Korean language

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Korean

Spoken in

North Korea , South Korea , China PR , Japan , Russia
speaker 78 million
Linguistic
classification
  • isolated
    Korean
Official status
Official language in Korea NorthNorth Korea North Korea South Korea PR China ( Yanbian Autonomous District )
Korea SouthSouth Korea 
China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China 
Language codes
ISO 639 -1

ko

ISO 639 -2

kor

ISO 639-3

kor

_ Official language
_linguistic minorities in Russia and the PRC

The Korean language (Korean) is spoken as a first language by more than 78 million people, most of whom are North or South Koreans . This makes it one of the 25 most widely spoken languages ​​in the world (despite its regional restrictions) .

Korean is written using a specially developed alphabet, the Hangŭl . The local names of the language in South Korea are hangungmal ( 한국말 ) or hangugŏ (Hangŭl: 한국어 , Hanja : 韓國 語 ), while in North Korea they are chosŏnmal ( 조선말 ) or chosŏnŏ ( 조선어 , 朝鮮語 ). The different names come from the common name for the country in North Korea and South Korea.

Grammatically, Korean is an agglutinating language with a basic word order subject-object-verb . Relationships to other languages ​​cannot be determined according to the usual criteria (not even to Japanese, although the grammatical structure is very similar), so that Korean is classified as an isolated language.

classification

The genetic classification of the Korean language is controversial. Part of the research community assumes a classification of Korean as a separate split (like Japanese and the Altaic languages ) from the macro-Altaic group. However, the existence of an Altaic language family in the scientific community is mostly denied. A major point of criticism is that there is no common vocabulary and that language-typological similarities also exist with other languages. Most researchers assume that Korean is an isolated language .

A relationship with Chinese can be ruled out, as Korean has no structural similarities with the Sino-Tibetan languages . Sino-Korean words are loan words that were adopted because of the close cultural relationship with China, without there being any family relationship between the languages ​​of the two countries.

The assumption of a kinship with Japanese , with which Korean has striking structural similarities, is not generally accepted . There are forms that exactly match in terms of their formation and function. It is strange, however, that there are no such matches in the vocabulary. Nowadays the similarities are mostly attributed to contact.

Aharon Dolgopolsky assigns Korean to the nostratic macro family. Joseph Greenberg assigns it to the Eurasian macro family , where Korean forms a group with Japanese and Ainu . However, Greenberg's Eurasian classification is only accepted by a few researchers.

history

It is believed that the languages ​​from which today's Korean developed were divided into the group of Buyeo languages ​​( 夫 艅 ) in the north and the Han languages ​​( ) in the south at the beginning of our era .

Chinese sources from the 3rd century confirm this classification.

Archetypes: Languages ​​of the Buyeo tribes

From the Buyeo group the language of the empire Goguryeo developed (as a state from the 3rd century until 668 ). Written certificates from the Buyeo group have only survived in the Goguryeo language. From the analysis of the existing vocabulary it can be concluded that the Goguryeo language is a language that is not closely related to the Tungusic languages and has a clearly Siberian character. The Goguryeo language shows astonishing parallels to Middle Korean on the one hand and Old Japanese on the other. Goguryeo * tan, * tuan corresponds to the old Japanese tani ("valley"), and Goguryeo * usaxam corresponds to usagi ("hare") in Old Japanese . Due to this and other similarities (e.g. in the counting words), the hypothesis of a relationship between Korean and Japanese via the link of the Goguryeo language is assumed.

Primitive forms: languages ​​of the Han tribes

The language of the Baekje empire developed from the languages ​​of the Han group (early 1st millennium AD to 660). The fragments of the Baekje language preserved today show that this language was very close to Middle Korean or the language of the following Silla empire, both in vocabulary and in morphology.

Unification through Silla

When the Kingdom of Silla (both Baekje and Silla were probably younger than Goguryeo) subjugated the other states of the Korean Peninsula in the 7th century and became an absolute cultural hegemonic power, it not only erased the other predecessor languages ​​of Korean, but also united them for the first time Tribes of the Korean Peninsula politically.

This process, which is very important for the development of the Korean language, can historically be compared with the adoption of Latin, a language originally spoken by shepherds from the area around what later became the city of Rome, in the entire territory of Italy after Rome had conquered these areas. Basically, it has only been possible to speak of a common Korean language since the period of the unified Silla Empire. Middle Korean developed from the language of the Silla Empire.

Central Korean

Central Korean development began around the early 10th century . Until the introduction of a separate Korean script ( Hangeul ) in the 15th century ( Joseon dynasty ), however, linguistic evidence was only preserved in fragments and in the Chinese script customary at the time.

Phonological and morphological changes that were completed around the 17th century are documented around the time of the Imjin War towards the end of the 16th century . The Korean that has now emerged differs considerably from the previously common Middle Korean and is basically the language spoken in Korea today.

Today's Korean

In recent history - due to the division of the Korean Peninsula - there have been separate linguistic and political developments in both parts. In South Korea , the standard language in pronunciation and spelling is more based on the dialect of the capital Seoul , in North Korea it has been adapted to the dialect spoken around Pyongyang . The differences between the Korean dialects are comparatively small, so that Korean (with the exception of the dialect spoken on the island of Jeju-do ) is understood equally well on the entire peninsula. The persistence of the state division has led to different developments in North and South Korea. In South Korea, many terms have been borrowed from the (American) English language as loan words such as njusɯ 뉴스 "News" or have been newly formed from English words ( Konglish ). In North Korea, on the other hand, the Korean core vocabulary is often used when forming new words. Refugees from North Korea often find it difficult at first to understand and use the many English loanwords.

Geographical distribution

The Korean language area

In addition to North and South Korea, Korean is still spoken in the People's Republic of China , especially by the members of the Korean minority in the Korean Autonomous District of Yanbian in Jilin Province on the border with North Korea. Japan also has a Korean minority and a private Korean-language school system.

Official status

Korean is the official language in North and South Korea and in Yanbian in China at the local level.

In South Korea the language is regulated by the National Korean Language Institute ( Gungnip-gukeowon, 국립 국어원 ), in North Korea by the Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Social Sciences ( Sahoe-kwahagwŏn ŏhak-yŏnguso, 사회 과학원 어학 연구소 ).

Dialects and sociolects

Korean has different dialects. The standard language of the north ( munhwamal 문화 말 ) is based on the dialect around Pyongyang, that of the south ( pyojuneo 표준어 ) on the dialect around Seoul. The two are very similar, however, and the differences between the dialects are otherwise very small; An exception is the dialect of Jeju Island , which differs greatly from the other dialects and is generally not understandable for speakers of other dialects.

Korean as a Foreign Language

With the rising popularity of contemporary South Korean pop culture , such as K-pop and Korean television dramas, Korean becomes increasingly popular as a foreign language in the 2010s . The Korean language test Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) has existed since 1997 and has been taken by more than a million people since then. In 2012 more than 150,000 non-native speakers took part in TOPIK.

Phonetics and Phonology

Consonants

bilabial alveolar postalveolar velar glottal
Plosives and
Affricates
easy p t ʨ k
curious; excited ʨ͈
aspirated ʨʰ
Fricatives easy s h
curious; excited
Nasals m n ŋ
Flap ɾ
lateral approximant l

Examples of the consonants:

phoneme example German translation
b [pal] "Foot"
빨래 [p͈alrae] "Laundry"
[pʰal] "Poor"
m [times] "Horse"
d [valley] "Moon" / "month"
[valley] "Daughter"
타다 [tʰada] get in / ride / drive
n [nal] "Day"
ʨ [ʨal] "Well"
ʨ͈ [ʨ͈an] "salty"
차다 ʨʰ [ʨʰada] "Kick" / "kick" / "carry"
가다 k [kada] "go"
깔다 [k͈alda] "Respectively"
[kʰal] "Knife"
ŋ [paŋ] "Room"
s [sal] "Flesh"
[s͈al] "Rice"
바람 ɾ [paɾam] "Wind"
l [pal] "Foot"
하다 h [hada] "to do"

The exact articulation of the tense consonants / p͈, t͈, k͈, ʨ͈, s͈ / is controversial. During pronunciation, the vocal folds are tightened, the pressure under the vocal folds is increased, and the larynx is lowered.

The symbol ͈ (two short vertical bars) is used here for the tense consonants. Officially, it is used in the IPA, which has been expanded to describe speech disorders, to denote a Fortis pronunciation, but in the specialist literature the symbol is also used for “faucalized phonation” (“hollow” or “yawning” phonation). Sometimes an apostrophe ( ʼ ) is inserted in the literature , but this character is actually reserved for the representation of ejective consonants.

Vowels

Simple vowels

In Korean there are eight different vowel qualities and a distinction between long and short vowels.

With older speakers you can still hear the vowels / wø / and / wy / , which most speakers nowadays realize as [we] or [wi] . The different vowel lengths also seem to be slowly disappearing. Younger spokesman in Seoul often do not differ, or only subconsciously between / ⁠ e ⁠ / and / ⁠ ɛ ⁠ / . Long / ʌː / is often realized as [əː] .

In the Korean script, the difference between long and short vowels is no longer reproduced.

Examples of the vowels:

phoneme example German phoneme example German
i [ɕiˈʥaŋ] "Hunger" [ˈɕiːʥaŋ] "Market"
e [pɛˈɡɛ] "Pillow" [ˈPeːda] "to cut"
ɛ [tʰɛˈjaŋ] "Sun" ɛː [ˈTʰɛːdo] "Behavior"
a [times] "Horse" [times] "Language"
o [poˈɾi] "Barley" [ˈPoːsu] "Wage"
u [kuˈɾi] "Copper" [ˈSuːbak] "Watermelon"
ʌ [ˈPʌl] "Punishment" ʌː [ˈPʌːl] "Bee"
ɯ [ˈɅːɾɯn] "Older" ɯː [ˈƜːmɕik] "Eat"

Diphthongs and half vowels

Diphthongs are with / ⁠ j ⁠ / and / ⁠ w ⁠ / formed. The individual diphthongs with examples:

diphthong example German diphthong example German diphthong example German
      wi [twi] "Move?" ɯi [ˈƜisa] "Doctor"
ever [ˈJeːsan] "Budget" we [kwe] "Box"      
[ˈJɛːgi] "History" [wɛ] "Why"      
Yes [ˈJaːgu] "Baseball" wa [kwaːˈil] "Fruit"      
jo [ˈKjoːsa] "Teacher"            
ju [juˈɾi] "Glass"            
[jəːgi] "here" [mwʌ] "What"      

Source: Handbook of the International Phonetic Association

Phonology

/ ⁠ s ⁠ / is before [⁠ j ⁠] and [⁠ i ⁠] to [⁠ ɕ ⁠] sharped. This also occurs with the other fricatives and affricates. At the end of the word / s / becomes / t /.

/ ⁠ h ⁠ / is before [⁠ o ⁠] and [⁠ u ⁠] to [⁠ .phi ⁠] , in [⁠ j ⁠] and [⁠ i ⁠] to [⁠ ç ⁠] , and in [⁠ ɯ ⁠] to [⁠ x ⁠] .

/ p, t, ʨ, k / become [b, d, ʥ, g] between vowels or between vowels and voiced consonants.

/ ⁠ l ⁠ / is between vowels to [⁠ ɾ ⁠] , at the end of a syllable to [⁠ l ⁠] or [⁠ ɭ ⁠] .

In the Korean standard pronunciation deleted / ⁠ l ⁠ / beginning of a word before [⁠ j ⁠] and is otherwise on letters to [⁠ n ⁠] ; the corresponding words are also written in this way in Hangeul in South Korea. In the standard North Korean pronunciation, this change does not take place; h., it will always letters as [⁠ ɾ ⁠] pronounced. Examples:

In the South Korean standard pronunciation eliminated [⁠ n ⁠] the letters before [⁠ j ⁠] ; the corresponding words are also written in this way in Hangeul in South Korea. This change does not take place in the standard North Korean pronunciation. Example:

At the end of a word only seven consonants occur: [p, m, t, n, l, k] and [⁠ ŋ ⁠] . All obstruents (plosives, affricates, fricatives) become unsolved plosives at the end of the word [p̚, t̚, k̚] .

Before nasal sounds, the plosives / p, t, k / also become nasal sounds [m, n, ŋ] .

Vowel harmony

Korean originally had a distinctive vowel harmony, but modern Korean only has remnants of it.

grammar

The Korean language is an agglutinating language ; units of meaning such as time or case are expressed using individual affixes that are attached to the verbs (as suffixes ) and nouns ( postpositions ). Other peculiarities of Korean are the richly developed rules on the morphology of verbs and the honorary system. Both the verb and the noun can be determined within the sentence in their relationship to the content of the message and the status by morphological means.

It is often avoided to formulate sentences in the second person. Instead, the name of the other person, or better still, the title or family name, is used and formulated in the third person.

Relationships of Speakers

The Korean language is very precise when it comes to expressing the relationship between the speakers. This depends not only on how close the speakers are, but also on their social position, which in turn is derived from their professional position or age.

There are several types of politeness (see below), and there are considerably more terms and titles than in German today. So there are three words for brother alone. The older brother of a male caregiver is called (hyeong) , that of a female caregiver is called 오빠 (oppa). For younger siblings, the gender-neutral 동생 (dongsaeng) is usually used, which can be made explicitly masculine (or feminine) with an additional syllable, if you want to express that.

It is very unusual to address a person of higher rank by name only; instead, the title or the family name is used. If this can apply to more than one person, the family name is also mentioned in the case of professional titles; in the case of relatives, words like (keun) "large" or 작은 (jageun) "small", for example 큰언니 (keuneonni) (oldest sister). Only names can be used downwards, but titles are sometimes used here as well. Some parents address the first child with 첫째 아들 (cheotjjae adeul) "first son" or 첫째딸 (cheotjjae ddal) "first daughter" to emphasize this fact.

However, the titles are not always used correctly. For example, friends address each other like siblings, and the spouse's parents can also be addressed in some cases like one's own parents. Unless a professional title seems appropriate, old people are generally referred to as 할아버지 (haraabeoji) “grandfather” or 할머니 (halmeoni) “grandmother”, even if they are not known at all.

Verbs

The verb is the most important element of the Korean language. Some sentences consist only of the verb. The verbs are divided into two main groups: processive verbs that describe processes or activities (e.g. 먹다 mʌkta “to eat”, 감사 하다 ɡamsahada “to thank”), and the qualitative verbs, the properties or denote states and thus functionally often come close to the adjectives of German, e.g. B. 싸다 s͈ada “inexpensive (to be)”, 까맣다 k͈amatʰa “black (to be)”. Outside these two main groups, the existential verbs 있다 Itta "be present" and 없다 ʌpta "does not exist" and the verbs - 이다 ida "to be" ( copula ) and 아니다 anida "not to be".

In reference books Korean Korean verbs as Lemma with her trunk and the suffix since . This form is referred to as the infinitive form in this article. From the stem the converbal form (also "extended stem") is formed, the basis for other verb forms that can follow them, such as the past tense. The designation of the converbal form as an infinitive is also widespread.

Example of the verb 먹다 mʌkta "to eat":

mʌk Verb stem
먹다 mʌkta Infinitive form (stem + ta )
먹어 mʌɡʌ Converbal form (stem + ʌ )
먹었다 mʌɡʌtt͈a Past tense (converbal form + past tense + infinitive ending 다 ta ), "have eaten"

Honorary system

The Korean system of courtesy levels (honorific) is extremely complex. The Korean verb uses various forms to represent the social context of communication. The forms of politeness take an evaluative position with regard to the relationship between the speaker and the interlocutor (e.g. Honorativ I and II) or to the subject of the sentence (e.g. Honorativinfix - ɕi -). In contrast to the German “Sie”, when choosing the form of politeness, in principle it does not matter how close or strange you are to the person being spoken to. So z. B. the older brother is also entitled to a polite address. In contrast to German, it is quite common for both interlocutors to use different levels of politeness. In parallel with the upheavals in the social structure, there are also leveling and re-evaluations of linguistic politeness.

A classification of speaking levels is not standardized in the literature. The different forms of politeness can sometimes be used together. Most often one encounters two important speaking levels in today's spoken language, which are referred to as Honorativ I and Honorativ II and both correspond roughly to the German “Sie” in terms of politeness. They are to be presented as an example for the Korean honorific system.

Honorary I

This form is formed by the converbal form of the verb and the suffix - jo . Originally used only in the Seoul dialect, for a long time this form of honor was mainly used by women. Nowadays, however, it is equally widespread in both sexes in North and South Korea. It is mostly (but not exclusively) used with strangers of the same or lower social rank, but also among adults who are friends. Usually politeness syllables are only attached to verbs, but the honorary I is an exception, in which the particle - 요 is also added to other words, for example 저도 요 ("me too") or 있다 가요 ("same" / "later") .

Honorary II

This form is formed by the verb stem and the suffix ㅂ 니다 - mnida after vowels or 습니다 - sɯmnida after consonants (or ㅂ 니까 / 습니까 - (sɯ) mnik͈a in questions). It is mostly (but not exclusively) used with older people, people of significantly higher social rank or on formal occasions, especially when several people are addressed. News anchors on television also use this speaking level.

Honorativinfix - ɕi -

Most verbs can be provided with the honorative infix 시 - ɕi - in addition to the honorative form used. This infix can be used, for example, if the subject of the sentence is assigned a higher social ranking over the two interlocutors. Likewise, a particularly polite direct salutation can be formed in connection with honorary I or II.

Salutation in the converbal form

The form of address in the converbal form is also possible, which in terms of politeness is roughly one level below the German “du”. It is the norm with young children or very close friends and some family members, and it is almost never used with most adults unless the speaker wants to start an argument.

Greeting

As an example, the greeting, which is common in North and South Korea, is presented in various honorary forms:

안녕 annjʌŋ Only acceptable to young children and very close friends
안녕하세요 (?) Annjʌŋhasejo (?) Honorativ I + Honorativinfix: In South Korea normal greeting of normal politeness, in North Korea is not considered polite enough towards strangers. "May you have peace!" Or "Have you peace?"
안녕하십니까? annjʌŋhaɕimnik͈a ? Honorativ II + Honorativinfix: In North Korea usual greeting of normal courtesy, in South Korea only used in situations that require greater courtesy. "Do you have peace?"

noun

In Korean sentences, subject or object are often left out if the listener knows what is meant. In response to the sentence “Heinz bought a new car” , the question about the point in time can be translated as “When was it bought?” . This is different from German, which requires at least "When did he buy it?" , A full sentence. Also, sex , number and case are usually not further defined. For example, the question “What did you do yesterday?” Could be answered with “ 친구 랑 놀러 갔어요 ” (“ ʨʰinɡuɾaŋ nollʌ kas͈oyo ”), which can have the following meanings:

  • "(I) went out with a friend."
  • "(I) went out with a friend."
  • "(I) went out with friends."
  • "(I) went out with friends."
  • "(I) went out with friends."

The subject I does not appear in the Korean example, one could answer the question “What did your brother do?” With the same sentence.

If necessary, gender, number and case can be added as a post position. The following table shows an incomplete list of possible post positions.

after consonant after vowel use
- i - ɡa (neutral nominative)
- ɯn - nɯn (marked sentence topic)
께서 - k͈esʌ (Honorific-nominative)
- ɯj or - e (Genitive)
- t (1) (old genitive, only in a few compound words)
에게 - eɡe "(Someone)" (neutral dative; only to be used for living things, including people)
한테 - hantʰe "(Someone)" (neutral dative; only to be used on people and the like)
- k͈e "(Someone)" (honorific dative; only to be used for people and the like)
에게서 - eɡesʌ "From (someone)" (neutral dative; only to be used for living things including people)
한테서 - hantʰesʌ "From (someone)" (neutral dative; only to be used for people and the like)
- ɯl - ɾɯl (Accusative)
에게 - eɡe (Directional indication: movement, e.g. going to someone ; only to be used on animate, including people)
- e (Direction: movement, e.g. going somewhere ; only to be used on inanimate objects)
(Location: standstill, e.g. being somewhere )
(Time)
에서 - esʌ (Location: activity, e.g. playing somewhere )
"From" (origin, e.g. come from somewhere )
부터 - butʰʌ "since; from; from "(time or place information)
로부터 - obutʰʌ "From, from" (only place information)
까지 - k͈aʥi "To" (time or place information)
- ɡwa - wa "And" (list)
"With (someone) together" (often together with 같이 or 함께 )
하고 - haɡo with - (ɡ) wa ; less formal
이랑 - iɾaŋ - ɾaŋ with - (g) wa ; informal
처럼 - ʨʰʌɾʌm "how"
(과) 같 - - ɡwa kat - (와) 같 - - wa kat - "how"
과 다르 - - gwa taɾɯ - 와 다르 - - wa taɾɯ - "different to; in contrast to"
보다 - boda "As" (+ comparative)
으로 - ɯɾo - ɾo "To" (direction); "With" (instrumental)
- dɯl (Plural)
- do "also"
- man "just"
(1) amplifies the following consonant

There is no grammatical gender (gender); whether it is male or female humans or animals can be expressed by prefixes:

nam - male
여 / 녀 (n) jʌ - Female
su (h) - male (in animals)
am (h) - female (animals)

vocabulary

Example of a homophone in the Korean language. At the top the Hangeul spelling , below the various meanings with their Hanja .

In addition to “purely Korean” words, a large part of the Korean vocabulary (40–60%) consists of loan words that have been adopted from Chinese over the course of history. Reasons for the extraordinarily high proportion of these Sino-Korean words are the close contact that Korea has with its “big brother” China throughout its history, as well as the philosophy or religion of Confucianism, which has been elevated to the state religion in Korea . Many terms exist side by side in a Sino-Korean form and a form made up of the Korean core vocabulary with no difference in meaning.

More recently, loanwords have been adopted from English in South Korea (for example, 컴퓨터 kʰʌmpʰjutʰʌ for computer ). Some of these had to be adapted to Korean phonology, for example in 와이프waipeu ← "wife". The use of loan words from Japanese , on the other hand, has fallen sharply , provided that they do not themselves come from English or have been naturalized as Sinocorean words. Instead of 벤또 pent͈o (← Japanese bentō ), as was the case during the Japanese colonial rule , the food brought in fresh food containers in North and South Korea is now called toɕiɾak in Korean . One reason for such changes is the painful memories of the time created by the use of Japanese words.

Loan words from German are rare, but existent. With 호프 hopʰɯ (adaptation of the word “Hof” to Korean phonology, in which the f-sound is missing), a pub in North and South Korea is used in which Western-style drinks, especially beer, are served, 아르바이트 aɾɯbajtɯ (← Japanese arubaito ← German “work”) means “temporary or student job” as in Japanese, and 닥스 훈트 taksɯhuntʰɯ (“dachshund”) means the dachshund .

font

Main article: Korean alphabet

Korean Dictionary (1920)

The Korean language has been written using the phonographic script developed at that time since the 15th century . However, this option was rarely used until the 19th century. Other scripts, especially the premodern Chinese written language ( Wenyan ), predominated. A large part of the modern Korean vocabulary are compositions of the written Chinese language - so-called Sino-Korean - morphemes . One difference to Japanese is the monosyllabic nature of all Sinocorean morphemes. You can write them with Chinese characters ( called Hanja in Korean ), i.e. as logograms , or with the Korean alphabet, i.e. with their Sino- Korean sound value. Nowadays they are spelled consistently with Hangeul in most texts. This Korean alphabet is often called the world's most scientific script by researchers. In contrast, the Chinese characters are used today mainly in names and in scientific texts in order to clarify the intended meaning with homophones . Also for clarification in some large South Korean newspapers, but only a small part of the actual Sino-Korean words are written this way. Most magazines, on the other hand, rarely use Chinese characters. Many texts indicate Chinese characters or the spelling of a term with the Korean alphabet in brackets after the other case. In North Korea, the Chinese characters have been abolished and are rarely used.

Transcriptions

Widespread romanizations , i.e. spelling with the Latin writing system , are the revised , McCune-Reischauer - and Yale romanizations . The Revised Romanization was only introduced as an official Romanization in South Korea in 2000. The McCune-Reischauer Romanization was created in the 1930s and is still widely used in various forms. One of them is the official Romanization of North Korea, another was the official Romanization of South Korea for a number of years.

Since not all sounds of the Korean language can be mapped well to the Latin alphabet, there are a few pitfalls for German readers. In the Revised Romanization, for example, the Korean letters ( pronounced as monophthong ) and as the digraph eo and yeo are romanized, but roughly like the o in open or like the jo in yoke, i.e. without the vowel e . For example, Seoul is broken down as Seo-ul and pronounced /sɔ.ul/ accordingly (not * / se.ul /). The romanization of the vowel letter (also a monophthong) than eu is even more insidious , since this sound does not exist in German. It is an unrounded, closed back vowel , spoken roughly like a German u without rounded lips. It is not pronounced like the eu in owl ; the most similar vowel in German is probably the Schwa (the e in Beruf ).

Language example

Universal Declaration of Human Rights , Article 1:

모든 인간 은 태어날 때 부터 자유로 우며 그 존엄 과 권리 에 있어 동등 하다. 인간 은 천부적 으로 이성 과 양심 을 부여 받았으며 서로 형제애 의 정신 으로 행동 하여야 한다.
Modeun Ingan-eun Tae-eonal ttaebuteo Jayuroumyeo Geu Jon-eomgwa Gwonrie Iss-eo Dongdeunghada. Ingan-eun Cheonbujeog-euro Iseong-gwa Yangsim-eul Bu-yeobad-ass-eumyeo Seoro Hyungje-ae-ui Jeongsin-euro Haengdongha-yeo-yahanda.
All people are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should meet one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

See also

literature

General descriptions and grammars

Textbooks

  • Young-Ja Beckers-Kim: Korean for Beginners . Edition Peperkorn, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-929181-58-4 (without CDs), ISBN 3-929181-59-2 (with 2 language CDs). Conveys the standard South Korean language.
  • Wilfried Herrmann: Textbook of the modern Korean language . Buske, 1994, ISBN 3-87548-063-5 . North Korean standard with indications of South Korean deviations.
  • Bruno Lewin : Introduction to the Korean language . Buske, 1997, ISBN 3-87548-153-4 .
  • Dorothea Hoppmann: Introduction to the Korean language . Buske, 2007, ISBN 3-87548-339-1 . Based on the textbook of the same name written by Bruno Lewin and Tschong Dae Kim, including a language CD.
  • Kong Ik Hyon [Kong Ik-hyŏn]: Learn Korean on your own ( Honjasŏ paeulsu innŭn chosŏnmal 혼자서 배울수 있는 조선말 ). P'yŏngyang 1995, 4 volumes with 4 cassettes.
  • Kong Ik Hyon: Let's learn Korean ( Chosŏnmal paeunŭn ch'ae 조선말 배우는 채 ). Foreign Languages ​​Books Publishing House, P'yŏngyang 1989.
  • O-Rauch, Sang-Yi / Soyeon Moon (2016): Korean grammar practice book. 2nd revised edition. Hamburg: Buske Verlag.
  • Oh Seung-eun: Korean Made Easy for Beginners. With CD . Darakwon, Seoul 2016, ISBN 978-89-277-3155-9 . Suitable for self-learners.

Genetic relationship with other languages ​​and language families

  • RA Miller: Languages ​​and history. Japanese, Korean and Altaic . Inst. For Comparative Research in Human C, 1996, ISBN 974-8299-69-4 .
  • Barbara E. Riley: Aspects of the Genetic Relationship of the Korean and Japanese Languages . University of Hawaii, 2003. Ph.D. Thesis.
  • Martine Irma Robbeets: Is Japanese Related to Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic? Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2005.

history

Web links

Wiktionary: Korean  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wikibooks: Korean  - Learning and Teaching Materials

General

dictionary

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jae Jung Song: The Korean Language: Structure, Use and Context . Routledge, 2005, ISBN 978-0-415-32802-9 ( google.com [accessed March 23, 2017]).
  2. ^ Lyle Campbell & Mauricio J. Mixco: A Glossary of Historical Linguistics . Edinburgh University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-7486-2378-5 , pp. 7, 90 f . ( Full text ): “Most specialists […] no longer believe that the […] Altaic groups […] are related. [...] Korean is often said to belong with the Altaic hypothesis, often also with Japanese, though this is not widely supported "
  3. Alexander Vovin: Origins of the Japanese Language. In: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford University Press, September 2017, accessed November 29, 2019 .
  4. ^ Aharon Dolgopolsky: The Nostratic Macrofamily and Linguistic Palaeontology. The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Oxford 1998.
  5. ^ Joseph Greenberg: Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family, Volume 1, Grammar. Stanford University Press 2000.
  6. ^ Joseph Greenberg: Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family, Volume 2, Lexicon. Stanford University Press 2002.
  7. ^ Claire Lee: Global popularity of Korean language surges. In: The Korea Herald . July 22, 2012, accessed February 24, 2019 .
  8. Matt Pickles: K-pop drives boom in Korean language lessons. In: BBC . July 11, 2018, accessed February 24, 2019 .
  9. Korean language test-takers pass 1 mil. . The Korea Times . Retrieved January 25, 2013.
  10. Insup Taylor: The Korean writing system: alphabet An? A syllabary? a logography? In: PA Kolers, ME Wrolstad, H. Bouma (Eds.): Processing of Visible Language (=  Nato Conference Series ). tape 13 . Springer , Boston 1980, ISBN 978-1-4684-1068-6 , pp. 67-82 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-1-4684-1068-6_5 .
  11. ^ Joshua Snyder: "The Korean Alphabet is the Most Scientific in the World." In: The Postech Times. Retrieved February 24, 2019 .
  12. ^ A Guide to Korean - Korean characters. In: BBC . Retrieved February 24, 2019 .
  13. Joe Cock: A linguist explains why Korean is the best written language. In: Business Insider . June 28, 2016, accessed February 24, 2019 .
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on December 22, 2005 .