Linguistic purism in Korean

Last updated

Linguistic purism in the Korean language is the belief that words of native Korean origin should be used in place of foreign-derived "loanwords". This belief has been the focus of movements in both North and South Korea, where adherents have sought to deter the use of loanwords, regardless of whether they have been formally adopted into the Korean language. Of primary interest has been the replacement of Japanese-influenced loanwords (especially from the period of Japanese forced occupation) when the Korean language faced multiple hardships and was discouraged in favor of Japanese, [1] although the specific policies differ between the North and South. [2]

Contents

North Korea

North Korea is known for eliminating most loanwords, which comprise most of the language differences between North and South. Unlike South Korea, where hanja has been intermittently used in texts, North Korea abolished the usage of Chinese characters in 1949. [2] Many loanwords with hanja, especially academic words that were introduced during the Japanese occupation, were replaced with native vocabulary. Some examples include: [2]

South Korea

In South Korea, the National Institute of the Korean Language maintains an exhaustive dictionary of refined (purified) language. [3] A refined version is created and decided on by online voting.

Japanese colonialism

Notably, loanwords from Japanese that were introduced to Korea during the Japanese forced occupation are considered to have a political subtext of colonization and are often subject to refinement. Some words that were transliterations of Japanese words were refined in 1948: [2]

Some critics of the movement argue that, instead of forcefully finding an equivalent translation for every loanword, the movement must promote the usage of widespread loanwords. [4] [5]

A recent example is the Korean spicy chicken dish dak-dori-tang (닭도리탕), where the etymology of the middle word dori (도리) is not definitively known, although suggested as a Japanese-Korean hybrid. In South Korea, the National Institute of the Korean Language claims that the word came from Japanese tori (; "bird"), and suggests that the word should be refined into dak-bokkeum-tang (닭볶음탕). [6] However, the status of dori as a loanword has been subject to debate. This is because the institute has not presented the grounds for the argument besides the phonetic similarity of dori to the Japanese word tori. [7] The word dori-tang appears in Haedong jukji, a 1925 collection of poems by the Joseon literatus Choe Yeongnyeon. In the book, Chinese characters do () ri () tang () were used to transliterate the Korean dish name. [8] A food columnist argued that, had the word been Japanese, the character jo (; pronounced tori in Japanese) would have been used instead of the hanja transliteration of the Korean pronunciation. [9] Alternative theories on the origin of dori include the assertions that it came from dyori (됴리), the archaic form of Sino-Korean word jori (조리;調理; "to cook"), and that it came from the native Korean verb dorida (도리다; "to cut out"). [10] None of the theories mentioned before has been widely accepted as the established etymology.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Korean language</span> Language spoken in Korea

Korean is the native language for about 81 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea. The language has notable differences in each of the Koreas, in part owing to different official standardizations of the language. They are still largely mutually intelligible, however. South Korean newspaper Daily NK has claimed North Korea criminalizes the use of the South's standard language with the death penalty, and South Korean education and media often portray the North's language as alien and uncomfortable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hanja</span> Korean language characters of Chinese origin

Hanja, alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period under the first Korean kingdom.

There are various names of Korea in use today that are all derived from those of ancient Koreanic kingdoms and dynasties. The choice of name often depends on the language, whether the user is referring to either or both modern Korean countries, and even the user's political views on the Korean conflict.

Sino-Koreanvocabulary or Hanja-eo refers to Korean words of Chinese origin. Sino-Korean vocabulary includes words borrowed directly from Chinese, as well as new Korean words created from Chinese characters, and words borrowed from Sino-Japanese vocabulary. Many of these terms were borrowed during the height of Chinese-language literature on Korean culture. Subsequently, many of these words have also been truncated or altered for the Korean language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romanization of Korean</span> Standards used to convert the Korean script into the Latin script

The romanization of Korean is the use of the Latin script to transcribe the Korean language. Korea's alphabetic script, called Hangul, has historically been used in conjunction with Hanja, though such practice has become infrequent.

Gairaigo is Japanese for "loan word", and indicates a transcription into Japanese. In particular, the word usually refers to a Japanese word of foreign origin that was not borrowed in ancient times from Old or Middle Chinese, but in modern times, primarily from English, Portuguese, Dutch, and modern Chinese dialects, such as Standard Chinese and Cantonese. These are primarily written in the katakana phonetic script, with a few older terms written in Chinese characters (kanji); the latter are known as ateji.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samgye-tang</span> Korean soup with whole stuffed chicken

Samgye-tang, or ginseng chicken soup, meaning ginseng - chicken - soup in Korean, consists primarily of a whole young chicken (poussin) filled with garlic, rice, jujube, and ginseng. Samgye-tang is a Korean traditional soup for body health. Samgye-tang is a representative summer health food. Soup made with chicken that is slightly larger than the chick is called Yeonggye Baeksuk, and the chicken is divided into half is called Banggye-tang.

<i>Jajangmyeon</i> Korean Chinese-style noodle dish

Jajangmyeon (Korean: 자장면) or jjajangmyeon (짜장면) is a Korean Chinese noodle dish topped with a thick sauce made of chunjang, diced pork, and vegetables. It originated in Incheon, Korea where Chinese migrant workers brought over zhajiangmian from Shandong in the late 19th century. Modifications in Korea such as a darker and sweeter sauce differentiate the Korean version from the Chinese dish. Variants of the dish use seafood, or other meats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seolleongtang</span> Korean broth tang of ox bones, brisket, and other meat cuts

Seolleongtang (설렁탕) or ox bone soup is a Korean broth tang (soup) made from ox bones, brisket and other cuts. Seasoning is generally done at the table according to personal taste by adding salt, ground black pepper, red pepper, minced garlic, or chopped spring onions. It is a local dish of Seoul.

Sino-Xenic or Sinoxenic pronunciations are regular systems for reading Chinese characters in Japan, Korea and Vietnam, originating in medieval times and the source of large-scale borrowings of Chinese words into the Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese languages, none of which are genetically related to Chinese. The resulting Sino-Japanese, Sino-Korean and Sino-Vietnamese vocabularies now make up a large part of the lexicons of these languages. The pronunciation systems are used alongside modern varieties of Chinese in historical Chinese phonology, particularly the reconstruction of the sounds of Middle Chinese. Some other languages, such as Hmong–Mien and Kra–Dai languages, also contain large numbers of Chinese loanwords but without the systematic correspondences that characterize Sino-Xenic vocabularies.

The Korean language has diverged between North and South Korea due to the length of time that the two states have been separated.

<i>Haejang-guk</i> Korean soup used to cure hangovers

Haejang-guk or hangover soup refers to every kind of guk or soup eaten as a hangover cure in Korean cuisine. It means "soup to chase a hangover" and is also called sulguk (술국). It usually consists of dried napa cabbage, vegetables and meat in a hearty beef broth. One type of haejangguk, seonjiguk, includes sliced congealed ox blood and another type, sundaeguk, includes a kind of blood sausage made with intestine stuffed with pig's blood and other ingredients.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Korean fried chicken</span> Variety of fried chicken dishes from South Korea

Korean fried chicken, usually called chikin in Korea, refers to a variety of fried chicken dishes created in South Korea, including the basic huraideu-chicken and spicy yangnyeom chicken. In South Korea, fried chicken is consumed as a meal, an appetizer, anju, or as an after-meal snack.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Korean mixed script</span> Writing using Hangul and Hanja

Korean mixed script is a form of writing the Korean language that uses a mixture of the Korean alphabet or hangul and hanja, the Korean name for Chinese characters. The distribution on how to write words usually follows that all native Korean words, including suffixes, particles, and honorific markers are generally written in hangul and never in hanja. Sino-Korean vocabulary or hanja-eo, either words borrowed from Chinese or created from Sino-Korean roots, were generally always written in hanja, although very rare or complex characters were often substituted with hangul. Although the Korean alphabet was introduced and taught to people beginning in 1446, most literature until the early twentieth century was written in literary Chinese known as hanmun.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Names of Seoul</span>

Seoul, the capital of South Korea, has been called by a number of formal and informal names over time.

The Chinese Korean language is the variety of the Korean language spoken by Koreans in China who have Chinese nationality, primarily located in Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning.

<i>Dak-bokkeum-tang</i> Korean dish of braised spicy chicken

Dak-bokkeum-tang (Korean: 닭볶음탕), dak-dori-tang (닭도리탕), or braised spicy chicken is a traditional Korean dish made by boiling chunks of chicken with vegetables and spices. The ingredients are sometimes stir-fried before being boiled. It is a jjim or jorim-like dish, and the recipe varies across the Korean peninsula. Common ingredients include potatoes, carrots, green and red chili peppers, dried red chili peppers, scallions, onions, garlic, ginger, gochujang, gochutgaru, soy sauce, and sesame oil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comparison of Japanese and Korean</span> Linguistic comparison

The geographically proximate languages of Japanese and Korean share considerable similarity in syntactic and morphological typology while having a small number of lexical resemblances. Observing the said similarities and probable history of Korean influence on Japanese culture, linguists have formulated different theories proposing a genetic relationship between them, though these studies either lack conclusive evidence or were subsets of theories that have largely been discredited. There has been new research which has revived the possibility of a genealogical link, such as the Transeurasian hypothesis by Robbeets et al., supported by computational linguistics and archaeological evidence, but this view has received significant criticism as well.

<i>Tangsuyuk</i> Korean Chinese sweet and sour meat dish

Tangsuyuk (Korean: 탕수육) is a Korean Chinese meat dish with sweet and sour sauce. It can be made with either pork or beef.

References

  1. "Korea - Korea under Japanese rule". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Differences in linguistic purism in the North and the South
  3. List of refined words
  4. Urigeul Barosseugi (1992) ISBN   8935600571, 9788935600571
  5. Obituary: Lee O-Deok, Children's writer and champion of spoken writing 26 Aug 2003 Dong-A Ilbo]
  6. 닭도리탕. National Institute of Korean Language (in Korean). Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  7. 강, 민혜 (1 June 2016). "'닭도리탕'은 순우리말"…국립국어원 "사실 어원 잘 몰라". No Cut News (in Korean). Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  8. Choe, Yeongnyeon (1925). Haedong jukji해동죽지(海東竹枝)[Bamboo Branches in Korea] (in Literary Chinese).
  9. 윤, 덕노 (3 November 2011). [윤덕노의 음식이야기]<96>닭도리탕. The Dong-a Ilbo (in Korean). Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  10. 닭볶음탕. Doopedia (in Korean). Doosan Corporation . Retrieved 8 April 2017.