Korean: The Basics
Although English has a prominent place in South Korea, the county's only official language is Korean. The Korean language is unique in that it is a language isolate; linguists have been unable to prove any link between Korean and any other languages. Some believe the language to be Altaic (a language family which includes Japanese, Mongolian, and Turkic), but these claims have overall been refuted. While Korean and Japanese share some vocabulary and grammatical properties, these features are attributed to heavy borrowing rather than a common ancestral language.
DialectsThe map above illustrates the historical locations of the main modern Korean dialects. The dominant dialect used in government functions and by the majority of the people is the Seoul dialect shown in dark purple on the top left. All dialects are relatively similar and are at least partially mutually intelligible. Tone usage is the main distinguishing factor; Seoul dialect speakers make use of vowel length whereas the Gyeonsang dialect (bright blue on the lower right) maintains the pitch accent of Middle Korean.
Ethnologue.com |
Synthetic LanguageKorean is a synthetic language, meaning that it relies on inflections with suffixes and internal vowel change rather than word order. A typical Korean sentence structure is Subject-Object-Verb, but the verb is the only required and immovable element. In addition, modifiers tend to precede modified nouns or verbs.
The relationship between speakers is important, with specific nouns and verb endings used for superiors and inferiors. Of the twelve levels, the higher six are called jondaenmal and the lower six are called banmal. |
OrthographyPrior to the twentieth century Korean was written with adapted Chinese characters called Hanja. In the fifteenth century Sejong the Great commissioned a new writing system called Hangul, but it did not become legal script until Korea was under Japanese rule. Modern Korean is written with spaces between words (unlike Japanese or Chinese). Korean was traditionally written in columns but is now generally written in rows from left to right.
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Phonology: Standard Korean versus American English*
*Information gathered from "A Comparative Analysis of Korean-English Phonological Structures and Processes for Pronunciation Pedagogy in Interpretation Training" by Junmo Cho and Hae-Kyong Park. Meta: Translator's Journal.
Consonants
The table to the right depicts the consonants of Standard Korean (the Seoul dialect). All stops and fricatives are voiceless, unlike English which has the voiced fricatives [v], [ð], [z], and [ʤ]. In addition, Korean contains no labiodentals, dentals, or affricates, whereas English has no flaps. |
The huge contrasts in consonants between English and Korean affects the development of Konglish. The dental and labiodental fricatives are often replaced by [d] and [p]. The liquids, [r] and [l], are often used interchangeably. Some English consonants have become a part of Konglish phonology, whereas in other cases the Korean consonantal sounds have prevailed.
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Vowels
The Standard Korean vowel system consists of two front unrounded vowels, [I] and [ɛ]. [ɑ] is a mid or back low vowel. The two rounded vowels are [u] and [o]. The two unrounded vowels [ɯ] and [ɣ] are not found in many other languages; [ɯ] is a high back unrounded vowel and [ɣ] is a mid back unrounded vowel. Korean has ten diphthongs all of which are combinations of a glide and a vowel: [ja], [jɣ], [jo], [ju], [jɛ], [wɑ], [wɣ], [wɛ], [wi], [ɯi]. In contrast, Standard American English (the form of English considered prestigious and is most common in Korea) has significantly more vowels. English vowels also tend to come in minimal pairs such as [i] and [ɪ], [e] and [ɛ]. This makes it much easier to hear contrasts between vowel sounds. English and Korean diphthongs differ in that in English the glide comes after the vowel rather than before. The English diphthongs are [aw], [oy], and [ay]. The significant differences between Korean and English vowels make learning English difficult for Korean speakers, namely the fact that the English language uses far more vowels than Koreans acquired through their native language. Korean student have trouble distinguishing between minimal pairs in words such as: heat vs. hit, eat vs. it, leave vs. live, scene vs. sin, keen vs. kin, and pool vs. pull . Thus, an individual may accidentally say "I am fool" when they actually mean "I am full." |
Language in North Korea
The Standard Korean spoken in both the North and South originates from the Seoul dialect, but due to political reasons the Korean language has developed very differently in each country. The South allied with the United States during the Korean War (1950-1953), and as a result American English began to influence the language. In addition, South Korea remains open to Western influence and enforces compulsory English education, resulting in rapid linguistic change. In addition to the developing Konglish dialect, the page titled "Influence of English" goes into detail about the many loanwords Korean has borrowed from English.
In contrast, North Korea allied with the Soviet Union during the Korean War, resulting in the borrowing of Russian lexicon. After the war, North Korea's extreme political isolation stalled or completely halted any language change. The North Korean government opposes all Western influence, including English. The language spoken in the North and South has deviated drastically in the relatively short time since the war; as a result, North Korean defectors struggle to understand the Korean spoken in the South. The cellphone app, Univoca, was created to help North Koreans translate unfamiliar Southern terms into their Northern equivalents. |