[KS] Re: RE: Se habla Han'gul?--p.s.

[Robert Ramsey]

Young-Key: You're quite right.  The colloquial Chinese word for spoken 
Chinese is _Zhongwen_, even though it literally means the Chinese written 
language (it's the only word I myself can ever recall hearing in the 
context 'Do you speak Chinese?', for example).  And, again as you point 
out, in most (literate) cultures (at least for most people) this kind of 
confusion seems to be very common.
	But what I wanted to ask is this:  The North Korean word for the 
Korean writing system is of course <urigUl(tcha)> or <ChosOn'gUl>, as you 
say.  But I recall hearing that in casual speech in North Korea, the Korean 
writing system is also sometimes called <ChosOnmal>, by which is meant not 
the spoken language, but Korean writing, the Hangul letters themselves. 
Does this accord with your experience?

----------------------
Robert Ramsey
sr1 at umail.umd.edu



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