Introduction: The Characteristics of Korean Spoken Language and Written Language

This introductory chapter opens up with a brief history of Korea in the context of the Korean language and writing system, along with the names of Korea used before the current moniker. It next discusses the characteristics of the Korean language. It explores the distribution of the Korean lexicon by the origin of words, including native words, Sino-Korean words (Chinese-derived words used in Korea), loanwords, and hybrid words. It then identifies major linguistic characteristics at the lexical and sentential levels. It also briefly discusses the Korean alphabet, Hangul, which is the main theme of this book. It finally uncovers the scope, organization, and intended audiences of this book and provides the definitions of terms used in this book.