History of Korean language

 

Introduction:

Korea is a peninsular country in the Asian continent. Its land area, is 220,911 square kilometers (84,500 square miles). It is around the size of the state of Minnesota in the United States, or the combined area of England, Scotland, and Wales. It is divided into North and South Korea. (Young Ick Lew). Total population of Korea is 77.56 million. North Korea has a less population of 25.78 million, on the other hand South Korea’s Population is 51.78 million. (World Bank , 2020). Korea is surrounded to the north by two major neighbors, China and Russia, and to the east and south by the Japanese islands separated by a 120-mile strait. Both North and South Korea remain a fulcrum of power politics among the world's great nations. Different artifacts from Paleolithic era discovered show that human beings inhibited from 500,000 BC. According to most archeologists semi-nomadic people who crafted comb-marked and plain-brown pottery under the influence of Shamanistic culture during the Neolithic Age, from around 3,000 to the eleventh century BC, compromise the major branch of the race now known as Korean. (Young Ick Lew).

History of Korean Language:

Koreans are ethnically and linguistically distinct from the (Han) Chinese.   Koreans are of the Tungusic branch of the Mongoloid race. Their polysyllabic, agglutinative language is related to the Altaic language family, which includes Turkish, Mongolian, and Japanese. Chinese influences seen in today's Korean culture are a reflection of the Korean people's conscious and deliberate adoption of Chinese culture from the second century BCE to 1895 CE. Some linguist divides Korean language evolution in following periods.

·         Pre historic Korean

·         Old Korean

·         Middle Korean

·         Modern Korean

 

 

 

Pre historic and Old Korean:

Original Korean is derived from Altaic (extinct language) in pre-historic times. Very little is known of this era but it is assumed that sound changes happen during the pre-historic times. This era is responsible for a major amount of the morphological and syntactic changes between Korean and Proto Altaic.
For old Korean no useful linguist data exist for the three old Korean languages i.e., Sinla, Paykcey and Kokwulye. In some existing records written in the Itwu script of Chinese characters, only fragmented reflexes have been observed. There is a wealth of information available regarding the Sinla language. Sinla is a closely related language to Altaic. The time of old Korean was the beginning of the inflow of Chinese character words.

Middle Korean:

Early middle Korean data was recorded in Chinese characters, whereas late middle Korean data was recorded in the newly originated Korean alphabet Hankul. Hankul in the early fifteenth century made extensive and exact transcription of Korean language for the first time. The middle Korean period is characterized by the introduction of a large number of Chinese words into Korean language as a result of the advent of the Koyle dynasty. Major phonological developments are thought to have occurred during the early Middle Korean period.

Modern Korean:

Modern Korean is descended from Middle Korean, which is descended from Old Korean, which is descended from the Proto-Korean language, which is thought to be its linguistic ancestor. Korea has its own language and writing system, known as "Hangeul," which was developed by King Sejong (1397–1450) during the Joseon dynasty. Koreans are quite proud of this extraordinary accomplishment. Hangeul is a very efficient and simple script to learn and use, and most importantly, its propagation was meticulously documented, which is unique in the world. Hangeul is made up of 14 consonant letters and 10 vowel letters. It can reproduce almost all of the sounds made by nature and humans.

Korean is a language spoken by around 75 million people, 48 million of whom live in South Korea and 24 million in North Korea. More than 2 million people speak Korean in China, 1 million in the United States, and 500,000 in Japan. South Korea's (Republic of Korea) and North Korea's (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) official languages are both Korean. Minor differences in spelling, alphabetization, and vocabulary selection (including letter names) exist between the two Koreas, but both largely support the unified standards recommended by the Korean Language Society in 1933.