Koreanic

Koreanic is a term used in historical and comparative linguistics to denote the language family that includes Korean and related varieties on the Korean Peninsula and Jeju Island. The principal living languages in this family are Korean, spoken by the majority of people in North and South Korea and in diaspora communities, and Jeju, spoken on Jeju Island. Some analyses treat Jeju as a separate language within Koreanic rather than a dialect of Korean.

Within linguistic classification, Koreanic is considered a small language family or a language cluster. Its internal branching is not universally agreed; some scholars treat Korean and Jeju as the two primary Koreanic languages. The wider genetic affiliation of Koreanic to other language families (for example, proposals linking Koreanic to Altaic, Japonic, or Tungusic) is controversial and not widely accepted in contemporary mainstream linguistics; many authors consider Koreanic to be a distinct, relatively isolated branch of the world’s language map.

Phonologically and morphologically, Koreanic languages share traits typical of agglutinative languages with postpositional grammar and relatively rigid word order, often described as SOV. They employ honorific systems, extensive affixation, and a long history of phonological change that has shaped the modern Korean writing system and pronunciation.

Scholarly attention to Koreanic has fluctuated; the term emphasizes genetic relationships among Korean varieties rather than political or cultural boundaries. Ongoing research continues to refine the internal structure of the Koreanic family and its historical depth.