111-637: Hanja ( Korean : 한자 ; Hanja : 漢字 , Korean pronunciation: [ha(ː)ntɕ͈a] ), alternatively known as Hancha , are Chinese characters used to write the Korean language . After characters were introduced to Korea to write Literary Chinese , they were adapted to write Korean as early as the Gojoseon period. Hanja-eo ( 한자어 , 漢字 語 ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary , which can be written with Hanja, and hanmun ( 한문 , 漢文 ) refers to Classical Chinese writing, although Hanja
222-475: 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 ) 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
333-484: 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
444-620: A Lelang on the Liao River on the Liaodong Peninsula, while Pyongyang was ruled by an "independent Korean state" called Nangnang , which existed between the 2nd century BCE until the 3rd century CE. The traditional view of Lelang, according to them, was expanded by Chinese chauvinists and Japanese imperialists. While promoted by the academic community of North Korea, and supported by certain writers and historians in South Korea, this theory
555-506: A banner with Kim Il Sung's name written in Hanja. Opinion surveys in South Korea regarding the issue of Hanja use have had mixed responses in the past. Hanja terms are also expressed through Hangul, the standard script in the Korean language. Hanja use within general Korean literature has declined since the 1980s because formal Hanja education in South Korea does not begin until the seventh year of schooling, due to changes in government policy during
666-423: A character is called eumhun ( 음훈 ; 音訓 ; from 音 'sound' + 訓 'meaning,' 'teaching'). The word or words used to denote the meaning are often—though hardly always—words of native Korean (i.e., non-Chinese) origin, and are sometimes archaic words no longer commonly used. South Korean primary schools ceased the teaching of Hanja in elementary schools in the 1970s, although they are still taught as part of
777-477: 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
888-476: A full letter, which is the default style being used today) first appeared in the same period as government policy. With further adoption, during the 1970s, even when Hanja and mixed script were still used widely in society both as a writing system and as a style option, Koreans mostly gave up on mixed script at least in government documents and memorandums; The use of Hanja in type hindered the speed of writing and printing compared to only-Hangul usage, especially after
999-572: A large number of Chinese-borrowed words are still widely used in the North (although written in Hangul), and Hanja still appear in special contexts, such as recent North Korean dictionaries . The replacement has been less total in South Korea where, although usage has declined over time, some Hanja remain in common usage in some contexts. Each Hanja is composed of one of 214 radicals plus in most cases one or more additional elements. The vast majority of Hanja use
1110-504: A mandatory requirement, it is now considered optional. Though North Korea rapidly abandoned the general use of Hanja soon after independence, the number of Hanja taught in primary and secondary schools is actually greater than the 1,800 taught in South Korea. Kim Il Sung had earlier called for a gradual elimination of the use of Hanja, but by the 1960s, he had reversed his stance; he was quoted as saying in 1966, "While we should use as few Sinitic terms as possible, students must be exposed to
1221-513: 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
SECTION 10
#17328370274541332-658: A rare surname from Seongju ), and 怾 ( 기 ; Gi , an old name referring to Kumgangsan ). Further examples include 巭 ( 부 bu ), 頉 ( 탈 tal ), 䭏 ( 편 pyeon ), 哛 ( 뿐 ppun ), and 椧 ( 명 myeong ). See Korean gukja characters at Wiktionary for more examples. Compare to the parallel development in Japan of kokuji ( 国字 ) , of which there are hundreds, many rarely used. These were often developed for native Japanese plants and animals. Some Hanja characters have simplified forms ( 약자, 略字 , yakja ) that can be seen in casual use. An example
1443-582: A strictly analytic, SVO structure in stark contrast to the generally polysyllabic, very synthetic, SOV structure, with various grammatical endings that encoded person, levels of politeness and case found in Korean. Despite the adoption of literary Chinese as the written language, Chinese never replaced Korean as the spoken language, even amongst the scholars that had immersed themselves into its study. The first attempts to make literary Chinese texts more accessible to Korean readers were hanmun passages written in Korean word order. This would later develop into
1554-497: Is [REDACTED] , which is a cursive form of 無 (meaning 'nothing'). Each Hanja character is pronounced as a single syllable, corresponding to a single composite character in Hangul. The pronunciation of Hanja in Korean is by no means identical to the way they are pronounced in modern Chinese, particularly Mandarin , although some Chinese dialects and Korean share similar pronunciations for some characters. For example, 印刷 "print"
1665-547: Is yìnshuā in Mandarin Chinese and inswae ( 인쇄 ) in Korean, but it is pronounced insah in Shanghainese (a Wu Chinese dialect). Korean language Korean ( South Korean : 한국어 , Hanguk-eo ; North Korean : 조선어 , Chosŏnŏ ) 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,
1776-512: Is a Sino-Korean name and the Sino-Korean term for 'princess' was already adopted as a loan word. The hanja ' 主隱 ,' however, were read according to their native pronunciation but was not used for its literal meaning signifying 'the prince steals' but to the native postpositions ( 님 ) nim , the honorific marker used after professions and titles, and eun , the topic marker. In mixed script , this would be rendered as ' 善化公主님은 '. Hanja were
1887-433: Is also sometimes used to encompass both concepts. Because Hanja characters have never undergone any major reforms, they more closely resemble traditional Chinese and traditional Japanese characters, although the stroke orders for certain characters are slightly different. Such examples are the characters 教 and 敎 , as well as 研 and 硏 . Only a small number of Hanja characters were modified or are unique to Korean, with
1998-656: 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
2109-511: 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
2220-399: 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
2331-737: Is not recognized in the mainstream academic circles of South Korea, the United States , China , and Japan . Most Korean scholars in the Goryeo and Joseon dynasties considered the location of Lelang county somewhere around today's Pyongyang area based on the Korean history record Samguk Yusa . There were also scholars who believe that Lelang was in Liaodong, such as Bak Ji-won , a Joseon dynasty silhak scholar who had conducted field research in Manchuria during his visit to Qing in 1780. Bak claimed that
SECTION 20
#17328370274542442-518: Is not reported in the Chinese records, which state that the invasion was a success and Balgi was settled in conquered territory. K.H.J. Gardiner says that this is because the Samguk Sagi sought to reverse the reality of defeat in a number of instances and questioned both the existence of Gyesu and his victory. Gongsun Kang took some territory in 209 and Goguryeo was forced to move its capital further east to
2553-399: 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
2664-603: Is the earliest securely dated relic bearing hanmun inscriptions. Hanmun became commonplace in Goguryeo during the 5th and 6th centuries and according to the Book of Zhou , the Chinese classics were available in Goguryeo by the end of the 6th century. The Samguk sagi mentions written records in Baekje beginning in 375 and Goguryeo annals prior to 600. Japanese chronicles mention Baekje people as teachers of hanmun . According to
2775-523: Is the name of the capital, Seoul , a native Korean word meaning 'capital' with no direct Hanja conversion; the Hanja gyeong ( 경 ; 京 , 'capital') is sometimes used as a back-rendering. For example, disyllabic names of railway lines, freeways, and provinces are often formed by taking one character from each of the two locales' names; thus, Most atlases of Korea today are published in two versions: one in Hangul (sometimes with some English as well), and one in Hanja. Subway and railway station signs give
2886-497: Is undeniably originating in Han China and contrasts the previous Gojoseon Bronze dagger culture, they propose that they were introduced through trade and international contact, or were forgeries, and "should not by any means be construed as a basis to deny the Korean characteristics of the artifacts". The North Koreans also say that there were two Lelangs, and that the Han actually administered
2997-716: 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
3108-454: 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 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
3219-1295: The gwageo required the thorough ability to read, interpret and compose passages of works such as the Analects ( 논어 ; 論語 ; Non-eo ), Great Learning ( 대학 ; 大學 ; Daehak ), Doctrine of the Mean ( 중용 ; 中庸 ; Jung-yong ), Mencius ( 맹자 ; 孟子 ; Maengja ), Classic of Poetry ( 시경 ; 詩經 ; Sigyeong ), Book of Documents ( 서경 ; 書經 ; Seogyeong ), Classic of Changes ( 역경 ; 易經 ; Yeokgyeong ), Spring and Autumn Annals ( 춘추 ; 春秋 ; Chunchu ) and Book of Rites ( 예기 ; 禮記 ; Yegi ). Other important works include Sūnzǐ's Art of War ( 손자병법 ; 孫子兵法 ; Sonja Byeongbeop ) and Selections of Refined Literature ( 문선 ; 文選 ; Munseon ). The Korean scholars were very proficient in literary Chinese. The craftsmen and scholars of Baekje were renowned in Japan, and were eagerly sought as teachers due to their proficiency in hanmun . Korean scholars also composed all diplomatic records, government records, scientific writings, religious literature and much poetry in hanmun , demonstrating that
3330-492: The gwageo system was maintained by Goryeo until after the unification of Korea at the end of the nineteenth century. The scholarly élite began learning the hanja by memorising the Thousand Character Classic ( 천자문 ; 千字文 ; Cheonjamun ), Three Character Classic ( 삼자경 ; 三字經 ; Samja Gyeong ) and Hundred Family Surnames ( 백가성 ; 百家姓 ; Baekga Seong ). Passage of
3441-576: The Book of Liang , the people of Silla did not have writing in the first half of the 6th century but this may have been only referring to agreements and contracts, represented by notches on wood. The Bei Shi , covering the period 386–618, says that the writing, armour, and weapons in Silla were the same as those in China. The Samguk sagi says that records were kept in Silla starting in 545. Some western writers claimed that knowledge of Chinese entered Korea with
Hanja - Misplaced Pages Continue
3552-799: The Standard Korean Language Dictionary published by the National Institute of Korean Language (NIKL), approximately half (50%) of Korean words are Sino-Korean, mostly in academic fields (science, government, and society). Other dictionaries, such as the Urimal Keun Sajeon , claim this number might be as low as roughly 30%. There is traditionally no accepted date for when literary Chinese ( 한문 ; 漢文 ; hanmun ) written in Chinese characters ( 한자 ; 漢字 ; hanja ) entered Korea. Early Chinese dynastic histories,
3663-404: The gugyeol ( 구결 ; 口訣 ) or 'separated phrases,' system. Chinese texts were broken into meaningful blocks, and in the spaces were inserted hanja used to represent the sound of native Korean grammatical endings. As literary Chinese was very terse, leaving much to be understood from context, insertion of occasional verbs and grammatical markers helped to clarify the meaning. For instance,
3774-503: The Jinhan confederacy and Byeonhan confederacy imported goods from Lelang such as mirrors. As indigenous groups started to assume Han culture, a hybrid Lelang culture developed in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Gongsun Du was born in Xiangping ( Liaoyang , Liaoning ). In his early years, Du's father fled to Xuantu Commandery , where Du became an office runner. Du attracted the support of
3885-458: The Joseon balmyong jangryohoe 's ( 조선발명장려회 ) Hangul type contest, and Kim Dong Hoon's typewriter winning joint 3rd. During the 50s and 60s, alongside the Korean government's support for typewriting, new Hangul typewriters were developed, distributed, and adopted. Hangul type with both horizontal writing and moa-sseugi (모아쓰기; the style of Hangul where Hangul consonants and vowels mix in together to form
3996-624: 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 the Proto-Koreanic language , which is generally suggested to have its linguistic homeland somewhere in Manchuria . Whitman (2012) suggests that
4107-524: The Korean dialects , which are still largely mutually intelligible . The Chinese language , written with Chinese characters and read with Sino-Xenic pronunciations , 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
4218-557: 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 ,
4329-512: The Yalu rivery valley near Hwando . Kang died in 220 when his children were too young to rule, so his brother Gongsun Gong succeeded him. Gong maintained his independence, albeit while accepting titles issued by Cao Pi . Gong became ill and was replaced by his nephew Gongsun Yuan in 228. Yuan ruled independently until Sima Yi invaded in 238 and annexed his territory. Goguryeo re-established in its former territory and established dominance over
4440-484: The hanja ' 爲 ' was used for its native Korean gloss whereas ' 尼 ' was used for its Sino-Korean pronunciation, and combined into ' 爲尼 ' and read hani ( 하니 ), 'to do (and so).' In Chinese, however, the same characters are read in Mandarin as the expression wéi ní , meaning 'becoming a nun'. This is a typical example of Gugyeol words where the radical ( 爲 ) is read in Korean for its meaning ( hă —'to do'), whereas
4551-542: The hanja were chosen for their equivalent native Korean gloss. For example, the hanja ' 不冬 ' signifies 'no winter' or 'not winter' and has the formal Sino-Korean pronunciation of ( 부동 ) budong , similar to Mandarin bù dōng . Instead, it was read as andeul ( 안들 ) which is the Middle Korean pronunciation of the characters' native gloss and is ancestor to modern anneunda ( 않는다 ), 'do not' or 'does not.' The various idu conventions were developed in
Hanja - Misplaced Pages Continue
4662-646: The same sounds , two distinct Hanja words ( Hanjaeo ) may be spelled identically in the phonetic Hangul alphabet . Hanja's language of origin, Chinese, has many homophones, and Hanja words became even more homophonic when they came into Korean, since Korean lacks a tonal system , which is how Chinese distinguishes many words that would otherwise be homophonic. For example, while 道 , 刀 , and 島 are all phonetically distinct in Mandarin (pronounced dào , dāo , and dǎo respectively), they are all pronounced do ( 도 ) in Korean. For this reason, Hanja are often used to clarify meaning, either on their own without
4773-524: The 辛 ( Korean : 신라면 ; Hanja : 辛拉麵 ) used on Shin Ramyŏn packaging. Since June 1949, Hanja has not officially been used in North Korea, and, in addition, most texts are now commonly written horizontally instead of vertically. Many words borrowed from Chinese have also been replaced in the North with native Korean words, due to the North's policy of linguistic purism . Nevertheless,
4884-900: The 16th century for all Korean classes, including uneducated peasants and slaves. By 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
4995-413: The 20th century Koreans used hanja only for writing Sino-Korean words, while writing native vocabulary and loanwords from other languages in Hangul. By the 21st century, even Sino-Korean words are usually written in the Hangul alphabet, with the corresponding Chinese character sometimes written next to it to prevent confusion if there are other characters or words with the same Hangul spelling. According to
5106-403: The Chinese built what was in essence a Chinese city where the governor, officials, and merchants, and Chinese colonists lived. Their administration had considerable impact on the life of the native population and ultimately the very fabric of Gojoseon society became eroded. Later, Goguryeo , founded in 37 BCE, began conquering the commanderies and eventually absorbed them into its own territory by
5217-457: The Goryeo period but were particularly associated with the jung-in ( 중인 ; 中人 ), the upper middle class of the early Joseon period. A subset of idu was known as hyangchal ( 향찰 ; 鄕札 ), 'village notes,' and was a form of idu particularly associated with the hyangga ( 향가 ; 鄕歌 ) the old poetry compilations and some new creations preserved in the first half of
5328-409: The Goryeo period when its popularity began to wane. In the hyangchal or 'village letters' system, there was free choice in how a particular hanja was used. For example, to indicate the topic of Princess Seonhwa, a daughter of King Jinpyeong of Silla was recorded as ' 善化公主主隱 ' in hyangchal and was read as ( 선화공주님은 ), seonhwa gongju-nim-eun where ' 善化公主 ' is read in Sino-Korean, as it
5439-553: The Great promulgated Hangul (also known as Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea) through the Hunminjeongeum . It did not come into widespread official use until the late 19th and early 20th century. Proficiency in Chinese characters is, therefore, necessary to study Korean history. Etymology of Sino-Korean words are reflected in Hanja. Hanja were once used to write native Korean words, in a variety of systems collectively known as idu , but by
5550-498: The Hangul. Aside from academic usage, Hanja are often used for advertising or decorative purposes in South Korea, and appear frequently in athletic events and cultural parades, packaging and labeling, dictionaries and atlases . For example, the Hanja 辛 ( sin or shin , meaning 'spicy') appears prominently on packages of Shin Ramyun noodles. In contrast, North Korea eliminated the use of Hanja even in academic publications by 1949 on
5661-630: The Hanja, but this practice was reversed by post-independence governments in Korea. Since the 1970s, some parents have given their children given names that are simply native Korean words. Popular ones include Haneul ( 하늘 )—meaning 'sky'—and Iseul ( 이슬 )—meaning 'morning dew'. Nevertheless, on official documents, people's names are still recorded in both Hangul and in Hanja. Due to standardization efforts during Goryeo and Joseon eras, native Korean placenames were converted to Hanja, and most names used today are Hanja-based. The most notable exception
SECTION 50
#17328370274545772-609: The Korean peninsula, and place them somewhere in Liaodong Peninsula , in modern-day China, instead. The stigmatization of colonial Japanese historical and archaeological findings in Korea as imperialist forgeries owes in part to those scholars' discovery and promotion of the Lelang Commandery—;by which the Han dynasty administered territory near Pyongyang—and insistence that this Chinese commandery had an impact on
5883-489: The Korean scholars were not just reading Chinese works but were actively composing their own. Well-known examples of Chinese-language literature in Korea include Samguk sagi , Samguk yusa , Geumo Sinhwa , The Cloud Dream of the Nine , Akhak gwebeom , Hong Gildong jeon and Domundaejak . The Chinese language, however, was quite different from the Korean language, consisting of terse, often monosyllabic words with
5994-467: The Koreans themselves. These characters are called gukja ( 국자 ; 國字 , literally 'national characters'). Most of them are for proper names (place-names and people's names) but some refer to Korean-specific concepts and materials. They include 畓 ( 답 ; dap ; 'paddy field'), 欌 ( 장 ; jang , 'wardrobe'), 乭 ( 돌 ; Dol , a character only used in given names), 㸴 ( 소 ; So ,
6105-708: The Lelang Commandery as existing within the Korean peninsula, and extend the rule of the four commanderies as far south as the Han River . However, South Korean scholars assumed its administrative areas to Pyongan and Hwanghae provinces. Three of the commanderies fell or retreated westward within a few decades, but the Lelang commandery remained as a center of cultural and economic exchange with successive Chinese dynasties for four centuries. At its administrative center in Lelang,
6216-509: The Wuhuan were defeated by Cao Cao in 207, Yuan Shang , Yuan Xi , and the Wuhuan leaders Louban and Supuyan fled to Kang. Kang killed them and sent their heads to Cao Cao. In 208, Kang sent aid to Balgi in support of his claim to the Goguryeo throne. According to the 12th century chronicle Samguk Sagi , the invasion was defeated by Gyesu, younger brother of Sansang of Goguryeo . However this
6327-476: The additional elements to indicate the sound of the character, but a few Hanja are purely pictographic, and some were formed in other ways. The historical use of Hanja in Korea has had a change over time. Hanja became prominent in use by the elite class between the 3rd and 4th centuries by the Three Kingdoms. The use came from Chinese that migrated into Korea. With them they brought the writing system Hanja. Thus
6438-589: The advent of the Sebeolsik layout ( 세벌식 자판 ) Park's Hanja ban was not formally lifted until 1992 under the government of Kim Young-sam . In 1999, the government of Kim Dae-jung actively promoted Hanja by placing it on signs on the road, at bus stops, and in subways. In 1999, Han Mun was reintroduced as a school elective and in 2001 the Hanja Proficiency Test hanja nŭngryŏk gŏmjŏng sihŏm ( Korean : 한자능력검정시험 ; Hanja : 漢字能力檢定試驗 )
6549-455: 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,
6660-414: 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 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
6771-624: The death of Dong Shou in 357. Dong Shou was a general from Former Yan who fled to Goguryeo in 336 and was given a position in the former territory of Lelang. In the North Korean academic community and some parts of the South Korean academic community, the Han dynasty's annexation of parts of the Korean peninsula have been denied. Proponents of this revisionist theory claim that the Han Commanderies (and Gojoseon) actually existed outside of
SECTION 60
#17328370274546882-536: The development of Korean civilization. Until the North Korean challenge, it was universally accepted that Lelang was a commandery established by Emperor Wu of Han after he defeated Gojoseon in 108 BCE. To deal with the Han Dynasty archeological remnants such as tombs, jewelry and laquerware North Korean scholars have reinterpreted them as the remains of Gojoseon or Goguryeo. For those artifacts, whose artistic style
6993-549: The early 300s. Lelang Commandery was ruled by the Jin dynasty (266–420) until 313. Due to civil war, the Jin dynasty was unable to send officials to govern its territory in northern Korea. The leaders of Liaodong and Lelang led over one thousand households to break away from Jin and submitted to the Xianbei warlord of Former Yan Murong Hui . Murong Hui relocated the remnants of the commandery to
7104-468: The early 4th AD, for the longest lasting. The commanderies were set up to control the populace in the former Gojoseon area as far south as the Han River , with a core area at Lelang near present-day Pyongyang by Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty in early 2nd century BC after his conquest of Wiman Joseon . As such, these commanderies are seen as Chinese colonies by some scholars. Though disputed by North Korean scholars, Western sources generally describe
7215-442: The early 4th century AD. Before the fall of Gojoseon a single commandery, called Canghai Commandery , covered an area in northern Korean peninsula to southern Manchuria . Nan Lü ( Hanja : 南閭), who was a monarch of Dongye and a subject of Wiman Joseon , revolted against Ugeo of Gojoseon and then surrendered to the Han dynasty with 280,000 people. The commandery was established following this revolt, however in two years, it
7326-449: The equivalent Hangul spelling or in parentheses after the Hangul spelling as a kind of gloss. Hanja are often also used as a form of shorthand in newspaper headlines, advertisements, and on signs, for example the banner at the funeral for the sailors lost in the sinking of ROKS Cheonan (PCC-772) . In South Korea, Hanja are used most frequently in ancient literature, legal documents, and scholarly monographs, where they often appear without
7437-465: The equivalent Hangul spelling. Usually, only those words with a specialized or ambiguous meaning are printed in Hanja. In mass-circulation books and magazines, Hanja are generally used rarely, and only to gloss words already spelled in Hangul when the meaning is ambiguous. Hanja are also often used in newspaper headlines as abbreviations or to eliminate ambiguity. In formal publications, personal names are also usually glossed in Hanja in parentheses next to
7548-668: The fact that the word is composed of Hanja often help to illustrate the word's origin. As an example of how Hanja can help to clear up ambiguity, many homophones can be distinguished by using Hanja. An example is the word 수도 ( sudo ), which may have meanings such as: Hanja dictionaries for specialist usage – Jajeon ( 자전 ; 字典 ) or Okpyeon ( 옥편 ; 玉篇 ) – are organized by radical (the traditional Chinese method of classifying characters). Korean personal names , including all Korean surnames and most Korean given names , are based on Hanja and are generally written in it, although some exceptions exist. On business cards,
7659-399: 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
7770-404: The fundamental disparities between the Korean and Chinese languages, and accessible only to those educated in classical Chinese. Most of 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
7881-491: The governor Gongsun Yu, whose daughter he eventually married. He rose up the ranks of officialdom in Ji Province until he became regional inspector. Gongsun Du was appointed Administrator of Liaodong Commandery by Dong Zhuo in 189 on the recommendation of Xu Rong . As a result of his lowly origins, Du harbored an intense hatred for the elite landowning class. Once he became administrator, Du carried out his vendetta against
7992-445: The hanja being used came from the characters already being used by the Chinese at the time. Since Hanja was primarily used by the elite and scholars, it was hard for others to learn, thus much character development was limited. Scholars in the 4th century used this to study and write Confucian classics. Character formation is also coined to the idu form which was a Buddhist writing system for Chinese characters. This practice however
8103-479: The holders of such names—but not only them—tend to have one-syllable given names. Traditionally, the given name in turn consists of one character unique to the individual and one character shared by all people in a family of the same sex and generation (see Generation name ). During the Japanese administration of Korea (1910–1945), Koreans were forced to adopt Japanese-style names , including polysyllabic readings of
8214-479: 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
8325-408: 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
8436-515: 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
8547-589: 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 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
8658-451: 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
8769-565: The location of commandries were actually in the Liaodong area in The Jehol Diary . Ri Ji Rin (Lee Ji Rin), a respected North Korean historian who obtained his Ph.D. in history from China's top university Peking University in 1961, in his published Research on Ancient Korea suggests that based on the initial records of Chinese texts and archaeological findings in Liaodong, the Han commanderies were located in Liaodong Peninsula. Another historian from South Korea, Yoon Nae-hyun also published
8880-834: The mandatory curriculum in grade 6. They are taught in separate courses in South Korean high schools , separately from the normal Korean-language curriculum. Formal Hanja education begins in grade 7 (junior high school) and continues until graduation from senior high school in grade 12. A total of 1,800 Hanja are taught: 900 for junior high, and 900 for senior high (starting in grade 10). Post-secondary Hanja education continues in some liberal-arts universities . The 1972 promulgation of basic Hanja for educational purposes changed on December 31, 2000, to replace 44 Hanja with 44 others. South Korea's Ministry of Education generally encourages all primary schools to offer Hanja classes. Officials said that learning Chinese characters could enhance students' Korean-language proficiency. Initially announced as
8991-408: The necessary Chinese characters and taught how to write them." As a result, a Chinese-character textbook was designed for North Korean schools for use in grades 5–9, teaching 1,500 characters, with another 500 for high school students. College students are exposed to another 1,000, bringing the total to 3,000. Because many different Hanja—and thus, many different words written using Hanja—often share
9102-490: The only sources for very early Korea, do not mention a Korean writing system. During the 3rd century BC, Chinese migrations into the peninsula occurred due to war in northern China and the earliest archaeological evidence of Chinese writing appearing in Korea is dated to this period. A large number of inscribed knife money from pre- Lelang sites along the Yalu River have been found. A sword dated to 222 BC with Chinese engraving
9213-405: The orders of Kim Il Sung , a situation that has since remained unchanged. In modern Korean dictionaries, all entry words of Sino-Korean origin are printed in Hangul and listed in Hangul order, with the Hanja given in parentheses immediately following the entry word. This practice helps to eliminate ambiguity, and it also serves as a sort of shorthand etymology, since the meaning of the Hanja and
9324-495: The other tribes of Korea that formed much of Goguryeo's economy. Although the king evaded capture and eventually settled in a new capital, Goguryeo was reduced to such insignificance that for half a century there was no mention of the state in Chinese historical texts. Afterwards, the Lelang, Daifang, and Xuantu commanderies were ruled by Cao Wei, the Jin dynasty, and the Murong Xianbei until they were conquered by Goguryeo in
9435-631: 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 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
9546-512: The rest being identical to the traditional Chinese characters . By contrast, many of the Chinese characters currently in use in mainland China , Malaysia and Singapore have been simplified , and contain fewer strokes than the corresponding Hanja characters. Until the contemporary period, Korean documents, history, literature and records were written primarily in Literary Chinese using Hanja as its primary script. As early as 1446, Sejong
9657-660: 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
9768-662: The sole means of writing Korean until King Sejong the Great invented and tried promoting Hangul in the 15th century. Even after the invention of Hangul, however, most Korean scholars continued to write in hanmun , although Hangul did see considerable popular use. Idu and its hyangchal variant were mostly replaced by mixed-script writing with hangul although idu was not officially discontinued until 1894 when reforms abolished its usage in administrative records of civil servants. Even with idu , most literature and official records were still recorded in literary Chinese until 1910. The Hangul-Hanja mixed script
9879-502: The spread of Buddhism , which occurred around the 4th century. Traditionally Buddhism is believed to have been introduced to Goguryeo in 372, Baekje in 384, and Silla in 527. Another major factor in the adoption of hanmun was the adoption of the gwageo , copied from the Chinese imperial examination , open to all freeborn men. Special schools were set up for the well-to-do and the nobility across Korea to train new scholar officials for civil service. Adopted by Silla and Goryeo,
9990-505: The station's name in Hangul, Hanja, and English, both to assist visitors (including Chinese or Japanese who may rely on the Hanja spellings) and to disambiguate the name. Hanja are still required for certain disciplines in academia, such as Oriental Studies and other disciplines studying Chinese, Japanese or historic Korean literature and culture, since the vast majority of primary source text material are written in Hanzi , Kanji or Hanja. For
10101-426: The store?' Response 예/네. ye/ne AFF Four Commanderies of Han The Four Commanderies of Han ( Chinese : 漢四郡 ; pinyin : Hàn-sìjùn ; Korean : 한사군 ; Hanja : 漢四郡 ; RR : Han-sagun ) were Chinese commanderies located in the north of the Korean Peninsula and part of the Liaodong Peninsula from around the end of the second century BC through
10212-454: The suffix 尼 , ni (meaning 'nun'), is used phonetical. Special symbols were sometimes used to aid in the reordering of words in approximation of Korean grammar. It was similar to the kanbun ( 漢文 ) system developed in Japan to render Chinese texts. The system was not a translation of Chinese into Korean, but an attempt to make Korean speakers knowledgeable in hanja overcome the difficulties in interpreting Chinese texts. Although it
10323-441: 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
10434-463: The time. In 1956, one study found mixed-script Korean text (in which Sino-Korean nouns are written using Hanja, and other words using Hangul) were read faster than texts written purely in Hangul; however, by 1977, the situation had reversed. In 1988, 65% of one sample of people without a college education "evinced no reading comprehension of any but the most common hanja" when reading mixed-script passages. A small number of characters were invented by
10545-432: The traditional creative arts such as calligraphy and painting , a knowledge of Hanja is needed to write and understand the various scripts and inscriptions, as is the same in China and Japan. Many old songs and poems are written and based on Hanja characters. On 9 September 2003, the celebration for the 55th anniversary of North Korea featured a float decorated with the scenario for welcoming Kim Il Sung , which including
10656-513: The tribes at the mouth of the Yalu River sometime before 233. In 238, Goguryeo allied with Cao Wei to overthrow the Liaodong regime. Goguryeo raided the Xuantu Commandery in 242. In retaliation, Cao Wei invaded Goguryeo from 244 to 245. The Wei general Guanqiu Jian sacked the Goguryeo capital of Hwando , sent its king fleeing, and broke the tributary relationships between Goguryeo and
10767-464: 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
10878-428: The use and teaching of Hanja in public schools, as well as forbade its use in the military, with the goal of eliminating Hanja in writing by 1972 through legislative and executive means. However, due to public backlash, in 1972, Park's government allowed for the teaching of Hanja in special classes but maintained a ban on Hanja use in textbooks and other learning materials outside of the classes. This reverse step, however,
10989-472: The use of Hanja has plummeted in orthography until the modern day. Where Hanja is now very rarely used and is almost only used for abbreviations in newspaper headlines (e.g. 中 for China, 韓 for Korea, 美 for the United States, 日 for Japan, etc.), for clarification in text where a word might be confused for another due to homophones (e.g. 이사장 ( 李 社長 ) vs. 이사장 ( 理事長 )), or for stylistic use such as
11100-416: The use of Hanja is slowly fading away, with most older people displaying their names exclusively in Hanja while most of the younger generation using both Hangul and Hanja. Korean personal names usually consist of a one-character family name ( seong , 성 ; 姓 ) followed by a two-character given name ( ireum , 이름 ). There are a few two-character family names (e.g. 남궁 ; 南宮 , Namgung ), and
11211-521: The wealthy by publicly flogging to death the Magistrate of Xiangping and extirpating the gentry. Du dominated the northeast and expanded into the territory of Goguryeo and the Wuhuan . When Cao Cao attempted to bestow titles upon Du, he rejected them and proclaimed himself king. Du died in 204 and was succeeded by his son, Gongsun Kang . In 204 Kang expanded into Goguryeo and created Daifang Commandery . When
11322-403: The west within Liaodong. Goguryeo attacked and annexed the commandery in 313. Daifang was conquered in 314-315 and Xuantu in 319. After the collapse of the Han commanderies, Goguryeo accepted émigrés of Chinese origin to strengthen their control over the region. K.H.J. Gardiner argues that even though the commanderies had been conquered by Goguryeo, it did not rule Lelang directly until after
11433-524: Was a commonly used means of writing, and Hangul effectively replaced Hanja in official and scholarly writing only in the 20th century. Hangŭl exclusive writing has been used concurrently in Korea after the decline of literary Chinese. Mixed script could be commonly found in non-fiction writing, news papers, etc., until the enacting of Park Chung Hee 's 5 Year Plan for Hangŭl Exclusivity hangŭl jŏnyong ogaenyŏn gyehuik an ( Korean : 한글전용 5개년 계획안 ; Hanja : 한글專用 5個年 計劃案 ) in 1968 banned
11544-499: Was abolished by Gongsun Hong . A commandery that was separated out of Lelang Commandery in the later years of its history was named the Daifang Commandery (帶方郡, 대방군, AD 204-220/210 ~ AD 315). When Gojoseon was defeated in 108 BC, three commanderies were established in its place: Lelang , Lintun , and Zhenfan . In 107 BC, Xuantu Commandery was also established in the place of Gojoseon's ally, Yemaek . In 82 BC, Lintun
11655-423: Was absorbed into Xuantu and Zhenfan absorbed into Lelang. In 75 BC, Xuantu moved its capital to Liaodong due to resistance from the native people. Lintun was transferred to Lelang. Although often depicted as special administrative units within the Han dynasty, excavated records suggest that these commanderies were governed no differently than those in the core regions of the Han. Neighboring Korean powers such as
11766-533: Was called eonmun ('colloquial script') and quickly spread nationwide to increase literacy in Korea. The Korean alphabet was denounced by 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
11877-482: Was developed by scholars of the early Goryeo Kingdom (918–1392), gugyeol was of particular importance during the Joseon period, extending into the first decade of the twentieth century, since all civil servants were required to be able to read, translate and interpret Confucian texts and commentaries. The first attempt at transcribing Korean in hanja was the idu ( 이두 ; 吏讀 ), or 'official reading,' system that began to appear after 500 AD. In this system,
11988-545: Was introduced. In 2005, an older law, the Law Concerning Hangul Exclusivity hangŭl jŏnyonge gwahak pŏmnyul ( Korean : 한글전용에 관한 법률 ; Hanja : 한글專用에 關한 法律 ) was repealed as well. In 2013 all elementary schools in Seoul started teaching Hanja. However, the result is that Koreans who were educated in this period having never been formally educated in Hanja are unable to use them, and thus
12099-405: Was limited due to the opinion of Buddhism whether it was favorable at the time or not. To aid in understanding the meaning of a character, or to describe it orally to distinguish it from other characters with the same pronunciation, character dictionaries and school textbooks refer to each character with a combination of its sound and a word indicating its meaning. This dual meaning-sound reading of
12210-594: Was optional so the availability of Hanja education was dependent on the school one went to. Another reason for the decline is found in the Hangul typewriter, and the keyboard. The push for better Hangul typewriters mainly began in 1949, but as it was long before the Hanja ban, government institutions did not prefer typewriters altogether as they could not write in Hanja nor Mixed script. Kong Byung Wo's notable Sebeolsik type first appeared in March 1949, jointly winning second place in
12321-560: Was unearthed in Pyongyang . From 108 BC to 313 AD, the Han dynasty established the Four Commanderies of Han in northern Korea and institutionalized the Chinese language. According to the Samguk sagi , Goguryeo had hanmun from the beginning of its existence, which starts in 37 BC. It also says that the king of Goguryeo composed a poem in 17 BC. The Gwanggaeto Stele , dated to 414,
#453546