Language planning in Korea under the Japanese colonial administration, 1910–1945

Abstract

Abstract This study analyses language planning in Korea under the Japanese colonial administration from 1910 to 1945. In order to show how the oppressed language (Korean) served as an autonomously contested medium for reaction, we examine both the intended language planning of the Japanese colonial administration and reaction of the Korean scholars in the process of language planning. Status and corpus language planning are interpreted as the interplay between the colonial government and the resistance of the Korean linguists. As a result, Korean became a proscribed language, and interference of Japanese expressions in written Korean became more conspicuous. Nevertheless, the participation of Korean linguists in setting rules for Korean orthography was significant. The 1933 unification of the Korean orthography changed inconsistent phonetic orthography to a system of spelling based on morphological syllable division and became the standardised writing principle of contemporary Korean orthography.