The Korean Language (SUNY series in Korean Studies) First Edition

by Iksop Lee (Author), S. Robert Ramsey (Author)

25 ratings

Frequently bought together

+
+

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Some of these items ship sooner than the others.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

by Iksop Lee Paperback
$33.95
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Get it as soon as Friday, Sep 30
by Mee-Jeong Park Paperback
$24.00
Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Get it as soon as Friday, Sep 30
by Young-mee Yu Cho Paperback
$32.00
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Ho-min Sohn
15
Paperback
23 offers from $22.90
Pong Ja Paik
4
Paperback
17 offers from $26.95
Mee-Jeong Park
21
Paperback
4 offers from $26.00
Woojoo Kim
98
Paperback
24 offers from $5.59

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This is an important topic. Not only is an understanding of all the intricacies of the Korean language important to an accurate understanding of Korean culture, knowledge of the Korean language is also important to linguists who otherwise might not be interested in East Asian cultures because Korean, both in its written and spoken forms, has several unique features which this book identifies, describes, and explains. I particularly like the fact that the data is presented in the Korean alphabet as well as in romanization. Comprehensible and comprehensive, this is the best book in English on this subject.” ― Don Baker, University of British Columbia

About the Author

Iksop Lee is Professor of Korean Language and Linguistics at Seoul National University and former Director of the Korean National Language Research Center. He has written numerous books on Korean linguistics, including Kugoáhak kaesoál (An Introduction to Korean Linguistics) and Kugoá p’yogipoáp yoán’gu (A Study on Korean Orthography).

S. Robert Ramsey is Professor of East Asian Linguistics at the University of Maryland. His books include Accent and Morphology in Korean Dialects and The Languages of China.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ State University of New York Press; First Edition (January 11, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 388 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0791448320
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0791448328
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.04 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.97 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,134,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,089 in Anthropology (Books)
- #2,372 in Linguistics Reference
- #4,860 in Cultural Anthropology (Books)

Customer Reviews:
25 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Iksop Lee

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

5 star		75%
4 star		9%
3 star		11%
2 star		5%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

An

Excellent Material

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 19, 2022

Verified Purchase

The book is very thorough and informative.

Helpful

Daniel Evensen

Quite good, but not perfect

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 25, 2020

Verified Purchase

All in all, this is an excellent general overview of the Korean language. Iksop Lee (이익섭 / 李翊燮) is a well-known Korean linguist of the Korean language, and his influence on this work is clear right from the start. This book contains a better evaluation of the history of the Korean language, the difference between the various dialects, and a better evaluation of the seemingly worlds of Late Middle Korean and "Modern" (pre-20th century) Korean than any other English language book on the subject I know of.

In fact, there is no better place to go for a description of dialectical variants of Korean than this book. The brief section on Korean from the DPRK alone is worth the price. For selfish reasons, I wish that the authors had at least spent a bit of time discussing other interesting dialectical variants such as the variation spoken by 2,000,000 native speakers in the Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture in China. However, that does not take away from the fantastic example sentences presented here in multiple dialects, complete with numerous sample words and general descriptions of how certain odd dialects can be recognized instantaneously by native speakers. For anybody interested in knowing what Korean in real life really is like, this is the best place to go.

The approach to grammar in this book is also quite good. Lee and Ramsey opt for a more general approach to Korean grammar than what one normally gets from the textbooks, going for the bird's-eye view instead of getting lost in the weeds. They made two critical decisions that give this book immense strength for intermediate learners: they separated the honorific system from everything else, and then decided to treat phrase structure separately from syntax.

Now, this does not mean that their approach to grammar is perfect. The authors leave the differences between certain "special particles" completely unstated. Frustratingly, 까지, 조차, and 마저 are lumped into the same mini section together with an incredibly vague explanation of the differences in nuance. Similarly, concepts important to those interested in higher literature are touched on lightly, such as the use of 여 / 이여 as a vocative particle. However, the authors give this no more than a brief mention and two example sentences, leaving the reader hoping for more.

For me, however, the biggest flaw in this book is the insistence of Ramsey on using the McCune-Reischauer Romanization system at every possible moment. This makes things hopelessly confusing. Lists of vocabulary words seem messy with all the ugly romanization polluting the page, and, critically, the authors neglected to add in the Hangul forms of the Japanese loan words used during the colonial period. Hangul is extremely easy to learn and is a far better representation of the Korean language than any Western-based alphabet (though the authors are thankfully willing to remind us of its shortcomings). Why not dump the ABCs and stick with what works best?

Flaws aside, this is an excellent book. I do not think it was only composed for linguists, as I myself am not a linguist. This book is best for intermediate students of the language who want to better understand its history and dialects. If you pass over it, you are really missing out.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 14, 2022

Verified Purchase

Great packaging and in new and good condition.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 2, 2021

Verified Purchase

Print is extremely small.

Helpful

Kathryn A.

For linguists, not learners.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 25, 2009

Verified Purchase

Check the book on google books, see what you make of it.

I wish I had checked more thoroughly before I bought it. It seems to be very informative, but not in the way I am looking for. It reads like someone's Korean linguistics master's thesis. I assume if you already know Korean and are interested in it's linguistic intricacies and history then it might be worth a read. Probably better read in the original Korean in that case though. In any case, it's not for beginning or intermediate learners just trying to beef up their Korean power. I mean the (English) book has hardly any Korean to read in it!

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Rob

Not what I expected

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 8, 2008

Verified Purchase

I got this to help learn basic Korean. I hoped it would help me with grammar, pronunciation, sentence structure and things. While it has some of that, it seems more intended for people who study languages for the history of how they were formed. I tried to stay with it to see how it might help, but it is obviously for a scholar or someone needing a reference document to write a paper on the Korean language. If you're looking to learn conversational Korean, this isn't your book.

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Scholary, but dated. Needs to be revised using standard 2000 Revised Romanization created by Korea

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 8, 2021

My first problem with this book is that since it was published in 2000, twenty-six years ago, it does not reflect the revised romanization that was created in Korea in 2000 by the National Institute [Academy] of the Korean Language, which is the standard romanization method Koreans and everyone else learning Korean in today's modern world prefer. I have a Ph.D. in English, am fluent in English, Spanish, and German, and am learning Korean. I deplore the use of antiquated romanization methods to learn Korean: e.g. McCune -Reischauer, etc. The Yale system, though liked by linguists, is very hard to use by ordinary folks, even the well-educated. I personally hate the Yale romanization used by older scholars who have not updated their books and still insist on using it despite the fact that ALL Korean learners I've spoken/interacted with much prefer the method developed and followed by Koreans themselves: the 2000 Revised Romanization method of romanizing Hangeul. To make The Korean Language a current book, it needs to be thoroughly updated by using the Revised Romanization method throughout.

Secondly, it would have been nice if Professors Lee Sang Oak and Chae Wan -- two of the authors of the book who spent significant portions of their lives writing this book and are mentioned in the preface as having separately both written multiple chapters in draft in collaboration with Professor Iksop Lee, who wrote other chapters, not the chapters separately written by Lee and Chae -- would have been credited on the book's cover, at least with "with Professors Lee Sang Oak and Chae Wan". I did not find convincing Mr. Ramsey's decision to leave out these two authors names as coauthors and to instead lump them together in his mind with Iksop Lee, treating them as one author. In essence, these two authors who worked so hard on the development of this book, The Korean Language, were "disappeared" from the book they were instrumental in writing. Ramsey was selected as a translator of the book that Lee, Lee, and Chae co-authored, and he only credited Iksop Lee on the cover. Again, Ramsey himself states that both Lee Sang Oak and Chae Wan wrote multiple chapters for this book, so why wouldn't their names be on the cover as coauthors? Professors Lee Sang Oak and Chae Wan must have been greatly angered by this great omission by Mr. Ramsey and Mr. Iksop Lee. I would have as a scholar writing several chapters for a book.

In general, The Korean Language, though severely outdated due to the lack of Revised Romanization, is a very good book with wonderful scholarship, however it's not tailored for anyone who wishes to learn Korean as a language. For that purpose, the prospective Korean learner should learn from books published by Talk to Me in Korean, Darakwon, Tuttle, Routledge, and other publishers of Korean language learning books focused on grammar, vocabulary building, etc.

The treatment of the history of the Korean language is highly interesting, but I would have loved if he used the names of these letters as they are pronounced today: giyeok, ssang-giyeok, mieum, pieup, etc. But again, The Korean Language needs to be updated using the 2000 Revised Romanization created by The National Institute [Academy] of the Korean Language. All street signs in Korea, all books in Korea that use romanization, use this modern method. American Korean language scholars need to get with the times and stop using outdated or unpopular romanization methods such as McCune -Reischauer, Yale, etc.

Let's respect Koreans and their language preference and use the method of romanization they themselves developed for their own language! Let's stop linguistic imperialism by immediately updating all romanization in all Korean language books to reflect the 2000 Revised Romanization method created by Koreans (The National Institute [Academy] of the Korean Language, under direction of the Korean government) for everyone in the world romanizing their Korean language!

Helpful

Customer

Great book for linguists

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 17, 2018

As other reviews have said, this is not a guide to actually speaking and writing Korean. II thought it was a great presentation, however, and enjoyed the content, because I just wanted to learn about the language from the linguistic point of view.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

Amazon Customer

Concise History of The Korean Language

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 7, 2020

Verified Purchase

Recommended to any student of the language. Covers historical material not available from a simple language course, such as regarding words of Chinese origin or the Hangeul writing script, but which helps aid understanding of the development of certain aspects over time.

Hekima

One of the best books to master Korean language

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on March 3, 2021

Verified Purchase

Eines von den besten Büchern zum Koreanisch lernen. And it’s not expensive at all.

Translate review to English

ynephilim

u will luv it

Reviewed in Italy 🇮🇹 on June 23, 2020

Verified Purchase

u will luv it if u luv korean

"douganderson"

good book

Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on January 8, 2003

Verified Purchase

Completely agree with the first reviewer. I have the English edition. I found every section interesting and useful. The design of the alphabet in "Korean Writing" (very unique design), the many sound changes described in "Phonology" that I wasn't aware of and issues it raises in spelling, the use of tones (!) in Middle Korean and in some dialects of modern Korean. But of course the majority of the book is on the grammar of the language. It has copious examples and employs a modest set of vocabulary items. Many lists abound including a list of 14 appellations that can be used to address a person (besides the many used to address relatives).
Like Ramsey's book on Chinese, this is a very well written book and employs a very pleasing font. Every example is in Hangul and accompanied by modified Yale Romanization. Initially, I was not happy with "sensayng-nim" preferring instead something more familiar (to me) like "sohnsaeng-nim" but then I realized the Yale Romanization is much closer in spirit to Hangul and superior to the romanization I was accustomed to.
I recommend this book for anyone learning Korean who want to see the big picture. The book is packed with useful information that learners would without doubt benefit from. I think even advanced students would find something interesting.

2 people found this helpful

See all reviews

The Korean Language (SUNY series in Korean Studies) First Edition

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed