Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Korean Linguistics
- Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics
- The Cambridge Handbook of Korean Linguistics
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Part I Korean Overview
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 Phonology: An Overview
- Chapter 3 Overview of Chapters on Syntax
- Chapter 4 On the Centrality of Korean in Language Contacts in Northeast Asia
- Chapter 5 Politeness Strategies in Korean
- Chapter 6 Korean Kugyŏl
- Part II Phonetics and Phonology
- Part III Morphology and Syntax
- Part IV Semantics and Pragmatics
- Part V Sociolinguistics and Psycholinguistics
- Part VI Language Pedagogy
- Index
- References
Chapter 6 - Korean Kugyŏl
from Part I - Korean Overview
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 September 2022
- The Cambridge Handbook of Korean Linguistics
- Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics
- The Cambridge Handbook of Korean Linguistics
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Part I Korean Overview
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 Phonology: An Overview
- Chapter 3 Overview of Chapters on Syntax
- Chapter 4 On the Centrality of Korean in Language Contacts in Northeast Asia
- Chapter 5 Politeness Strategies in Korean
- Chapter 6 Korean Kugyŏl
- Part II Phonetics and Phonology
- Part III Morphology and Syntax
- Part IV Semantics and Pragmatics
- Part V Sociolinguistics and Psycholinguistics
- Part VI Language Pedagogy
- Index
- References
Summary
Chapter 6 focuses on loan character transcription systems. Loan character transcription systems for Korean started with the transcribing of proper names. The next step involved the practice of interpreting or reading Chinese characters in the vernacular; finally, methods were developed for writing sentences in the vernacular using Chinese characters. These practices represent a widespread phenomenon, found in many nations and periods of history, whereby a foreign writing system is used to write a local vernacular, beginning with the simple practice of reading the foreign writing in that vernacular, a practice which has been called “vernacular reading”. In Korea, the initial stage of sentence-unit transcriptions involved simply transposing Chinese character (sinograph) texts from Chinese word order into Korean; this evolved to a stage where grammatical particles and endings, so-called t’o in the Korean writing tradition, were inserted into the text. Korean kugyŏl developed as a method of facilitating the vernacular reading of Chinese texts in Korean as they are read. Kugyŏl appears to date from the Shilla period.
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- The Cambridge Handbook of Korean Linguistics , pp. 133 - 174Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022