ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the changes and influences on the Korean language over the past century. Social and political changes at home and abroad were crucial factors in shaping the Korean language. Korea and Japan, under the umbrella of the Chinese cultural sphere, share both a socio-cultural and linguistic heritage. This is represented in the lexicons of the Korean and Japanese languages. Korean is no longer simply the language of the Korean peninsula, due to the growing Korean diaspora, now consisting of roughly 7 million people. They include both descendants of early emigrants from the Korean peninsula, as well as more recent emigrants. Han'gŭl is the unique alphabet used to write the Korean language. In Korean, there are three systems of Romanisation: Yale, McCune-Reischauer and government style. Mimetic words and onomatopoeic words are also well developed in Korean. In terms of sound inventory, Korean has a very rich inventory of stop sounds like /p/, /t/ and /k/.
