The history of the Korean language family is very complex as there are different theories about its origin. It is widely debated whether the Korean language belongs to the Austronesian language family or the Altaic language family because of Korea’s long history of contact with Chinese and Japanese (mustgo.com). The Austronesian language family covers a wide geographic area and are spoken in various countries such as Cambodia, Chile, China, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaysia, the Philippines, New Zealand, Thailand, Taiwan, and Vietnam among many others (mustgo.com). The Altaic language family derives its name from the Altaic mountain region where it is believed these languages originated from, with most of these languages spoken in Central Asia (mustgo.com). The Altaic Language family consists of three major groups: Mongolian, Tungusic, and Turkic, and it is believed that Korean and Japanese originated due to extensive borrowing and long contact with these language families, which is why there is great debate whether they belong to the Altaic language family (mustgo.com). These differences have led to the creation of the Koreanic language family, which consists of Korean and Jeju -- a language spoken on Jeju Island (wikipedia.com). Interestingly, Jeju is often described as a dialect of Korean but is distinct enough to be classified as its own separate language (wikipedia.com). All modern varieties of Koreanic languages descended from Old Korean in the state of Silla, which was the first historically documented stage of the Korean language (wikipedia.com). I honestly think it is fascinating how languages can mesh together and evolve over time as they come in contact with speakers of other languages and of different geographical regions. I also found it interesting that Korean and Japanese don’t exactly fit into the Altaic language family which includes many languages spoken in China, which I believe must be due to the vast size of the country which has led to the creation of thousands of different spoken languages and dialects, although they have derived from the same origin. Overall, learning about Korea language families has made me realize the similarities and differences in language structures of its neighboring countries such as China and Japan.
References:
https://www.mustgo.com/worldlanguages/korean/
https://www.mustgo.com/worldlanguages/austronesian-language-family/
https://www.mustgo.com/worldlanguages/altaic-language-family/
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