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| King Se-Jong of Korea created the Korean script with the help of his advisors. It initially was not well received by the populace, which used mainly chinese characters in a Korean format. When Japan invaded Korea and banned Korean publications, many Koreans recognized that the Korean script created a stronger cultural language identity and adopted it. | King Se-Jong of Korea created the Korean script with the help of his advisors. It initially was not well received by the populace, which used mainly chinese characters in a Korean format. When Japan invaded Korea and banned Korean publications, many Koreans recognized that the Korean script created a stronger cultural language identity and adopted it. | ||
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Revision as of 20:32, 5 December 2001
Korean (in Korean) is "Han-gul".
Note. Strictly speaking, "Hangeul(or Hangul)" means Korean scripts. When speaking about Korean language, you shoud to refer it as "Han-guk-eo" or "Han-guk-mahl".
Korean originated with the Silla, who conquered the land we now know as Korea.
Alphabet
The Korean alphabet consists of 24 letters -- 14 consonants and 10 vowels. While the language looks pictographic to westerners it is actually phonetic. The "square" characters consist of syllables made from the individual letters. The design of individual Han-gul characters model the physical morphology of the tongue, palate and teeth.
Grammar
Korean grammar is actually completely different from Chinese grammar; it is much closer to Japanese. The basic form of a Korean sentence is N-S-V. So if in English we would say, I'm going to the store to buy some food, in korean it would be in the form: food buy-in order to store-to I go.
Korean does not conjugate verbs using agreement like french or spanish. As in Spanish, many of the pronouns are frequently not used, so a typical exchange might be:
- 1: go store?
- 2: go.
which in english would translate to:
- 1: are you going to the store?
- 2: yes, I am.
However, verb conjugations depend upon the esteem of whom you are talking to. When talking to or about friends, you would use one conjugate ending, to your parents, another, and to nobility/honored persons, another.
King Se-Jong of Korea created the Korean script with the help of his advisors. It initially was not well received by the populace, which used mainly chinese characters in a Korean format. When Japan invaded Korea and banned Korean publications, many Koreans recognized that the Korean script created a stronger cultural language identity and adopted it.