Korean honorifics

Infobox Korean name


caption=
hangul=높임말 / 경어
hanja="none" / linktext|敬|語
rr=nopimmal / gyeong-eo
mr=nopimmal /kyŏng-ŏThe Korean language reflects the important observance of a speaker or writer's relationships with both the subject of the sentence and the audience. Korean grammar uses an extensive system of honorifics to reflect the speaker's relationship to the subject of the sentence and speech levels to reflect the speaker's relationship to the audience.

Common Honorifics

i

Ssi (씨) is the most commonly used honorific used amongst people of approximately equal speech level. It is attached at the end of the full name (such as Kimcheolsu-ssi) or simply after the surname (Kim-ssi). The word is pronounced 'shi' with a terse 'i' sound. Ssi is derived from the Chinese character 氏, meaning surname and has its equivalent (and cognate) in the Japanese 氏(し).

Gun/Yang

Gun (군) is used moderately on very formal occasions, such as weddings, to a male only. Yang (양) is the female equivalent of Gun. Both are used in a similar fashion to Ssi, succeeding either the whole name or the surname in solitude. Gun is derived from the Chinese character 君, which means 'king', whilst Yang has its roots in 羊, which originally means sheep. Gun is not to be confused with its Japanese cognate 君 (くん）which is used less formally.

eonsaeng

Seonsaeng (선생) has much more formality and is used to show respect to the addressee. It is related to the Japanese honorific, 先生(せんせい）and shares the same pair of Chinese characters, representing 'teacher' or 'one has lived before' (literal).

Gwiha/Gakha

Gwiha (귀하) and Gakha (각하) are used only in extremely formal occasions, usually only in a letter or when addressing monarchs and presidents.-- () 10:30, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Archaic Honorifics

Nari

Nari (나리) or alternatively, Naeuri (나으리), was used by commoners in the Joseon Dynasy, to refer to people of higher status, but could not qualify to be called a 'Daegam' [http://100.naver.com/100.nhn?docid=33802] . The honorific is of native Korean origin.

Honorific Speech

When talking about someone superior in status, a speaker or writer must indicate the subject's superiority by using special nouns or verb endings. Generally, someone is superior in status if he or she is an older relative, a stranger of roughly equal or greater age, an employer, a teacher, a customer, or the like. Someone is equal or inferior in status if he or she is a younger stranger, a student, an employee or the like. The use of wrong speech levels or diction is likely to be considered insulting, depending on the degree of difference between the used form and the expected form.

One way of using honorifics is to use special "honorific" nouns in place of regular ones. A common example is using ("jinji") instead of ("bap") for "food". Often, honorific nouns are used to refer to relatives. The honorific suffix ("-nim") is affixed to many kinship terms to make them honorific. Thus, someone may address his own grandmother as ("halmeoni") but refer to someone else's grandmother as ("halmeonim").

ee also

*Honorifics

References