Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Jammer113]

I'm looking for a good book on the history of the Korean language. I have a linguistics background, and I'm interested in language history. If anyone can show me links to good books, esp. on Korean book websites, I would appreciate it.

[VanIslander]

i love how Korean, Hungarian, Finnish and Turkish share a few distinctive grammatical similarities

and how three of those same four countries lead the world in suicides and traffic fatalities

and how the Koreans came from the west, the Hungarians and Finns from the east and the Turks from the north

and how a group of people just east of the Urals speak a dying language which also shares the same linguistic similarities

... it all paints a picture, a rough and ready jigsaw puzzle where the edges don't fit perfectly but the approximate placement is pretty clear, at least as a historical sketch/theory

[michaelambling]

[Guri Guy]

Why the confused face? They are all Ural-Altaic languages. I have often wondered about the high suicide rate in these countries. Curious...

[Jammer113]

I'm less interested in where Korean originally came from and more interested in things such as vocabulary, grammatical, and sound changes over the last 1500 years. I'm interested in a rather detailed discussion on the system of writing which existed before the use of Chinese characters, and where it was used. I'm interested in different speaking/writing styles between men and women, upper and lower class, and different geographical areas in Korea. I'm very interested in knowing exactly what resources are available to scholars for examining these issues.

I'm also interested in a more detailed discussion on the theories of the Korean language's origin, but it's rather secondary.

Thanks for any help!

[bluelake]

Interesting subject. From some things I've read, the modern Korean language evolved from the language spoken in the Silla dynasty. As Silla was the victor in the war between the Three Kingdoms (Silla, Baekje, Goguryeo) in the 7th century, the latter two languages eventually faded away.

Another aspect that is personally interesting to me is the relationship between Ural-Altaic languages and those societies that used the horn bow (archery): Korea, Mongolia, Turkey, Hungary, Finland (Sami), China, India, Persia.

[Blockhead confidence]

Jared Diamond has an article claiming that Japanese is a Korean language (coming from the Goguryeo kingdom, I think he means), but goes on to say that they have less in common with each other than Russian and English.

By coincidence, I met a Russian guy once who was fluent in Japanese, Korean, English and French, too, I think, and he claimed Japanese and Korean were more similar than French and English.

Anyone have an opinion on this?

[exit86]

I've been conducting a similar search for such materials.
It is pretty sparse in Korean; in English, almost non-existant.
Most of the Korean linguistic scholars I know have focused their energies almost solely on English; therefore, when I pose such questions about the Korean language, I seldom get answers of substance.
Paradoxically, I recommend looking to Western scholars and institution
presses for such information. You also may try dropping by the Royal Asiatic Society office downtown; they have a really good selection of obscure books on Korea which you won't find in the bookstores--a lot
of out-of-print books and scholarly journals.

Keep us posted if anyone comes across something good.

[bluelake]

[VanIslander]

[NoExplode]