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97-506: Downtown Seoul ( Korean :  서울 도심, 서울 도심부, 서울 시내 ), also known as Seoul Central Business District or Sadaemun-An is traditional city center and central business district of Seoul , located through Gwanghwamun of Jongno District and Seoul Station of Jung District along the Sejong-daero and Jong-ro . For its time-honored and unique geographic status in Seoul, the downtown

194-499: A 42% decline. The same thing happened to Jung District, as it declined from 208,085 in 1985 to 126,679 in 2005. Policy measures kept promoting the supply of large office buildings through the '90s, when the height restriction law was not as rigorous as today. Major examples of office buildings constructed in this period include SK Building  [ ko ] for SK Group (built in 1999) and Jongno Tower for Samsung Group (built in 1999). However, demand for more fundamental change

291-484: A Korean influence on Khitan. The hypothesis that Korean could be related to Japanese has had some supporters due to some overlap in vocabulary and similar grammatical features that have been elaborated upon by such researchers as Samuel E. Martin and Roy Andrew Miller . Sergei Starostin (1991) found about 25% of potential cognates in the Japanese–Korean 100-word Swadesh list . Some linguists concerned with

388-477: A core vowel. The IPA symbol ⟨ ◌͈ ⟩ ( U+0348 ◌͈ COMBINING DOUBLE VERTICAL LINE BELOW ) is used to denote the tensed consonants /p͈/, /t͈/, /k͈/, /t͡ɕ͈/, /s͈/ . Its official use in the extensions to the IPA is for "strong" articulation, but is used in the literature for faucalized voice . The Korean consonants also have elements of stiff voice , but it is not yet known how typical this

485-541: A later founder effect diminished the internal variety of both language families. Since the establishment of two independent governments, North–South differences have developed in standard Korean, including variations in pronunciation and vocabulary chosen. However, these minor differences can be found in any of the Korean dialects , which are still largely mutually intelligible . The Chinese language , written with Chinese characters and read with Sino-Xenic pronunciations ,

582-562: A possible relationship.) Hudson & Robbeets (2020) suggested that there are traces of a pre- Nivkh substratum in Korean. According to the hypothesis, ancestral varieties of Nivkh (also known as Amuric ) were once distributed on the Korean Peninsula before the arrival of Koreanic speakers. Korean syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), consisting of an optional onset consonant, glide /j, w, ɰ/ and final coda /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ, l/ surrounding

679-513: A program. The excited national atmosphere of preparing for the Asian Games of 1986 and Summer Olympics of 1988 provided chances for investors. Lots of landmark office and hotel buildings in the cityscape of Downtown Seoul were built around this period, such as the Koreana Hotel (built in 1971 along Taepyeong-ro ), the headquarters building for Daewoo Group (built in 1977 along Toegye-ro), and

776-579: Is 'Number One Politics' or 'Nation's No. 1 political avenue' ( 정치 1번지 ), since it is a famous swing state in South Korea. By its unpredictable potential power of swing voters, Jongno as constituency raised numerous political big shots who won elections from close match. Former president Roh Moo-hyun and Lee Myung-bak are renowned examples who grew their career in Jongno as magnate politician. Downtown Seoul's incomparable status as historic and political center of

873-925: Is a specialized business district mostly dedicated to financial industry, Downtown Seoul is concentrated with various largest companies, governmental regulators (such as the Financial Services Commission and the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation ), and foreign embassies influenced by Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Government Complex Seoul . South Korea's top 4 biggest law firms - Kim & Chang ( 김·장 법률사무소 ), Lee & Ko  [ ko ] ( 법무법인 광장 ), Bae, Kim & Lee  [ ko ] ( 법무법인 태평양 ) and Shin & Kim  [ ko ] ( 법무법인 세종 ) - all are located in Downtown Seoul currently in 2020s, and it

970-603: Is also generated by longstanding alliances, military involvement, and diplomacy, such as between South Korea–United States and China–North Korea since the end of World War II and the Korean War . Along with other languages such as Chinese and Arabic , Korean is ranked at the top difficulty level for English speakers by the United States Department of Defense . Modern Korean descends from Middle Korean , which in turn descends from Old Korean , which descends from

1067-656: Is an agglutinative language . The Korean language is traditionally considered to have nine parts of speech . Modifiers generally precede the modified words, and in the case of verb modifiers, can be serially appended. The sentence structure or basic form of a Korean sentence is subject–object–verb (SOV), but the verb is the only required and immovable element and word order is highly flexible, as in many other agglutinative languages. Question 가게에 gage-e store- LOC 가셨어요? ga-syeo-sseo-yo go- HON . PAST - CONJ - POL 가게에 가셨어요? gage-e ga-syeo-sseo-yo store-LOC go-HON.PAST-CONJ-POL 'Did [you] go to

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1164-511: Is closer to a near-open central vowel ( [ɐ] ), though ⟨a⟩ is still used for tradition. Grammatical morphemes may change shape depending on the preceding sounds. Examples include -eun/-neun ( -은/-는 ) and -i/-ga ( -이/-가 ). Sometimes sounds may be inserted instead. Examples include -eul/-reul ( -을/-를 ), -euro/-ro ( -으로/-로 ), -eseo/-seo ( -에서/-서 ), -ideunji/-deunji ( -이든지/-든지 ) and -iya/-ya ( -이야/-야 ). Some verbs may also change shape morphophonemically. Korean

1261-399: Is mainly reserved for specific circumstances such as newspapers, scholarly papers and disambiguation. Today Hanja is largely unused in everyday life but is still important for historical and linguistic studies. The Korean names for the language are based on the names for Korea used in both South Korea and North Korea. The English word "Korean" is derived from Goryeo , which is thought to be

1358-456: Is notifiable that South Korean broadcasting companies almost never headquartered inside Downtown Seoul. While newspapers with long history beginning from Colonial era started their business from Downtown Seoul, younger media companies were not able to enter the downtown area due to high rent price. This pricey huddle led broadcasting companies later established in the 1980s to settle in Yeouido , which

1455-399: Is of faucalized consonants. They are produced with a partially constricted glottis and additional subglottal pressure in addition to tense vocal tract walls, laryngeal lowering, or other expansion of the larynx. /s/ is aspirated [sʰ] and becomes an alveolo-palatal [ɕʰ] before [j] or [i] for most speakers (but see North–South differences in the Korean language ). This occurs with

1552-438: Is often explained as it was the only place which could satisfy face-to-face contacts among traditional governmental and economic elites in Seoul. Core regions in Downtown Seoul, such as Myeong-dong of Jung District and Jongno-dong of Jongno District, are the uppermost central part of Seoul still today. Downtown Seoul in the late 20th century experienced apparent change in its function, as planned by urban regeneration policies in

1649-514: Is remarkable that the colonial government's reconstruction of Keijō was not solely driven by interests of Japanese people living in Colonial Korea, because the colonial government sincerely wanted to assimilate entire Joseon's geographic culturescape under modern Japanese influence. While Japanese people in Keijō demanded reconstruction of the city to be centered in their main residential area alongside of

1746-819: Is still seated in Anguk-dong of Jongno District. Even the National Assembly was seated in Seosomun-dong of Jung District before the Korea National Assembly Proceeding Hall was built in the 1970s. This concentration of political power in Downtown Seoul until 1990s led most of prominent media and law firms to settle in it. Meanwhile, Downtown Seoul's major component Jongno District has tremendous symbolic influence over entire South Korean politics as constituency for South Korean general election . Mostly well-known nickname for this little constituency

1843-534: Is the native language for about 81 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the national language of both North Korea and South Korea . Beyond Korea, the language is recognized as a minority language in parts of China , namely Jilin , and specifically Yanbian Prefecture , and Changbai County . It is also spoken by Sakhalin Koreans in parts of Sakhalin , the Russian island just north of Japan, and by

1940-555: Is the first and second highest in Seoul. This high concentration of economic power is driving up average income of workers in the downtown area. According to Statistics Korea , as of April 2023, average income of workers in Jongno District (4.26 million won) ranked first in all around South Korea, followed by Yeongdeungpo (4.15 million won), Jung (4.04 million won), Seocho (3.92 million won) and Gangnam (3.90 million won). In early contemporary history of South Korea, Downtown Seoul

2037-445: Is usage of term 'Downtown Region' ( 도심권 ; 都心圈 ; Dosimgwon ) in present day Seoul's urban planning. Like relationship between terms of capital city and capital region , the term 'Downtown Region' in Seoul means areas surrounding Downtown Seoul, usually referring to three autonomous districts in central part of the Seoul; Jongno District, Jung District and Yongsan District. Before relocating some of executive ministries to

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2134-562: Is usually just called the Central Business District ( Seoul CBD ), or sometimes Gwanghwamun Business District for the landmark ' Gwanghwamun ' at the heart of it. Seoul in the age of Joseon was called Hanyang (or by official name of its administrative division and governing authority Hanseong-bu ). As it was a walled city , presence of the Seoul City Wall made great influence on imagined geographies of Seoul, like

2231-716: Is well attested in Western Old Japanese and Northern Ryukyuan languages , in Eastern Old Japanese it only occurs in compounds, and it is only present in three dialects of the Southern Ryukyuan language group . Also, the doublet wo meaning "hemp" is attested in Western Old Japanese and Southern Ryukyuan languages. It is thus plausible to assume a borrowed term. (See Classification of the Japonic languages or Comparison of Japanese and Korean for further details on

2328-586: Is where all these big 4 started each of their history. South Korean legal industry's history of agglomeration towards Big Law started in the 1970s, with establishment of the Kim & Chang in 1973, followed by Lee & Ko (1977), Bae, Kim & Lee (1980), and Shin & Kim (1983). During this early days from 1970s to 1980s, the Supreme Court and the Seoul's central trial court (present Seoul Central District Court, 서울중앙지방법원 ) were both seated in Downtown Seoul. Also,

2425-511: The Koryo-saram in parts of Central Asia . The language has a few extinct relatives which—along with the Jeju language (Jejuan) of Jeju Island and Korean itself—form the compact Koreanic language family . Even so, Jejuan and Korean are not mutually intelligible . The linguistic homeland of Korean is suggested to be somewhere in contemporary Manchuria . The hierarchy of the society from which

2522-523: The yangban aristocracy, who looked down upon it too easy to learn. However, it gained widespread use among the common class and was widely used to print popular novels which were enjoyed by the common class. Since few people could understand official documents written in classical Chinese, Korean kings sometimes released public notices entirely written in Hangul as early as the 16th century for all Korean classes, including uneducated peasants and slaves. By

2619-822: The Constitutional Court is still seated in Downtown Seoul since its establishment in 1988. This concentration of highest courts and biggest law firms in Downtown Seoul stopped for a moment, when the Supreme Court and central trial court moved to Seocho District in 1995. For example, Bae, Kim & Lee moved from Seosomun-dong of Jung District to Yeoksam-dong in 1998. Yet as South Korean legal industry began advancing towards more lucrative business area such as government relations for chaebols and multinational companies, distance to local trial court became less important for Big Laws. Rather, proximity of large native business groups and foreign companies become much important, which

2716-702: The Gangnam region was a symbolic project to achieve this goal. The national government strongly supported such a relocation project through a bundle of policies called ' Equalization policy for high schools ' ( 고등학교 평준화 정책 ). Under this policy, the entrance exam for high school was abolished, and a lottery system for entrance was introduced. Yet there were restrictions for chances to enter this lottery; middle school graduates could apply for admission to high schools only near their homes. These policies prompted enthusiastic Korean parents, who wanted their children to get admission to renowned high schools by municipal lottery, to move to

2813-609: The Jonggak belfry , starting from southern end of the Yookcho Street  [ ko ] to eastern end of the Unjongga (located near present-day Wongaksa Pagoda ). This traditional cityscape of Hanyang city's downtown area is still continued even in present-day Seoul, even through two major wars ( Japanese and Qing invasion ) in Joseon dynasty, colonial governance of Japanese Empire, and

2910-519: The Korean War after liberation. Government Complex Seoul along the Sejong-daero (former Yookcho Street ), and headquarters of largest companies around Jongno are clear examples of such time-honored history and tradition. In reign of the Korean Empire , the name of Seoul was Hwangseong ( 황성 ; 皇城 , meaning 'City of the Emperor'. Structural modernization in cityscape of Hwangseong's downtown area

3007-557: The Korean War , a tragic civil war initiated by Kim Il Sung five years after Korea's liberation, United States army sent to Korea began to call this area as Downtown Seoul . Fortunately, though some of dongs (Korean unit of neighborhood) suffered huge destruction, major areas of Downtown Seoul could evade bombardments during the Korean War. Eight neighborhoods (among approximately 400 neighborhoods) were redeveloped into modern grid patterned city blocks, due to heavy destruction during

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3104-518: The London Wall surrounding Londinium . By the Seoul City Wall, Hanseong-bu was divided into two regions; an urban downtown space named as Seong-jung ( 성중 ; 城中 ) or Doseong-an ( 도성 안 ; lit.  inside the capital city wall) area inside the city wall, and peripheral areas named Seongjeosimni ( 성저십리 ; 城底十里 ) which was a ring-shaped region 10 ris (Korean mile) outside of

3201-570: The Proto-Koreanic language , which is generally suggested to have its linguistic homeland somewhere in Manchuria . Whitman (2012) suggests that the proto-Koreans, already present in northern Korea, expanded into the southern part of the Korean Peninsula at around 300 BC and coexisted with the descendants of the Japonic Mumun cultivators (or assimilated them). Both had influence on each other and

3298-528: The Sejong in 2010s, Downtown Seoul was center of the old Seoul with full of powerful government executives, such as Government Complex Seoul , Board of Audit and Inspection , and the Blue House . Also, other branches of the national government were all located in Downtown Seoul. For example, the Supreme Court of Korea was located in Seosomun-dong of Jung District until 1990s, and the Constitutional Court of Korea

3395-692: The Seoul Station , creating another important cityscape in downtown Seoul as form of north-south axis. However, as the Korean Empire lost substantial autonomy after signing Treaty of 1905 , Japanese colonial officials began to drive cityscape reconstruction. Spatial reorganization in this early colonial period was targeting subordination of Korean Empire's royal government and advancing authority of colonial government. Some of notable tough reforms during this period includes reconstructing royal palaces into public parks and zoo, and modernizing city roads. Although

3492-557: The Three Kingdoms of Korea (not the ancient confederacies in the southern Korean Peninsula), while " -eo " and " -mal " mean "language" and "speech", respectively. Korean is also simply referred to as guk-eo , literally "national language". This name is based on the same Han characters ( 國語 "nation" + "language") that are also used in Taiwan and Japan to refer to their respective national languages. In North Korea and China ,

3589-697: The Yeouido (YBD), and is traditional heart of the South Korean economy. Among these three major business districts in Seoul, the downtown area shows most diversified industry composition, while having relatively strong position in finance, legal, and media industry. In year 2021, the Downtown Seoul area's two major administrative component, Jung District and Jongno District's regional GDP hit 61.36 trillion won and 35.72 trillion won, respectively, ranking second and fifth among Seoul city's 25 autonomous districts . Also, these two districts have regional GDP per capita as 480 million won and 230 million won respectively, which

3686-437: The '90s. Completed in 2005, Cheonggyecheon stream is another unique example for projects rediscovering sceneries of Downtown Seoul. The historic stream was blocked in the 1950s, and it flowed under overpass roads in the 1970s. Restoring such traditional stream inside the downtown area was the right project for Mayor Lee Myung-bak , who sought his own mayoral legacy with eco-friendly spirit. After overpass roads were torn down and

3783-424: The 'Honmachi' (now Chungmu-ro ), colonial government intentionally pursued absorbing iconic Korean spaces outside of Honmachi into modernized Japanese architecture. Clear example of what Chōsen's colonial government intended is found in construction of Government-General of Chōsen Building , built right in front of Gyeongbokgung, which is northern part of Cheonggyecheon. This building, constructed during 1912 to 1926,

3880-462: The 1590s, the top portion of the pagoda was pulled down and lay on the ground at the foot of the pagoda until it was replaced by American military engineers in 1947. Foreign visitors to Seoul in the late 19th century often went to admire the beautiful pagoda but it was almost inaccessible, hidden in the courtyard of a small house, and in 1897 John McLeavy Brown , the Irish financial advisor to King Gojong,

3977-765: The 17th century, the yangban had exchanged Hangul letters with slaves, which suggests a high literacy rate of Hangul during the Joseon era. In the context of growing Korean nationalism in the 19th century, the Gabo Reform of 1894 abolished the Confucian examinations and decreed that government documents would be issued in Hangul instead of literary Chinese. Some newspapers were published entirely in Hangul, but other publications used Korean mixed script , with Hanja for Sino-Korean vocabulary and Hangul for other elements. North Korea abolished Hanja in writing in 1949, but continues to teach them in schools. Their usage in South Korea

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4074-555: The 1950s as there were too many stakeholders left, creating tragedy of the anticommons . Turning point for urban redevelopment came when the United States president Lyndon B. Johnson visited Seoul in the 1960s. Koreans were upset when their traditional heart of the Seoul city was projected in foreign TV screens as outdated old town, and this public discontent propelled redevelopment of Downtown Seoul as national initiative. Several laws for urban redevelopment to overcome severe tragedy of

4171-472: The 1970s and '80s. Decentralization policy made in those days successfully suppressed high demand for living in downtown area, thus Downtown Seoul successfully turned from mixture of pre-modern residential and commercial area into a relatively homogeneous central business district. For instance, its settlement population continued to decline dramatically. Jongno District's number of residents was 265,342 in 1985. It dropped to 154,043 in 2005, recording approximately

4268-408: The 20th century. The script uses 24 basic letters ( jamo ) and 27 complex letters formed from the basic ones. When first recorded in historical texts, Korean was only a spoken language . Since the turn of the 21st century, aspects of Korean culture have spread to other countries through globalization and cultural exports . As such, interest in Korean language acquisition (as a foreign language )

4365-513: The City Wall. Seoul was a planned capital of the Joseon, as geographic embodiment of Confucianism . The cityscape of Hanseong-bu's downtown area was also created by adaptive cultural diffusion of Confucianism. According to Confucian classics, construction of capital city ( 도성 ; 都城 ) should follow several Confucian principles on city planning. For example, Rites of Zhou instructs principle of '左祖右社 面朝後市' ( 좌조우사 면조후시 ), which means 'With

4462-490: The Gangnam region, thus decreasing demand for housing inside Downtown Seoul. Also, this project eventually supplied vacant space available for commercial development, which were left by relocated secondary schools. The total space created by this project was approximately 27 hectares, and most of the lots were filled by high-rise office building developments. For example, the empty site left by Whimoon High School at Jongno District

4559-636: The North, some part of Namsan to the South (including the Seoul Station ), Dasan-ro  [ ko ] to the east, and Tongil-ro  [ ko ] to the west. This renewed boundary in year 2016 (See Figure 3. on the right) intends to include almost every areas of Jongno and Jung District inside the City Wall under scope of development restriction. However, as this renewed area from year 2016 still did not match with any boundaries of existing administrative dongs ,

4656-781: The Seoul Metropolitan Government still uses some of existing administrative dongs as proxy to estimate approximate number of population living in Downtown Seoul. Additional 6 administrative dongs ( Cheongunhyoja , Ihwa , Gahoe and Samcheong-dong of Jongno District, plus Jangchung and Pil-dong of Jung District) are added to 9 proxy dongs in year 2000, making a total of 15 dongs as renewed proxy as following; Gyonam , Sajik , Jongno 1.2.3.4-ga , Jongno 5.6-ga , Cheongunhyoja , Ihwa , Gahoe and Samcheong-dong of Jongno District (8 dongs), plus Gwanghui , Myeong , Sogong , Euljiro 3.4.5-ga , Hoehyeon , Jangchung and Pil-dong of Jung District (7 dongs). Further notable point

4753-428: The Seoul, can also be found by most of symbolic protests happened in contemporary history of South Korea. June Democratic Struggle in 1987, protest against import of US beef in 2008, and protests around impeachment of Park Geun-hye in 2017 are some of leading example for such protests. Seoul Plaza and Gwanghwamun Plaza in Downtown Seoul are famous place where those historically important protests were held. Though

4850-403: The South Korean presidential palace has been moved from the Blue House of Jongno District to Presidential Office of Yongsan District in 2023, Downtown Seoul is still an unmatched symbolic place where most of significant social protests in South Korea happens. The Downtown Seoul area (Seoul CBD) rules topmost position among Seoul's major business districts , compared to the Gangnam (GBD) and

4947-476: The actual geographic dissociation between Japanese and Korean were getting mitigated over time, this geographic stereotype later encouraged local government of Keijō-fu to divide area of Downtown Seoul into Jongno District and Jung District, according to natural boundary of the Cheonggyecheon. Most of Keijō's influential economic institutions were newly constructed in southside of the Cheonggyecheon, even famous in

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5044-428: The anticommons were legislated starting from 1960s, including forceful institutions such as eminent domain by designated private developers. Yet since South Korea in the 1960s were still emerging and developing country, redevelopment program for Downtown Seoul could not draw enough resources. Urban regeneration occurred in the 1970s and '80s, when South Korea got developed enough to attract capital investments for such

5141-546: The area of Downtown Seoul inside the city wall had maintained a single integrated urban sphere for about 600 years through Joseon dynasty and Korean Empire, Japanese Government-General on Colonial Korea divided Keijō's downtown area into two modern administrative divisions of Keijō in 1943; Jongno District and Jung District . This abrupt division explains why it is hard to explain pre-modern history of Jongno District and Jung District separately. Abrupt partition of Downtown Seoul's urban structure by Japanese colonial government

5238-455: The beginnings of words. /l/ becomes alveolar flap [ɾ] between vowels, and [l] or [ɭ] at the end of a syllable or next to another /l/ . A written syllable-final ' ㄹ ', when followed by a vowel or a glide ( i.e. , when the next character starts with ' ㅇ '), migrates to the next syllable and thus becomes [ɾ] . Traditionally, /l/ was disallowed at the beginning of a word. It disappeared before [j] , and otherwise became /n/ . However,

5335-555: The current names of Myeong-dong and Sogong-dong . Key examples of these buildings include Bank of Chōsen and Keijō Post Office . In contrast, native Korean people lived in relative squalor in Bukchon, an area to the north of Cheonggyecheon. The famous hanok town in Bukchon Hanok Village , created from 1910s to 1930s during the colonial period, is one of symbolic space showing such ethnic disparity inside modern Keijō. Yet it

5432-709: The east, and Tongil-ro  [ ko ] to the west. Because this administrative boundary in 2000 (See Figure 2. on the right) did not exactly match with any boundaries of existing administrative dongs , it was difficult to calculate how many people were living in Downtown Seoul. So, the Seoul Metropolitan Government used the following nine administrative dongs as a proxy to estimate the approximate number of people living in Downtown Seoul between 2000 and 2015: Gyonam , Sajik , Jongno 1.2.3.4-ga and Jongno 5.6 ga-dong of Jongno District, plus Gwanghui , Myeong , Sogong , Euljiro 3.4.5-ga , and Hoehyeon-dong of Jung District. However, above scope of Downtown Seoul's boundary

5529-441: The eventual output of such redevelopment to suppress overurbanization . The scope of Downtown Seoul in 2000 was established in a relatively narrow sense under these agendas, usually referring to areas surrounded by six major roads: Sajik-ro  [ ko ] and Yulgok-ro  [ ko ] to the north, Toegye-ro  [ ko ] to the south, Dasan-ro  [ ko ] and Wangsan-ro  [ ko ] to

5626-399: The first Korean dynasty known to Western nations. Korean people in the former USSR refer to themselves as Koryo-saram or Koryo-in (literally, " Koryo/Goryeo persons"), and call the language Koryo-mal' . Some older English sources also use the spelling "Corea" to refer to the nation, and its inflected form for the language, culture and people, "Korea" becoming more popular in

5723-500: The headquarters building for Kyobo Life Insurance Company (built in 1980 along Sejong-ro ). A priority target of urban regeneration during this period was turning Downtown Seoul from a disorganized mixture of residential and commercial districts into a homogenous central business district. Thus, one of its main goals was discouraging settlement populations in Downtown Seoul. Forced relocation of prestigious secondary schools (i.e. Kyunggi and Whimoon High School ) from Downtown Seoul to

5820-543: The industries that characterize Downtown Seoul is mass media, symbolized by largest newspaper companies like The Chosun Ilbo and The Dong-A Ilbo standing along Sejong-daero , or the only national news agency, Yonhap News Agency , standing near Gwanghwamun. In 2020 survey of Journalists Association of Korea , 18 out of 27 South Korean mass media companies having history longer than 30 years, were located in Jongno District and Jung District. Downtown Seoul naturally became national core area of newspapers and news agencies as it

5917-479: The inflow of western loanwords changed the trend, and now word-initial /l/ (mostly from English loanwords) are pronounced as a free variation of either [ɾ] or [l] . All obstruents (plosives, affricates, fricatives) at the end of a word are pronounced with no audible release , [p̚, t̚, k̚] . Plosive sounds /p, t, k/ become nasals [m, n, ŋ] before nasal sounds. Hangul spelling does not reflect these assimilatory pronunciation rules, but rather maintains

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6014-408: The issue between Japanese and Korean, including Alexander Vovin, have argued that the indicated similarities are not due to any genetic relationship , but rather to a sprachbund effect and heavy borrowing, especially from Ancient Korean into Western Old Japanese . A good example might be Middle Korean sàm and Japanese asá , meaning " hemp ". This word seems to be a cognate, but although it

6111-563: The language is most often called Joseon-mal , or more formally, Joseon-o . This is taken from the North Korean name for Korea (Joseon), a name retained from the Joseon dynasty until the proclamation of the Korean Empire , which in turn was annexed by the Empire of Japan . In mainland China , following the establishment of diplomatic relations with South Korea in 1992, the term Cháoxiǎnyǔ or

6208-466: The language originates deeply influences the language, leading to a system of speech levels and honorifics indicative of the formality of any given situation. Modern Korean is written in the Korean script ( 한글 ; Hangeul in South Korea, 조선글 ; Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea), a system developed during the 15th century for that purpose, although it did not become the primary script until

6305-451: The late 1800s. In South Korea the Korean language is referred to by many names including hanguk-eo ("Korean language"), hanguk-mal ("Korean speech") and uri-mal ("our language"); " hanguk " is taken from the name of the Korean Empire ( 대한제국 ; 大韓帝國 ; Daehan Jeguk ). The " han " ( 韓 ) in Hanguk and Daehan Jeguk is derived from Samhan , in reference to

6402-401: The main palace at the center, Confucian royal ancestral shrine (祖) goes to the left, Altar of Soil and grain (社) to the right, cabinet buildings (朝) to the front, and marketplace (市) to the behind'. Following this Confucian instruction, Jongmyo and Sajikdan were placed on the left and the right of the main palace Gyeongbokgung . Also, Six Ministries , cabinet of the Joseon government

6499-592: The most congested major roads in Seoul, hitting average weekday speed to 17.5 and 18.0 kilometers per hour respectively. Namdaemun-ro , a road connected to south end of the Ujeongguk-ro  [ ko ] , is another symbolic place for traffic congestion in Downtown Seoul. Since this road is where commuters working near Myeong-dong takes bus, it usually shows surge of crowds when commuters come and go. Korean language Korean ( South Korean : 한국어 , Hanguk-eo ; North Korean : 조선어 , Chosŏnŏ )

6596-612: The official marketplace behind Gyeongbokgung, because the main palace Gyeongbokgung was built almost right in front of the mountain Bugaksan . So Joseon had to detour instructions from Rites of Zhou , by building the only licensed-official market in Seoul, the Sijeon  [ ko ] , along the Unjongga (now Jongno street ), which was southeast side (front side) of the main palace. This adjusted city planning in early Joseon created continuous commercial area in form of east-west axis around

6693-485: The pagoda follow the shape of the base and the next seven storeys are shaped in form of squares. Dragons, lions, lotus flowers , phoenixes , Buddhas , Bodhisattvas , and the Four Heavenly Kings carved on each storey of the pagoda. The pagoda, while made of stone, is carved to look as if it was made from wood. The pagoda has brackets, pillars, and curved roof shapes that imitate a wooden pagoda design. The pagoda

6790-507: The population was illiterate. In the 15th century King Sejong the Great personally developed an alphabetic featural writing system , known today as Hangul , to promote literacy among the common people. Introduced in the document Hunminjeongeum , it was called eonmun ('colloquial script') and quickly spread nationwide to increase literacy in Korea. The Korean alphabet was denounced by

6887-485: The same time, Seoul Metropolitan Government eliminated out trams and expanded bus transportations. However, though those efforts have succeeded at mitigating traffic congestions in the downtown, it is still suffering the heaviest traffic congestion in Seoul. In 2023 report from Seoul Metropolitan Government, Ujeongguk-ro  [ ko ] and Jong-ro , which are both located in Jongno District , ranked top 2 among

6984-660: The short form Cháoyǔ has normally been used to refer to the standard language of North Korea and Yanbian , whereas Hánguóyǔ or the short form Hányǔ is used to refer to the standard language of South Korea. Korean is a member of the Koreanic family along with the Jeju language . Some linguists have included it in the Altaic family, but the core Altaic proposal itself has lost most of its prior support. The Khitan language has several vocabulary items similar to Korean that are not found in other Mongolian or Tungusic languages, suggesting

7081-402: The store?' Response 예/네. ye/ne AFF Wongaksa Pagoda It was made a National Treasure of South Korea in 1962. It was constructed in 1467, during the early Joseon period, at the temple Wongaksa  [ ko ] . King Sejo had founded the temple two years prior to the pagoda's construction, on the site of an older Goryeo -period temple, Heungboksa. The temple

7178-441: The tense fricative and all the affricates as well. At the end of a syllable, /s/ changes to /t/ (example: beoseot ( 버섯 ) 'mushroom'). /h/ may become a bilabial [ɸ] before [o] or [u] , a palatal [ç] before [j] or [i] , a velar [x] before [ɯ] , a voiced [ɦ] between voiced sounds, and a [h] elsewhere. /p, t, t͡ɕ, k/ become voiced [b, d, d͡ʑ, ɡ] between voiced sounds. /m, n/ frequently denasalize at

7275-598: The term's variability in social usage comes from a longtime lack of an official zoning plan that defines the exact boundary of Downtown Seoul until the 2000s. Early stages of modern urban planning in Downtown Seoul came not from a zoning plan specifically targeting the downtown area but rather as a part of citywide establishment of strict height restriction laws , starting in the 1960s. In this early stage, city planning in Downtown Seoul had two consistent, yet sometimes contradicting goals: regenerating low-density old towns into modernized high-density business districts, while limiting

7372-464: The underlying, partly historical morphology . Given this, it is sometimes hard to tell which actual phonemes are present in a certain word. The traditional prohibition of word-initial /ɾ/ became a morphological rule called "initial law" ( 두음법칙 ) in the pronunciation standards of South Korea, which pertains to Sino-Korean vocabulary. Such words retain their word-initial /ɾ/ in the pronunciation standards of North Korea. For example, ^NOTE ㅏ

7469-407: The upper part of the pagoda it is known that the pagoda was built in 1467, the thirteenth year of King Sejo 's reign. It is one of the few pagodas made from marble in Korea. Typical Korean pagodas are made from granite, a material abundant on the peninsula. The pedestal supporting the pagoda is three-tiered, and its shape seen from the top looks like a Chinese character, 亞. The first three storeys of

7566-701: The war. Myeong-dong is one of such neighborhood. Former head of South Korean delegation to Japan in 1950, Kim Yong-ju (金龍周) claims that he was the one who advised General McArthur at the SCAP, Japan , not to bomb major areas in Downtown Seoul. As Downtown Seoul survived harsh bombardments during the Korean War, its valuable historic sites such as Gyeongbokgung and Jongmyo could be preserved as cultural heritages. However, it also meant that even severely outdated old towns outside of Japanese modernization survived to modern day South Korea. This excessive long history of Downtown Seoul's old town area discouraged urban regeneration in

7663-658: The waterway was reopened, Cheonggyecheon became a famous tourist attraction, and nearby air quality also improved. Like American term Lower Manhattan , as name of place, English term 'Downtown Seoul' and its matching Korean term Seoul Dosim ( 서울 도심 ; 서울 都心 ) have no solid boundary in public usage, since they are not a fixed administrative division , but variable terms under changing urban plans mainly referring to several areas including Gwanghwamun of Jongno District and Myeong-dong of Jung District. One of reasons comes from various denotation of Korean word dosim ( 도심 ; 都心 ) (or its English translation 'downtown'), because

7760-554: The word is sometimes regarded as having merely denotative meaning of 'inside city', compatible to another Korean word sinae ( 시내 ; 市內 ; lit.  inside city). However, despite occasional misuses, it is certain that both 'Downtown Seoul' and 서울 도심 have primary meaning of place name referring to areas inside the Seoul City Wall in a broad sense, or areas around the Seoul City Hall in limited sense, for both English speakers and Korean speakers. Another major reason of

7857-621: Was a lot narrow understanding than historic and cultural root of the whole downtown area inside the City Wall, originally called as Doseong-an in Joseon dynasty. From 1990s, the Metropolitan Government started to recognize importance of preserving cultural landscape in traditional Seoul. These changing trend encouraged rediscovering function of the Seoul City Wall as cultural boundary between Doseong-an and Seongjeosimni , thus led to expanding administrative boundary under city masterplan in 2016 as following; Some part of Bugaksan to

7954-555: Was a sole financial district in entire nation, since most of modern financial institutions introduced in late Joseon were established inside it. For example, the Bank of Korea , which is the central bank of South Korea following the Bank of Chōsen in Colonial Korea, is established at Sogong-dong near Myeong-dong and still operates in same place. Also, the Korean Stock Exchange was originally established at Myeong-dong in 1956, which

8051-454: Was authorized by the king to turn the area into Seoul's first public park. He called it Pagoda Park, the name it had at the time of the 1919 March First Movement . Today the park is known as Tapgol Park and the pagoda stands in a protective glass case. The pagoda is considered by art historians to be one of the finest Korean pagodas. The pagoda was designated as the second national treasure of Korea on December 12, 1962. From an inscription on

8148-444: Was business district newly developed in the 1970s. However, when national government promoted redevelopment of Mapo District into Digital Media City (DMC), many broadcasting companies moved from Yeouido to DMC. Also, one of Big 3 newspaper company JoongAng Ilbo , chose moving to DMC in 2020, to accelerate growth of its broadcasting company, JTBC . Downtown Seoul suffers most heavy traffic in Seoul. Back in 1970, when Downtown Seoul

8245-455: Was closed and turned into a kisaeng house by the (later deposed) king known as Yeonsan-gun (1476–1506, r. 1494–1506), and under his successor, King Jungjong (1488–1544, r. 1506–1544) the site was turned into government offices. The pagoda and a memorial stele commemorating the foundation of Wongaksa alone survived. The site of the temple was later occupied by houses. During the Imjin War of

8342-459: Was developed into the headquarters building for Hyundai Group in 1986. It is notable that even though government-led redevelopment of all of Seoul in the 1970s and '80s was trying to decentralize Downtown Seoul's unrivaled function of central business district to Gangnam and Yeouido , it continuously kept growing as business district , as it was Seoul's only and the most long-established city center. This continued economic growth of Downtown Seoul

8439-499: Was directly targeting reorganization of traditional integrated downtown space from main palace Gyeongbokgung to government buildings of Six Ministries around Yookcho Street. Even though the Japanese colonial government intentionally divided Keijō's downtown area into Jongno District and Jung District, its 600-years old spatial integration as Doseong-an still demanded a broad term encompassing two administrative divisions together. During

8536-487: Was first introduced to Korea in the 1st century BC, and remained the medium of formal writing and government until the late 19th century. Korean scholars adapted Chinese characters (known in Korean as Hanja ) to write their own language, creating scripts known as idu , hyangchal , gugyeol , and gakpil. These systems were cumbersome, due to the fundamental disparities between the Korean and Chinese languages, and accessible only to those educated in classical Chinese. Most of

8633-966: Was following former 'Gyeongseong Stock Market' opened at same place during Colonial Korea. For its unmatched symbolic status, Myeong-dong was still the most prominent financial district in South Korea until early 1990s, even after the national government relocated Korean Stock Exchange to Yeouido in 1979. Although many of South Korean stock brokerage firms moved to Yeouido after late 1990s, Downtown Seoul still operates as important financial district, as most of banking, insurance and credit card firms are left inside it. In 2022 survey of The Seoul Institute , 40 out of 55 banks, 29 out of 54 insurance companies, and 7 out of 8 credit card issuers among entire nation have its headquarters in Downtown Seoul. Also, most of foreign financial firms are located around Gwanghwamun. This continued agglomeration of financial industry inside Downtown Seoul stems from its unparalleled centrality across almost every fields. For instance, while Yeouido

8730-458: Was influenced by ethnic distribution inside the area. During the early periods of Colonial Korea , most of Japanese people were living in southside of the Cheonggyecheon inside the City Wall, an area named by Koreans as Namchon ( 남촌 ; lit.  Southern village), compared to Bukchon ( 북촌 ; lit.  Northern village) where most of influential Koreans were living in. Despite

8827-642: Was modelled on the beautiful Gyeongcheonsa Pagoda , which was made during the Goryeo Era. Originally erected in 1348 at Gyeongcheon-sa temple on Mt. Busosan in Gwangdeok-myeon, Gaepung-gun, Gyeonggi-do (near Gaesong, now in North Korea), it was taken to Japan in 1907, returned to Korea in 1918, and is now housed at the National Museum of Korea . The first detailed description of the pagoda in English, together with

8924-452: Was only available in Downtown Seoul. So while South Korean law firms having relative competency in ordinary day-to-day litigations are headquartered in Gangnam region near Seoul Central District Court, other firms pursuing market portion in corporate legal advice and government relations are headquartered back in Downtown Seoul. For example, one of Big 4, Bae, Kim & Lee chose turning back to Gongpyeong-dong of Jung District in 2020. One of

9021-575: Was only business district in Seoul, its measured average road speed was only 12 kilometers per hour. To mitigate this high traffic congestion in downtown area, Seoul Metropolitan Government continuously put efforts on public transportation. For example, most of Seoul's subway lines crossing downtown area are built in this time around 1970s and 1980s, which today show dense concentration of subway stations along Sejong-daero , Jong-ro , and Euljiro , including famous stations such as Gwanghwamun , City Hall , Jongno 3-ga , and Euljiro 3-ga station . Also through

9118-593: Was placed right in front of Gyeongbokgung's main gate Gwanghwamun . Government buildings and official residences for the Six Ministries were built on both sides of the road just outside of the Gwanghwamun, and the road was called Yookcho Street  [ ko ] ( 육조거리 ; lit.  Street for the Six Ministries or 주작대로 ; lit.  Mainstreet of the Vermilion Bird). However, Joseon could not place

9215-542: Was sole city-centre of Seoul until late 1970s. Its central status as capital of newspapers and news agencies, is symbolized in modern high-rise building, 'Press Center' ( 프레스센터 ). This building, standing along the Sejong-daero behind the Seoul City Hall , is constructed in 1985 and still serves as hub for journalists and reporters in South Korea, also including the Seoul Foreign Correspondents' Club . Yet it

9312-859: Was standing before Downtown Seoul in the dawn of the 21st century. One of such pivotal momentum came from growing worldwide recognition of Korean culture in the '90s. Jongmyo and Changdeokgung, both located in Jongno District and designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the late 1990s, are clear examples of such recognitions, indicating South Korea was becoming a globally preferred tourist destination. This changing environment pushed social demand to develop tourism for Downtown Seoul by rediscovering cultural legacies. Restoration of Namsan mountain's scenic landscape by demolishing disorderly piles of buildings around it, and restoration of Gyeongbokgung's cultural landscape by dismantling Government-General of Chōsen Building in front of it, are two symbolic projects implemented to rediscover Downtown Seoul's cultural sceneries in

9409-581: Was started during initial decade of the Korean Empire, when the empire sustained political autonomy. For example, from 1898 to 1904, when the Korean Empire maintained autonomy in state governance, tram (1899) and electric street light (1900) were first introduced to Downtown Seoul's cityscape. Also, the Korean Empire's first Emperor Gojong relocated substantial parts of main palace's function from Gyeongbokgung to Deoksugung , and introduced modern railway transportation. These reforms led to strategic expansion of roads connecting Gyeongbokgung, Deoksugung and

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