The Korean Language Through the Ages

Hear the progression of the Korean language from the 8th century to the present. Please enable English subtitles.

00:00 Intro
00:12 Old Korean
00:45 Early Middle Korean
01:28 Late Middle Korean
02:14 Early Modern Korean
02:43 Modern Seoul Korean
03:25 Contemporary Seoul Korean
04:08 Image credits
04:30 Sound credits

[TheDragonHistorian]

피드백을 남겨주신 모든 분께 감사드립니다. 합용병서의 소리값, 성조와 높낮이 강세의 구분, 그 외 사소한 오류 등에 대한 지적을 수렴하여 조만간 새로운 버전을 만들도록 하겠습니다.

[doohona]

시기별로 제망매가, 가시리, 용비어천가, 음식디미방, 독립신문까지... 정말 인상적으로 봤습니다. 17c까지는 ㅅ계 합용병서가 그대로 발음되었다는 것은 대체적인 합의를 본 것 같습니다!

[JcDizon]

As a non-Korean who doesn't listen to Korean much but know enough what it sounds like (I do read Korean webtoons though but I can't hear anything so it doesn't count), late middle Korean actually sounds the most different because it's so tonal compared to the rest. Someone told me that although modern Seoul Korean isn't tonal (for the most part), some other dialects of Korean retained the tonal stuff from late middle Korean and tonal sounds might actually be having a come back in the Seoul Korean dialect.

[cynicalhumanist]

Knowing no Korean, I find it interesting that even this Old Korean is recognizably Korean in sound (though it seems tones are different, and cadence if that's not just a result of the speaker's deliberate/non-natural speaking). I wonder how Old and Middle English sounds compared to modern English to non-English speakers. Many old languages I suspect have a distinctly different sound than their modern counterparts.

[macaroni]

I'm a Korean language learner, and i have known of historic writing and sounds from studying, but it is incredibly valuable to see them in context. Thank you!
'ㆍ' is so interesting to see become obsolete, it does just sound too much like "ㅓ" or "ㅏ" as it approaches the present day. As an English speaker, seeing sounds like 'ㅼ' and 'ㅺ' become 'ㄸ' and 'ㄲ' is fascinating too! Modern English is full of "st-" and "sk-" sounds, it's hard to imagine my language without them. I wonder if Korean people in 1600 would have felt the same way.

[somethingcute]

정말 대단합니다! 재미있어서 시작한 역사공부이지만 공부하면 할 수록 나는 하나도 아는게 없다는 것을 알아왔는데, 오늘도 하나 배워갑니다

[MorrisseysthFriend]

대단하네요...전 한국인이 아닌 미국인인데 한국에서 살고 있고 한국 역사 관심이 많아요. 이 한국어의 역사 설명을 준비해 주셔서 감사합니다 ^^

[dAPERize]

I watched another video on how Koreanic language influenced Manchu and Japonic language sets during the Joseon era and hearing these early examples it is very clear how that is possible. It's interesting to see what vowels, diphthongs, and consonants fell out of favor, and how tonal language did not really stick around for very long as a concept.

[nemyong]

너무 잘 봤습니다. 구독자 10배는 늘으셔야 할 것 같은 유튜버이심 ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

[star-ge]

고대 한국어 발음이나 그런 것들은 따로 공부를 하신 건가요? 읽으시는 게 정말 대단하네요.

[seoulforest]

고대한국어 전에 일본인이 재구한거보단 확실히 한국어 느낌이 많이 나서 반 이상은 알아들을수 있겠네요

[jamesdakrn]

Lmao very clever way to do the whole "like and subscribe" 보통 사실 유튭 보다보면 저런 부분은 당연히 99프로 스킵인데 여긴 너무나게 적절한ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[whatno]

For people saying this soudns like Modern Korean, that's probaby just because this speaker is a Modern Korean speaker. He abides by the generally linguistically accepted choices when he can, but essentially all prosodic and many phonetic choices he makes are based on Modern Korean. So, Old Korean and Middle Korean could theoretically have sounded pretty different.

I'm especially suspicious of his stop consonants (e.g. ㅂㄷㄱㅍㅌㅋ and so on). In even early Middle Korean, he pronounces these consonants like ㄱ with aspiration at the beginning of words but no aspiration in the middle of words. My suspicion is that when Hangeul was invented, each of these consonants had the same sound in every situation; so for example, maybe ㄱ would be pronounced the same at the beginning of and in the middle of words. If that's the case, then his pronunciation of Early Middle Korean might have some flaws analogous to an English Speaker attempting to pronounce Spanish stop consonants (pa ta ca).

[lIlIllIlIIIlll]

역사룡님 3:15에 '독닙신문 분국이' 이 부분에서 본국이라고 말씀하시던데 한자어 分局이라 그대로 분국이라 발음하는 게 맞지 않나요? 항상 잘보고 있습니다

[신중용]

구한말 현대 한국어는 철자법은 다르지만 오늘날 한국어와 소통이 가능한 것 같습니다.

[da_big_chungus]

0:15 Unified Silla
0:50 Goryeo (before the Mongols)
1:30 Early Joseon
2:20 Middle Joseon
2:45 Later Joseon (before the Japanese)
3:30 Present Day

[Bruhh_]

I recognized a bunch a words as a Korean speaker for the oldest one.

[sadanjang]

지역별로 사투리가 있는데 그거도 혹시 역사적 사료가 있을까요?
고대 한국어 중 고구려, 백제, 신라, 가야 등의 각 말이나 고조선, 부여의 말이 궁금합니다.

[stefanodadamo]

To my ears, there's an uncanny similarity in the way Both Korean AND Japanese, are spoken. Despite being wholly unrelated languages, they seen to form some sort of Sprachbund as for emphasis, vocalism.

[brettfafata]

It is theorized that the Middle Korean was more of a "pitch accent" language than truly tonal. The reading sounds distinctly tonal, almost like Chinese. In terms of rhythm and pitch think Middle Korean would be similar to modern Japanese.