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Nogŏltae
The ''Nogeoldae'' ('Old Cathayan') is a textbook of colloquial northern Chinese published in Korea in several editions from the 14th to 18th centuries. The book is an important source on both Late Middle Korean and the history of Mandarin Chinese. Later editions were translated into Manchu and Mongolian. Contents The word (Korean ; Old Mandarin ''Khita'') of the title, like the term ''Cathay'', is a transcription of the Mongolian form of '' Khitan'', a people who ruled northern China as the Liao dynasty (907–1125). It became a common name throughout Asia for China and all things Chinese. Here it means 'Chinese'. The word (, Korean , literally 'old') had been used as a prefix indicating familiarity (as in modern Standard Chinese) since at least the Tang period. The book mainly consists of dialogs centered on a journey of a Korean merchant to Beijing, and the Chinese travelers who join him on the way. It opens with the following lines: After arriving in Beijing, they sell ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bureau Of Interpreters
The Bureau of Interpreters or Sayŏgwŏn was an agency of the Joseon government of Korea from 1393 to 1894 responsible for training and supplying official interpreters. Textbooks for foreign languages produced by the bureau aimed to accurately describe contemporary speech and are thus valuable sources on the history of Korean and the various foreign languages. History In a country surrounded by linguistically distinct neighbours, Korean diplomacy has always relied on interpreters. They were a vital part of the national foreign policies of ''sadae'' 'serving the great' (i.e. China) and ''gyorin'' 'neighbourly relations'. King Chungnyeol of Goryeo, Chungnyeol of Goryeo established the T'ongmun'gwan (通文館 'Office of Interpretation') in 1276 to train interpreters in Chinese and (possibly) Mongolian. In 1393, the second year of the Joseon dynasty, the Bureau of Interpreters was established as part of the Ministry of Rites. Regulations stipulated that its director would be an J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Korean
Middle Korean is the period in the history of the Korean language succeeding Old Korean and yielding in 1600 to the Modern period. The boundary between the Old and Middle periods is traditionally identified with the establishment of Goryeo in 918, but some scholars have argued for the time of the Mongol invasions of Korea (mid-13th century). Middle Korean is often divided into Early and Late periods corresponding to Goryeo (until 1392) and Joseon respectively. It is difficult to extract linguistic information from texts of the Early period, which are written using adaptations of Chinese characters. The situation was transformed in 1446 by the introduction of the Hangul alphabet, so that Late Middle Korean provides the pivotal data for the history of Korean. Sources Until the late 19th century, most formal writing in Korea, including government documents, scholarship and much literature, was written in Classical Chinese. Before the 15th century, the little writing in Korean was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daegu
Daegu (, , literally 'large hill', 대구광역시), formerly spelled Taegu and officially known as the Daegu Metropolitan City, is a city in South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; it is the third-largest official metropolitan area in the nation with over 2.5 million residents; and the second-largest city after Busan in the Yeongnam region in southeastern Korean Peninsula. It was overtaken by Incheon in the 2000s, but still it is said to be the third city, according to the "Act on the Establishment of Daegu City and Incheon City" (Act No. 3424 and April 13, 1981). Daegu and surrounding North Gyeongsang Province are often referred to as Daegu-Gyeongbuk, with a total population over 5 million. Daegu is located in south-eastern Korea about from the seacoast, near the Geumho River and its mainstream, Nakdong River in Gyeongsang-do. The Daegu basin is the central plain of the Yeongnam List of regions of Korea, regio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A New Manual
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English grammar, " a", and its variant " an", are indefinite articles. History The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
