Korean language

Korean
한국어(South Korea) 조선말(North Korea)
Names for the Korean language written vertically inHangul.The South Korean name is on the left and the North Korean on the right.
Pronunciation	[ha(ː)n.ɡu.ɡʌ](South Korea) [tso.sʌn.maɭ](North Korea)
Native to	Korea
Ethnicity	Koreans
Native speakers	81 million (2022)
Language family	Koreanic Korean
Early forms	Proto-Koreanic Old Korean Middle Korean
Standard forms	Pyojuneo(South Korea) Munhwaŏ(North Korea)
Dialects	seeKorean dialects
Writing system	Hangul / Chosŏn'gŭl
Official status
Official language in	South Korea North Korea
Recognised minority language in	China(Yanbian PrefectureandChangbai County)
Regulated by	National Institute of Korean Language (국립국어원 / quốc lập quốc ngữ viện) The Language Research Institute, Academy of Social Science (사회과학원 어학연구소 / khoa học xã hội viện ngữ học viện nghiên cứu) China Korean Language Regulatory Commission (중국조선어규범위원회/Trung Quốc Triều Tiên ngữ quy phạm ủy ban / Trung Quốc Triều Tiên ngữ quy phạm ủy ban)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ko
ISO 639-2	kor
ISO 639-3	kor
Glottolog	kore1280
Linguasphere	45-AAA-a

Korean(South Korean:한국어,Hangugeo;North Korean:조선말,Chosŏnmal) is thenative languagefor about 81 million people, mostly ofKoreandescent.It is thenational languageof bothNorth KoreaandSouth Korea.

Beyond Korea, the language is recognized as aminority languagein parts ofChina,namelyJilin,and specificallyYanbian Prefecture,andChangbai County.It is also spoken bySakhalin Koreansin parts ofSakhalin,theRussianisland just north of Japan, and by theKoryo-saramin parts ofCentral Asia.The language has a fewextinctrelatives which—along with theJeju language(Jejuan) ofJeju Islandand Korean itself—form the compactKoreanic language family.Even so, Jejuan and Korean are notmutually intelligible.Thelinguistic homelandof Korean is suggested to be somewhere in contemporaryManchuria.The hierarchy of the society from which the language originates deeply influences the language, leading to asystem of speech levelsandhonorificsindicative of the formality of any given situation.

Modern Korean is written in theKorean script(한글;Hangulin South Korea,조선글;Chosŏn'gŭlin North Korea), a system developed during the 15th century for that purpose, although it did not become the primary script until the 20th century. The script uses 24 basic letters (jamo) and 27 complex letters formed from the basic ones. When first recorded in historical texts, Korean was only aspoken language.

Since the turn of the 21st century, aspects ofKorean culturehave spread to other countries throughglobalizationandcultural exports.As such, interest in Korean language acquisition (as aforeign language) is also generated by longstanding alliances, military involvement, and diplomacy, such as betweenSouth Korea–United StatesandChina–North Koreasince the end ofWorld War IIand theKorean War.Along with other languages such asChineseandArabic,Korean is ranked at thetop difficulty levelfor English speakers by theUnited States Department of Defense.

History

Main article:History of Korean

See also:Origin of Hangul

Modern Korean descends fromMiddle Korean,which in turn descends fromOld Korean,which descends from theProto-Koreanic language,which is generally suggested to have itslinguistic homelandsomewhere inManchuria.Whitman (2012) suggests that the proto-Koreans, already present in northern Korea, expanded into the southern part of theKorean Peninsulaat around 300 BC and coexisted with the descendants of the Japonic Mumun cultivators (or assimilated them). Both had influence on each other and a later founder effect diminished the internal variety of both language families.

Since the establishment of two independent governments,North–South differenceshave developed in standard Korean, including variations in pronunciation and vocabulary chosen, but these minor differences can be found in any of theKorean dialects,which are still largelymutually intelligible.

Writing systems

The oldest Korean dictionary (1920)

Chinese charactersarrived in Korea (seeSino-Xenic pronunciationsfor further information) during theProto-Three Kingdoms erain the 1st century BC. They were adapted for Korean and became known asHanja,and remained as the main script for writing Korean for over a millennium alongside various phonetic scripts that were later invented such asIdu,GugyeolandHyangchal.Mainly privileged elites were educated to read and write in Hanja. However, most of the population was illiterate.

In the 15th century KingSejong the Greatpersonally developed anAlpha beticfeatural writing systemknown today asHangul.He felt that Hanja was inadequate to write Korean and that caused its very restricted use; Hangul was designed to either aid in reading Hanja or to replace Hanja entirely. Introduced in the documentHunminjeongeum,it was calledeonmun(colloquial script) and quickly spread nationwide to increase literacy in Korea. Hangul was widely used by all the Korean classes but was often treated asamkeul( "script for women" ) and disregarded by privileged elites, and Hanja was regarded asjinseo( "true text" ). Consequently, official documents were always written in Hanja during theJoseonera. Since few people could understand Hanja, Korean kings sometimes released public notices entirely written in Hangul as early as the 16th century for all Korean classes, including uneducated peasants and slaves. By the 17th century, the elite class ofYangbanhad exchanged Hangul letters with slaves, which suggests a high literacy rate of Hangul during the Joseon era.

Today Hanja is largely unused in everyday life because of its inconvenience but it is still important for historical and linguistic studies. Neither South Korea nor North Korea opposes the learning of Hanja, but they are no longer officially used in North Korea and their usage in South Korea is mainly reserved for specific circumstances such as newspapers, scholarly papers and disambiguation.

Names

The Korean names for the language are based on thenames for Koreaused in both South Korea and North Korea. The English word "Korean" is derived fromGoryeo,which is thought to be the first Korean dynasty known to Western nations. Korean people in theformer USSRrefer to themselves asKoryo-saramorKoryo-in(literally, "Koryo/Goryeopersons "), and call the languageKoryo-mal'.Some older English sources also use the spelling "Corea" to refer to the nation, and its inflected form for the language, culture and people, "Korea" becoming more popular in the late 1800s.

In South Korea the Korean language is referred to by many names includinghanguk-eo( "Korean language" ),hanguk-mal( "Korean speech" ) anduri-mal( "our language" ); "hanguk"is taken from the name of theKorean Empire(대한제국;Đại Hàn đế quốc;Daehan Jeguk). The "han"(Hàn) inHangukandDaehan Jegukis derived fromSamhan,in reference to theThree Kingdoms of Korea(not the ancient confederacies in the southern Korean Peninsula),while "-eo"and"-mal"mean" language "and" speech ", respectively. Korean is also simply referred to asguk-eo,literally "national language". This name is based on the sameHan characters(Quốc ngữ"nation" + "language" ) that are also used inTaiwanand Japan to refer to their respective national languages.

In North Korea andChina,the language is most often calledJoseon-mal,or more formally,Joseon-o.This is taken from the North Korean name for Korea (Joseon), a name retained from theJoseon dynastyuntil the proclamation of theKorean Empire,which in turn was annexed by theEmpire of Japan.

Inmainland China,following the establishment of diplomatic relations with South Korea in 1992, the termCháoxiǎnyǔor the short formCháoyǔhas normally been used to refer to the standard language of North Korea andYanbian,whereasHánguóyǔor the short formHányǔis used to refer to the standard language of South Korea.

Classification

Korean is a member of theKoreanic familyalong with theJeju language.Some linguists have included it in theAltaicfamily, but the core Altaic proposal itself has lost most of its prior support.TheKhitan languagehas several vocabulary items similar to Korean that are not found in other Mongolian or Tungusic languages, suggesting a Korean influence on Khitan.

The hypothesis that Korean could be related toJapanesehas had some supporters due to some overlap in vocabulary and similar grammatical features that have been elaborated upon by such researchers asSamuel E. MartinandRoy Andrew Miller.Sergei Anatolyevich Starostin(1991) found about 25% of potentialcognatesin the Japanese–Korean 100-wordSwadesh list. Some linguists concerned with the issue between Japanese and Korean, including Alexander Vovin, have argued that the indicated similarities are not due to anygenetic relationship,but rather to asprachbundeffect and heavy borrowing, especially fromAncient Koreaninto WesternOld Japanese.A good example might beMiddle Koreansàmand Japaneseasá,meaning "hemp".This word seems to be a cognate, but although it is well attested in Western Old Japanese andNorthern Ryukyuan languages,inEastern Old Japaneseit only occurs in compounds, and it is only present in three dialects of theSouthern Ryukyuan language group.Also, thedoubletwomeaning "hemp" is attested in Western Old Japanese and Southern Ryukyuan languages. It is thus plausible to assume a borrowed term.(SeeClassification of the Japonic languagesorComparison of Japanese and Koreanfor further details on a possible relationship.)

Hudson & Robbeets (2020) suggested that there are traces of a pre-Nivkhsubstratum in Korean. According to the hypothesis, ancestral varieties ofNivkh(also known asAmuric) were once distributed on theKorean peninsulabefore the arrival of Koreanic speakers.

Phonology

Main article:Korean phonology

Spoken Korean (adult man):
구매자는 판매자에게 제품 대금으로 20달러를 지급하여야 한다.
gumaejaneun panmaejaege jepum daegeumeuro isip dalleoreul ($20) jigeuphayeoya handa.
"The buyer must pay the seller $20 for the product."
lit.[the buyer] [to the seller] [the product] [in payment] [twenty dollars] [have to pay] [do]

Korean syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), consisting of an optional onset consonant, glide/j,w,ɰ/and final coda/p,t,k,m,n,ŋ,l/surrounding a core vowel.

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Alveolo- palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive/ Affricate	plain	ㅂ/p/	ㄷ/t/	ㅈ/t͡s/or/t͡ɕ/	ㄱ/k/
	tense	ㅃ/p͈/	ㄸ/t͈/	ㅉ/t͡s͈/or/t͡ɕ͈/	ㄲ/k͈/
	aspirated	ㅍ/pʰ/	ㅌ/tʰ/	ㅊ/t͡sʰ/or/t͡ɕʰ/	ㅋ/kʰ/
Nasal		ㅁ/m/	ㄴ/n/		ㅇ/ŋ/
Fricative	plain		ㅅ/s/or/sʰ/			ㅎ/h/
	tense		ㅆ/s͈/
Approximant		/w/		/j/
Liquid			ㄹ/l/or/ɾ/

Assimilation and allophony

TheIPAsymbol ⟨◌͈⟩ (U+0348◌͈COMBINING DOUBLE VERTICAL LINE BELOW) is used to denote thetensedconsonants/p͈/,/t͈/,/k͈/,/t͡ɕ͈/,/s͈/.Its official use in theextensions to the IPAis for"strong"articulation, but is used in the literature forfaucalized voice.The Korean consonants also have elements ofstiff voice,but it is not yet known how typical this is of faucalized consonants. They are produced with a partially constrictedglottisand additional subglottal pressure in addition to tense vocal tract walls, laryngeal lowering, or other expansion of the larynx.

/s/is aspirated[sʰ]and becomes analveolo-palatal[ɕʰ]before[j]or[i]for most speakers (but seeNorth–South differences in the Korean language). This occurs with the tense fricative and all the affricates as well. At the end of a syllable,/s/changes to/t/(example: beoseot (버섯) 'mushroom').

/h/may become abilabial[ɸ]before[o]or[u],apalatal[ç]before[j]or[i],avelar[x]before[ɯ],a voiced[ɦ]between voiced sounds, and a[h]elsewhere.

/p,t,t͡ɕ,k/become voiced[b,d,d͡ʑ,ɡ]between voiced sounds.

/m,n/frequently denasalize at the beginnings of words.

/l/becomes alveolar flap[ɾ]between vowels, and[l]or[ɭ]at the end of a syllable or next to another/l/.A written syllable-final 'ㄹ', when followed by a vowel or a glide (i.e.,when the next character starts with 'ㅇ'), migrates to the next syllable and thus becomes[ɾ].

Traditionally,/l/was disallowed at the beginning of a word. It disappeared before[j],and otherwise became/n/.However, the inflow of westernloanwordschanged the trend, and now word-initial/l/(mostly from English loanwords) are pronounced as a free variation of either[ɾ]or[l].

Allobstruents(plosives, affricates, fricatives) at the end of a word are pronounced withno audible release,[p̚,t̚,k̚].

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

Hangulspelling does not reflect these assimilatory pronunciation rules, but rather maintains the underlying, partly historicalmorphology.Given this, it is sometimes hard to tell which actual phonemes are present in a certain word.

The traditional prohibition of word-initial/ɾ/became a morphological rule called "initial law" (두음법칙) in the pronunciation standards of South Korea, which pertains to Sino-Korean vocabulary. Such words retain their word-initial/ɾ/in the pronunciation standards of North Korea. For example,

• "labor" ( lao động ) – north:rodong(로동), south:nodong(노동)
• "history" ( lịch sử ) – north:ryeoksa(력사), south:yeoksa(역사)
• "female" ( nữ tử ) – north:nyeoja(녀자), south:yeoja(여자)

Vowels

Short vowelchart

Long vowelchart

Monophthongs	ㅏ/a/NOTE ㅓ/ʌ/ ㅗ/o/ ㅜ/u/ ㅡ/ɯ/ ㅣ/i/ /e/ㅔ,/ɛ/ㅐ,/ø/ㅚ,/y/ㅟ
Vowels preceded by intermediaries, or diphthongs	ㅑ/ja/ ㅕ/jʌ/ ㅛ/jo/ ㅠ/ju/ /je/ㅖ,/jɛ/ㅒ,/we/ㅞ,/wɛ/ㅙ,/wa/ㅘ,/ɰi/ㅢ,/wʌ/ㅝ

^NOTEㅏis closer to anear-open central vowel([ɐ]), though⟨a⟩is still used for tradition.

Morphophonemics

Main article:Morphophonology

Grammaticalmorphemesmay change shape depending on the preceding sounds. Examples include-eun/-neun(-은/-는) and-i/-ga(-이/-가).

Sometimes sounds may be inserted instead. Examples include-eul/-reul(-을/-를),-euro/-ro(-으로/-로),-eseo/-seo(-에서/-서),-ideunji/-deunji(-이든지/-든지) and-iya/-ya(-이야/-야).

• However,-euro/-rois somewhat irregular, since it will behave differently after aㄹ(rieul consonant).

Korean particles

After a consonant	After a ㄹ (rieul)	After a vowel
-ui(-의)
-eun(-은)		-neun(-는)
-i(-이)		-ga(-가)
-eul(-을)		-reul(-를)
-gwa(-과)		-wa(-와)
-euro(-으로)	-ro(-로)

Some verbs may also change shape morphophonemically.

Grammar

Main article:Korean grammar

Korean is anagglutinative language.The Korean language is traditionally considered to havenine parts of speech.Modifiers generally precede the modified words, and in the case of verb modifiers, can be serially appended. The sentence structure or basic form of a Korean sentence issubject–object–verb(SOV), but theverbis the only required and immovable element andword orderis highly flexible, as in many other agglutinative languages.

Question:	"Did [you] go to the store?" ( "you" implied in conversation)
		가게에		가셨어요?
		gage-e		ga-syeo-sseo-yo
		store + [location marker (에)]		[go (verb root) (가)] + [honorific(시)] + [conjugated(contraction rule)(어)] + [past(ㅆ)] + [conjunctive(어)] + [polite marker (요)]

Response:	"Yes."
		예.(or네.)
		ye(orne)
		yes

The relationship between a speaker/writer and theirsubjectand audience is paramount inKorean grammar.The relationship between the speaker/writer and subject referent is reflected inhonorifics,whereas that between speaker/writer and audience is reflected inspeech level.

Honorifics

Main article:Korean honorifics

When talking about someone superior in status, a speaker or writer usually uses special nouns or verb endings to indicate the subject's superiority. Generally, someone is superior in status if they are 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 they are a younger stranger, student, employee, or the like. Nowadays, there are special endings which can be used on declarative, interrogative, and imperative sentences, and both honorific or normal sentences.

Honorifics in traditional Korea were strictly hierarchical. The caste and estate systems possessed patterns and usages much more complex and stratified than those used today. The intricate structure of the Korean honorific system flourished in traditional culture and society. Honorifics in contemporary Korea are now used for people who are psychologically distant. Honorifics are also used for people who are superior in status, such as older people, teachers, and employers.

Speech levels

Main article:Korean speech levels

There are seven verbparadigmsorspeech levelsin Korean,and each level has its own unique set of verb endings which are used to indicate the level of formality of a situation.Unlikehonorifics—which are used to show respect towards the referent (the person spoken of)—speech levelsare used to show respect towards a speaker's or writer's audience (the person spoken to). The names of the seven levels are derived from the non-honorificimperativeform of the verb하다(hada,"do" ) in each level, plus the suffix체( "che",Hanja:Thể), which means "style".

The three levels with high politeness (very formally polite, formally polite, casually polite) are generally grouped together asjondaesmal(존댓말), whereas the two levels with low politeness (formally impolite, casually impolite) arebanmal(반말) in Korean. The remaining two levels (neutral formality with neutral politeness, high formality with neutral politeness) are neither polite nor impolite.

Nowadays, younger-generation speakers no longer feel obligated to lower their usual regard toward the referent. It is common to see younger people talk to their older relatives withbanmal.This is not out of disrespect, but instead it shows the intimacy and the closeness of the relationship between the two speakers. Transformations in social structures and attitudes in today's rapidly changing society have brought about change in the way people speak.

Gender

In general, Korean lacksgrammatical gender.As one of the few exceptions, thethird-person singularpronoun has two different forms: 그geu(male) and 그녀geu-nyeo(female). Before 그녀 was invented in need of translating 'she' into Korean, 그 was the only third-person singular pronoun and had no grammatical gender. Its origin causes 그녀 never to be used in spoken Korean but appearing only in writing.

To have a more complete understanding of the intricacies of gender in Korean, three models of language and gender that have been proposed: the deficit model, the dominance model, and the cultural difference model. In the deficit model, male speech is seen as the default, and any form of speech that diverges from that norm (female speech) is seen as lesser than. The dominance model sees women as lacking in power due to living within a patriarchal society. The cultural difference model proposes that the difference in upbringing between men and women can explain the differences in their speech patterns. It is important to look at the models to better understand the misogynistic conditions that shaped the ways that men and women use the language. Korean's lack of grammatical gender makes it different from most European languages. Rather, gendered differences in Korean can be observed through formality, intonation, word choice, etc.

However, one can still find stronger contrasts between genders within Korean speech. Some examples of this can be seen in: (1) the softer tone used by women in speech; (2) a married woman introducing herself as someone's mother or wife, not with her own name; (3) the presence of gender differences in titles and occupational terms (for example, asajangis a company president, andyŏsajangis a female company president); (4) females sometimes using moretag questionsand rising tones in statements, also seen in speech from children.

Between two people of asymmetric status in Korean society, people tend to emphasize differences in status for the sake of solidarity. Koreans prefer to use kinship terms, rather than any other terms of reference.In traditional Korean society, women have long been in disadvantaged positions. Korean social structure traditionally was a patriarchically dominated family system that emphasized the maintenance of family lines. That structure has tended to separate the roles of women from those of men.

Cho and Whitman (2019) explore how categories such as male and female and social context influence Korean's features. For example they point out that usage ofjagi(자기 you) is dependent on context. Among middle-aged women,jagiis used to address someone who is close to them, while young Koreans usejagito address their lovers or spouses regardless of gender.

Korean society's prevalent attitude towards men being in public (outside the home) and women living in private still exists today. For instance, the word forhusbandisbakkat-yangban(바깥양반 'outside' 'nobleman'), but a husband introduces his wife asan-saram(안사람 an 'inside' 'person'). Also in kinship terminology,we(외 'outside' or 'wrong') is added for maternal grandparents, creatingoe-harabeojiandoe-hal-meoni(외할아버지, 외할머니 'grandfather and grandmother'), with different lexicons for males and females and patriarchal society revealed. Further, in interrogatives to an addressee of equal or lower status, Korean men tend to usehaennya(했냐? 'did it?')' in aggressive masculinity, but women usehaenni(했니? 'did it?')' as a soft expression.However, there are exceptions. Korean society used the question endings-ni(니) and-nya(냐), the former prevailing among women and men until a few decades ago. In fact,-nya(냐) was characteristic of theJeollaandChungcheongdialects. However, since the 1950s, large numbers of people have moved to Seoul from Chungcheong and Jeolla, and they began to influence the way men speak. Recently, women also have used the-nya(냐). As for-ni(니), it is usually used toward people to be polite even to someone not close or younger. As for-nya(냐), it is used mainly to close friends regardless of gender.

Like the case of "actor" and "actress", it also is possible to add a gender prefix for emphasis:biseo(비서 'secretary') is sometimes combined withyeo(여 'female') to formyeo-biseo(여비서 'female secretary');namja(남자 'man') often is added toganhosa(간호사 'nurse') to formnamja-ganhosa(남자간호사 'male nurse').

Another crucial difference between men and women is the tone and pitch of their voices and how they affect the perception of politeness. Men learn to use an authoritative falling tone; in Korean culture, a deeper voice is associated with being more polite. In addition to the deferential speech endings being used, men are seen as more polite as well as impartial, and professional. While women who use a rising tone in conjunction with-yo(요) are not perceived to be as polite as men. The-yo(요) also indicates uncertainty since the ending has many prefixes that indicate uncertainty and questioning while the deferential ending has no prefixes to indicate uncertainty. The-hamnida(합니다) ending is the most polite and formal form of Korea, and the-yo(요) ending is less polite and formal, which reinforces the perception of women as less professional.

Hedges and euphemisms to soften assertions are common in women's speech. Women traditionally add nasal soundsneyng,neym,ney-ein the last syllable more frequently than men. Often,lis often added in women's for female stereotypes and soigeolo(이거로 'this thing') becomesigeollo(이걸로 'this thing') to communicate a lack of confidence and passivity.

Women use more linguistic markers such as exclamationeomeo(어머 'oh') andeojjeom(어쩜 'what a surprise') than men do in cooperative communication.

Vocabulary

The core of the Korean vocabulary is made up ofnative Koreanwords. However, a significant proportion of the vocabulary, especially words that denote abstract ideas, areSino-Koreanwords(of Chinese origin).To a much lesser extent, some words have also been borrowed fromMongolianand other languages.More recent loanwords are dominated by English.

In South Korea, it is widely believed that North Korea wanted to emphasize the use of unique Korean expressions in its language and eliminate the influence of foreign languages. However, according to researchers such as Jeon Soo-tae, who has seen first-hand data from North Korea, the country has reduced the number of difficult foreign words in a similar way to South Korea.

In 2021, Moon Sung-guk ofKim Il Sung Universityin North Korea wrote in his thesis thatKim Jong Ilhad said that vernacularized Sino-Korean vocabulary should be used as it is, not modified. "A language is in constant interaction with other languages, and in the process it is constantly being developed and enriched," he said. According to the paper, Kim Jong Il argued that academic terms used in the natural sciences and engineering, such as콤퓨터(compyutŏ;computer) and하드디스크(hadǔdisǔkǔ;hard disk) should remain in the names of their inventors, and that the word쵸콜레트(ch'okoletǔ;chocolate) should not be replaced because it had been used for so long.

South Korea defines its vocabulary standards through the "표준국어대사전"(" Standard Korean Language Dictionary "), and North Korea defines its vocabulary standards through the"조선말대사전"(" Korean Language Dictionary ").

Sino-Korean

Main article:Sino-Korean vocabulary

Number	Sino-Koreancardinals		Native Korean cardinals
	Hangul	Romanization	Hangul	Romanization
1	일	il	하나	hana
2	이	i	둘	dul
3	삼	sam	셋	set
4	사	sa	넷	net
5	오	o	다섯	daseot
6	육,륙	yuk,ryuk	여섯	yeoseot
7	칠	chil	일곱	ilgop
8	팔	pal	여덟	yeodeol
9	구	gu	아홉	ahop
10	십	sip	열	yeol

Sino-Korean vocabulary consists of:

• words directly borrowedfromwritten Chinese,and
• compounds coined in Korea or Japan and read using the Sino-Korean reading ofChinese characters.

Therefore, just like other words, Korean hastwo sets of numeral systems.English is similar, having native English words andLatinateequivalents such aswater-aqua,fire-flame,sea-marine,two-dual,sun-solar,star-stellar.However, unlike English and Latin which belong to the sameIndo-European languagesfamily and bear a certain resemblance, Korean and Chinese aregenetically unrelatedand the two sets of Korean words differ completely from each other. All Sino-Koreanmorphemesaremonosyllabicas in Chinese, whereas native Korean morphemes can be polysyllabic. The Sino-Korean words were deliberately imported alongside corresponding Chinese characters for a written language and everything was supposed to be written in Hanja, so the coexistence of Sino-Korean would be more thorough and systematic than that of Latinate words in English.

The exact proportion of Sino-Korean vocabulary is a matter of debate. Sohn (2001) stated 50–60%.In 2006 the same author gives an even higher estimate of 65%.Jeong Jae-do, one of the compilers of the dictionaryUrimal Keun Sajeon,asserts that the proportion is not so high. He points out that Korean dictionaries compiled during thecolonial periodinclude many unused Sino-Korean words. In his estimation, the proportion of Sino-Korean vocabulary in the Korean language might be as low as 30%.

Western loanwords

See also:Konglish

The vast majority ofloanwordsother than Sino-Korean come from modern times, approximately 90% of which are fromEnglish.Many words have also been borrowed fromWestern languagessuch asGermanviaJapanese(e.g.아르바이트(areubaiteu) "part-time job",알레르기(allereugi) "allergy",기브스(gibseuorgibuseu) "plaster cast used for broken bones" ). Some Western words were borrowed indirectly via Japanese during theJapanese occupation of Korea,taking a Japanese sound pattern, for example "dozen" >ダースdāsu>다스daseu.However, most indirect Western borrowings are now written according to current "Hangulization" rules for the respective Western language, as if borrowed directly. In South Korean official use, a number of other Sino-Korean country names have been replaced with phonetically oriented "Hangeulizations" of the countries' endonyms or English names.

Because of such a prevalence of English in modern South Korean culture and society,lexical borrowingis inevitable. English-derived Korean, or "Konglish"(콩글리시), is increasingly used. The vocabulary of the South Korean dialect of the Korean language is roughly 5% loanwords (excluding Sino-Korean vocabulary).However, due to North Korea's isolation, such influence is lacking in North Korean speech.

Writing system

TheLatin Alpha betused inromanizationonroad signs,for foreigners in South Korea

Main articles:Hangul,Korean Braille,andHanja

See also:Hangul consonant and vowel tables

Before the creation ofthe modern Korean Alpha bet,known as Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea and as Hangul in South Korea, people in Korea (known asJoseonat the time) primarily wrote usingClassical Chinesealongside native phonetic writing systems that predate Hangul by hundreds of years, includingidu,hyangchal,gugyeol,and gakpil.Few people in the lower classes had the opportunity to receive an education, and they found it extremely difficult to learn how to write in Chinese characters due to the fundamental disparities between the Korean and Chinese languages and the sheer amount of characters that needed to be taught. To assuage that problem,King Sejong(r. 1418–1450) created the unique Alpha bet known as Hangul to promote literacy among the common people.

The Korean Alpha bet was denounced and looked down upon by theyangbanaristocracy, who deemed it too easy to learn,but it gained widespread use among the common classand was widely used to print popular novels which were enjoyed by the common class.With growing Korean nationalism in the 19th century, theGabo Reformists'push, and the promotion of Hangul in schools,in 1894, Hangul displacedHanjaas Korea's national script.Hanja are still used to a certain extent in South Korea, where they are sometimes combined with Hangul, but that method is slowly declining in use even though students learn Hanja in school.

Symbol chart

Below is a chart of the Korean Alpha bet's (Hangul) symbols and theirRevised Romanization(RR) and canonicalInternational Phonetic Alphabet(IPA) values:

Consonants

Hangul한글	ㄱ	ㄲ	ㄴ	ㄷ	ㄸ	ㄹ	ㅁ	ㅂ	ㅃ	ㅅ	ㅆ	ㅇ	ㅈ	ㅉ	ㅊ	ㅋ	ㅌ	ㅍ	ㅎ
RR	g	kk	n	d	tt	r (initial),l (final)	m	b	pp	s	ss	silent (initial), ng (final)	j	jj	ch	k	t	p	h
IPA	k	k͈	n	t	t͈	ɾ(initial),l(final)	m	p	p͈	s	s͈	∅(initial),ŋ(final)	t͡ɕ	t͡ɕ͈	t͡ɕʰ	kʰ	tʰ	pʰ	h

Vowels

Hangul한글	ㅣ	ㅔ	ㅚ	ㅐ	ㅏ	ㅗ	ㅜ	ㅓ	ㅡ	ㅢ	ㅖ	ㅒ	ㅑ	ㅛ	ㅠ	ㅕ	ㅟ	ㅞ	ㅙ	ㅘ	ㅝ
RR	i	e	oe	ae	a	o	u	eo	eu	ui	ye	yae	ya	yo	yu	yeo	wi	we	wae	wa	wo
IPA	i	e	ø,we	ɛ	a	o	u	ʌ	ɯ	ɰi	je	jɛ	ja	jo	ju	jʌ	ɥi,wi	we	wɛ	wa	wʌ

The letters of the Korean Alpha bet are not written linearly like most Alpha bets, but instead arranged into blocks that representsyllables.So, while the wordbibimbap(Korean rice dish) is written as eight characters in a row in the Latin Alpha bet, in Korean it is written 비빔밥, as three "syllabic blocks" in a row.Mukbang(먹방'eating show') is seven characters afterromanizationbut only two "syllabic blocks" before.

Modern Korean is written with spaces between words, a feature not found in Chinese or Japanese (except when Japanese is written exclusively inhiragana,as in children's books). Themarksused forKorean punctuationare almost identical to Western ones. Traditionally, Korean was written in columns, from top to bottom, right to left, like traditional Chinese. However, the syllabic blocks are now usually written in rows, from left to right, top to bottom, like English.

Dialects

Main articles:Korean dialectsandKoreanic languages

Regionaldialects of Korean

Korean has numerous small localdialects(calledmal(말) [literally 'speech'],saturi(사투리), orbang'eon(방언). South Korean authors claim that thestandard language(pyojun-eoorpyojun-mal) of both South Korea and North Korea is based on the dialect of the area around Seoul (which, as Hanyang, was the capital ofJoseon-era Korea for 500 years), however since 1966 North Korea officially states that its standard is based on the Pyongyang speech.All dialects of Korean are similar to each other and largelymutually intelligible(with the exception of dialect-specific phrases or non-Standard vocabulary unique to dialects), though thedialect of Jeju Islandis divergent enough to be generally considered a separate language.One of the more salient differences between dialects is the use of tone: speakers of theSeoul dialectmake use of vowel length, whereas speakers of theGyeongsang dialectmaintain thepitch accentof Middle Korean. Some dialects are conservative, maintaining Middle Korean sounds (such asz, β, ə) which have been lost from the standard language, whereas others are highly innovative.

Kang Yoonjung & Han Sungwoo (2013),Kim Mi-Ryoung (2013),andCho Sunghye (2017)suggest that the modern Seoul dialect is currently undergoingtonogenesis,based on the finding that in recent yearslenis consonants(ㅂㅈㄷㄱ),aspirated consonants(ㅍㅊㅌㅋ) and fortis consonants (ㅃㅉㄸㄲ) were shifting from a distinction viavoice onset timeto that of pitch change;however,Choi Jiyoun, Kim Sahyang & Cho Taehong (2020)disagree with the suggestion that the consonant distinction shifting away from voice onset time is due to the introduction of tonal features, and instead proposes that it is aprosodically conditioned change.

There is substantial evidence for a history of extensivedialect levelling,or evenconvergent evolutionor intermixture of two or more originally distinct linguistic stocks, within the Korean language and its dialects. Many Korean dialects have basic vocabulary that is etymologically distinct from vocabulary of identical meaning in Standard Korean or other dialects, for example "garlic chives"translated into Gyeongsang dialect/t͡ɕʌŋ.ɡu.d͡ʑi/(정구지;jeongguji) but in Standard Korean, it is/puːt͡ɕʰu/(부추;buchu). This suggests that the Korean Peninsula may have at one time been much more linguistically diverse than it is at present.See also theJapanese–Koguryoic languageshypothesis.

North–South differences

Main article:North–South differences in the Korean language

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

Pronunciation

In North Korea,palatalizationof/si/is optional, and/t͡ɕ/can be pronounced[z]between vowels.

Words that are written the same way may be pronounced differently (such as the examples below). The pronunciations below are given inRevised Romanization,McCune–Reischauerand modifiedHangul(what the Korean characters would be if one were to write the word as pronounced).

Word	RR	Meaning	Pronunciation
			North			South
			RR	MR	Chosungul	RR	MR	Hangul
읽고	ilgo	to read (continuative form)	ilko	ilko	(일)코	ilkko	ilkko	(일)꼬
압록강	amnokgang	Amnok River	amrokgang	amrokkang	암(록)깡	amnokkang	amnokkang	암녹깡
독립	dongnip	independence	dongrip	tongrip	동(립)	dongnip	tongnip	동닙
관념	gwannyeom	idea / sense / conception	gwallyeom	kwallyŏm	괄렴	gwannyeom	kwannyŏm	(관)념
혁신적*	hyeoksinjeok	innovative	hyeoksinjjeok	hyŏksintchŏk	(혁)씬쩍	hyeoksinjeok	hyŏksinjŏk	(혁)씬(적)

* In the North, similar pronunciation is used whenever the hanja ""is attached to a Sino-Korean word ending inㄴ,ㅁorㅇ.

* In the South, this rule only applies when it is attached to any single-character Sino-Korean word.

Spelling

See also:Korean spelling Alpha bet

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

Word		Meaning	Pronunciation (RR/MR)	Remarks
North spelling	South spelling
해빛	햇빛	sunshine	haeppit (haepit)	The "sai siot" ('ㅅ' used for indicating sound change) is almost never written out in the North.
벗꽃	벚꽃	cherry blossom	beotkkot (pŏtkkot)
못읽다	못 읽다	cannot read	modikda (modikta)	Spacing.
한나산	한라산	Hallasan	hallasan (hallasan)	When aㄴㄴcombination is pronounced asll,the original Hangul spelling is kept in the North, whereas the Hangul is changed in the South.
규률	규율	rules	gyuyul (kyuyul)	In words where the original hanja is spelt "렬"or"률"and follows a vowel, the initialㄹis not pronounced in the North, making the pronunciation identical with that in the South where theㄹis dropped in the spelling.

Spellingandpronunciation

Basically, the standard languages of North and South Korea, including pronunciation and vocabulary, are both linguistically based on the Seoul dialect, but in North Korea, words have been modified to reflect the theories of scholars likeKim Tu-bong,who sought a refined language, as well as political needs. Some differences are difficult to explain in terms of political ideas, such as North Korea's use of the wordrajio(라지오).:

Word				Meaning	Remarks
North spelling	North pronun.	South spelling	South pronun.
력량	ryeongryang (ryŏngryang)	역량	yeongnyang (yŏngnyang)	strength	Initialr's are dropped if followed byioryin the South Korean version of Korean.
로동	rodong (rodong)	노동	nodong (nodong)	work	Initialr's are demoted to annif not followed byioryin the South Korean version of Korean.
원쑤	wonssu (wŏnssu)	원수	wonsu (wŏnsu)	mortal enemy	"Mortal enemy" and "field marshal"are homophones in the South. Possibly to avoid referring toKim Il Sung,Kim Jong IlorKim Jong Unas the enemy, the second syllable of "enemy" is written and pronounced쑤in the North.
라지오	rajio (rajio)	라디오	radio (radio)	radio	In South Korea, the expressionrajiois considered a Japanese expression that was introduced during the Japanese colonial rule and does not properly represent the pronunciation of Korean.
우	u (u)	위	wi (wi)	on; above
안해	anhae (anhae)	아내	anae (anae)	wife
꾸바	kkuba (kkuba)	쿠바	kuba (k'uba)	Cuba	When transcribing foreign words from languages that do not have contrasts between aspirated and unaspirated stops, North Koreans generally use tensed stops for the unaspirated ones while South Koreans use aspirated stops in both cases.
페	pe (p'e)	폐	pye (p'ye), pe (p'e)	lungs	In the case whereyecomes after a consonant, such as inhyeandpye,it is pronounced without the palatal approximate. North Korean orthography reflects this pronunciation nuance.

In general, when transcribing place names, North Korea tends to use the pronunciation in the original language more than South Korea, which often uses the pronunciation in English. For example:

Original name	North Korea transliteration		English name	South Korea transliteration
	Spelling	Pronunciation		Spelling	Pronunciation
Ulaanbaatar	울란바따르	ullanbattareu (ullanbattarŭ)	Ulan Bator	울란바토르	ullanbatoreu (ullanbat'orŭ)
København	쾨뻰하븐	koeppenhabeun (k'oeppenhabŭn)	Copenhagen	코펜하겐	kopenhagen (k'op'enhagen)
al-Qāhirah	까히라	kkahira (kkahira)	Cairo	카이로	kairo (k'airo)

Grammar

Some grammatical constructions are also different:

Word				Meaning	Remarks
North spelling	North pronun.	South spelling	South pronun.
되였다	doeyeotda (toeyŏtta)	되었다	doeeotda (toeŏtta)	past tense of되다(doeda/toeda), "to become"	All similar grammar forms of verbs or adjectives that end inㅣin the stem (i.e.ㅣ,ㅐ,ㅔ,ㅚ,ㅟandㅢ) in the North use여instead of the South's어.
고마와요	gomawayo (komawayo)	고마워요	gomawoyo (komawŏyo)	thanks	ㅂ-irregular verbs in the North use와(wa) for all those with a positive ending vowel; this only happens in the South if the verb stem has only one syllable.
할가요	halgayo (halkayo)	할까요	halkkayo (halkkayo)	Shall we do?	Although the Hangul differ, the pronunciations are the same (i.e. with the tensedㄲsound).

Punctuation

In the North,guillemets(《and》) are the symbols used forquotes;in the South, quotation marks equivalent to the English ones ("and") are standard (although『 』and“”are also used).

Vocabulary

Some vocabulary is different between the North and the South:

Word				Meaning	Remarks
North word	North pronun.	South word	South pronun.
문화주택	munhwajutaek (munhwajut'aek)	아파트	apateu (ap'at'ŭ)	Apartment	아빠트(appateu/appat'ŭ) is also used in the North.
조선말	joseonmal (chosŏnmal)	한국어	han-guk'eo (han-guk'ŏ)	Korean language	The Japanese pronunciation of 조선말 was used throughout Korea and Manchuria during Japanese imperial rule, but after liberation, the government chose the name 대한민국 (Daehanminguk) which was derived from the name immediately prior to Japanese imperial rule. The syllable 한 (Han) was drawn from the same source as that name (in reference to the Han people).Read more.
곽밥	gwakbap (kwakpap)	도시락	dosirak(tosirak)	lunch box
동무	dongmu (tongmu)	친구	chin-gu (ch'in-gu)	Friend	동무was originally a non-ideological word for "friend" used all over the Korean peninsula, but North Koreans later adopted it as the equivalent of the Communist term of address "comrade".As a result, to South Koreans today the word has a heavy political tinge, and so they have shifted to using other words for friend likechingu(친구) orbeot(벗). Today,beot(벗) is closer to a term used in literature, andchingu(친구) is the widest-used word for friend. Such changes were made after the Korean War and the ideological battle between the anti-Communist government in the South and North Korea's communism.

Geographic distribution

See also:Korean diaspora

Korean is spoken by theKorean peoplein both South Korea and North Korea, and by theKorean diasporain many countries including thePeople's Republic of China,theUnited States,Japan,andRussia.In 2001, Korean was the fourth most popularforeign languagein China, following English, Japanese, and Russian.Korean-speaking minorities exist in these states, but because ofcultural assimilationinto host countries, not all ethnic Koreans may speak it with native fluency.

Official status

• 
  Highway sign in Korean,
  Reunification Highway,Pyongyang,North Korea
• 
  Highway sign in Korean and English,
  Gyeongbu Expressway,Daegu,South Korea
• 
  Highway sign in Korean and Chinese,
  Hunwu Expressway,Yanbian,China

Korean is theofficial languageof South Korea and North Korea. It, along withMandarin Chinese,is also one of the two official languages of China'sYanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture.

In North Korea, the regulatory body is the Language Institute of the Academy of Social Sciences (사회과학원 어학연구소; khoa học xã hội viện ngữ học nghiên cứu sở,Sahoe Gwahagweon Eohag Yeonguso). In South Korea, the regulatory body for Korean is theSeoul-basedNational Institute of the Korean Language,which was created by presidential decree on 23 January 1991.

King Sejong Institute

Established pursuant to Article 9, Section 2, of the Framework Act on the National Language, theKing Sejong Instituteis a public institution set up to coordinate the government's project of propagating Korean language and culture; it also supports the King Sejong Institute, which is the institution's overseas branch. The King Sejong Institute was established in response to:

• An increase in the demand for Korean language education;
• a rapid increase in Korean language education thanks to the spread of the culture (hallyu), an increase in international marriage, the expansion of Korean enterprises into overseas markets, and enforcement of employment licensing system;
• the need for a government-sanctioned Korean language educational institution;
• the need for general support for overseas Korean language education based on a successful domestic language education program.

King Sejong Institute has 59 in Europe, 15 in Africa, 146 in Asia, 34 in the Americas, and 4 in Oceania.

TOPIK Korea Institute

TheTOPIKKorea Institute is a lifelong educational center affiliated with a variety of Korean universities in Seoul, South Korea, whose aim is to promote Korean language and culture, support local Korean teaching internationally, and facilitate cultural exchanges.

The institute is sometimes compared to language and culture promotion organizations such as theKing Sejong Institute.Unlike that organization, however, the TOPIK Korea Institute operates within established universities and colleges around the world, providing educational materials. In countries around the world, Korean embassies and cultural centers (한국문화원) administer TOPIK examinations.

Foreign language

Main article:Korean as a foreign language

For native English-speakers, Korean is generally considered to be one of the most difficultforeign languagesto master despite the relative ease of learning Hangul. For instance, theUnited States'Defense Language Instituteplaces Korean in Category IV withJapanese,Chinese(MandarinandCantonese), andArabic,requiring 64 weeks of instruction (as compared to just 26 weeks for Category I languages likeItalian,French,andSpanish) to bring an English-speaking student to a limited working level of proficiency in which they have "sufficient capability to meet routine social demands and limited job requirements" and "can deal with concrete topics in past, present, and future tense."Similarly, theForeign Service Institute's School of Language Studies places Korean in Category IV, the highest level of difficulty.

The study of the Korean language in the United States is dominated byKorean Americanheritage language students,who in 2007 were estimated to form over 80% of all students of the language at non-military universities.However,Sejong Institutesin the United States have noted a sharp rise in the number of people of other ethnic backgrounds studying Korean between 2009 and 2011, which they attribute torising popularityofSouth Korean musicandtelevision shows.In 2018, it was reported that the rise in K-Pop was responsible for the increase in people learning the language in US universities.

Testing

There are two widely used tests of Korean as a foreign language: theKorean Language Proficiency Test(KLPT) and theTest of Proficiency in Korean(TOPIK). The Korean Language Proficiency Test, an examination aimed at assessing non-native speakers' competence in Korean, was instituted in 1997; 17,000 people applied for the 2005 sitting of the examination.The TOPIK was first administered in 1997 and was taken by 2,274 people. Since then the total number of people who have taken the TOPIK has surpassed 1 million, with more than 150,000 candidates taking the test in 2012.TOPIK is administered in 45 regions within South Korea and 72 nations outside of South Korea, with a significant portion being administered in Japan and North America, which would suggest the targeted audience for TOPIK is still primarily foreigners of Korean heritage.This is also evident in TOPIK's website, where the examination is introduced as intended for Korean heritage students.

Example text

From Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rightsin Korean (Hankuko):

모든

Modeun

인간은

ingan-eun

태어날

tae-eonal

때부터

ttaebuteo

자유로우며

jayuroumyeo

그

geu

존엄과

jon-eomgwa

권리에

gwonrie

있어

iss-eo

동등하다.

dongdeunghada.

인간은

Ingan-eun

천부적으로

cheonbujeog-euro

이성과

iseong-gwa

양심을

yangsim-eul

부여받았으며

bu-yeobad-ass-eumyeo

서로

seoro

형제애의

hyungje-ae-ui

정신으로

jeongsin-euro

행동하여야

haengdongha-yeo-ya

한다.

handa.

모든 인간은 태어날 때부터 자유로우며 그 존엄과 권리에 있어 동등하다. 인간은 천부적으로 이성과 양심을 부여받았으며 서로 형제애의 정신으로 행동하여야 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-ya handa.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

See also

• Korean Wave
• Outline of Korean language
• Korean count word
• Korean Cultural Center(KCC)
• Korean dialects
• Korean language and computers
• Korean as a foreign language
• Korean mixed script
• Korean particles
• Korean proverbs
• Korean words
• Korean sign language
• Korean romanization
  • McCune–Reischauer
  • Revised romanization of Korean
  • SKATS
  • Yale romanization of Korean
• List of English words of Korean origin
• Vowel harmony
• History of Korean
• Korean films
  • Cinema of North Korea
  • Cinema of South Korea

Further reading

• Argüelles, Alexander;Kim, Jong-Rok (2000).A Historical, Literary and Cultural Approach to the Korean Language.Seoul, South Korea: Hollym.
• Argüelles, Alexander;Kim, Jongrok (2004).A Handbook of Korean Verbal Conjugation.Hyattsville, Maryland: Dunwoody Press.
• Argüelles, Alexander(2007).Korean Newspaper Reader.Hyattsville, Maryland: Dunwoody Press.
• Argüelles, Alexander(2010).North Korean Reader.Hyattsville, Maryland: Dunwoody Press.
• Brown, L. (2015). "Expressive, Social and Gendered Meanings of Korean Honorifics".Korean Linguistics.17(2): 242–266.doi:10.1075/kl.17.2.04bro.
• Chang, Suk-jin (1996).Korean.London Oriental and African Language Library. Vol. 4. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.ISBN978-1-55619-728-4.
• Cho, Young A. (2006). "Gender Differences in Korean Speech". In Sohn, Ho-min (ed.).Korean Language in Culture and Society.University of Hawaii Press. p. 189.
• Cho, Sungdai; Whitman, John (2020).Korean: A Linguistic Introduction.Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-51485-9.
• Hulbert, Homer B. (1905).A Comparative Grammar of the Korean Language and the Dravidian Dialects in India.Seoul: Methodist Publishing House.
• Lee, Ki-Moon; Ramsey, S. Robert (2011).A History of the Korean Language.Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-66189-8.
• Martin, Samuel E. (1966). "Lexical Evidence Relating Japanese to Korean".Language.42(2): 185–251.doi:10.2307/411687.JSTOR411687.
• Martin, Samuel E. (1990). "Morphological clues to the relationship of Japanese and Korean". InBaldi, Philip(ed.).Linguistic Change and Reconstruction Methodology.Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs. Vol. 45. pp. 483–509.
• Martin, Samuel E. (2006).A Reference Grammar of Korean: A Complete Guide to the Grammar and History of the Korean Language – Hàn Quốc ngữ văn pháp tổng giám.Tuttle Publishing.ISBN978-0-8048-3771-2.
• Miller, Roy Andrew (1971).Japanese and the Other Altaic Languages.Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.ISBN0-226-52719-0.
• Miller, Roy Andrew (1996).Languages and History: Japanese, Korean and Altaic.Oslo, Norway: Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture.ISBN974-8299-69-4.
• Ramstedt, G. J. (1928). "Remarks on the Korean language".Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne.58.
• Rybatzki, Volker (2003). "Middle Mongol". In Janhunen, Juha (ed.).The Mongolic languages.London, England: Routledge. pp. 47–82.ISBN0-7007-1133-3.
• Starostin, Sergei A.; Dybo, Anna V.; Mudrak, Oleg A. (2003).Etymological Dictionary of the Altaic Languages.Leiden, South Holland: Brill Academic Publishers.ISBN90-04-13153-1.In 3 volumes.
• Sohn, Ho-Min (2001) [1999].The Korean Language.Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0521369435.
• Sohn, Ho-Min (2006).Korean Language in Culture and Society.Boston, MA: Twayne Publishers.ISBN978-0-8248-2694-9.
• Song, J.-J. (2005).The Korean Language: Structure, Use and Context.London, England: Routledge.
• Trask, R. L. (1996).Historical linguistics.Hodder Arnold.
• Vovin, Alexander (2008)."Man'yōshū to Fudoki ni Mirareru Fushigina Kotoba to Jōdai Nihon Retto ni Okeru Ainugo no Bunpu"[Strange Words in theMan'yoshūand theFudokiand the Distribution of theAinuLanguage in the Japanese Islands in Prehistory](PDF)(paper). International Research Center for Japanese Studies. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 11 February 2014.Retrieved17 January2011.
• Vovin, Alexander (2010).Koreo-Japonica: A Re-evaluation of a Common Genetic Origin.Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press.
• Whitman, John B. (1985).The Phonological Basis for the Comparison of Japanese and Korean(PhD thesis). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.Unpublished Harvard University PhD dissertation.
• Yeon, Jaehoon; Brown, Lucien (2011).Korean: A Comprehensive Grammar.London, England: Routledge.

External links

• Linguistic and Philosophical Origins of the Korean Alphabet (Hangul)
• Sogang University free online Korean language and culture course
• Beginner's guide to Korean for English speakersArchived30 March 2019 at theWayback Machine
• U.S. Foreign Service Institute Korean basic course
• asianreadings,Korean readings with hover prompts
• Linguistic map of Korea
• dongsa.net,Korean verb conjugation tool
• Hanja Explorer,a tool to visualize and study Korean vocabulary
• Korean languageatCurlie