Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics
Official language of Korea with approx. 60 million speakers. Its genetic affiliation is still unclear, though it is possibly related to the Altaic languages and/or Japanese. Continuous written documentation since 1446 in the Han’ gul script, a syllabary developed from Chinese which, like Japanese writing, combines syllabic signs with Chinese logographic characters. Numerous lexical borrowings from Chinese.
Characteristics: relatively complex consonant system with three kinds of articulation for voiceless plosives (simple, aspirated, glottalized). Numerous morphophonemic changes with vowels and consonants, relatively complex syllable structure. Except for the phonology, Korean resembles Japanese fairly closely, which can probably be attributed to the long contact these two languages have had.
References
Choi, S. 1993. Japanese/Korean linguistics, vol. 3. Chicago, IL.
Clancy, P. 1993. Japanese/Korean linguistics, vol. 2. Chicago, IL.
Hoji, H.
1993. Japanese/Korean linguistics. Chicago, IL.
Kim, C.-W. 1974. The making of the Korean language. Honolulu, HI.
Lee, H.H.B. 1989. Korean grammar. Oxford.
Lukoff, F. 1982. An introductory course in Korean. Seoul.
Martin, S. 1969. Beginning Korean. New Haven, CT.
O‘Grady, W. 1991. Categories and case: the sentence structure of Korean. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA.
Ramstedt, G.J. 1949. Studies in Korean etymology. Helsinki.
Sohn, H. 1994. Korean. London.
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