On the origin of the Korean language. languages ​​of south korea

The Korean language is one of the oldest languages ​​of the world, which, despite centuries of Chinese cultural influence, Japanese military occupation and the American presence since the end of World War II, has managed to maintain its originality and originality, reflecting the national character, centuries-old traditions and inner world every Korean and the Korean people as a whole.

It is known that Korean referred to as isolated languages, there are various hypotheses of its origin (Dravidian, Japanese, Paleo-Asiatic, Indo-European, Altai).

It should be noted, however, that although the relationship between Korean and Japanese has not been established historically, both languages ​​have strikingly similar grammatical structures.

There is a hypothesis that Korea and Japan were at the end of two routes of global movement of peoples: the northern route from Inner Asia and the southern route from South China or Southeast Asia.

It is also important to note the fact that Chinese culture, religion (Confucianism), Chinese writing, Chinese characters and Chinese words as well as Buddhist written texts reached Japan after they were absorbed by Korea.

All this is reflected in common features Korean and Japanese. The most significant of them is the one that allows us to refer these two languages ​​to the so-called "polite, courteous" language. That is, to a language that uses various forms of oral and written communication with the interlocutor, depending on his age, degree of kinship, origin, social status in society, etc.

These forms of communication differ in the use of certain words and expressions. Two people who meet for the first time will communicate using a formal language, but they will switch to a less formal one when they become friends.

The young invariably use the official-formal language of communication in addressing the elders, while the older ones use the informal language in relation to people younger than them or standing at a lower rung of the social or official ladder.

Usage various forms communication with an interlocutor is a reflection of the nature of Koreans and Japanese, who are very sensitive to nuances in human relationships. Knowing and properly using these forms of "polite, courteous language" is an extremely complex and delicate matter.

Inconvenience is the mother of invention. Until the middle of the XV century. Korean language had writing using Chinese characters. Korean sounds were transmitted in Chinese characters, pronounced in accordance with the rules of Korean phonetics and pronunciation. This was, however, inconvenient for two reasons. First, the types of sounds used in the two languages ​​differ significantly. This is partly a reflection of their different origin.

As a result, it proved impossible when writing to reflect "pure Korean sounds" in Chinese characters. Secondly, the Chinese writing system is not phonetic, which made it somewhat difficult to study. As a consequence, literacy in Korea was exclusively the privilege of the aristocracy.

In the early 1440s. King Sejong (1418-1450) commissioned a group of Korean scholars to develop a writing system that would be suitable for displaying the phonetic features of the Korean language and easy to learn.

In the course of their phonological research, Korean scientists studied the languages ​​and scripts of neighboring countries: Japan, Mongolia, Manchuria and China, and also studied

Buddhist texts and probably Indian phonetic scripts.

The system they invented was called Hongmin Jeongum and included 28 letters. Modern Korean "Hangul" contains 24 letters: 14 consonants and 10 vowels.

"Hangul" - as an alphabetic system in which letters stand for whole syllables, is extremely easy for language learners. Two, three or four letters make up syllables, which in turn are grouped into one or more syllables to form a word.

Each syllable begins with a consonant followed by a vowel. Syllables may end with one or two consonants. Diphthongs can also be built using a combination of two vowels.

The fact that "Hangul" is an alphabet in which a series of letters denote entire syllables has determined various approaches to its study and use over the more than 500-year history of its existence.

After its creation, the teaching of "Hangul" as an independent alphabet was rarely carried out. It was taught exclusively within the framework of the study of "hanja" (Chinese character writing), in order to take into account the sounds of the letters "Hangul" and their written meanings.

Korean is one of ancient languages a world that, despite centuries of Chinese cultural influence, Japanese military occupation, and the American presence since the end of World War II, has managed to maintain its originality and originality, reflecting the national character, centuries-old traditions and the inner world of every Korean and the Korean people as a whole.

In 19 Art. women, children, workers and peasants studied "hangul" on special tables, which depicted syllable construction diagrams. These tables were hung on the walls of schools, houses, etc.

During the period of the Japanese occupation and the Second World War, the teaching of Hangul, even as part of the study of Khancha, practically ceased. After the end of World War II, the teaching of Hangul resumed. In schools, children first

memorized individual letters of the alphabet and their phonemes, and then learned to compose syllabic blocks from them. However, such teaching method, aimed at the study by children of sound units - phonemes and requiring them to have a certain ability to analyze and synthesize sounds, turned out to be difficult for children's perception and understanding.

In 1948, teaching was based on a methodology - from a phoneme-letter to a sentence. However, the construction of syllables, the study of the composition of syllables and words, was not affected by this technique.

Only in the 1960s did the use of syllables, the construction of the syllable and syllabic blocks, become the main object of teaching. Special diagrams of the composition of the syllable, the construction of syllabic blocks were developed. These diagrams were placed at the beginning of school textbooks, hung out in classrooms, in school and student dormitories, apartments, etc.

Nowadays, the syllable block has become the main element of the learning process. This approach to learning Hangul has more advantages than the alphabetical version. In Korean, a syllable is more significant than a phoneme, since often a single syllable is itself a single word.

The Chinese characters "hancha" were widely used before and after the Korean War. Scholars who adhere to Confucianism have contributed to the recognition of the use of "hanch" as prestigious among representatives of high society.

During the period of Japanese colonial rule, the use of "Hangul" was considered a manifestation of nationalism and was banned by the Japanese. After the Korean War national movement contributed to the exclusive use of Hangul.

However, until the early 1980s, schoolchildren learned Chinese characters (these are at least 1,000 characters, called “Jeon cha moon”), as they continued to be used in newspapers and scientific articles. The administration of President Jeong Dooghwan (1961-1979) removed "hanja" from school curricula, although many schools continued to teach "hanja".

As a result of the long history of Chinese writing and the close cultural, religious, and trade ties between Korea and China, more than half of today's Korean vocabulary consists of Sino-Korean words whose pronunciations are borrowed directly from Chinese. As a consequence of the interaction between Chinese, which is tonal, and Korean, which is not tonal, there are many Sino-Korean words in the Korean vocabulary with identical pronunciations to Korean (i.e., words spelled "Hangul" that have the meaning and pronunciation of the Chinese character).

As a result, the modern Korean vocabulary consists of two halves: one is the words Chinese origin, the other is Korean words.

Written Korean can use a combination of Chinese characters and native Korean words, or only Korean words.

Beginning in 1948, the long-term use of Chinese characters in South Korea was criticized by linguistic nationalists and some educators, but defended by cultural conservatives who feared that the loss of knowledge of the characters would deprive the younger generation of an important part of the cultural heritage.

Although Korean and Chinese languages have a completely different grammatical structure, over 50 percent of the entire Korean vocabulary is Chinese loanwords, which is a reflection of more than 2000 years of dominance of Chinese culture.

In many cases, a native Korean word and a Chinese borrowing word can mean the same thing. Koreans choose one or another variant of a word in order to achieve the proper register in speech or writing and thereby set off subtle elusive semantic meanings in accordance with the established national traditions and communication habits.

indicate that he is one of the most important languages in the world. During training, a person will have to learn all its nuances and features.

1. Korean has 10 vowels and 14 consonants (24 letters in total), 11 double consonants and 5 double vowels (these are called diphthongs).
2. The Korean language is characterized by a certain feature - during the conversation there is no pronoun "you". Often it is simply omitted or the word "sir" is used during the conversation. People of low social status are referred to as "uncle" and "aunt".

   

3. The capital of South Korea is Seoul, which means “capital” in Korean..

   

4. There are only three hundred different surnames for 80 million people.

   

5. Korean is one of the most polite languages ​​in the world. But this hinders and often confuses Europeans during its study. Proper Communication in Korean, it means indicating the status of the interlocutor during a conversation. There are appropriate words for this. Thus, a person shows that he knows the language and culture of the local population.

   

6. In 1443, scientists developed Hangul, the basic alphabet.. This was the main instruction of the sovereign - Sejong the Great. Koreans love to tell the legend that the creator was a Buddhist monk. Koreans do not write hieroglyphs, although it does not immediately seem so.

   

7. In a time when there was no Hangul, Koreans used "hancha" to write.. It was based on Chinese characters. Today, khancha is used in literary works and scientific papers. So it was not possible to find out exactly what caused the creation. Some legends say that it was based on a letter rectangular shape from the Mongols. According to other sources, this idea came to Sejong the Great when he was looking at the fishermen's nets. Another crazy idea - the shape of the letters resembles the movements that the human mouth makes during the pronunciation of various sounds.

   

8. 50% of words are of Chinese origin. This is logical, since once Korea was part of China for almost 2 thousand years. Much borrowed from Vietnamese and Japanese.
9. Over the past decades, the Korean language has borrowed many words from English..

   

10. Most of words formed by the principle of gluing. To guess what they mean, you should translate all the components. Take, for example, the word "vase". It is formed by merging two words: "vessel" and "flower". The "nostril" was obtained by connecting the "hole" and the "nose".

    

11. Almost all modern Korean names consist of three words . The first is the surname, the other two are the personal name. For example, Bao Van Duk or Than Ling Kui. Each word means something: the state of nature, human emotions and more. Most of the names do not have any signs that indicate gender. The same name can be called both a man and a woman. Only friends or relatives can call a person by name. From the side stranger it may seem like an insult.

    

12. Korean has two types of numerals. One of them is of Chinese origin, the other is of Korean origin. For numbers less than a hundred, the Korean version is used, for numbers more than 100, as well as the count of time, the Chinese version. In general, the rules for using different numerals are very confusing. This can cause some difficulties during language learning, especially if it is a beginner.
13. Nearly 80 million people around the world are native speakers of Korean.

The official language of the Republic of Korea is Korean. Korean refers to "the language spoken by Koreans primarily on the Korean peninsula". Currently, approximately 70 million Koreans living in South and North Korea, as well as about 3 million 500 thousand compatriots abroad.

Origin of Korean

The most convincing theory of the origin of the Korean language is the theory that this language belongs to the Altaic family. Altaic family of languages ​​The Altaic family of languages ​​includes the Tungus-Manchu, Mongolian and Turkic branches. It is common among the peoples inhabiting the territory from Siberia to the Volga. The Korean language and the Altaic language family The theory of relationship between the Korean language and the languages ​​of the Altaic family is based on their structural similarity. In particular, for the vocalism of the Korean language, as for most of the Altaic languages, synharmonicity is characteristic - likening vowel sounds in a word to a root vowel. The features of consonantism in the Korean language (in particular, restrictions on the occurrence of phonemes in positions at the beginning of a word) can also be attributed to a feature inherent in the phonological systems of the languages ​​of the Altaic family. In terms of morphology, in its structure, the Korean language, like other Altaic languages, is agglutinative, that is, it is characterized by the mechanical attachment of affixes to the unchangeable stem of the word.

Korean in the South and North

The years of the division of the country into North and South led to the divergence of the Korean language and the formation of the northern and southern variants. However, although it is possible to talk about the appearance of differences in the meaning and use of a particular word, as well as in the use of modern terms, this is not a serious obstacle to understanding the interlocutor's speech. The difference in the languages ​​used in the two Koreas should be considered as the difference between two dialects of the same language. Efforts are currently being made to smooth out the existing language differences. So, joint research is being carried out by scientists from the North and the South.

Dialects of Korean

There are six dialects in Korean. These include: northeastern ㅡ includes dialects of the provinces of Hamgyongbukto, Hamgyongnamdo and Yangando - in the North; northwestern ㅡ it includes the dialects of such North Korean provinces as Pyonganbukto, Pyongannamdo, Chagangdo and the northern part of the province of Hwanghaedo; southeasternㅡ spoken in Gyeongsangbuk-do, Gyeongsangnam-do and surrounding areas; southwesternㅡ common in the provinces of Jeollabuk-do and Jeolla-nam-do; the dialect of Jeju Island and surrounding islands; central ㅡ including dialects of the provinces of Gyeonggi-do, Chungcheongbuk-do, Chungcheongnam-do, Gangwon-do - in the South, and most of the province of Hwanghae-do - in the North.

Korean writing

The Korean alphabet Hangul is an example of a unique original writing

Creation of the Korean alphabet

The Korean Hangul alphabet was created in 1443 under the leadership of the fourth ruler of the Joseon Dynasty, Wang Sejong, in the 25th year of his reign. The corresponding royal edict was promulgated in 1446 and was called "Hunmin jeon" ("Instruction to the people about the correct pronunciation"). It consisted of a main text and a commentary on the principles of Korean letter formation and usage. Initially, the Korean alphabet consisted of 28 letters: 11 vowels and 17 consonants, which, in turn, formed syllables. The syllable was divided into three parts: “initial” (consonant), “middle” (vowel) and “final” (consonant) sounds.

Giving Korean writing the status of "state writing"

Even after the publication of this first monument of the Korean alphabet, official documents were written in Old Chinese. It took another 450 years before the Korean script became the "state script", thereby replacing the ancient Chinese language: this status was given to Hangul in November 1894 by the Supreme Decree No. 1 "On the form of official documents."

Korean writing in modern times

Actually, the term "Hangul" was first proposed by a Korean linguist named Chu Si Kyung (1876 - 1914), and put into circulation in 1913. And from 1927, the Hangul magazine began to be published - a periodical that became widespread. The word itself can be translated as "Korean writing", as well as "great writing" and "the best writing in the world", which conveys the spirit of the original source - the treatise "Hunmin jongum". In 1933, the Korean Spelling Unification Project was proposed by the Society for the Study of the Korean Language, according to which the four pre-existing letters of the alphabet were abolished. Since then, Korean writing has been composed of 24 letters, 10 of which are vowels and 14 are consonants.

Composition of a syllable in Korean writing

The three letters of the Korean alphabet, the so-called "initial", "middle" and "final", written in a certain order, form a syllable. The "initial" letter is represented by a consonant. The fourteen simple consonants of the Korean alphabet form various combinations with each other; thus, total number there are more consonants. The "middle" letter in the Korean syllable is a vowel. There are ten simple vowels, but they also form combinations, increasing the actual number of vowels in the Korean alphabet. The "final" letter, like the "initial" one, is a consonant. It may or may not be present in a syllable. Characteristics of Korean writing Combinations of consonants and vowels form syllables, which can be assessed as a highly scientific and at the same time easy to learn method. The most scientific writing on the planet "The most scientific writing on the planet" - such an assessment of Hangul has received wide recognition in the world. The basis for such a statement is the originality of Korean writing and the effectiveness of the combination of various characters. Vowels and consonants are easily distinguished from each other, 28 simple letters alphabets are placed in a clear sequence, entering into various combinations both vertically and horizontally, and forming a neat square. Of particular note is the scientific nature of the writing of consonants, which, by their image, clearly reflect the position of the lips, mouth and tongue during their pronunciation.

The modern Korean alphabet consists of 40 letters - 24 main and 16 compound. Of them 19 - consonants and 21 vowels.
There are 14 simple letters and 5 compound letters in Korean. consonants sounds. Among vowels There are 10 simple letters and 11 compound letters in Korean.
Total:
consonants - 19 (14 main and 5 composite).
Vowels - 21 (10 basic and 11 diphthongs).

자음
The basis for the creation of consonants included 5 initial letters:
ㄱ (to- at first / G
ㄴ (n )
ㅁ (m )
ㅅ (With )
ㅇ (not at the beginning / ynn- in the middle or at the end of a syllable)
Then the rest of the consonants were formed:
ㄷ (t- at the beginning of a syllable / d- in the middle or at the end of a syllable)
ㄹ (R- at the beginning of a syllable / l- in the middle or at the end of a syllable)
ㅂ (P- at the beginning of a syllable / b- in the middle or at the end of a syllable)
ㅈ (zh )
ㅊ (h )
ㅋ (kx )
ㅌ (mx )
ㅍ (ph )
ㅎ (X )
These were 5 main consonants and 9 consonants formed from them, but there are also 5 double consonants:
ㄲ (ky )
ㄸ (you )
ㅃ (py )
ㅆ (ss )
ㅉ (tsy )
As we can see, each double consonant is formed from two basic consonants. The pronunciation of these consonants is very short but stronger than that of ordinary consonants. In total, we got 19 consonants, 14 main and 5 double.
모음

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The basis for the creation of vowels included 2 letters:
ㅡ (s )
ㅣ (and )
Then the rest of the main vowels were formed:
ㅗ (oo )
ㅛ (yo )
ㅜ (at )
ㅠ (Yu )
ㅏ (a )
ㅑ (I )
ㅓ (about )
ㅕ (yo )
These are basic vowels. There are also so-called diffthongs, these are complex vowels:
ㅐ (uh )
ㅒ (ye )
ㅔ (e )
ㅖ (ye )
ㅢ (th )
ㅚ (oh )
ㅘ (oa )
ㅙ (oh )
ㅟ (ui )
ㅝ (wow )
ㅞ (ye )

Everything is simple here, diphthongs are formed in the same way as double consonants. So, in total we got 21 vowels, of which 10 are basic and 11 are diphthongs.

ATTENTION: Before moving on to the next lesson, learn Korean alphabet. It can be downloaded and printed at . Work out in writing letters. A simple 5 minute workout will help you master reading in Korean.

P.S. The Korean language learning materials on this site are written by one of our users who is studying in a Korean school. Since such lessons were created by an unprofessional teacher, they may contain errors (typos in Russian) and inconsistencies (in the rules of the Korean language, such as: "zh" and "j" or "wa" or "wa"). We ask you to treat such materials as an additional tool to test your knowledge. Basically, these lessons are published on the site for users who cannot attend Korean courses in their hometown.

The Korean language is one of the oldest languages ​​in the world, which, despite the centuries-old Chinese cultural influence, the Japanese military occupation and the American presence after the end of World War II, nevertheless managed to maintain its originality and originality, reflecting the national character, centuries-old traditions and internal the world of every Korean, and of the Korean people in general.

According to many scholars - linguists, the Korean language belongs to the family of Altaic languages, which appeared in northern Asia. It is noted that although historically the relationship between Korean and Japanese has not been established, both of these languages ​​have strikingly similar grammatical structures.

There is a hypothesis that Korea and Japan were at the end of two routes of global movement of peoples: the northern route from Inner Asia, and the southern route from southern China or Southeast Asia. At the same time, the movement from Inner Asia had a disproportionately greater impact on the Korean language than Japanese. Chinese culture, Confucianism, Chinese writing, Chinese words, and Buddhist written texts reached Japan after they were absorbed by Korea. All this is reflected in the fact that the Korean and Japanese languages ​​have some common features.

The most significant of them is that which allows us to refer these two languages ​​to the so-called "polite, courteous" language. That is, to a language that uses different styles of oral and written communication with the interlocutor, depending on his age, degree of kinship, social status in society, etc. etc. These communication styles differ in the use of certain words and expressions.

Two people who meet for the first time will use a formal style of communication, but when they become friends they will switch to a less formal style. Young people invariably use a formal-official style of communication when addressing elders, while older people use a more informal style in relation to those who are younger than them, or who are on a lower social level.

Usage various styles communication is a reflection of the nature of Koreans, who are very sensitive to the nuances in human relationships. In styles of politeness, Confucian ethical rules of social and moral relations, enshrined in the grammar of the language, find their expression. Knowing and properly using these styles in oral and written communication is an extremely complex and delicate matter.

It is not clear to what extent the "polite" language and its grammatical forms are preserved in the North of Korea. We only note that Kim Il Sung demanded that the people use a special, very polite and respectful system of communication in relation to him and his family. In "Our Party Language Policy", published in Pyongyang in 1976, rules were formulated that determined the norms of linguistic communication in the DPRK based on the style of speech and writing of Kim Il Sung.

Inconvenience is the mother of invention. Until the middle of the 15th century, the Korean language had a script using Chinese characters - Hanja. That is, Korean sounds were written in Chinese characters. This was, however, inconvenient for two reasons: First, the types of sounds used in both languages ​​differ significantly. This is partly a reflection of their different origins. As a result, it proved impossible to write "pure Korean sounds" in Chinese characters. Secondly, the Chinese writing system is not phonetic, which made it difficult to study.

In the early 1440s, King Sejong (1418-1450) commissioned a group of Korean scholars to develop a writing system that would be suitable for displaying the phonetic features of the Korean language and easy to learn.

In the course of their phonological research, Korean scientists studied the languages ​​and scripts of neighboring countries: Japan, Mongolia, Manchuria and China. They also studied Buddhist texts and probably Indian phonetic scripts. As a result, the alphabet system “Hongmin jongum” (“Correct sounds for teaching the people”) was invented, which included 28 letters 2 . This alphabetic system followed the principle: one letter, one phoneme. Two, three, four letters form syllables that are grouped in the form of a hieroglyph. In turn, one syllable, or more, form a word. Each syllable begins with a consonant followed by a vowel. Syllables may end with one or two consonants. Diphthongs can also be built using a combination of two vowels. These features have determined different approaches to learning and using the alphabet over the more than 500 year history of its existence.

A few years after its creation, the teaching of the alphabet, as an independent one, was rarely carried out. It was taught exclusively as part of the study of the Hanj in order to take into account the sounds of the letters of the alphabet and their written meanings. In the 19th century, women, children, workers and peasants learned the alphabet through the use of special tables that showed syllable diagrams. These tables were hung on the walls of schools, houses, etc.

During the period of the Japanese occupation and during the Second World War, the teaching of the alphabet, even as part of the study of Hanja, was practically absent. After the Second World War, the teaching of the alphabet resumed. Children first memorized individual letters of the alphabet and their phonemes, and then learned how to make syllabic blocks out of them. However, such a teaching method, aimed at the study of sound units - phonemes by children, and requiring them to have a certain ability to analyze and synthesize sounds, turned out to be difficult for children's perception and understanding.

In 1948, a different methodology was laid as the basis for teaching: from the phoneme - letters to the sentence. However, the construction of syllables, the study of the composition of syllables and words, was not affected by this technique. Only in the 1960s did the use of syllables, the construction of the syllable and syllabic blocks, become the main object of teaching. Special diagrams of the composition of the syllable, the construction of syllabic blocks were developed. These diagrams were placed at the beginning of school textbooks, hung out in classrooms, in the rooms of school and student dormitories, in apartments, etc.

Nowadays, the syllable block has become the main element of the learning process. In Korean, the syllable is more significant than the phoneme. Often a single syllable itself represents a morpheme or a single word.

Chinese character writing - Hanja has always been used and continues to be used in the Korean language. Korean scholars, adherents of Confucianism, created Hanja prestige, which he continues to enjoy today in various circles of modern Korean society. But at the same time in Korea (Republic of Korea), especially after the colonial Japanese domination, a movement developed for the exclusive use of the Korean alphabetic system - Hangul, as a national script. The use of Hanja has been criticized by nationalist linguists and educators, but defended by cultural conservatives who fear that the loss of knowledge of Chinese character writing will deprive future generations of Koreans of an important part of the nation's cultural heritage. As a result, despite the fact that Hangul is approved as the official national script, and despite the fact that the study of Hanja has been removed from school plans, Chinese characters (at least 1000, called “Jeon cha moon“) are still taught in schools. Moreover, Hanja continues to be used in newspapers and when writing scientific articles.

In light of this problem, we note the position of the Korean Hangul Study Society: “Sayings about the limited use of Hangul is a great harm to the use of Hangul, and, on the contrary, the absolute use of Hangul is an enemy to effective reading, while the limited use of Hangul is a friend to him” 3 .

Unlike Chinese, Korean does not contain dialects that are mutually unintelligible (with the exception of the dialect spoken by the people of Jeju Island). There are, however, regional differences in the words used and in their pronunciation.

Despite the fact that the Republic of Korea has a system of universal general education, there are clear differences in the pronunciation of educated people and residents from working and agricultural areas. For example, the so-called Standard language(pyejun-oh)“ owes its origin to the people of Seoul and the areas surrounding the city.

The beauty of Hangul is that the language learner does not need to memorize 2,000 unrelated graphs for 2,000 syllables. The student simply has to learn the 24 letters and the rules for building them into syllabic blocks. They are easy to memorize thanks to intuition, special instructions and the practice of building them.

Once a language learner realizes that he has learned to recognize and build syllable blocks, he will have only one difficulty - to choose the right one among the known, the unknown, or just nonsense. And he does not need to communicate with the dictionary when pronouncing or writing a syllable and a word.