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. 2015 May 29;10(5):e0128448.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0128448. eCollection 2015.

A sketch of language history in the Korean Peninsula

Affiliations

A sketch of language history in the Korean Peninsula

Sean Lee. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Among 7100 languages spoken on Earth, the Koreanic language is the 13th largest, with about 77 million speakers in and around the Korean Peninsula. In comparison to other languages of similar size, however, surprisingly little is known about the evolution of the Koreanic language. This is mainly due to two reasons. The first reason is that the genealogical relationship of the Koreanic to other neighboring languages remains uncertain, and thus inference from the linguistic comparative method provides only provisional evidence. The second reason is that, as the ancestral Koreanic speakers lacked their own writing system until around 500 years ago, there are scant historical materials to peer into the past, except for those preserved in Sinitic characters that we have no straightforward way of interpreting. Here I attempt to overcome these disadvantages and shed some light on the linguistic history of the Korean Peninsula, by analyzing the internal variation of the Koreanic language with methods adopted from evolutionary biology. The preliminary results presented here suggest that the evolutionary history of the Koreanic language is characterized by a weak hierarchical structure, and intensive gene/culture flows within the Korean Peninsula seem to have promoted linguistic homogeneity among the Koreanic variants. Despite the gene/culture flows, however, there are still three detectable linguistic barriers in the Korean Peninsula that appear to have been shaped by geographical features such as mountains, elevated areas, and ocean. I discuss these findings in an inclusive manner to lay the groundwork for future studies.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The author has declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Map of the Koreanic language variants.
Colored areas represent the conventional subgrouping scheme for the Koreanic language variants (Orange-Hamgyong, Yellow-Pyongan, Aqua-Central, Blue-Gyeongsang, Purple-Jeolla, Red-Jeju). Sample locations: 1-Jeju, 2-Southern Jeolla, 3-Northern Jeolla, 4-Southern Gyeongsang, 5-Northern Gyeongsang, 6-Southern Chungcheong, 7-Northern Chungcheong, 8-Gyeonggi, 9-Gangwong, 10-Hwanghae, 11-Southern Pyongan, 12-Northern Pyongan, 13-Southern Hamgyong, 14-Northern Hamgyong.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Phylogenies of 15 Korean language variants.
(A) Left panel shows a maximum clade credibility tree. Branches are colored according to the conventional subgrouping scheme (Orange-Hamgyong, Yellow-Pyongan, Aqua-Central, Blue-Gyeongsang, Purple-Jeolla, Red-Jeju). All node heights are scaled to match the posterior median node heights. The value on each branch is the posterior probability, showing the percentage support for the following node. (B) Right panel shows a cloudogram of consensus trees. Branch lengths of each consensus tree represent the average branch lengths of all sampled trees with the same topology. The low node supports in the maximum clade credibility tree and the lack of consistency in the cloudogram indicate that the evolution of the Koreanic language variants is far from treelike. Estimated divergence times are not shown because they may potentially be misleading. Numbers in the tip labels match the sample locations in Fig 1.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Split graph showing the results of NeighborNet and STRUCTURE.
Reticulations indicate presence of conflicting signal, which can be interpreted as admixture, horizontal transmission, and rapid radiation. Circles at the tips represent the amount of admixture between clusters (K = 2) estimated by STRUCTURE. Numbers in the tip labels match the sample locations in Fig 1.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Maps showing the geographical features and linguistic barriers.
(A) Left panel shows point-by-point estimates of altitude in the Korean Peninsula. (B) Right panel shows the result of Barrier analysis on a geometric network of sample locations. Sample locations: 1-Jeju, 2-Southern Jeolla, 3-Northern Jeolla, 4-Southern Gyeongsang, 5-Northern Gyeongsang, 6-Southern Chungcheong, 7-Northern Chungcheong, 8-Gyeonggi, 9-Gangwong, 10-Hwanghae, 11-Southern Pyongan, 12-Northern Pyongan, 13-Southern Hamgyong, 14-Northern Hamgyong.

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