Reflect on the history of your target language. To what language family does it belong? What sounds, words, and structures exemplify periods of contact with other cultures? How do these considerations enhance your understanding of the target language and culture in terms of their associated historical origin, development, and contemporary realization? and pragmatic questions of usage? How do languages change over time? How do linguists track, predict, and extrapolate these changes?
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Portuguese belongs to the Proto-Indo-European language family. Portugal spoke Vulgar Latin for centuries before being controlled by Germanic tribes, the Moors, and then an independent kingdom. Over the last several centuries, the language has been influenced by French, African, and Indigenous languages.
Germanic Influences:
Moorish influences:
French influences:
African/Indigenous influences:
Regarding how these considerations 'enhance [my] understanding of the target language and culture,' I'll say that it increases my awe for history. How the Moorish conquest over a thousand years ago could turn the great Iberian empires into vectors for the Arabic language is fascinating. This also goes to show the cultural power of France (something we touched on in my Building Brasilia class where despite the royal court being driven off the continent by the French they still culturally admired them greatly). Culturally, I'm surprised there aren't more words from African/Indigenous languages and I wonder what that says about Portuguese rule in Brazil.
The borrowed words sometimes have a unifying theme like the arabic words which have an al- or a to start most of the words. When I’m learning new words in the future, if I ever see one that has this a- or al- start to a word, I’ll keep my eye out for an arab influence. This could help me as I could more easily devise mnemonics for words using shared etymologies.
Languages are living breathing organisms. They’re dynamic. They change over time. Linguistics can track this evolution by analyzing spoken and written language using quantitative methods like observing word frequency and usage patterns.
As I learn Korean more in-depth, I’ve realized how language forms and evolves through the constant cultural exchanges with human traveling and migration. Based on the information I found, Korean is often classified as part of the Koreanic language family, though some suggest it has connections with the Altaic languages. But despite debates on its origin, how Korean evolved uniquely especially through cultural contact with China and Japan was not debatable.
The influence of Chinese on Korean is undeniable, especially through Sino-Korean vocabulary. More than half of modern Korean words are derived from Chinese, reflecting a deep historical connection between the two cultures. This also shows in the use of Hanja, which is the Chinese characters, in the past before the creation of Hangul. Hangul’s development in the 15th century by King Sejong symbolizes Korea’s desire to create something distinct and accessible for everyone. Learning Hangul has given me a glimpse into this effort toward inclusivity and innovation.
What’s surprising to me is that there’s also the impact of the history of the Japanese colonial times in the early 20th century, which left its mark on modern Korean through loanwords, especially in governance and technology. More recently, English has greatly impacted Korean due to globalization as well. There are so many cognates between Korean and English, as well as Korean and Chinese, that it makes it easier for me to remember and connect vocabulary across these languages. Recognizing these shared roots helps me quickly relate new words to what I already know.
These layers of cultural evolution help me understand the resilience and adaptability that define Korean pop culture today. Just like its language, Korea’s pop culture has absorbed outside influences, whether from Western media or neighboring countries, while still maintaining a unique and unmistakable identity. Korea’s ability to blend these elements, while staying true to its cultural roots, is what makes K-pop, K-dramas, and K-fashion so globally appealing. For me, exploring Korean pop culture goes beyond enjoying entertainment. It’s about understanding the historical and cultural forces that shaped Korea’s influence on the world stage.
In sum, I think language naturally changes through things like human interaction, technology, and societal shifts. Linguists track these changes by analyzing written and spoken language over time, allowing them to predict how languages will continue to evolve.
Many linguists believe that Korean belongs to the Altaic language family that originated in North Asia. This family also includes Mongolian, Turkish, and Finnish. Another popular belief is that Korean and the Jeju language belong to their own language family: the Koreanic family. Structurally, there is a large Chinese influence on Hanja characters. Additionally, there is a significant Japanese influence on Korean words, also known as loanwords, in which words are imported from one language to another. As for sounds, there is a pretty wide Western influence on words like cognates, in which the pronunciation of words are extremely similar. Knowing that Korean has such a rich historical interaction of cultures motivates me to learn more about the origin of Korean, and in turn, enables me to conceptualize Korean in a way that can be more universally applied outside of just myself and my interpersonal interactions. I find it very interesting that as for the cultural influence, K-pop is on the rise, which is manifesting in the Korean language adopting a lot of new terms and expressions, as they reflect global trends and modern slang. I imagine that linguists track, predict, and extrapolate these changes through consistently identifying patterns that frequently present themselves within Korean itself, as well as across other languages. Additionally, linguists most likely continue to gain insights on modern usage and trends that are emerging through conducting interviews and observing the syntax and grammar that are newly developing and evolving, which ultimately enables them to perceive language attitudes and further apply this knowledge to the surrounding communities.