Korean voice overs: what you need to know

Korean is an East Asian language, spoken mostly in the Korean Peninsula. Korean is the sole official language of South Korea and North Korea, as well as one of the official languages of China.

Korean is spoken by around 75 million people, out of which 48 million reside in South Korea and 24 million – in North Korea.

Language History

Early Korean roots are not fully known. Linguists believe that Korean originated around the 7th century from Sillan – an ancient Koreanic language, spoken in the Three Korean Kingdoms.

Up until the 15th century, Korean didn’t have its own alphabet. Until then, Chinese characters, or Hanja, were used for writing. King Sejong the Great personally created a new Korean alphabet – Hangul –  that was much simpler than the Chinese one. This alphabet is still used to this day.

The separation of North and South Koreas had a big impact on the standard Korean language. Because of the division, differences in speech are present between Korean spoken in the North and in the South of the peninsula.

Close Relations

The Korean language is somewhat a phenomenon in the linguistic world. Similarly to Japanese, Korean is a language isolate – it doesn’t have any known genealogical relations to other languages.

However, Korean does have some minor similarities with other languages, most prominently – with Japanese. The two languages share some common morphological and syntactic features.

Contrary to popular opinion, Korean and Chinese are not genetically related. However, Korean adopted a big part of its vocabulary from Chinese. Other foreign borrowings are also present in the Korean lexis – words of English and Mongolian origin are quite frequent.

Accents and Voice Over Tips

Korean dialects are grouped into three categories based on geography: Northeastern, Northwestern, and Central. All these groups include dozens of regional varieties.

Korean has two official standards: one that’s used in North Korea and another – in South Korea.

Gyeonggi dialect, or the so-called Seul dialect, is a central dialect and is the basis of the standard Korean in South Korea. On the other side, the Pyongan dialect is the basis of the standard Korean in North Korea. In general, there are some pronunciation and vocabulary differences between the two, but they are mutually intelligible.

One thing to keep in mind when recording a Korean voice over is the complex honorifics system. Korean has certain particles, verbs, and other forms that alter the meaning of words. The honorifics system is particularly complicated as it has many variations, depending on the social context.

So when it comes to Korean, it’s wise to know who your listeners are going to be. Different ages, social statuses, and genders greatly influence how Korean is spoken.