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

[kimrenau]

I meant to but forgot to mention a crucial counter-evidence to Horace's and a 
few others' observations.  The "Korean Language Society" [their own 
translation] is called <Han'gUl hakhoe>, and their journal that was founded in 
1928  and is still published is called HAN-GEUL [their romanization].  They 
hardly address foreigners, and their journal published only in Korean (except 
the titles) is read almost 100% by Koreans in Korea or Koreans abroad plus a 
few Korean linguists.  They are crusaders in the Han'gUl-only writing 
movement, for sure, but that's not all they do.  It is a bona-fide linguistic 
society, which has contributed enormously to our understanding of the Korean 
language and of language in general.

If there is any real language change going on, it might be due to the fact 
that language and writing are often indistinguishable to some people.  The 
character used (for the 'language' part) for the current name for Chinese 
'zhongwen' is revealing.  The famous Czech linguist J. Vacheck refused to see 
writing merely as a bundle of symbols or scripts that have nothing to do with 
language.  For him and for many who followed him, a written language is a form 
of language.  By this token, Han'gUl may be considered the written language of 
Korea.

While I was composing this, the message from Dr. Babicz came.  If the Japanese 
meant to stay neutral by using the word <han'gUl>, it was a misjudgment. In 
North Korea, this term is considered South Korean, therefore it is neither 
used nor acceptable.  They use <urigUl(tcha)> or <ChosOn'gUl>.  The reason 
might be that Chu Si-gyOng, who is responsible for the word <han'gUl>, 
neologism made in 1910, was also responsible for the creation of the Korean 
Language Society (Han'gUl Hakhoe), which is in South Korea.

Young-Key Kim-Renaud

***Horace Underwood said***
I have never in my life heard any Korean refer to the spoken language as
"han'gul," since hangul means "korean writing".

***Lionel Babicz***
Japan NHK Korean courses on radio and TV are called "Annyong
Hashimnikka-Hangul Koza". I heard the reason was the will to avoid the
words "Kankokugo", which reminds ROK, and "Chosengo", which reminds DPRK. In
the same way, you can find some Korean language study books which use the
word "hangul"in their title (such as the 5 volumes "Sutandado Hangul Koza",
Taishukan Shoten). But the majority of the books use either the words
"kankokugo" or "chosengo".
As a result of this confusion, I heard Korean people using the word "hangul"
for the Korean language while speaking in Japanese.




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