondered why foreign languages are so different from your own? Or what sounds their speakers produce? Or how they say "the big book"? Then the Language Index is for you.
The mission of the Language Index is to capture the richness of the world's languages and to make it accessible to anyone interested in science and beyond.
General Information
Korean is the official language of North (20 mill. native speakers) and South Korea (42 mill.). It is also spoken in 31 other countries including American Samoa, Australia, Bahrain, Belize, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, China, Germany, Guam, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, North, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania, Mongolia, New Zealand, Northern Mariana Islands. Alternate names are Hanguohua or Hanguk Mal. The total number of Korean speakers amounts to ca. 80 mill.
There is a difference of opinion among scholars as to whether or not Korean is related to Japanese. Some scholars suggest that both languages are possibly distantly related to Altaic.
Hyun Jun uses the Gyeonggi or Seoul accent, i.e. the 'general' or formal Southern Korean accent.
Typological Details
Family Membership
- Independent
Parameters
| Syntactic: | SOV, Postpositions, Adjective - Noun, Genitive - Noun |
| Morphological: | Full and Partial Reduplication, No Productive Reduplication, Exclusively Concatenative, Strongly Suffixing |
| Miscellaneous: | Decimal System, Six Basic Color Catgeories |
Speaker
| Name: | Hyun Jun Y. |
| Age: | 31 |
| Community: | Seoul |
| Occupation: | Investment consultant |
| National Ancestry: | Korean |
| Year Interviewed: | 2012 |
Play a welcome message spoken by Hyun Jun Y.:
Morphology and Syntax
The examples below the strict head-modifier structure in Korean (i.e. the final position of the verb and the postposing of inflectional particles including postpositions).
A Complex Passage
The speaker tells the story 'The Northwind and the Sun'.
The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger,
baram gwa hennim-i soro him-i do seda-go datu-go
wind and sun-nom each other power-nom more be strong-(insisting,assuming) disput-ing
when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak.
iss-ul dde, han nagune-ga ddadduthan uetu-rul ib-go goro o-ass-umnida.
be time(at), a traveler-NOM warm-ATTR overcoat-ACC wear-ing walking come-PST
They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off
gu-dul(r)-un nugu-dunji nagune-ui uetu rul monjo bot-gi-nun i ga
the-Pl.(=they)-NOM who-ever traveler -GEN coat-ACC first-ADV take off-make -ATTR one NOM
should be considered stronger than the other. The North Wind
him-i do seda-go ha-giro gyoljongh-ess-umni-da. bug-pung-un
power-NOM more be strong-assump. do-to(to do) decide-PST-Polite-DECL. North-Wind-NOM
blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler
himggot bur-oss-una bul-myon bul-ssurog nagune-nun uetu-rul
with all power blow-PST-but blow-if blow-the more traveler-NOM coat-ACC
fold his cloak around him;and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out
dandanhi yomy-oss-umni-da. gu dde-e hennim-i ddugou-n hetbich ul
closely fold-PST-Polite-DECL. the time-at sun-NOM hot-ATTR sunshine-ACC
warmly, and immediately the traveler took off his cloak.
gamanhi neryo-jjoe-ni, nagune-nun uetu rul ollon bos-oss-umni-da.
calmly down-shine-cause traveler-NOM coat-ACC immediatly wear off-PST-Polite-DECL
And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.
irihayo bugpung-un hennim-i dul junge him-i do seda-go
thus North Wind-NOM sun-NOM two between power-NOM more be strong-assump.
injonghaji anhul su obs-oss-umni-da.
approve not-ATTR way-NOM be not-PST-Polite-DECL
The Numbers
In Korean one has to remember the numbers shown above (1 to 10) and multiples of ten up to 90.
All other numbers can be calculated:
- 11 = yolhana (10+1)
- 35 = soreundasot (30 + 5)
- etc.
Writing System
- Phonographic 0) { showWritingSystemHierarchy($level - 1, false); } // if ?>
Modern Korean is written entirely in hangeul, however academic papers and official documents tend to be written in a mixture of hangeul and hanja.
Notable features of Hangeul
- Type of writing system: alphabet
- Direction of writing: Until the 1980s Korean was usually written from right to left in vertical columns. Since then writing from left to right in horizontal lines has become popular, and today the majority of texts are written horizontally.
- Number of letter: 24 (jamo): 14 consonants and 10 vowels. The
letters are combined together into syllable blocks.
For example, Hangeul is written: 한(han) ᄒ(h) + ᅡ(a) + ᄂ(n) 글(geul) ᄀ(g) + ᅳ(eu) + ᄅ(l) - The shapes of the the consontants g/k, n, s, m and ng are graphical representations of the speech organs used to pronounce them. Other consonsants were created by adding extra lines to the basic shapes.
- The shapes of the the vowels are based on three elements: man (a vertical line), earth (a horizontal line) and heaven (a dot). In modern Hangeul the heavenly dot has mutated into a short line.
- Spaces are placed between words, which can be made up of one or more syllables.
- The sounds of some consonants change depending on whether they appear at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a syllable.
(adapted from www.omniglot.com)
Contributors
Developmental Aspects of this VLC Language Index Entry:
- Native Language Assistance:
- Jundze Chang (Pusan, Korea)
- Tatjana Bollow (Online MA Student at Marburg University, Seoul, Korea)
- Auditory Judgements:
- Tatjana Bollow (Online MA Student at Marburg University, Seoul, Korea)
- Phonetic Transcription:
- Tatjana Bollow (Online MA Student at Marburg University, Seoul, Korea)
- References
- Korean language: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_language. (10.01.2012)
- Korean dialects and accents: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialects_of_Korean (20.01.2012)
- IPA phonetic transcription for Korean: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IPA_for_Korean (04.02.2012)