The book is organized chronologically, from the origins of the Korean language to the present. It uses periodizations of the language's history that Lee preferred in his previous works and that have since become relatively standard. Its coverage of Late Middle Korean, the phase of the Korean language around the time of the invention of Hangul, occupies a significant portion of the book; around half. This is because Hangul provides very good insight into the phonology of Korean around that time. It uses both McCune–Reischauer romanization and a modified version of the Yale romanization system alongside Hangul text.[1][3][4]
Background
Around the time of the book's publication, Lee and Ramsey were considered to be among the most eminent scholars of Korean historical linguistics in Korea and abroad, respectively.[1] Prior to the publication of the book, Lee's 1961 Korean-language work Kugŏsa kaesŏl (국어사개설;國語史槪說;lit.An Introduction to the History of the Korean Language[5]) was considered the standard work in the field.[1][3] That work was translated to Japanese in 1975 and to German in 1977, but has not become available in English. A History of the Korean Language is not only a translation of Kugŏsa kaesŏl, but also an expansion and reorganization of it.[1] Another book, the 1992 A Reference Grammar of Korean, was previously the only English-language book to cover Korean historical linguistics in depth, although that was not necessarily the primary focus of that book.[1][3] Ramsey is a former student of Martin.[2]
Reception
Several reviewers found the book to be at once detailed and accessible even to nonspecialists.[1][3][4][2] Linguist Chongwon Park praised the quality of the book's translation.[4] Linguist John B. Whitman argues the book exceeds the quality of its predecessor, Kugŏsa kaesŏl.[1] Linguist Ross King finds the book to be approachable, while evaluating A Reference Grammar of Korean as very difficult to parse. He argues that Martin's book requires "at least a semester-long graduate seminar to train students simply [on] how to use the book".[2]
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