KOREAN LINGUISTICS 101-Emily Rae Sabo

OUR AGENDA

PART I.

10 minutes of

Knowledge dropping

그냥

PART II.

10 minutes answering the question:

“Why do Koreans make the English errors they do?”

For teachin

g

PART III.

10 minutes…

# 외국인 Korean language problems answered

For you

IN NORTH KOREA…

조선말

HISTORY

Modern

Korean

Middle

Korean

Old Korea

n

Proto-

Korean

1st century

10th century

16th century

17th century - now

3 Kingdoms Unified SillaOld Korean

Marriage between spoken korean &

written chinese

이두Problematic. Too

messy.The logographic Chinese writing system

didn’t fit with the Korean language. 1.Transcribe by matching meaning or

sound?2.Korean & Chinese are too different.– in terms of grammar, particles, word order, lexical inventories, tones/lack thereof…etc.

Middle Korean Goryeo Middle of Joseon

훈민정음“The proper sounds for the instruction of the

people”

한글 to increase literacy

• 1443• 28• 24

IF YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE, VISIT…

The museum underneath the statue of King Sejong in Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul.Free admission.

The National Hangeul Museum in Yongsan-gu (district) in Seoul,

Other Chinese vestiges

wash away1. Syllable pitch • Still maintain in some dialects, but fading• Used to be marked by dots

2. Vowel length• To distinguish homonyms ( 밤 vs. 밤 )• Still taught in Korean classrooms, but

fading from practice & no longer denoted in writing

Korean letter design

1. Shapes are

meaningful

They represent mouth shape!

Point of articulation

And also have philosophical origins!

Philisophical origins

2. Strokes are

meaningful

They convey sound!

ㅌPlosive

(stop consonant)

ㄱ

ㅈㄷ

ㅂ

Aspirated consonant

ㅋ

ㅎㅌ ㅍ

ㅊ

Alveolar consonant

ㄴㄷ ㄹ

• Basic vowel shapes: philosophy

• Basic consonants: mouth position

• The rest: added strokes to these basic shapes

Basically…

ㅂ is derived from ㅁ

ㄷ is derived from

ㄴ

ㄹ geometrically describes a backward-bending t o n g u e.

The graphic distinction

between null ㅇ & pachim

ㆁ was eventually lost.

EVOLUTION

Langu

age

SLANG!Who are the movers and

shakers here?Our students!

“ 넹 , 이따가 봐용 ~”

빵셔틀

= Literally “Bread Shuttle.”The person the bully picks on to

do all his/her chores

쪽바리

Ethnic slur for a Japanese person. Literally means pig feet.

노처녀 히스테리

An old unmarried woman who is bitter and crazy to the point of hysteria. Crazy cat

lady.

막장

No way – shit just got REAL. Term often reserved for dramas when the plot snowballs out of

control.

된장녀Nobody likes a 된장녀 .Soybean woman. A vain woman who will live off cheap Soybean soup just to save $$ for fancy luxury accessories and pricy Starbucks coffee.

ㅗㅗㅗㅗEmoticon meaning ‘fuck you’, resembling sticking one’s middle finger up.

Emoticon meaning… well, I think you get it.

흑역사

Literally ‘black history.’

Used to describe those times you’d rather forget.

#BlackoutBunting

엄친아 / 엄친딸

“The son of my mother’s friend.”

Person who is good at everything. #Koreanmoms

CULTURAL METAPHORS

DOWN THE ROAD…

THAT’S BEHIND

US NOW

SHOTS

WERE FIREDSHOT ME DOWN

LOOKING BACK

IN HINDSIGHT…

I WAS IN THE DIRECT LINE OF FIREYOU’RE FIRED!

그림의 떡

Lit. A picture of a rice cake.

You can look but you can’t touch.

떡 본 김에 제사 지낸다

You came to the ancestral ceremony for

the 떡 . But you’re here –

might as well take part in the ceremony while

you’re here.

Might as well.

Ah, I’m already here.

떡 됬어요S

hw

aste

d

남의 떡이 커 보인다

The grass is greener on

the other side.

개떡That didn’t

quite turn out

as hoped…

Dialect North Korea• Seoul dialect = The standard• Pyongyang dialect = Northwestern North Korea,

Isolation far less loan words

South Korea• What have you found?

Honorifics.

You have your place. I have mine.

OlderHigher statusWe ain’t close

We go way back Lower status Younger

Familiarity Social status

Age

The person you’re talking

to Context

Formal

Informal

OlderHigher statusWe ain’t close

We go way back Lower status Younger

Familiarity Social status

Age

The person you’re talking

about Context

Formal

Informal

Speech levels Flow chart...

Speech levels

Other variables Prioritization Nouns Verbs Combo norms Subjectivity

Conveying speech level

Verbendings

Noun choice

갑니다

합니다

가요해요 가

해

How you

address them

너

당신~님

Just

don’t

Their

title

Verb choice

and use of 시

드리다가시다

주다가다

집나이

댁연세

Hierarchy

Confucian.Confusion.

Coincidence? I think not.

Want to know more?

Sohn, Ho-Min. 1999. The Korean Language.

Lee, Iksop and S. Robert Ramsey. 2000. The Korean Language.

1. Deferential

2. Polite 3. Blunt 4. Familiar 5. Intimate 6. Plain

Cultural concept of homogeny

Reflected in the language

Days of the week

PART II.

10 minutes answering the question:

“Why do Koreans make the English errors they do?”

For teachin

g

WHY?

1. Cultural metaphors

2. Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis

3. Konglish is becoming it’s own thing

Linguistics

Second language Aquisition

Contrastive analysis

Contrastive linguistics

Differences between

the 2 languages

Errors

Click here for this resource!

What is Konglish?“The use of English words

or words derived from English in a Korean

context.”

Language contact

InterlanguageCodeswit

chingLanguage prestige

Cultural borrowing

Word borrowing

Loan words with altered meaning

Word replacing

Helps communication

Hinders communication

Awkward

Funny

Wrong

Necessary

Westernized

Globalization

A version of English?

A version of Korean?

It’s own thing

?

Konglish

Too western

English exposure!

Bad English shameful

& not conducive

to communic

ation

Simply product of globalization & innovation

both good things

We need more

foreign teachers. #HeyFulbright!

English Prof. at Seoul 대학교 / Pres. Of Literature Translation Institute of KoreaLink to a like-minded article

Natural collocation

Common Mistakes Jeopardy Game

Types of Konglish• Loan words (codeswitching)

• Loan words BUT altered meaning

• Totally new phrases using English words

• “Awkward English”

T-shirts, signs, notebooks!

What about your students? Their errors,

your teaching strategies?

PART III.

10 minutes…

# 외국인 Korean language problems answered

For you

Filler words 그러니까 . Exactly. Thus what I just said.

그랬구나 (~ 구나 for that matter) Really? Hmmm… 그럼 , (suck in air) 어떻게 하지 ?

그래가지고 Yeah, and then

그… / 어떤… Like…

( 그 ) 뭐지 ? What am I trying to say?

그렇지 Yep, agreed.

맞다 Ah, duh! That’s right.

아 진짜 뭐야…짜증나 ! Ah, really? So annoying!

엄마 ! Oh my god! What was that?!

아이고 ( 아이구 , 아유 )Oh geez hehe. Cute disapproval.

**Crazy throat thing** Emphasis

ㅐ or ㅔ ?

내가 or 네가 ?

니가

THE POWER OF NUANCE은 / 는 VS. 이 / 가

이 / 가 제가 가요 .

- Contrast = Well I’ll be there. (But only if you add phonetic stress)

…unlike Liz.

- Neutral grammatical subject marker = I’ll be there.

은 / 는저는 가요 .

- Contrast / exclusivity = Well I’ll be there. …unlike Liz.

- Emphasize certainty = I’m definitely going. …for sure, but dunno about

anyone else.

돈은 많이 없어요 .

돈이 많이 없어요 .

= In terms of money, I’m lacking.( )But I’ve got other stuff.

= In terms of money, I’m lacking.

Quiz!돈은 많이 있어요 .

돈이 많이 있어요 .

= As for money, I’m definitely loaded.

( ) but not

necessarily anything else

= I have a lot of money.

= As for money, I’m loaded.

Quiz!

___ 안했어요 .

___ 안했어요 .

= I didn’t do it.

= Well, I didn’t do it, but… *cough cough*

내가

나는= I swear I didn’t do it!

The bottom line is…

Use your 눈치

뭐야 / 누구/m, n/ tend to be

denasalized word-initially.

알아요 / 말 / 레몬• Between vowels alveolar flap (Eddy)• At end of a word “L”• At beginning unstable (silent or “N”)

Korean phonology

동사 vs. 똥싸

십팔 vs. 씨발

ㄱ ㅋ ㄲㅂ ㅍ ㅃㅈ ㅊ ㅉㄷ ㅌ ㄸㅅ ㅆ

어떻게 해요 ?• Tense: Voiceless• Laxed: Voiced (Beginningvoiceless, sound like tensed counterpart)

동 vs. 똥 The primary distinguishing

feature?= The pitch of the vowel that

follows

• Laxed Low to high• Tensed Uniformly high

Click here for an awesome language reference

외국인 S ANONYMOUS

My name is John, and I’ve

been confused

now for almost 7 months.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Jae-Young Shim of the University of Michigan, for his help in preparing this

presentation.심재영 does exciting work on Korean linguistics. He is currently

busy finishing up his dissertation (centered on 은 /는 vs. 이 /가 ), but I’m sure he’d love to chat with you!