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I am not a linguist either but I do remember that Turkish and Hungarians
and even Finnish have a relative easy time learning Korean. I have met
people from each group telling me so. Which indicates to me the
similarity between the languages. <br><br>
At 02:29 PM 5/27/2012, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Dear all,<br><br>
On a somewhat related note: what is the latest consensus, if any,
among<br>
historical linguists on whether Korean (as well as Japanese) is an<br>
Altaic language? I am not a linguist, but would it be fair for me to<br>
tell my students that Korean is either a member of an Altaic
language<br>
family or a language isolate to which Altaic languages, more than
any<br>
others, are probably most closely related? My own very limited<br>
understanding of the literature on historical linguistics seems to<br>
suggest to me that if one were to place Korean in a language family,<br>
then the Altaic seems to be the best choice.<br><br>
Best,<br><br>
Gene<br>
---<br><br>
Eugene Y. Park<br>
Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History<br>
Director, James Joo-Jin Kim Program in Korean Studies<br>
University of Pennsylvania<br>
<a href="http://www.history.upenn.edu/faculty/park.shtml" eudora="autourl">
http://www.history.upenn.edu/faculty/park.shtml</a><br><br>
<br>
On 5/26/2012 11:02 PM, gkl1@columbia.edu wrote:<br>
> Hi List,<br>
><br>
> Admittedly a huge number of Chinese words and compounds have
become<br>
> part of Korean's vocabulary, just as a huge number of Greek and
and<br>
> Latin words have become a part of the vocabulary of English (and
the<br>
> other European languages too). But it's distressing to learn
that<br>
> people might think ANY Korean word would be writable with
Chinese<br>
> characters. If that were so, then Korean would be a language in
the<br>
> Sino-Tibetan family. It's hard enough to get scholarly agreement
on<br>
> what language family CAN claim Korean's ancestry, but any
linguistic<br>
> reference work would make it clear that it's not a Chinese-type
language.<br>
><br>
> Gari Ledyard<br>
><br>
> Quoting Clark W Sorensen <sangok@u.washington.edu>:<br>
><br>
>> Caren,<br>
>><br>
>> Namaksin is a native Korean word, so it doesn't have
corresponding<br>
>> Chinese characters. However, any of the on-line dictionaries
will give<br>
>> the characters for Korean words such as at naver.com. The
problem is<br>
>> you have to input the Korean in hangul.<br>
>><br>
>> Clark Sorensen<br>
>><br>
>> On Fri, 25 May 2012, Freeman, Caren (cwf8q) wrote:<br>
>><br>
>>><br>
>>> I¡¯m asking this question on behalf of a colleague who is
a<br>
>>> sinologist. He asks:<br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>> ¡°i want to see what chinese characters correspond to
korean<br>
>>> "Namaksin" wooden clogs. Namaksin (³ª¸·½Å)<br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>> Is there an online dictionary that gives the classic
readings for<br>
>>> korean words entered in pinyin type western alphabet?¡±<br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>> Many thanks for your recommendations,<br>
>>><br>
>>> Caren Freeman<br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
></blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
_ _<br>
(o) (o)<br>
oOOO----(_)----OOOo---<br>
Henny (Lee Hae Kang)<br>
-----------------------------<br>
<a href="http://www.henny-savenije.pe.kr/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.henny-savenije.pe.kr</a> Portal to all my sites<br>
<font color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.hendrick-hamel.henny-savenije.pe.kr/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.hendrick-hamel.henny-savenije.pe.kr</a> </u></font>(in
English) Feel free to discover Korea with Hendrick Hamel (1653-1666)<br>
<font color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.hendrick-hamel.henny-savenije.pe.kr/indexk2.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://www.hendrick-hamel.henny-savenije.pe.kr/indexk2.htm</a>
</u></font>In Korean <br>
<font color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.hendrick-hamel.henny-savenije.pe.kr/Dutch" eudora="autourl">
http://www.hendrick-hamel.henny-savenije.pe.kr/Dutch</a> </u></font>In
Dutch<br>
<font color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.vos.henny-savenije.pe.kr/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.vos.henny-savenije.pe.kr</a> </u></font>Frits Vos Article
about Witsen and Eibokken and his first Korean-Dutch dictionary<br>
<a href="http://www.cartography.henny-savenije.pe.kr/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.cartography.henny-savenije.pe.kr</a> (in English) Korea
through Western Cartographic eyes<br>
<font color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.hwasong.henny-savenije.pe.kr/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.hwasong.henny-savenije.pe.kr</a> </u></font>Hwasong the
fortress in Suwon<br>
<font color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.oldkorea.henny-savenije.pe.kr/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.oldKorea.henny-savenije.pe.kr</a> </u></font>Old Korea in
pictures<br>
<font color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.british.henny-savenije.pe.kr/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.british.henny-savenije.pe.kr</a> </u></font>A British
encounter in Pusan (1797)<br>
<font color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.genealogy.henny-savenije.pe.kr/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.genealogy.henny-savenije.pe.kr/</a> </u></font>Genealogy<br>
<font color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.henny-savenije.pe.kr/phorum" eudora="autourl">
http://www.henny-savenije.pe.kr/phorum</a> </u></font>Bulletin board for
Korean studies<br><br>
<br>
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