If I received a research grant to conduct a linguistic study of Korean, I would use this opportunity to study the influence of other languages on the Korean language. As I learned earlier this semester, Korean is traditionally believed to be a part of one of two language families, the Koreanic family and the Altaic family. However, I know that as a part of Northeastern Asia, Korea is also influenced by languages that are not necessarily in either of the two families, like Chinese. I find it really interesting that Korean has a variety of outside influences but still manages to maintain its own uniqueness. The alphabet is easy to learn to read and write and is also extremely simple in comparison to other Asian languages. Korean also borrows a lot of vocabulary from English and Chinese, even if those two languages do not contribute to its phonetics.
After obtaining the above information, I would also try to compare and contrast the different Korean dialects. I am interested in figuring out if certain historic and geographic factors affect how a dialect is developed. For example, if an area had been dominated by the Japanese or if it is located closer to Japan, is the dialect in that region more influenced by the Japanese language in comparison to traditional Korean? Learning about the dialects would also further supplement the initial study and explain how the Korean language developed in the first place. In general, I am interested in exploring how the Korean language came to be and what external factors were greatly impactful.
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Hi Annabelle, thanks for the sharing. I think many people would find this subject matter very interesting by studying the influences of other languages on Korean and the differences between Korean dialects. For my project, I would also want to learn about Korean dialects and their developments. Also, I want to learn how the "official Korean" developed from the past.