01
Old Korean and Chinese Characters
Old Korean, the language of Silla, is known only through Chinese characters, used either for meaning or for sound in systems called idu and hyangchal. They record official documents and a small body of poems (hyangga). As in Japan and Vietnam, Chinese became the language of learning, and Korean took in a vast Sino-Korean vocabulary that today makes up more than half of its dictionary words.
02
Hangul
In 1443 King Sejong and scholars of his court created a new alphabet, promulgated in 1446 as the Hunminjeongeum ('the correct sounds for instructing the people'). Its consonant letters depict the position of the speech organs: ㄱ g shows the back of the tongue touching the soft palate, and ㅁ m the closed mouth. Letters are grouped into syllable blocks. The elite long preferred Chinese characters, and Hangul came into general use only in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
Middle Korean, as written in early Hangul, had pitch accent marked by dots beside each syllable, and a vowel ㆍ (arae-a) that no longer exists in Seoul Korean. Both were lost in the standard language in the following centuries.
03
Colony, Division and Two Standards
Under Japanese rule (1910–1945) Korean was pushed out of schools and public life, most harshly after 1938, and members of the Korean Language Society were arrested in 1942. After liberation and division, both Koreas made Korean their sole national language. North Korea abolished Chinese characters in everyday writing, and its 1966 'cultured language' (munhwaŏ) standard, based on Pyongyang speech, replaced many loanwords with native coinages. The two standards now differ noticeably in vocabulary.
In its own words
안녕하세요
- annyeonghaseyo
Sources (1)
Where it’s spoken
- South Korea
- North Korea
- United States
- China
Turning points
- SplitContested
Silla unifies the peninsula
Silla's defeat of Baekje and Goguryeo makes its language the ancestor of later Korean. The languages of the other kingdoms leave only uncertain traces in place names.
Sources (1)
- Writing
Writing Korean with Chinese characters
Silla scribes use Chinese characters for both meaning and sound to write Korean (idu and hyangchal), recording official documents and the hyangga poems.
Sources (1)
- Contact
The Sino-Korean layer
Buddhism, Confucian learning and the civil-service examinations bring Chinese into Korean as the language of learning, and Sino-Korean words come to make up more than half the vocabulary.
Sources (1)
- Writing
Hangul
King Sejong's court creates and promulgates an alphabet designed for Korean, with letter shapes modelled on the speech organs, grouped into syllable blocks. It becomes the national script only in the modern era.
Sources (1)
- Sound law
Pitch accent lost in the centre
The pitch accent of Middle Korean, marked by dots in early Hangul texts, disappears from the central dialects, leaving vowel length in its place. The southeastern (Gyeongsang) and northeastern (Hamgyong) dialects still have pitch accent.
Compare with other stress and prosody across families →
Sources (1)
- Sound law
The arae-a vowel merges
The Middle Korean vowel ㆍ (arae-a, probably ʌ) merges with other vowels, mostly a in first syllables and ɨ elsewhere. The letter stays in spelling until the 1933 orthography removes it. Jeju keeps the vowel to this day.
Compare with other mergers across families →
Sources (1)
- Contact
Colonial rule
Japan annexes Korea. From 1938 Korean is removed from schools, Koreans are pressed to adopt Japanese names, and in 1942 members of the Korean Language Society are arrested while compiling a dictionary.
Sources (1)
- Split
Two Koreas, two standards
After division, South Korea keeps a Seoul-based standard, while North Korea abolishes Chinese characters in everyday writing and in 1966 proclaims a Pyongyang-based 'cultured language' that replaces many loanwords with native coinages.
Sources (1)