ABSTRACT
Nationalism is a key factor in language reform movements throughout the world. With its emphases on authenticity, uniqueness, and the "link with the glorious past," nationalism is intimately bound with the vernacular. Modem mass nationalism equates authenticity with a particular language and often with a particular script or orthography. Whereas some scholars emphasize the sociohistorical importance of language standardization in the emergence of nation-states, others focus on language planning as a way of fashioning language into both an implement and a focus of national pride. National pride needs language as a resource at both the practical and sentimental levels. 1
Korea and Korean are no exception. Korean nationalists and linguistideologues began to articulate the connection between the Korean nation, Korean language, and Korean script in the 1890s. The Korean language standardization movement was at the center of nationalist resistance under the Japanese occupation (1910--45) until the arrests of Korean linguists in 1942, and the language issue reemerged with liberation from Japan in 1945. However, with the creation of separate republics in 1948, the Korean language debate was doomed to develop in a divided land.
