Historical factors of early lexical borrowings in the modern Korean language

Shalamova Olga Olegovna, Lee Nadezhda Benminovna

This article presents the results of a study of the historical factors of lexical borrowings in the Korean language. The definition of "lexical borrowing" is given, and the vocabulary of the modern Korean language is considered from the perspective of its replenishment with foreign language vocabulary during a certain period of the history of the Korean language and the Korean peninsula. Based on the understanding that extralinguistic factors largely explain the presence of lexical borrowings as linguistic units denoting new objects and phenomena in culture, the article presents a description of cultural events that influenced the natural process of borrowing from Chinese, Japanese, and European languages.

Keywords:historical factors, lexical borrowing, foreign vocabulary, Korean language, assimilation, Republic of Korea, North Korea.