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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.
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.
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 |
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.:
언어(너학) 강좌에 들어오신 모든 분을 환영합니다.
onohak gangzua e duro-o-shi-n modun bun-ul huanyongha-mni-da.
linguistics course to in-come-Polite-ATTR all one-ACC gladly receive-Polite-DECL
제이름은 _____ 이고 한국어를 씁니다.
ze irum-un Yim Hyun Jun i-go hangugo-rul ssu-mni-da.
My.Polite name-TH Yim Hyun Jun is-and Korean-ACC use-Polite-DECL
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).
그 책
g̊o̷̞ 'ʨʰɛg̊˺
the book
그 책 들
g̊o̷̞ 'ʨʰɛg̊˺ d̥ɯl
the book-PL
그 큰 책
g̊o̷̞ 'kɯn 'ʨʰɛg̊˺
the big-ATTR book
그 아주 큰 책
g̊o̷̞ aʥu 'kɯn 'ʨʰɛg̊˺
the very big-ATTR book
그 책 속에
g̊o̷̞ 'ʨʰɛg̊˺ so'g̊ɛ
the book inside-NOUN at-LOC
그 책 위에
g̊o̷̞ 'ʨʰɛg̊˺ wi'ɛ
the book upper-NOUN at-LOC
그 남자는 잔다
g̊o̷̞ namʥa'nɯn 'ʨʰanda
the man IND.THM sleep-PRES-DECL
그 여자는 잤다
g̊o̷̞ jɯza'nɯn ʦa'd̥a
the woman IND.THM sleep-PST-DECL
그 남자가 그 여자를 본다
g̊o̷̞ namʥa'ga g̊o̷̞ jɯza'ɾɯl b̥ʊn'd̥a
the man NOM the woman ACC see-PRES.DECL
그 여자가 그 남자를 보았을 때
g̊o̷̞ jɯza'ga g̊o̷̞ namʥa'ɾɯl 'b̥ɔasɯl 'd̥ɛ
the woman NOM the man ACC see-PST-ATTR time
그 남자가 그 여자에게 그 책을 준다
g̊o̷̞ namʥa'ga g̊o̷̞ jɔza'ɛgɛ g̊o̷̞ 'ʨʰɛg̊ɯl 'ʦʰʊn'd̥a
the man NOM the woman DAT the book ACC give-PRES-DECL
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
1
하나
hˠa'na
2
둘
d̥ɯl
3
셋
sˢɛʡ
4
넷
nɛʡ
5
다섯
ta'sʰɔd̥
6
여섯
jɔ'sɔd̥
7
일곱
'ilgo
8
여덟
'jɔd̥ɔl
9
아홉
'aho
10
열
jo̷̞l
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:
Modern Korean is written entirely in hangeul, however academic papers and official documents tend to be written in a mixture of hangeul and hanja.
(adapted from www.omniglot.com)
Developmental Aspects of this VLC Language Index Entry:
언어(너학) 강좌에 들어오신 모든 분을 환영합니다.
onohak gangzua e duro-o-shi-n modun bun-ul huanyongha-mni-da.
linguistics course to in-come-Polite-ATTR all one-ACC gladly receive-Polite-DECL
제이름은 _____ 이고 한국어를 씁니다.
ze irum-un Yim Hyun Jun i-go hangugo-rul ssu-mni-da.
My.Polite name-TH Yim Hyun Jun is-and Korean-ACC use-Polite-DECL
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