HISTORY OF KOREAN LANGUAGE 1

History of Korean Language 1 is one of the core courses within the Korea curriculum of the Corso di Laurea in "Lingue, Culture e Società dell'Asia e dell'Africa Mediterranea".
Its formative objectives are to be identified within the learning of linguistic and philological competences
It is necessary for the acquisition of basic information relevant to the History of Korean language, its writing systems, and aiming at clarifying the process which led Korea to invent her own alphabetic system in the XV century.

Knowledge and comprehension:
- knowing and understanding the main elements of the history of Korean language and writing systems from its origin to the 15th century.
- connect them with historical and cultural developments studied in other courses of the same curriculum, relevant to the same historical period.

Ability to apply knowledge and comprehension:
- ability to analyze and explain texts written in different writing systems, by utilizing given interpretation methods

Judgment abilities:
- ability to produce critiques on textual, historical and literary themes included in the study programme, by recurring to critically and historically solid arguments
- ability to evaluate all kinds of literary primary sources

Communicative abilities:
- ability ot express and elaborate in writing the contents of the course programme, using critical approach and not mnemonical strategies.

Learning abilities:
- learn how to take notes effectively and thoroughly
- how to integrate the study on different materials (notes, slides, manuals, creative texts and academic articles)
- learning to study autonomously with materials and on subjects not covered in class
- Learning how to deal with materials in English

The students should possess at least basic knowledge of the morpho-syntactic structure of the Korean language, whereas it is not deemed necessary a knowledge of Literary Chinese. Each lesson will indeed be thoroughly and carefully explained to the students, in each of the most difficult passages.

The conquest, in mid-XV cent., of its own writing system, represents for Korea a fundamental achievement which has no equivalent in the history of world writing systems. The creation of the new alphabet by a group of court erudites under the guidance of King Sejong is the result of centuries of observation and reflection on the structure of the Korean spoken language and of the Chinese written dimension. It is also the result of an in-depth phonetic and phonological knowledge of the two above-mentioned languages, as well as of other languages in the region.
The course aims at describing the various phases leading Koreans to the creation of their own alphabetic system, and students will be guided, step after step, along this fascinating and charming journey through the various pre-alphabetical writing systems, up to the description of the alphabet han'geul, and to its literary and cultural repercussions. The advent of a new writing system also leads to important implications in the printing sector, subject of the course conclusive lecture.

Lesson 1: Introduction to the course: aims and methodology
Lesson 2: Theories on the origins of Korean Language
Lesson 3: Formation and Development of Korean Language (part 1)
Lesson 4: Formation and Development of Korean Language(part 2)
Lesson 5: Pre-alphabetic Writing Systems (part 1)
Lesson 6: Pre-alphabetic Writing Systems (part 2)
Lesson 7: Pre-alphabetic Writing Systems (part 3)
Lesson 8: Towards the Alphabet: Chiphyeonjeon scholars and King Sejong
Lesson 9: Middle Korean and the Alphabet
Lesson 10: Hunmin Cheongeum (part 1)
Lesson 11: Hunmin Cheongeum (part 2)
Lesson 12: Early Middle Korean
Lesson 13: Late Middle Korean
Lesson 14: The Invention of the Alphabet: Its Implications
Lesson 15: A Glimpse into the History of Printing in Korea

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ki-Moon Lee and S. Robert Ramsey, A History of the Korean Language, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 2011

Iksop Lee and S. Robert Ramsey, The Korean Language (Suny Series, Korean Studies), Suny Press, New York: 2001

ADDITIONAL MATERIALS AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES WILL BE DISTRIBUTED AT BEGINNING AND DURING CLASS.

Written test with open answers and/or multiple choices.

The course consists of teacher-led classes

Italian

Due to the complex interrelation of the treated subjects, attendance is strongly recommended.

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