Similarities between Korean and my mother tongue Urdu.
When you start learning a new language, you begin to appreciate the structure of different languages and relations between them. For example, when I started learning Korean, I realized that it was much easier and convenient to map Korean phrases and vocabulary to my native language, Urdu (Awadhi/Hindi) rather than English. In this blog, we will talk about some similarities between Korean and my native language, Urdu.
The Honorific(존댓말 - Jondemal) vs Informal(반말 - Bammal)
Korean has different ways in which one is supposed to talk to other people based on the formality of the setting. These ways mostly manifest themselves in the form of different sentence endings/verb-suffixes. This is very similar to what we have in Urdu, more specifically, Lucknowi Urdu. Lucknow is a major centre for Urdu learning right next to my native place. The secrets of the Lucknowi Tehzeeb(culture) lie in the way we talk to strangers or elders. The first time I heard my cousin say,
‘مممی کھانا دو / Mammi khana do!’
which is the casual way of saying, “Mom, give me food” in Urdu, I cringed and (literally)complained about it to my mother. I was largely unaware that Korean too had such a distinction. During my initial days in Korea, I found myself using the Speech to Text translators way too often. On one such occasion, I was talking to the receptionist in my apartment building. While replying to me, he said something into my phone in Korean, and upon translation, it read, “We don’t use such words for the elderly in Korea.” I didn’t realise the mistake until I saw the Honorific mode in the translator, which had been off until then. Both the languages, Korean and Urdu have this distinction. More often than not, the informal form can be obtained by clipping the sentence endings in both Urdu and Korean. This similarity is not just limited to the structure. A lot of polite phrases in these languages are literal translations of each other.
To Request something
When you request someone to do something for you, you use the word ‘to give’ both in Urdu and Korean. Sometimes, the word corresponding to ‘little/some’ can be added to make the sentences even more polite. If we look at the Korean and Urdu sentences one would utter while politely asking someone to open the door,
‘تھوڑا سا دروازہ کھول دیجئے /Thora sa darwaza khol dijiye’
‘문 좀 열어 주세요’ /Mun jom Yorojuseyo)’
these 2 sentences are word by word translations of each other. If we literally translate these sentences into English, it would be something like, ‘Open the door a little and give me’ The words ‘little’ and ‘give’ are used in almost all polite sentences(in both Urdu and Korean) where you are trying to request someone to do something for you. For Urdu readers, if you think about how to request someone to sing,
‘تھوڑا سا گاکر سنا دیجئے /Thora sa ga kar suna dijiye’
it literally translates to ‘Sing a little and give listening to me.’ The Korean sentence is very similar.
‘노래를좀불러주세요 /Norae jom bullawjuseyo’
Have you ever/ Try this
In Urdu, to ask if someone has done something, one would commonly say, “Ye pahle kabhi karke dekha hai?/ Ye khake dekha hai?” which literally translates to, “Have you ever done and seen this?/ Have you ever eaten and seen this?” Interestingly, this is exactly the same for Korean.
‘치킨 먹어봤어요? Chickin Mawgobwassawyo?’
which means “Have you ever tried Chicken?” but a literal translation would be, “Have you eaten and seen Chicken”. Similarly, if you want to ask someone to try something, you again use the word ‘to see’ which is
‘کرکے دیکھو karke dekho / 해보세요 HaeBuseyo’
in Urdu/Korean. This again might seem strange when literally translated to English, but is used very often in both of these languages.
Nunchi/눈치
Another thing that motivated me to write this is a Korean concept called Nunchi. It is a Korean word which can be loosely translated into ‘nuance/sense’. Nunchi, however, defines the art of perceving that which is not being said. I think it is also applicable to Urdu, at least to the traditional form and culture which surrounds it. In Korea,
‘눈치없는 사람/ Nunchi Obmnun Saram’
or a man without Nunchi might also refer to a dumb/tactless person. It might be confusing, but it is only justified that the Korean word which points to the English word Nuance, has some nuance around itself. In Urdu, the saying,
‘عقلمند انسان کے لئے اشارہ کافی ہوتا ہے /Aql-mand Insaan ke liye ishara hi kaafi hota hai’
which says that ‘A gesture is enough for a wise man’ points to the similarity I am talking about here. I think this similarity can also be viewed as a result of both places being high-context cultures. A lot more has to be sensed as compared to being verbally communicated.
Sentence Structure/ Word Order
There are a lot of similarities between the two languages in terms of the word order. Both Urdu and Korean have verbs at the end. The word order is not fixed, and there are multiple permissible orderings.
Random Examples
In English, you ‘go’ to sleep, while in Urdu/Korean, sleep ‘comes’ to you:
English: ‘I can’t go to sleep’
Urdu: ‘نیند نہیں آرہی /Neend nahi aarahi hai’
Korean: ‘잠이안와요 Jami An-wayo’
There are some words which mean exactly the same thing in Korean and Urdu. ‘Sal/سال/살 ‘ means a year in both Urdu and Korean. The word to call someone(calling an ambulance) is ‘Bullao/Bullayo/بلاو /불러요’ in both.
A few disclaimers-
- As I discussed these similarities with my colleagues, I got to know that Tamil and Korean share 100s of common words. There is a Youtube video about this, which you can find here.
- Random fact: Similar to how ‘Indian’ is not a language and ‘Hindi’ is, ‘Chinese’ is ‘Mandarin’, ‘Korean’ is ‘Hangul’, ‘Japanese’ is ‘Nihongo’, ‘Persian’ is ‘Farsi’ and so on.
- I grew up in the heart of Awadh. If language was food and regions cuisines, this place would certainly be the Indian cuisine. It is far from being bland, the languages mix in such a way that it is near to impossible for most people to decide what language they speak. To make things easy, we call it Awadhi. Hence, it is very difficult to tell what my native language is. I thought a lot about it and reached the conclusion that the closest one is Urdu. Interestingly enough, I also realise and accept that this might not be true even for someone as close as my neighbours. Welcome to India!