The Korean language (???
or ???, see below) is the
official language of both
North and South Korea. The
language is also spoken widely
in neighbouring Yanbian, China.
Worldwide, there are around
78 million Korean speakers,
including large groups in
the former Soviet Union, Australia,
the United States, Canada,
Brazil, Japan, and more recently
the Philippines.
The genealogical classification
of Korean is debated. It is
sometimes placed by linguists
in the Altaic language family,
though others considered it
to be a language isolate.
Korean is agglutinative in
its morphology and SOV in
its syntax. Like Japanese,
the Korean language is also
heavily influenced by the
Chinese lingual system. Much
vocabulary has been imported
from Chinese, or created on
Chinese models.
This article is mainly about
the spoken Korean language.
See hangul for details on
the native Korean writing
system.
The Korean names for the
language are based on the
names for Korea used in North
and South Korea.
In North Korea, the language
is most often called Chosonmal
(???), or more formally, Chosono
(???).
In South Korea, the language
is most often called Hangungmal
(???), or more formally, Hangugeo
(???) or Gugeo (??, national
or domestic language). It
is sometimes colloquially
called Urimal ("our language";
??? in one word in South Korea,
?? ? with a space in North
Korea).
Classification and related
languages
Korean classification is often
debated. Many Korean and Western
linguists recognize a kinship
to the Altaic languages. However,
this is not well demonstrated,
and many consider Korean a
language isolate. Others believe
that Japanese and Korean may
be related.
The Korean relationship with
Altaic and proto-Altaic have
been much argued as of late.
Korean is similar to Altaic
languages in that they both
have the absence of certain
grammatical elements, including
number, gender, articles,
fusional morphology, voice,
and relative pronouns (Kim
Namkil). Korean especially
bears some morphological resemblance
to some languages of the Eastern
Turkic group, namely Sakha
(Yakut).
The possibility of a Korean-Japanese
linguistic relationship is
a delicate subject because
of the complex historical
relationship between the two
countries. The possibility
of a Baekje-Japanese linguistic
relationship has been studied,
with Korean linguists pointing
out similarities in phonology,
including a general lack of
consonant-final sounds. There
are plenty of apparent cognates
between Baekje and Japanese,
such as mir and mi, respectively,
for "three". Furthermore,
there are cultural links between
Baekje and Japan: the people
of Baekje used two Chinese
characters for their surnames,
like the people of Japan today.
Goguryeo and Baekje languages
are considered related, likely
descended from Gojoseon (see
Fuyu languages). Less is known
about the relationship between
the languages of Gojoseon,
Goguryo, and Baekje on one
hand, and the Samhan and Silla
on the other, although many
Korean scholars believe they
were mutually intelligible,
and the collective basis of
modern Korean.
