Korean words for members of the human genus = awesome
Yesterday I was curled up in the school library reading an atlas of Korean history when I came across Korean names for different hominids. Even though they're mostly direct translations from the Latin, I loved how vivid and descriptive everything sounded this way. Here's what they said:
Homo erectus = 곧은사람 (The Upright Ones)
Homo sapiens = 슬기사람 (The Wise Ones)
Neanderthal (homo neanderthalensis) = 옛 슬기사람 (The Wise Ones of Old)
Homo sapiens sapiens = 슬기슬기사람 (The Wise Wise Ones)
The one for Neanderthal isn't a direct translation, and it's my personal favorite. It sounds like someone fondly recalling lost relatives or elders, which is about right since studies indicate that most modern humans outside Africa have some Neanderthal genes.
(On a related tangent, I'm also listening to an audiobook about World War I and was amused that crowds of women used to show up when prisoners of war were shipped in by train, and the German Red Cross ceased its POW hospital volunteer program after four German nurses became engaged to Russian prisoners. Taste for variety seems to be one of the most reliable human traits.)
I stumbled on something sort-of related trying to look up these Korean terms on the Web, a postcard showing the (simplified) process of human evolution drawn entirely in letters. Submitted by 17-year-old high school student Seongjun Yang, it won the grand prize for the 2013 Hangul (Korean letters) Day postcard contest.
From left to right, evolving hominids are drawn using a hieroglyphic, Chinese letters, a mixture of Chinese and early Hangul, older Hangul, and modern Hangul.
Dreamwidth entry URL: http://ljlee.dreamwidth.org/61860.html
Homo erectus = 곧은사람 (The Upright Ones)
Homo sapiens = 슬기사람 (The Wise Ones)
Neanderthal (homo neanderthalensis) = 옛 슬기사람 (The Wise Ones of Old)
Homo sapiens sapiens = 슬기슬기사람 (The Wise Wise Ones)
The one for Neanderthal isn't a direct translation, and it's my personal favorite. It sounds like someone fondly recalling lost relatives or elders, which is about right since studies indicate that most modern humans outside Africa have some Neanderthal genes.
(On a related tangent, I'm also listening to an audiobook about World War I and was amused that crowds of women used to show up when prisoners of war were shipped in by train, and the German Red Cross ceased its POW hospital volunteer program after four German nurses became engaged to Russian prisoners. Taste for variety seems to be one of the most reliable human traits.)
I stumbled on something sort-of related trying to look up these Korean terms on the Web, a postcard showing the (simplified) process of human evolution drawn entirely in letters. Submitted by 17-year-old high school student Seongjun Yang, it won the grand prize for the 2013 Hangul (Korean letters) Day postcard contest.
From left to right, evolving hominids are drawn using a hieroglyphic, Chinese letters, a mixture of Chinese and early Hangul, older Hangul, and modern Hangul.
Dreamwidth entry URL: http://ljlee.dreamwidth.org/61860.html