Imagine that you have received a research grant to conduct a linguistic study of your target language and culture. How would you get started, and what would you investigate? How would different structural components presented in class appear in your work?
If I received a research grant to study Korean linguistically, I would want to first start out with the Korean alphabet and its history. I think the origin of the Korean language is a fairly unique one, because it was created completely from scratch and while it did have some Chinese influences, it was a mostly independently created language. I also think the historical circumstances surrounding it are extraordinary. The language was created by the Korean king so the peasants who couldn't afford the time or money to learn Chinese could still read; knowing this backstory to the language gives an understanding about why its formatted the way it is and why it is written the way it is. I would also give special attention to the relationship between the way each letter is written and spoken in the Korean alphabet. When it was being created, Korean was given extreme attention from a linguistic standpoint. Each letter's shape tries to imitate the shape that the mouth or tongue or other parts of the body create when making this sound, and that is probably why it is such an easy language to learn.
Comments
I agree that this is a great way to start studying a language. Since the alphabet is a big gatekeeper to learning the language, it is best to be able to understand the alphabet inside and out so you can immerse yourself more deeply in the vocabulary.
That's a really interesting origin story for the Korean alphabet! The fact that they were self-consciously trying to make the alphabet connected to the shapes of the face and the sounds being produced is a very modern concept for the 1400s. Have you found this to help your study of the alphabet?