Korean

Written form

Korean uses the “Hanja” (Korean word indicating the Chinese characters - “sinogrammes” - very close to those used in China and with the Japan), although it tends today to be written more but with the Hangeul, the Korean alphabet. Nevertheless, in South Korea, the academic world continues to employ the C-W communication combining the two written forms, by using the sinogrammes for the notation of the words of Chinese origin. Contrary to the Chinese written form, the alphabet hangeul is a phonemic alphabet with syllabic demarcation .

The alphabet hangeul includes/understands 40 letters (19 consonants and 21 vowels). The alphabet hangeul is used by gathering the letters by syllables occupying of the square blocks, at a rate of 2 to 4 letters per syllable. The shape of the consonants corresponds to the morphology of the bodies of phonation, that of the vowels uses three symbols of origin taoist (i.e the point or milks short, the vertical feature and the horizontal feature, which respectively represent the sun, the man and the Earth).

Modern Korean is written with spaces between the words, contrary to other languages like the Chinese or the Japanese. The Korean punctuation has recourse to the Western punctuation marks, used in a way much more parsimonious than in Occident. Traditionally, Korean was written in from top to bottom columns, laid out from right to left, but he from now on is written in lines from left to right, laid out from top to bottom (except in poetry where the traditional format is sometimes preserved).

Korean speeches

The geographical surface of Korean divides in 9 zones corresponding each one to a speech, South of the province of Kilim, in Mandchourie (Popular republic of China) in the island of Jeju. In each of both Corées, a speech was selected like official language. The peninsula is extremely mountainous, and the “territory” of each speech corresponds narrowly to the natural borders between the various geographical areas. The majority of the names of the speeches correspond consequently to the areas which they represent.

It should be noted that there is more or less large mutual comprehension between all these speeches, according to the distance, except for that of the island of Jeju. The speeches of the peninsula are thus not dialects.

Two speeches official

the speech of the Gyeonggi Seoul is the official speech in South Korea.
the speech of Pyŏngando Pyŏngyang is the official speech of the North Korea and is spoken in Pyŏngyang, the area of Pyŏngyang, and the province of Chagang.

Other speeches

the speech of Chungcheong is used in the area of Chungchŏng in South Korea, including in the town of Daejeon.
the speech of Gangwon is employed in the province of Gangwon in South Korea and in the province close to Gangweon in North Korea.
the speech of Gyeongsang is employed in the area of Gyeongsang (Yŏngnam) in South Korea, including in the towns of Pusan, Daegu and Ulsan.
the speech of Hamgyŏng is employed in the area of Hamgyŏng and the province of Yanggang in North Korea.
the speech of Hwanghae is practiced in the area of Hwanghae in North Korea.
the speech of Jeolla is employed in the area of Jeolla (Honam) in South Korea, including the town of Gwangju.
the speech of Jeju is spoken on the island about Jeju, and a little on the south-western coast of South Korea. It is about a true dialect, which is not comprehensible for the native speakers of the peninsula.

Pronunciation of Korean

French Korean words and Korean French words

Loans of Korean to French

A certain number of French words entered the everyday usage in Korean, not without sometimes of the evolutions taking account of the phonetics of the Korean language.

They are in particular terms of the culinary field, like ppang (bread), coffee (the place where one consumes) and rod .

They are also words of the cultural field: enkol (" encore" , with the direction of " bis" , with the theater), débyu (" début" , being the first concert of a singer or first appearance on scene or with the screen of an actress or an actor), cinema , new wave , avant-garde …

French political terms also entered the Korean vocabulary, such as coudéta (coup d'etat), proletariat , and resistance .

Lastly, of the words expressing the feelings were taken again in Korean, like melancholy and rendezvous (this last term being exclusively employed for the lovers' dates).

Loans of French to Korean

French directly borrowed culinary terms from the Korean vocabulary, like Kimchi (flat containing peppers and of fermented vegetables, in particular of cabbage), Bibimbap (of a Korean word meaning " mélange" , of rice, meat and vegetables) and Bulgogi (whose literal direction is " viande" , gogi , " cooked with the feu" bulldozer ).

References

Jean-Marie Thiébaud, " The French presence in Korea of the end of the 18th century to our jours" , Harmattan, 2005, p. 108 sq.

See also the detailed article Korean Kitchen .

Internal bonds

Linguistic

Dictionary of the languages

External bonds

Dictionary Freelang dictionary Korean-French/French-Korean
Course of Korean in Korean line
Course of the university of Sogang
Course of Korean on line on learn-korean.net
To learn and listen to practical Korean expressions
Korean (Languages off the World)
linguistic Chart of Korean Korea
Linguistic

Simple: Korean language Zh-classical: 韓國語

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