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 ( ( Read more... )
Homo erectus = 곧은사람 (The Upright Ones)
Homo sapiens = 슬기사람 ( ( Read more... )
Comments 24
Reply
Reply
--Sneak
Reply
There doesn't seem to have been prize money involved, at least I couldn't find a reference to any in the 2013 or 2014 press releases of the contest, which began in 2013. I'm guessing he took home a plaque or something, plus the honor of having his work prominently displayed during Hangul Day celebrations and an achievement that looks really good on his college applications.
Reply
--Sneak
Reply
Reply
When did the current Korean writing system get instituted? I'm assuming that writing from before that point is basically unreadable to the average person?
--Rogan
Reply
It totally does! Just a few days ago a few co-workers and I were marveling about it, how it basically predated the work of modern linguistics by centuries to break down phonetics to their component parts.
When did the current Korean writing system get instituted? I'm assuming that writing from before that point is basically unreadable to the average person?It was created December of 1443 and promulgated early September of 1446. I think it's one of the few, I think it's one of the few, if not only, deliberately created (not evolved out of long collective use) writing systems in widespread use today ( ... )
Reply
Yeah, Japan bastardized the hell out of Chinese the same way too. (Which in some ways makes it worse, because now you have three different writing systems all kludged together and after you put that amount of social effort into forcing such a thing to work, you become perversely proud of it and never want it to change.)
Wow, Hangul is older than I thought! And yet it still works so well, that's fascinating. European languages (most notably, Spanish) have had spelling reforms over the past few hundred years, but even they become obsolete over time, because by nature languages change. (So you end up with the old, "why does hour have an H?" questions.) How does Hangul avoid that? Has it just naturally evolved to keep pace with Korean as it's spoken?
I've read a column by one Chinese intellectual arguing that this Chinese illiteracy means we Koreans are illiterate to our own heritageBut... that's so SILLY. That's like claiming we US folks are ( ... )
Reply
I did not know that! :D Isn't that sort of unusual for an artist? OTOH another friend of mine who majored in linguistics went on to study art history in grad school and is now a curator, so maybe language and art are more entwined than I know. It seems like a good liberal-arts education is the basis for a lot of different careers, at any rate.
How does Hangul avoid that? Has it just naturally evolved to keep pace with Korean as it's spoken?It's a combination of evolution and standards-setting, I think. When originally created it had 28 letters, which are now down to 24 letters because the language changed some letters fell out of use. (Some are arguing that they should be brought back because these dropped letters, which sound out "z" and "f" and so on, can increase accuracy in transcribing English and other foreign languages.) New standards have been handed down by governmental or semi-governmental bodies, and some of the battles over new standards have been fierce from what I hear. Take the ( ... )
Reply
Leave a comment