South Korea: language policy and planning in the making

Abstract

This monograph discusses South Korea?s language situation in a language policy and planning context. This monograph consists of four parts. Part 1 presents a genetic, typological and sociolinguistic description of South Korea?s national language, and an overview of minority languages, including English as well as other languages, recently transported into the country by migrant workers and foreign brides. Also included is information on the native writing system called Hankul. Part 2 focuses on language spread and maintenance through the national education system and other means. Part 3 concerns the major issues in South Korea?s language planning and policy, including orthographic reforms, lexical purification, the use and teaching of Chinese characters, digitization of Korean, and ?linguistic reunification? of North and South Korea. The final part of the monograph explores future prospects of South Korea?s language policy, some of the major issues being the ?linguistic reunification? of North and South Korea, the status and role of English and Chinese, and emergent multilingualism. The monograph also contains some thoughts on how language planning and policy might need to develop in the future, especially with respect to issues that do not directly concern the national language, e.g. emergent multilingualism.