Korean language

Korean language is the official language of both South Korea and North Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China. There are about 77 million Korean speakers worldwide.

History

The Korean language is a language isolate, which means it does not belong to any language family. Its origins are still debated among linguists and historians. The earliest examples of written Korean are inscriptions on Goguryeo tomb murals from the 5th to 6th centuries AD.

Classification

Korean is often said to belong to the Altaic language family, but this theory is not widely accepted. Some linguists propose that Korean is related to the now extinct languages of the Buyeo kingdom, but this is also controversial.

Dialects

There are several Korean dialects, including the Seoul dialect, which is the basis for standard Korean. Other dialects include Jeju dialect, Gyeongsang dialect, and Hamgyong dialect.

Writing system

The Korean language uses the Hangul alphabet, which was created during the 15th century by King Sejong the Great. Hangul is a featural alphabet, where the shapes of the letters represent articulatory features.

Grammar

Korean grammar is based on subject–object–verb word order and agglutination, where words are formed by adding affixes to roots. Korean also uses honorifics to show respect to the subject of conversation.

Phonology

The Korean language has a complex system of phonetics and phonology. It includes features such as vowel harmony, pitch accent, and tenseness in consonants.

Vocabulary

Korean vocabulary has been influenced by Sino-Korean words, native Korean words, and words from English and other foreign languages.

Learning Korean

There are many resources available for learning Korean, including language schools, textbooks, online courses, and language exchange programs.

See also

• Korean culture
• Korean literature
• Korean phonology
• Korean grammar
• Korean honorifics
• Korean numerals