Questions tagged [history-of-korean]
Questions related to older stages and the historical development of the Korean language (both speech and writing).
21
questions
0
votes
1answer
35 views
Is Hongik Ingan Eumdok 음독 or Hundok 훈독?
Hongik Ingan is the unofficial motto of Korea. I think it must be Eumdok 음독 (phonetic) rather than Hundok 훈독 (semantic), because it is so short (4 characters just like the Hanja "弘益人間"), and because ...
1
vote
1answer
106 views
Has [ʕ] ever been present in Korean?
I noticed that whenever I say 낳아, whose standard pronunciation is [나아], ㅎ assimilates to [ʕ] rather than vanishing.
The exact same phenomenon occurs whenever I say 쌓아 or 닿아. I presume I add [ʕ] to ...
2
votes
1answer
177 views
Why do some hanja characters have multiple hangul?
I found that some hanja words have multiple equivalent hangul. For example,
력 and 역량 (力 and 力量)
(I could not come up with other words but there were more such words but once I find I will add more)
...
0
votes
1answer
122 views
Can someone explain about 온(溫)?
I was reading a comic but then come this part about this region... i found it on korean dict but don't quite understand:
우리나라 성(姓)의 하나. 본관은 경주(慶州), 금구(金溝), 청주(淸州) 등 10여 본이 현존한다.
Or you can give me ...
1
vote
2answers
178 views
Accurate quote of 훈민정음 Hunminjeongeum
On this website I find this quote of King Sejong the Great:
“Being of foreign origin, Chinese characters are incapable of capturing uniquely Korean meanings. Therefore, many common people have no way ...
3
votes
1answer
346 views
Are some sounds more pleasing to the ear, like ㄴ and ㅁ?
I notice that many honorifics have similar consonant sounds when spoken. For example, the ~ㅂ/습니다 conjugation and the ~님 noun ending (e.g., in 선생님, 사장님, 아버님) have the ㄴ and ㅁ sounds when spoken.
Are ...
5
votes
1answer
587 views
두음법칙 - When did North and South diverge in pronunciation of initial ㄹ?
According to Wikipedia, North and South Korean treat word-initial ㄹ in Sino-Korean vocabulary differently:
In South Korea, ㄹ is silent in initial position before /i/ and /j/, pronounced [n] before ...
2
votes
1answer
65 views
The relationship between attributive adjective postposition(관형격 조사)'ㅅ' in medival Korean language and 사이시옷 in modern Korean language
Though it is just a guess, is there any historical relationship between attributive adjective postposition(관형격 조사)'ㅅ' in medival Korean language and 사이시옷 in modern Korean language?
Attributive ...
3
votes
1answer
183 views
Why do the consonants ㄱ, ㄷ, and ㅅ have irregular names?
Unlike other consonants such as ㄴ(니은), ㄹ(리을), ㅁ(미음) where their names have the form of (Consonant + ㅣ) + (ㅡ + Consonant), the names of ㄱ(기역), ㄷ(디귿), ㅅ(시옷) are slightly different. Are there any ...
5
votes
1answer
1k views
Etymology of Native Korean Numbers and Related Words
So I collected some native Korean numbers and their old forms into a few columns. The last two are words specifically for days.
The Roots column is what I observe to be common across the row, not ...
3
votes
1answer
139 views
Which archaic Hangul letters/sequences were only used for transcribing Chinese?
The Wikipedia article on Hangul states that
There are numerous obsolete letters, as well as a number of sequences that are no longer used. Some of these were only ever used for transcribing ...
2
votes
1answer
138 views
What was the original value of syllable-initial ᆼ (ㆁ)?
What was the original value of syllable-initial ᆼ?
ᆼ (whose archaic form was ㆁ, not the other ᆼ that it was conflated with and that is truly zero) represents zero in modern Korean syllable-initially, ...
6
votes
1answer
791 views
How widely spoken was Korean during the Japanese occupation?
During the Japanese occupation of Korea in the first half of the 20th century, how widely spoken was Korean, and how widely spoken was Japanese?
How quickly after WWII did Japanese get relegated to ...
2
votes
1answer
138 views
Why are ㅅ ㅆ pronounced as a stop when they are in the 받침?
I can understand why when ㄷ ㅌ ㅊ and ㅈ are in the 받침 since they require a stop to be pronounced, but I don't understand why when ㅅ or ㅆ are in the 받침, they are pronounced as a stop since they don't ...
9
votes
1answer
1k views
When did writing Hangul left-to-right become more common?
My impression from seeing old documents is that Hangul was originally written vertically (top-to-bottom, in 'lines' that run right-to-left). Is this correct? If so, when did it start becoming more ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
What is the significance of the Korean voting stamp?
When voting at an election, Koreans mark their ballots with a specially shaped stamp. Does this stamp have any significance related to the Korean language?
The stamp is shaped like a "peace" symbol ...
2
votes
1answer
436 views
Is Korean an official language in South Korea?
This ad for courses in Korean says that Korean is an official language in South Korea (and North Korea inter alia), and the English language edition of Wikipedia also states that, but doesn't have any ...
9
votes
1answer
413 views
Chronology of orthography before and after the separation of North and South Korea
In another question somme difference in orthography between North and South Korea was treated.
But more precisely which are the chronology of orthography in Korean before the separation in the whole ...
10
votes
3answers
1k views
Does standard Korean still contain any signs of being a tonal language?
This answer mentions that some dialects have tones even in modern Korean, but I've always assumed that standard Korean is essentially a non-tonal language. However, I've read in this source that this ...
4
votes
2answers
277 views
Is it true that government intervention is partly responsible for a decline in hanja usage?
The Wikipedia article on Hangul states that
Beginning in the 1970s, hanja began to experience a gradual decline in
commercial or unofficial writing in the South due to government
intervention......
12
votes
3answers
1k views
How does 15th Century Hangul writing/type differ from modern Hangul?
Foreign visitors to Korea will often become quickly familiar with the look of early Hangul documents and prints, as (being rather attractive!) they are often used for decorative purposes. Nevertheless,...
