Korean language

Korean
한국어, 조선말 Hangugeo, Chosŏnmal
Two names for Korean, Hangugeo and Chosŏnmal, written vertically in hangul
Native to	South Korea North Korea Jilin·Liaoning·Heilungjiang, China Japan (Koreans in Japan)
Native speakers	76 million  (2007)
Language family	Altaic (disputed) Koreanic Korean
Early forms:	Old Korean Middle Korean Korean
Dialects	Jeju
Writing system	Hangul (primary) Hanja (mixed script) Korean Braille Cyrillic (Koryo-mar)
Official status
Official language in	South Korea North Korea Yanbian, China
Regulated by	South Korea: The National Institute of the Korean Language 국립국어원/ 國立國語院 North Korea: Sahoe Kwahagwon Ŏhak Yŏnguso The Language Research Institute of Social Science 사회과학원 어학연구소/ 社會科學院 語學研究所
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ko
ISO 639-2	kor
ISO 639-3	Variously: kor – Modern Korean okm – Middle Korean oko – Old Korean
Linguist List	okm Middle Korean
	oko Old Korean
Linguasphere	45-AAA-a
Countries with native Korean-speaking populations. (Established immigrant communities in green)

The Korean language (Korean), is spoken mainly in North and South Korea. It is spoken by more than 78 million people (most of which are North or South Koreans).

In South Korea, it is called han'gukmal (한국말) or han'gugeo (Hangeul: 한국어, Hanja: 韓國語). In North Korea, however, it is called chosŏnmal (조선말) or chosŏnŏ (조선어, 朝鮮語). They are named differently because the common names for North and South Korea are different. In additional, Koreans usually call their language urimal (Hangeul: 우리말) or urinara mal (Hangeul: 우리나라 말) meaning "our language" or "our country's language".

Writing

In the writing system, Hangul is main alphabet. In North Korea, only Hangeul is used by law. In South Korea, only Hangeul should be used in some public areas like education, but Hanja is still used in some newspapers and professional areas. Hanja is the system of symbols used in the Chinese that are also used in Korean. Hanja was the only way to express Korean before the invention of Hangeul in the 15th century, and it was common for novels before the 19th century.