Korean has a very interesting history as the origins of its language are debated. Many people believe that it belongs to the Altaic family. Other languages under this family include Turkish, Mongolian, and the Tungusic. However, it’s without a doubt that there were strong influences from China. In fact, at one point the writing system was very strongly influenced by Chinese (Hanja). While Hanja was being used in writing, the speaking was still a separate system. Because of this, speaking was not a problem throughout ancient Korea. However, communication through writing was still very limited and only the elite members of society were able to write. That is until Sejong of Joseon came along.
In 1443, King Sejong was able to create an entirely new system of writing so that all his people could understand. Centuries later that exact language (although changed through time of course) is still being used by the people of Korea. Many events happened within Korea to cause the evolution of its language, such as the introduction of the western world and the colonization by Japan. Because of this many words are taken from those languages and directly incorporated into the Korean language. The word Arbeit from Germany meaning labor is directly incorporated into the Korean word “아르바이트” (ah-reu-ba-ee-teu) meaning part-time job. The word for bag in Korean is 가방 (kabang) which came from the word for bag in Japanese (kaban). 배낭 is another word for bag, but this comes from Hanja. In fact, there is no pure Korean word for bag. Much of the modern language has evolved from external countries and languages.
But the biggest influence in modern Korean language is without a doubt English. Words such as chocolate, cola, juice, wine, sandwich, vitamin, ice cream, and many many many many more essentially have the same pronunciation in Korean. From what I’ve seen online, many people say that 5-10% of the modern Korean vocabulary is derived from English.
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