Korean Language History: A Guide For Curious Korean Learners

No matter how long you've been learning Korean, knowing about Korean language history can help you in your language learning journey.

The Korean language goes back centuries, and some of the oldest features of the language remain in the Korean of today. Although the use of Chinese characters in Korean might make you think the languages are similar, this is not the case!

Going deeper into Korean language history can also give you a deeper insight into Korean culture and society and feed any curiosity you might have about Korean.

So, without further ado, let’s find out more about Korean language history!

Korean Language History: Where Did Korean Come From?

Korean is one of the world’s oldest living languages, but that’s about all we know about the exact origins. Like the earliest Korean people, the unclear origins of Korean language history have baffled linguists and been the subject of debate.

You might be wondering whether Korean is in the same language group as Chinese and Japanese, due to similarities between the three. The answer is… no! Korean is classified as a language isolate, meaning that it is not related to any other language.

Debate about Korean’s origin rages on, and other theories have suggested it might be related to the Altaic languages (Turkish, Mongolian) or the Ural languages (Hungarian, Finnish).

One thing’s for certain, the Korean language as we know it today was likely the result of mixing between diverse groups and languages on the Korean peninsula.

Old Korean: BCE 57 – CE 936, Probably

Unsurprisingly, we don’t know a lot about Old Korean, the first documented stage of the Korean language. This is because there is very little written documentation from the time, with the only surviving documents vernacular hyangga poems.

These hyangga poems were written in the hyangchal style, meaning that the writers used Chinese characters to transcribe Korean text.

Other documents included transcriptions of Buddhist texts, as the dominant belief system at the time. Korean lacked its own writing system and relied entirely on Chinese characters.

During this time, Korea was divided into the Three Kingdoms of Korea: Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla, occupying the entire Korean peninsula and half of Manchuria (now in present day China).

Allied with Tang China, Silla began to ascend in the sixth century to destroy Baekje and Goguryeo, uniting the Korean peninsula for the first time in history. The winner takes it all, and by the seventh century, the Silla dialect became the dominant language.

Early Middle Korean: 11^th To 14^th Century

You might be wondering at this point: what about Hangeul, the Korean alphabet? Well, before it was developed, there were many more centuries of using Chinese characters.

Like Latin in Europe, Classical Chinese was the language of the elite, and many of the surviving documents from this period were formal writings.

The writing method of hyangchal and limited documentation makes it difficult to gain much insight into Early Middle Korean. There are only a few word lists from this period.

Middle Korean: 14^th To 16^th Century

By this time, Korea had entered its last dynastic period: Joseon. Lasting just over 500 years, the culture and society of the Joseon dynasty had a huge impact on modern Korea.

The Joseon period saw the rapid rise of Confucian thought and values in the upper echelons of Korean society and the development of Korean Neo-Confucianism.

Buddhism became displaced, and the flourishing of culture, literature, and trade ensured Joseon’s status as the “Korean Renaissance”.

So far, we’ve not delved into the single most important change in Korean culture that occurred during the Joseon period. King Sejong (1418 – 1450), known as King Sejong the Great, created the Korean writing system hangeul in 1443.

In the introductory text, the Hunminjeongun (correct sounds for the instruction of the people), Sejong outlined 28 characters. Classical Chinese was reserved for the educated elite, and illiteracy rates were high amongst the common people.

Sejong wanted to change this by introducing a native Korean script that was easy to learn for everyone. Now we know why he was called Sejong the Great! 

The Hunminjeongun is so significant in Korean culture that the publication date, October 9, is now celebrated as Hangeul Day.

The system originally had 17 consonants and 11 vowels, and Hangeul is regarded as one of the most scientific writing systems ever created. This is because Sejong was inspired by the shape of the speech organs, such as the mouth, tongue, and throat, when producing certain sounds.

Hangeul characters are therefore visual representations of the place and shape of the speech organ where the sound is being produced. Pretty smart!

There was also a spiritual basis behind Hangeul, as vowels were divided into light or dark sounds based on the concepts of heaven, earth, and man.

Influence Of Chinese On Korean Vocabulary

The Korean language had a long history of influence from Chinese, but the elevated status of Classical Chinese and Confucianism in Joseon led to an influx of Sino-Korean vocabulary.

As a result of this influence, over half of modern Korean words are Sino-Korean, though they do not constitute most basic Korean vocabulary. If you’ve studied some basic Korean, you’ll have come across Sino-Korean words in the Korean numbers.

The influence of Confucianism also influenced the grammatical politeness in modern Korean, as well as the Korean address term system.

Hangeul was especially popular with women and was known as “women’s script”. In the late 16^th and early 17^th century, gasa and sijo poetry became popular, alongside novels with stories about the lives of the common people.

As inventive as Hangeul was, not everyone was supportive. The ruling class, who understood Classical Chinese, didn’t want to see it displaced.

Four of the characters created by Sejong are no longer used in standard Korean, but on Jeju Island, they still use the arae-a vowel. Gyeongsang dialect also maintains some phonetic features of Middle Korean.

Standardisation Of Hangeul And The Annexation Of Korea: 1910 CE – 1945 CE

Towards the end of Joseon, novels written in Hangeul became popular, increasing the status of the script. The fall of the Joseon dynasty marked the end of 500 years of rule.

The ruling Joseon dynasty was replaced by the Empire of Korea, which ruled from 1897 until the annexation of Korea by Japan in August 1910. This transition into the “enlightenment” era was another highly significant time in the history of the Korean language. 

The 19^th century saw sweeping reforms in Korea and growing nationalistic sentiment. This was mostly due to alarm at the growing influence of the West in Beijing, and a desire to introduce democratic reforms internally.

In response to the Donghak Peasant Rebellion of 1894, the Gabo Reforms changed Korean society drastically. One of the major changes was that all official documents should be written in Hangeul instead of Chinese characters. 

This renewed status of Hangeul was brought to an abrupt stop when Japan formally annexed Korea in 1910, bringing about a painful time in Korean history and Korean language history.

The Korean language was displaced by Japanese as the official language, and Korean literature was banned from public schooling.

This didn’t stop reforms to the Korean language, and the spelling system of Hangeul was standardised in 1912, with Hangeul also being adopted as the official name for the script. 

During the peak of the Second World War, Japan’s oppressive rule of Korea would intensify, and as the cornerstone of Korean culture, the Korean language was one of the flashpoints.

By 1943, all Korean language courses were ended, and teaching and speaking Korean was prohibited. Koreans were also expected to take on Japanese names, or face being excluded from schooling and lists for food supplies.

This era saw an influx of Japanese loanwords, many of which were later reconsidered after the end of colonial rule.

North And South Divided: 1948

Having been united for centuries, the Korean peninsula was split into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North) and the Republic of Korea (South) in 1948 after the Korean War (1950-1953).

As a result, the languages of the two countries began to change significantly. Where there is little difference in basic vocabulary, South Korea began to see an influx of English loanwords, whereas North Korea uses more Russian loanwords and invented compounds.

An example is the word juice, which in South Korea is written as the English loanword juseu. In North Korea its written as danmul (sweet water).

Another is the word shampoo, written as shampu in the South, and meorimulbinu (hair water soap) in the North.

If you’re interested, it’s well worth checking out some of the creative ways North Korea avoided using loanwords!

Modern Korean

The Korean War was devastating for the nation and had wide reaching effects.

Chinese characters began to gradually fall out of favour with the Korean government in favour of Hangeul, although many Koreans still know some basic characters and know how to write their name using Chinese characters.

After the war, the Korean language began to change dramatically with the quick development and recovery of the country. English loanwords, called “Konglish”, began to increase dramatically (like bitamin and sandeuwichi).

The flexibility of the centuries old Hangeul writing system means that there is no limit to how loanwords can be used in Korean! The Neo-Confucianism inspired systems of address terms and grammatical politeness have endured from Middle Korean in modern speech.

Korean Goes Global

Well, that’s it for our brief introduction to Korean language history! From obscure origins to Konglish, Korean language history is long and has been deeply affected by geopolitics.

Korean is constantly evolving and changing, and hybrid slang phrases such as nojaem (no jam), a term used for somebody who isn’t fun, is a combination of the English “no” and a shortened form of Korean word jaemi (fun).

These combinations are fun and innovative, and the popularity of Korean popular culture, like K-pop, has meant that Korean words such as oppa and eonni have now been added to the Oxford English Dictionary! 

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.