A genealogic classification of Korean is debated. These are for instance laid by linguists in the Altaic language family, though others considered it to be the language isolate. Korean is agglutinative in its morphology and SOV in its syntax.

This article is principally all about a spoken Korean language. Look at Hangul for details on the native Korean writing system.

Names
A Korean list for a language come according to the names for Korea used in N & South Korea.

Around N Korea, a language is virtually all typically known as ChosÅ?nmal (ì¡°ì„ ë§?), or even sir thomas more formally, ChosÅ?nÅ? (ì¡°ì„ ì–´).

Around South Korea, a language is virtually all typically known as Hangungmal (한국�), or even sir thomas more formally, Hangugeo (한국어) or even Gugeo (국어, National Language). These are every now and again conversationally known as Urimal (우리�, "Our Language").

Classification and related languages
Korean classification is typically debated. Numerous Korean & American linguists recognize the kinship to the Altaic languages. Even so, this is non swell demonstrated, & numbers of assume Korean the language isolate. Others imagine that Japanese and Korean may be related.

A Korean relationship sustaining Altaic and proto-Altaic have been great deal argued when late. Korean is similar to Altaic languages in this it two stand a absence of certain grammatical elements, including number, gender, articles, fusional morphology, voice, and relative pronouns (Kim Namkil). Korean especially bears occasionally morphological resemblance to some languages of the Eastern Turkic class action, viz. Yakut.

the possibility of a Korean-Japanese linguistic relationship occurs as delicate subject because of the complex historical relationship between them countries. the possibility of a Baekje-Japanese linguistic relationship has been studied, using Korean linguists pointing retired similarities within phonology, including a general deficiency consonant-final sounds. There are plenty of apparent cognates between Baekje and Japanese, like mir & mi, severally, for "three". What is more, there are ethnical links between Baekje & Japan: a humans of Baekje utilized ii Chinese characters for their family name, such as a humans of Japan in todays world.

Goguryeo & Baekje languages come considered related, probably descended from either Go-Joseon. (Understand Fuyu languages.) Less is known about a relationship between a languages of Last-Joseon, Goguryo, & Baekje on a one h&, and the Samhan and Silla on a other, although many Korean scholars imagine it were reciprocally intelligable, & the collective basis of modern Korean.

Geographic distribution
Virtually all of the speakers of the Korean language sleep in North and South Korea. Yet, there are a few ethnic Koreans around China, Australia, the previous Soviet Union, Japan, Brazil, Canada and the United States.

Dialects

Korean has many dialects (called mal (literally speech), bang-eon, or even saturi inside Korean). A standard language (Pyojuneo or Pyojunmal) of South Korea is according to a idiom of the vicinity about Seoul, and a standard for Northerly Korea is according to a idiom spoken about P'yÅ?ngyang. These accent come similar, & as a matter of fact tons idiom except that of Jeju Island are largely reciprocally perceivable. A accent spoken there exists classified as a different language by a bit of Korean linguists. One of a virtually all notable differences between idiom is the have of stress: speakers of Seoul Dialect use stress super little, & standard South Korean has the very flat intonation; then again, speakers of Gyeongsang Dialect have the very pronounced intonation that makes their idiom healthy extra prefer a European language to american ears.

There is a super close connection between a idiom of Korean & a regions of Korea, since the boundaries of two come largely determined by mountains & seas. On this button occurs as listing of traditional accent list & locations:

Sounds
Consonants

Lesson words for consonants:

A IPA symbol <. Its official IPA usage is for voiced consonants, which the tensed blocks around Korean are non. A utilise of this diacritical mark along sustaining a symbols for sonant consonants indicates that a glottal constriction is greater than that witnessed inside average voicing. This is known as stiff voice. the Korean tensed ends come produced by using a part constricted glottis and additional subglottal pressure, elements of strong voice, which is how else it is for instance analysed.

Every now and again a tense consonants come indicated sustaining a apostrophe-rather symbol <> is a ejective consonants, with their glottal movement & non-pulmonic atmospheric pressure, which a Korean tense consonants don't develop.

There exists on-going debate when to whether a "tense" consonants come fortis or lenis, partially because people come ill defined terms, & tremendously of the academic literature is inside the state of confusion.

Vowels

Monophthongs
Korean has Eight different vowel qualities & the length distinction. 2 other vowels, a close-mid front fat vowel for virtually all speakers.

Diphthongs and glides
come considered to exist as components of diphthongs like than separate consonant phonemes.

Source: Enchiridion of the International Phonetic Association

Phonology
. This occurs using a tense spirant & all the affricate consonant too.

elsewhere.

between voiced sounds.

around normal speech.

Completely obstruents (plosives, affricate consonant, fricative consonant) come unreleased at the prevent of the word.

Stop blocks prior to rhinal ends.

Occasionally one phonetic assimilation rules can be seen in the as a consequence: *

Hangul spelling does not reflect these assimilating pronunciation system, however like maintains a underlying morphology.

1 difference between a pronunciation standards of Northward & South Korea is the professional assistance of initial . E.g., "labour" - northerly: rodong (ë¡œë?™), south: northodong (ë…¸ë?™) "history" - northward: ryÅ?ksa (력사), south: yeoksa (역사) "lady" - northward: nyÅ?ja (ë…€ìž?), south: yeoja (ì—¬ìž?)

Vowel harmony
Traditionally, a Korean language has got hard vowel harmony; that is, inside pre-modern Korean, when in virtually all Altaic languages, non simply did a inflectional & derivational affixes (like postpositions) change within accordance to the main root vowel, however native words too adhered to vowel harmony. These are non when prevailing inside modern usage, although it remains hard inside onomatopoeia, adjectives and adverbs, interjections, and conjugation. There are as well more traces of vowel harmony inside Korean.

There are trine classes of vowels within Korean: caring, negative, & neutral. A vowel ŭ is considered partly the neutral & veto vowel. A vowel classes loosely watch a mid (negative) & front (caring) vowels; it too watch writing system. Exchanging caring vowels by having blackball vowels normally creates different shade of meaning, by using caring vowel diminuitive & blackball vowel rock oil.

A bit of examples:

Onomatopoeia: í??당í??당 (pongdangpongdang) & í’?ë?©í’?ë?© (pungdeongpungdeong), h2o splashing Adjectives/Adverbs: 모ë?½ëª¨ë?½ (morangmorak) & 무럭무럭 (mureongmureok) may two exist when translated as "rapidly" or even "densely", however it is non interchangeable: 연기가 모ë?½ëª¨ë?½ 난다. (yeongiga morangmorak nanda) Smoke rises higher. 나무가 무럭무럭 ìž?란다. (Namuga mureongmureok jaranda) A tree grows swell. Emphasised Adjectives: 노랗다 (norata) means plain yellow, when its blackball, 누렇다 (nureota) means super yellow 파랗다 (parata) means plainly blue, when its veto, í?¼ë ‡ë‹¤ (peoreota) means deep blue Particles at a prevent of verbs: 잡다 (Japda) (to catch) → 잡았다 (Jabatda) (caught) 접다 (Jeopda) (to stack) → 접었다 (Jeobeotda) (folded) Interjections: ì•„ì?´ê³  (Aigo) & ì–´ì?´êµ¬ (Eoigu) meaning "oh my!" 아하 (Aha) & ì–´í—ˆ (Eoheo) meaning "indeed" & "well" respectively

Grammar

Korean is an agglutinative language. the basic form of a Korean phrase is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV), and modifiers precede a limited word. As a side note, a phrase could break a SOV word choose, still, it must prevent by having the verb. Around direct contrast to the Korean word choose, within English, 1 would say, "I'm going to the store to buy some food," in Korean it would become: *"I food to-buy in-order-to store-to going-am."

Within Korean, "unnecessary" words (view theme and rheme) can be left away from a phrase when yearn when a context makes the meaning clear. The average exchange may translate word-for word to the as a result:

which within English would translate to: Unlike virtually all European languages, Korean doesn't conjugate verbs utilizing agreement using a subject, & nouns develop there are no gender. Instead, verb conjugations hinge upon a verb tense & on a relation between the population speaking. Once talking to or even just about friends, your systems family would have a single conjugate solution ending, to your parents, a second, & to nobility/honoured souls, an additional. This loosely echoes a T-V distinction of most Indo-European languages.

Speech levels and honorifics

a relationship between a speaker or even even writer & his or her subject & audience is overriding inside Korean, & the grammar reflects this. A relationship between speaker/writer & subject is reflected within honorifics, patch that between speaker/writer & audience is reflected around speech level.

Honorifics

Once talking just about soul superior even even inside status, a speaker or writer has to utilize favorite nouns or verb endings to show the subject's superiority. Typically, mortal is superior even even even inside status in case he/she is an older relative, a unknown of about equal or greater age, or an employer, teacher, client, or the prefer. Person is match or even even inferior within status whenever he/she occurs as immature unknown, student, employee or a rather. inside uncommon occasions (prefer after person wants to pick a fight), the speaker can speak to the superior even or unknown in how else comml1 only utilized for, say, animate being, however there is no one would launder this forswearing seriously shopping for the symptoms to their physical safety number one!

1 way of applying honorifics is to utilize favorite nouns in situ of regular nouns by having "honorific" ones. The most common case is utilizing 진지 (jinji) instead of 밥 (bap) for "food". Other typically, favorite nouns come utilized while speaking all about relatives. So, a speaker/writer might location his have grandma when 할머니 (halmeoni) however refer to individual else's grannie when 할머님 (halmeonim). A honorific suffix -님 (-nim) is affixed to several kinship terms to produce the two honorific; so, 형님 (hyeongnim) is the formal term for an older sib of the equivalent sex (from either 형 (hyeong,) a informal term for human's older brother; 언니 (eonni) is the informal term for the woman's older sister).

100% verbs may be converted into an honorific form by adding a infix -시- (-si-, pronounced shi) fallowing a stem and before a verb ending. So, 가다 (gada, "go") becomes 가시다 (gasida). Two or three verbs develop favorite honorific equivalents. So 계시다 (gyesida) is the honorific form of 있다 (itda, "exist"); 드시다 (deusida) & 잡수시다 (japsusida) is the honorific form of 먹다 (meokda, "eat"); & 주무시다 (jumusida) is the honorific form of �다 (jada, "sleep").

Two or three verbs keep close at hand favorite humble forms, utilized once a speaker is on to him/herself inside genteel situations. These include 드리다 (deurida) & 올리다 (ollida) for 주다 (judah, "give"). Deurida is substituted for judah once a latter is utilized as an auxiliary verb, while ollida — which literally means "raise up" — is utilized for judah in the feel of "offer".

Pronouns in Korean have their own placed of civilised equivalents: so, ì € (jeo) is the humble form of 나 (na, "I"); ì €í?¬ (jeoheui) is the humble form of 우리 (uri, "we"); & 당신 (dangsin, "friend," but only utilized as a title of respect & further civilised than "chingu", a common word for "friend"; likewise, whereas utilizes of more humble forms come straightforward, "dangsin" must exist as utilized just within specific social contexts, like between deuce married few — "dangsin" could typically exist as utilized inside ironic feel whilst utilized between unknown) is the honorific form of 너 (neo, "you" (singular form). Note: generally, Koreans refrain from utilizing 2nd human singular pronoun, especially after applying honorific forms, & either i personally) utilise a human's title, kinship term, or title in situ of "you" within English, ii) utilise plural 여러분 yeoreobun in which applicable, or even three) make sure your not applying the pronoun, relying in context to supply meaning instead).

Speech levels

No fewer than Seven verb paradigms or speech levels inside Korean, & for each one level has its have unique placed of verb endings which are then utilized to show the level of formality of a situation. Unlike "honorifics" — which are then utilized to show respect towards the subject — speech levels come utilized to show respect towards the speaker's or even writer's audience. A list of a Vii levels come from either the non-honorific imperative form of the verb 하다 (hada, "do") within both level, + a postfix ì²´ ('che'), which means "style."

A greatest Cinque levels utilize final verb endings, while a last Deuce levels (해요체 haeyoche & 해체 haeche) utilize non-final endings and come known as 반� (banmal, "half-words") inside Korean. (A haeyoche successively is formed by only adding a non-final ending -요 (-yo) to the haeche form of the verb.)

Taken together, honorifics & speech levels form the cartesian product of 14 basic verb stems. On this button occurs as table rendering a Vii levels, a present indicative form of the verb 하다 (hada, "do"Withwithin English) in every level in apiece its honorific & non-honorific forms, & a situations where each level is utilized.

Vocabulary
A core of the Korean vocabulary is mass produced higher of native Korean words. To a higher degree 50% of the vocabulary, but, is mass produced higher of Sino-Korean words, which are words borrowed from either Chinese. To the very much lesser extent, words stand besides been borrowed from either Mongolian, Sanskrit, and more languages. Inside modern days, several words keep close at hand as well been borrowed from either Western languages such as German and, more recently, English.

A totals come a good lesson of borrowing. Such as Japanese, Korean has two total systems — of these indigene & of these borrowed from either a Chinese — & so Korean, Chinese and Japanese tons come out to develop similar words for statistics.

Writing system

A Korean language was originally written applying "Hanja", or Chinese characters; it is at present around the main written in Hangul, the Korean alphabet, optionally mixing inside Hanja to write Sino-Korean words. South Korea however teaches 1800 Hanja characters to its babies, when a N has abolished a apply of hanja decades ago.

Hangul consists of Xxiv letters — Fourteen consonants & Tenner vowels that come written around syllabic blockades of 2 to Five components. Unlike a Chinese writing system (including Japanese Kanji), Hangul is not an ideographic system.

In the image below occurs as chart of the Korean alphabet's symbols & their canonical IPA values:

Look at as well: Hangul consonant and vowel tables

Modern Korean is written by having spaces between words, a feature non incurred inside Chinese & Japanese. Korean punctuation marks are nigh monovular to American ones. Traditionally, Korean was written around columns from either either top to bottom, perfect to left, however is okay, unremarkably written around rows from left to perfect, top to bottom.

Differences in the language between North Korea and South Korea

A Korean language utilized northward & a around the south exhibits differences in pronunciation, spelling, grammar & vocabulary.

Pronunciation
Around N Korea, palatization of inside between vowels.

Words that come written a equivalent way can be pronounced otherwise, like a examples following. A pronunciations within the image below come given in Revised Romanization, McCune-Reischauer and Hangul, a previous of which is what a Hangul would become whenever a single writes the word equally pronounced.

Spelling
A few words come triticum aestivum spelta otherwise per Northerly & a South, however a pronunciations come a equivalent.

Both pronunciation and spelling
A bit of words own different spellings & pronunciations northward & a South, a few of which were given in the "Phonology" subdivision above:

Grammar
A bit of expression come likewise different:

Vocabulary
A bit of vocabulary is different between a Northerly & a South:

Others
Northward, 《 & 》 come a symbols utilized for quotes; to the south, quotation marks same to the English ones, “ & �, come utilized.