Western Attitudes toward the Korean Language: An Overview of Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century Mission Literature
Abstract
Descriptions of Korea’s linguistic situation written by Westerners during the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries not only reveal native and foreign attitudes toward the Korean
language but also provide insight into language-focused evangelization tactics embraced
by Christian missionaries. Upon their arrival in Korea during the 1800s, Westerners
encountered a long-standing system of diglossia: socio-historical relations between
China and Korea gave rise to the use of various Korean “lects” in which the degree of
Chinese elements differed. Moreover, the nation’s indigenous writing system, han’g1l,
was widely regarded by Koreans as culturally subordinate to Chinese script, an attitude
that garnered much attention from Western observers. These sorts of language attitudes
were further reinforced by Westerners’ deterministic interpretations of Korea’s linguistic
situation; believing the Korean language to be linguistically defective, many Westerners
concluded that the Korean people suffered from corresponding deficiencies of intellect,
education, and morality. In a campaign to “educate” the Korean populace,
Christian missionaries worked to raise the status of the native language and orthography
as part of what would prove to be a highly effective evangelization strategy.