Korean language

The Korean language (??? / ???) is the most widely used language in Korea, and is the official language of both North and South Korea. The language is also spoken widely in neighbouring Yanbian, China. Worldwide, there are around 78 million Korean speakers, including large groups in the former Soviet Union, Australia, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Japan, and more recently the Philippines. The language is strongly associated with the Korean people.

Grammar

Korean is an agglutinative language. The basic form of a Korean sentence is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV), and modifiers precede the modified word. As a side note, a sentence can break the SOV word order, however, it must end with the verb.

Related Topics:
Agglutinative language - SOV

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In contrast to the Korean word order, in English, one would say, "I'm going to the store to buy some food," in Korean it would be: *"I food to-buy in-order-to store-to going-am."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In Korean, "unnecessary" words (see theme and rheme) can be left out of a sentence as long as the context makes the meaning clear.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A typical exchange might translate word-for word to the following:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::H: "??? ????" (gage-e gaseyo?)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::G: "?." (ye.)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::H: *"store-to going?"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::G: "yes."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

which in English would translate to:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::H: "Going to the store?"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::G: "Yes."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Unlike most European languages, Korean does not conjugate verbs using agreement with the subject, and nouns have no gender. Instead, verb conjugations depend upon the verb tense and on the relation between the people speaking.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When talking to or about friends, you would use one conjugate ending, to your parents, another, and to nobility/honoured persons, another.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This loosely echoes the T-V distinction of most Indo-European languages.

Related Topics:
T-V distinction - Indo-European languages

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~