Korean language scientifically superior
Dec 16, 2011 (The Korea Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- SEOUL (THE KOREA HERALD/ANN) -- As a scholar who has spent the past four decades studying his mother-tongue and language in general, professor Sohn Ho-min should know what he's talking about when he says Korean is the world's most superior language.
"When we say Korean is superior, we are basing this on scientific examination. The Korean language's method of making sound through a combination of vowels and consonants is very scientific and economical, even," professor Sohn of the University of Hawaii told a news conference in Seoul, Thursday.
Sohn just received the Korean Foundation Award for promoting Korean in the United States. Looks like he deserves it. Not sure, though, exactly how the combination of vowels and consonants in Korean is unique or superior.
There is a major meme about how Korean is a structurally unique and even 'superior' language, and it's not hard to get into conversations about why it is or isn't. Just search a string like "Korean language superior" and you'll get a sense of how widespread it is.
I suppose, given the subject line, that this post is one that will get hits from Google from people actually seeking an evaluation of the claim of Korean as "the world's most superior language". Here's an answer: No language is structurally superior to others in any scientific sense. Evidence to the contrary most welcome!
That said, the Korean alphabet is a thing of wonder and beauty. Celebrated, rightly, with a national holiday.
3 comments:
"As a scholar who has spent the past four decades studying his mother-tongue and language in general, professor Sohn Ho-min should know what he's talking about when he says Korean is the world's most superior language."
No chance of bias there!
Uh-huh, and doesn't this work nicely into my previous post about N'Ko and the difference between language and orthography??? (Not that I'm pimping my own posts or anything.) (Hey, baby, pimp my post!)
I do love the consonants and vowels part. Korean, unlike ANY OTHER LANGUAGE IN THE WORLD, uses consonants and vowels. Wahoo!
I suspect the Korean scholar confused letters with sounds — and that he really ment he found the syllabic arrangement of vowel- and consonant-letters into syllable-blocks tbetter (for some unspecified reason) than the linear arrangement common in other alphabets.
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