Korean language

Writing system and pronunciation

Korean is written primarily with Hangul, a phonemic alphabet created in the 15th century that represents sounds with simple, systematic letters. Hangul's design makes pronunciation largely predictable from spelling. Historically, Chinese characters known as Hanja were used for scholarly and official writing; today Hanja appears only in limited contexts in the South and rarely in the North.

Grammar and structure

Typologically, Korean is an agglutinative language with subject–object–verb (SOV) order. Words are formed by adding affixes to stems, and grammatical relationships are marked by particles rather than by word order alone. Verbs and adjectives conjugate to indicate tense, aspect, mood and a range of honorific or polite levels, while the language lacks grammatical gender and has relatively simple noun inflection.

History and vocabulary

The language has evolved through stages often described as Old, Middle and Modern Korean. Over centuries it has absorbed large numbers of Sino-Korean words derived from Chinese, as well as loanwords from Mongol, Japanese and, in recent times, English. The 15th-century promulgation of Hangul by King Sejong was a major turning point that expanded literacy and shaped modern Korean identity.

Dialects, standards and regional differences

Multiple dialects are spoken across the peninsula; the Seoul dialect forms the basis for the South Korean standard, while the Pyongyang dialect serves as the North Korean standard. Differences between North and South standards include pronunciation, vocabulary and orthographic conventions introduced after Korea's division. Some varieties, notably the speech of Jeju Island, are highly distinct and sometimes difficult for speakers of standard varieties to understand.

Use and cultural importance

Korean is used in government, education, literature, broadcasting and digital media across the Korean-speaking world. Its honorific systems and speech levels play a central role in social interaction, reflecting age, status and context. Interest in learning Korean has grown internationally alongside Korean cultural exports, and the language continues to be an important marker of identity for Koreans everywhere.