A Review of Linguistic Developments in the Korean Peninsula: From Traditional Structures to Modern Korean

This review examines the historical and contemporary linguistic development of the Korean language, tracing its evolution from Old and Middle Korean to present-day Standard Korean. It explores major grammatical, phonological, lexical, and orthographic changes that have shaped Korean over time, with particular attention to the emergence of honorific morphology, the development of case marking, and the expansion of Sino-Korean vocabulary. The article also discusses the limitations of pre-Hangul writing systems and highlights the creation of Hangul as a landmark achievement in linguistic history due to its scientific and phonological design. Furthermore, the review investigates subsequent phonological changes, orthographic reforms, language standardization, and the influence of language contact through Sino-Korean, Japanese, and English borrowings, including the development of Konglish. Finally, it considers the effects of digital communication, youth-driven lexical innovation, historical and geographical factors, diaspora communities, and the Korean Wave (Hallyu) on contemporary Korean. Together, these developments demonstrate that Korean has maintained remarkable structural continuity while continually adapting to social, cultural, political, and technological change.

کلیدواژه ها:

Korean language ، Historical linguistics ، Hangul ، Honorific system ، Language contact ، Lexical borrowing