Currently the Korean language is spoken by 70 million people in Korean peninsular. Other than that, in the Peninsular , there are around 2 million people that speak the language in China, 2 million in United State and 700,000 in Japan. It is ranked 11th/12th among the top languages of the world.So the Korean language is one of the major languages of the world.In South Korea there have main 5 dialects while North Korea has only one dialect.Although sociopolitical and geographical factors make these dialects different but the language remain relatively homogenous.
The origins of the Korean language have never been definitely established. But there are two widely accepted and interconnected theories about its genetic affinities. Korean language is a member of the Altaic language group that originated in north Asia. The Altaic family has 3 branches: Turkic, Mongolian and Tungusic. But Korea is more closely related to Tungusic than Turkic and Mongolian. However, the Altaic hypothesis has not been accepted due to lack of regular sound correspondence between Korean and Altaic language. Other scholars tried to relating the Korean language with other language families such as Dravidian and Austronesian but there are still lack of evidence. Hence, many linguists chose to regard Korean as a language isolate.( no relatives)
Reference:
1. Oak Lee, Sang. Korean Language and Culture. Korea: Sotong, 2009.
1. Oak Lee, Sang. Korean Language and Culture. Korea: Sotong, 2009.