We and our partners use data for Korean banana milk ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Korean is spoken by about 81. 8 million people mainly in South Korea and North Korea.

The relationship between Korean and other languages is not known for sure, though some linguists believe it to be a member of the Altaic family of languages. 2 million Korean speakers in South Korea, and about 25. Status: official language in South Korea, North Korea and Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in northeast China. Origins of writing in Korea Chinese writing has been known in Korea for over 2,000 years. It was used widely during the Chinese occupation of northern Korea from 108 BC to 313 AD. By the 5th century AD, the Koreans were starting to write in Classical Chinese – the earliest known example of this dates from 414 AD.

The Idu system used a combination of hanja together with special symbols to indicate Korean verb endings and other grammatical markers, and was used to in official and private documents for many centuries. The Hyangchal system used hanja to represent all the sounds of Korean and was used mainly to write poetry. The Gukyeol system used hanja characters to represent the sounds of Korean. Chinese characters and also invented about 150 new characters, most of which are rare or used mainly for personal or place names.

Chinese, as did the practice of writing syllables in blocks. Even after the invention of the Korean alphabet, most Koreans who could write continued to write either in Classical Chinese or in Korean using the Gukyeol or Idu systems. The Korean alphabet was associated with people of low status, i. Since 1949 hanja have not been used at all in any North Korean publications, with the exception of a few textbooks and specialized books. In the late 1960s the teaching of hanja was reintroduced in North Korean schools however and school children are expected to learn 2,000 characters by the end of high school.