The expression of modality in Korean - Institut für ...

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genetic label on Korean 25 . Today, however, two main theories remain. The older theory claims
that Korean is a member of the Altaic language family 26 and attempts to find a link between
Korean and the Altaic languages were made practically as soon as the language family itself
was established 27 , but it was the works of Ramstedt 28 which advanced Korean genealogical
studies to a new level. The view that Korean is supposedly an Altaic language, belonging to
the Eastern branch (along with e.g. Mongolian and Tungus) and forming an individual
language sub-group 29 , is today shared by many scholars in this field, although one cannot
claim that substantial proof has ever been put forward. Today, the complexity of the question
of genetic affiliation of Korean to other languages may dictate an approach detached from the
general classification labels. In all probability (and this is the second, more recent theory)
Korean is an independent language, in the sense that it was located in an area which turned
out to be a major zone of contact for different language families, leaving traces in the
language of the Korean peninsula.
A discussion linked to the above is the question of whether Korean and Japanese share
a close genetic relationship. This claim was seemingly first put forward by the Confucian
scholar Hakuseki as early as 1717; the first explicit linguistic study in this direction was
made by Aston (1879). Studies by Japanese scholars such as Kanazawa (1910) are
25 The links proposed reach out in all four directions (east, west, south. and north) and offer a strong difference in
the degree of linguistic likelihood. The East theory claims that the Korean people originated from the east,
namely Japan, and that Old Korean was merely an early variety of Japanese spoken on the Korean peninsula.
This point of view, put forward by imperialist Japanese scholars, had a colonialistic motivation and as such can
be dismissed without further discussion. The West theory has two unrelated proposals, the first of which was
propagated by Hulbert (1905) who argued that Korean was related to the Dravidian languages. This claim was
based on the observation that Korean and the Dravidian languages share a number of similiarities, which he
considered suggestive of a genetic relation (surprisingly, this line of thought was taken up again by Clippinger
(1984)). The second proposal within the West theory is an attempt, put forward mainly by Eckardt (e.g. 1923,
1966) and taken up by e.g. Koppelmann (1933), to relate Korean to Indo-European. Apart from what may be
called archaeological and ethnic material, this approach is based mainly on lexical comparison. Eckardt’s list of
believed lexical correspondence includes items such as iss (be; Greek esti, Latin esse, German ist) or kul (cave,
hole; Sanskrit guh (hide), Greek koilos (hollow), Tocharian kukul (hole)). Very much like Hulbert’s proposal,
this attempt to classify Korean is based on mere coincidences. It is therefore of no surprise that both have been
reduced to a status of historical interest only. The South theory argues that the people of Korea, along with others
in the region, originated from the Malayo-Polynesian area. This proposal is more of an ethnographic rather than
a linguistic nature, attempting to explain the common traits in anthro-archaeological findings, agriculture,
mythology, etc. The linguistic material, however, is rather less striking. The theory, therefore, cannot be
accepted as convincing by linguists. The North theory connects Korean to the Altaic language family and is
discussed in further detail within the main text.
26 The term „Altaic“ was first used systematically by Klaproth (1823) and elaborated by Schott (1849). Generally,
the Altaic languages are seen as one of two major branches within the Ural-Altaic language family (cf. e.g.
Ruhlen (1976) or Voegelin & Voegelin (1977)).
27 Klaproth (1823) himself was followed by e.g. Boller (1857). The most important publication before the works
of Ramstedt, however, is that of Polivanov (1927).
28 Apart from his Korean Grammar (first published in 1939, reprinted in 1968), Ramstedt mainly worked on the
lexicon with the goal of establishing a link with the Altaic language family (e.g. 1949, 1952, 1957).
29 This detailed classification model was put forward by Miller (1971).