My target language is Korean which was divided into two dialects: Puyo and Han. Puyo was spoken in Manchuria and northern Korea, while Han was spoken in the southern Korea. The south theorize that it belongs to a language family of Austronesian language family and the Northern theory states that Korean and Japanese are a member of Altaic language family, which also includes Turkish Mongolian. But the issue of affiliation of Korean being unresolved, many sources classify it as a language isolate.
Korean speakers are also found in large numbers in Japan and Russia, the U.S., Singapore, Thailand, and many other countries throughout the world. When searching for words that are similar, I found that Korean and Japanese have 313 similar words, Korean and english has 235 similar words, Korean and Serbian has 226 similar words, Korean and Macedonian has 133 similar words, Korean and Russian has 131 similar words, Korean and Spanish has 127 similar words, and Korean and German has 108 similar words. It was very interesting because USA, Macedonian, Germany, and Serbian are all far away from Korea but they have similar words.
Language changes over time. The reason why language alters is because of trade and migration where languages borrow words from other languages. Another reason could be technology new inventions where new words and phrase are invented to describe new objects or old words acquire new meanings where once known as “foolish” changed to “shy”.
Replies
Interesting research, Rachel. While Puyo and Han may be overarching dialectal groups, are there additional variants that may have been observed more recently? I'm wondering if the Korean accent in Jeju, for instance, would still be classified as Han, or if it would constitute its own unique set of linguistic traits.