For many, the Korean language seems mysterious and super complex, because it is so different from ours. in front of you 8 interesting facts about Korean to help you understand it a little better.
- There are only 24 letters in the Korean alphabet.
Many people imagine the Korean alphabet to be very difficult with big amount characters, but it only has 24 letters. Moreover, 10 of them are vowels.
For example, recall that in English there are 5 vowels, but most of them have several sounds. So in different words letters can be read differently. But each Korean vowel corresponds to only one sound.
It turns out that there are only 14 consonants in the Korean alphabet, and many of the sounds that exist in English or Russian are simply not there (for example, “Z” or “F” from English).
2 . The Korean alphabet (HANGUL) can be learned in just 90 minutes.
The Korean alphabet was invented with the specific goal of making it easy to learn. All consonants have a form that will help you memorize them using almost just one lip shape. The spelling of vowels is also easy to remember.
3. 80 million people around the world speak Korean
Most of them, of course, live in South and North Korea, and in addition, one of the provinces of China uses the Korean language. You will find Korean speakers in Japan, USA, Russia and other countries.
4. D dialects of regions in Korea are very different from the standard Korean language.
The Korean spoken in Seoul is called "Standard Korean". It is used by the media, important state statements are made on it. But, since Korea is a country of mountains, many regions are very isolated from each other. Because of this, the language in different areas can be very different. That's why many Seoulites have a hard time understanding the man from Busan.
5. There are many loanwords in Korean.
Most loanwords come from in English or directly from Japan. So for example, the word "motorbike" — "oto-bai" from the word auto-bike.
Other languages can also be found in Korean, such as "bbang"(bread) from Portuguese, and "arubaituh"(part-time job, part-time job) from German.
6. Many of the remaining words have Chinese roots.
At one time, Chinese culture made a huge contribution to the formation of an active vocabulary of the Korean language.
7. There are two counting systems in Korea.
One of the counting systems was created on the basis of the Korean language, the other has Chinese roots, the numbers here have a similar sound to Chinese. Often, Korean language learners get confused about how to apply each of these systems in practice. But do not give up or despair!
8. North Korean is gradually becoming an independent language.
Despite the fact that a large difference in pronunciation and dialects existed even before the Korean War, the languages became truly alien after the separation. Significant impact foreign languages into South Korean and isolation North Korea led to the fact that now many words that have the same meaning, on one side and the other, have become completely different. For example words "ice cream", "rainbow", "friend", "lunchbox"- in two Koreas they sound completely different.
Which of the facts seemed to you the most interesting? What unusual facts about the Korean language do you know?
Many tourists are scared the language barrier. Travelers are more daring, they should not be afraid of something. However, when it comes to Asian countries, travelers face doubts.
When you are going to that region, be in China, Japan, Korea, India (Northern Korea in particular, although the memorized phrase that you are from a “Soviet country” is saving) you need to be aware that you are going to another world. The planet is the same, ours, people are the same two-legged, cars are the same four-wheeled, you won’t get poisoned by food. But the world is still different.
Asian languages are built on different principles than European ones, structurally belong to a different category of languages, and syntactically (exactly in this way, oddly enough) they are more figurative, thereby forming a certain type of thinking, a way of saying, and, accordingly, have an impact on the perception of the environment. and its transmission to other human beings.
The beauty of the Korean language is that you will start learning hieroglyphs only when you speak it fluently, you can read it fluently. They need to read scientific texts, artistic prose and highly artistic poetry.
Otherwise, as I have already written, this language is made up of words that are made up of letters that correspond to the sounds that are so understandable to us.
The Korean alphabet, Hangul, was born in 1443 - its creation began under the supervision of the government, under the patronage of King Sejong. Sejong, famous character Korean history and mythology, a popular image, the king even got on banknotes. The legend tells about how Sejong personally walked with a magnifying glass, examined the positions of the speech organs when pronouncing certain sounds, and created letters that follow the contours of these positions.
In fact, everything, perhaps, was not so, but this legend is shown to all first-year foreigners who came to Seoul to learn the language. There are, of course, other legends, there are many of them, as well as versions, antiquity, after all.
According to the rules of Korean, a consonant is always followed by a vowel, which easily and naturally makes the language very euphonious. A significant part of the vocabulary is borrowed from Chinese, the syntax coincides with Japanese - this fact reflects not so much similarity as it speaks of a close cultural connection in the region itself and, of course, manifests itself not only in languages; affects all cultural layers. In general, the Korean language is more closely associated with art than many others, whether it be painting or cinema.
An interesting fact is that in the northern version of the Korean language there are borrowings from Russian (the influence of Soviet support for the regime); the South Korean language absorbed and fairly deformed English words(again, due to American influence). However, do not rush to rejoice: understanding these words, interpreted by Korean morphology, is not so easy.
It is very important to understand the "hierarchy" of the Korean language, which is embodied in it at the syntactic and lexical levels. There are three degrees of politeness, depending on which you will use one or another construction, as well as many address words, and, most curiously, individual verbs (for example, the verb to sleep or eat, which, when applied to a grandmother, will be different than for talking with younger sister) to refer to someone with exceptional respect.
Korean uses two counting systems, Chinese, with the same number name (an adaptation of the Chinese language itself) and Korean. What is interesting, albeit frightening insanely, in response to a question about time, you will call hours in Korean numbers and minutes in Chinese.
There are still a lot of similar nuances to remember, this language is difficult to learn, it is interesting to learn, although, probably, in order to learn it, you need to be in love with it just like with Korea and Asia itself.
However, below, I offer a list of words written in Korean that may be useful to a traveler who finds himself in Seoul.
Airport - 공항 (konggang) Subway - 지하철 (jihacheol) Subway station - 지하철역 (jihacheol yok) Shop - 편의점 (byeongjeom) Pharmacy - 약국 (yagguk) Restaurant - 식당 (siktang) Coffee house - 커피 읜-틍 (khophi 싍) taeksi) Bank - 은행 (Eunhyun) Hospital - 병원 (byeongguang) Bar - 술집 (sulchib) Alcohol - 술 (sul) Toilet - 화장실 (huajangsil) Park - 공원 (kongguang) Museum - 박물관 (bagmulguang) Right - 오른jog Left - 왼쪽 (wenjog) Right - 바로 (paro or tokparo)
- (Republic of Korea) a state in East Asia, occupying the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and adjacent islands; it borders in the north on the DPRK (see Democratic People's Republic of Korea), on the west it is washed by the Yellow Sea, on the east ... ... Geographic Encyclopedia
South K. occupies the south. part of the Korean Peninsula. Pl. 98.5 thousand km2. Hac. OK. 41 million people (1984). Capital Seoul. B adm. relation consists of 9 provinces; in the department adm. units are allocated Seoul and Busan. Won monetary unit. General ... ... Geological Encyclopedia
Exist., Number of synonyms: 1 country (281) ASIS Synonym Dictionary. V.N. Trishin. 2013 ... Synonym dictionary
SOUTH KOREA- Territory 99.6 thousand square kilometers, population 42 million people (1990). It is a developed industrial agrarian country. Rice is cultivated on irrigated lands, barley and wheat on rainfed lands. In animal husbandry, pig breeding and cattle breeding predominate … World sheep breeding
Coordinates: 36°00′00″ s. sh. 128°00′00″ E / 36° N sh. 128° E etc. ... Wikipedia
South Korea- South Korea … Russian spelling dictionary
See the article KOREA… Collier Encyclopedia
South Korea at the Olympics IOC code: K ... Wikipedia
South Korea at the Olympics IOC code: KOR ... Wikipedia
IOC code: KO ... Wikipedia
Books
- South Korea, Kiryanov Oleg Vladimirovich. Is it true that South Koreans eat dogs and, if not, what do they eat, what are the features of South Korean cinema, are there many surnames in Korea, why is plastic surgery so popular there and how does it look ...
- South Korea, Kiryanov O .. Is it true that South Koreans eat dogs and, if not, what do they eat, what are the features of South Korean cinema, are there many surnames in Korea, why is plastic surgery so popular there and how does it look ...
Located in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, the DPRK is unofficially called. Like its southern neighbor, the official language of North Korea is Korean. It is distributed throughout the peninsula and has several dialects, roughly corresponding to geographical regions.
Some statistics and facts
- Most of the Korean dialects are named after the Eight Provinces.
- The official language of North Korea is Pyongyang Korean.
- In total, at least 78 million people speak Korean in the world. The most numerous diasporas outside the peninsula are concentrated in, and.
- Korean has an additional musical emphasis.
- A large number of borrowings from Chinese is another feature state language DPRK. It is also characterized by borrowings from Russian, while many English words are found in it.
Eight Korean provinces
This notion administrative structure The Korean Peninsula is not in vain uses capital letter In the title. Korea was divided into eight provinces in the first third of the 15th century during the reign of the Joseon Dynasty. The boundaries remained unchanged until late XIX century and determined not only the administrative division and regional differences, but also the territory of distribution of one or another dialect of the Korean language.
Some dialects are used in both Koreas, but even their various variants are understood by the inhabitants of both the northern and southern parts of the peninsula.
Features of Korean
For writing, residents of the DPRK use phonetic signs"Hangul", developed back in the 15th century. addition to "hangul" in South Korea serve Chinese characters"hancha". In the 30s of the last century, at the initiative of the USSR, measures were taken to romanize Korean writing. As a result, the Latin alphabet was officially approved, but was never used in practice.
Interesting feature The state language of North Korea is various styles of speech, the use of which is regulated by the age of the interlocutors and their social status. A "politeness system" is achieved by using different verbal suffixes with the same root.
Note to the tourist
If you happen to be in North Korea, don't worry about comprehension problems. In any case, you will be assigned a guide-interpreter, without which you will not be able to travel with all your desire.
The Korean language is traditionally considered to belong to and isolate a group. Nevertheless, it is spoken by almost eighty million people in the world.
Korean is spoken not only by Koreans living in North and South Korea, but also by those who live outside their historical homeland. The birth of the Korean language is attributed to the period of the existence of three kingdoms that were located on the territory of the Korean Peninsula: Baekje, Silla and Goguryeo. Moreover, there is every reason to believe that the language of the kingdom of Silla is the ancestor of the Korean language, and the language of Koguryeo is the ancestor of Japanese.
In the state of South Korea, the official language is the Seoul dialect. It carries (as, indeed, other dialects of Korean) many loanwords from American and Chinese. Dialects in both South and North Korea are distributed according to the provinces. So, there is a dialect of Chuncheon, Gangwon, Gyeongsan, Jeolla. The smallest province in South Korea is Jeju Island and almost the entire southwestern coast of the country speaks the Jeju dialect. Due to the status of the official state language, the Seoul dialect helps communication between representatives of different language groups in South Korea. Having common roots, all dialects have something in common with each other and have minor differences in spelling and pronunciation. The exception is the Jeju dialect, which cannot be understood by speakers of other language groups. This is a consequence of a certain isolation of Jeju from other population groups.
Since 2000, the South Korean government has officially approved the romanization of the Korean language (writing Korean words in Latin), which is designed to make life easier for tourists. However, the peculiarities of the local writing, which allow one to arbitrarily change the consonants in a word when writing it, easily turn "coffee" into "kopi", and "golf" into "goppy". Despite such confusion, a couple of phrases learned with the help of a phrase book will greatly facilitate the tourist's stay in South Korea. Although at first glance, Korean writing seems complicated, it is quite simple. Sounds are assembled into blocks, forming syllables, and those, in turn, into words.
