| Korean honorifics | |
|---|---|
| Hangul | 높임말 / 경어 |
| Hanja | none / 敬語 |
| Revised Romanization | nopimmal / gyeong-eo |
| McCune–Reischauer | nopimmal /kyŏng-ŏ |
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The Korean language reflects the important observance of a speaker or writer's relationships with both the subject of the sentence and the audience. Korean grammar uses an extensive system of honorifics to reflect the speaker's relationship to the subject of the sentence and speech levels to reflect the speaker's relationship to the audience. Originally, the honorifics expressed the differences in social status between speakers. In contemporary Korean culture, honorifics are used to differentiate between formal and informal speech based on the level of familiarity between the speaker and the listener.
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When talking about someone superior in status, a speaker or writer must indicate the subject's superiority by using special nouns or verb endings. Generally, someone is superior in status if he or she is an older relative, a stranger of roughly equal or greater age, an employer, a teacher, a customer, or the like. Someone is equal or inferior in status if he or she is a younger stranger, a student, an employee or the like. The use of wrong speech levels or diction is likely to be considered insulting, depending on the degree of difference between the used form and the expected form.
One way of using honorifics is to use special "honorific" nouns in place of regular ones. A common example is using 진지 (jinji) instead of 밥 (bap) for "food". Often, honorific nouns are used to refer to relatives. The honorific suffix -님 (-nim) is affixed to many kinship terms to make them honorific. Thus, someone may address his own grandmother as 할머니 (halmeoni) but refer to someone else's grandmother as 할머님 (halmeonim).
| Base noun | Honorific | English translation |
|---|---|---|
| 할머니 (halmeoni) | 할머님 (halmeonim) | grandmother |
| 아버지 (abeoji) | 아버님 (abeonim) | father |
| 형 (hyeong) | 형님 (hyeongnim) | a male's older brother |
| 누나 (noona) | 누님 (nunim) | a male's older sister |
| 오빠 (oppa) | 오라버니 (orabeoni) | a female's older brother |
| 언니 (eonni) | a female's older sister | |
| 아들 (adeul) | 아드님 (adeunim) | son |
| 딸 (ddal) | 따님 (ddanim) | daughter |
All verbs and adjectives can be converted into an honorific form by adding the infix -시- (-si-) or -으시- (-eusi-) after the stem and before the ending. Thus, 가다 (gada, "to go") becomes 가시다 (gasida). A few verbs have special honorific equivalents:
| Base verb/adjective | Regular honorific | English translation |
|---|---|---|
| 가다 (gada) | 가시다 (gasida) | "to go" |
| 받다 (batda) | 받으시다 (bad-eusida) | "to receive" |
| 작다 (jakda) | 작으시다 (jag-eusida) | "(to be) small" |
| Base verb/adjective | Special honorific | English translation |
| 있다 (itda) | 계시다 (gyesida) | "to exist" |
| 마시다 (masida) | 드시다 (deusida) | "to drink" |
| 먹다 (meokda) | 드시다 (deusida) | "to eat" |
| 먹다 (meokda) | 잡수시다 (japsusida) | "to eat" |
| 자다 (jada) | 주무시다 (jumusida) | "to sleep" |
| 배고프다 (baegopeuda) | 시장하시다 (sijanghasida) | "to be hungry" |
A few verbs have special humble forms, used when the speaker is referring to him/herself in polite situations. These include 드리다 (deurida) and 올리다 (ollida) for 주다 (juda, "give"). 드리다 (deurida) is substituted for 주다 (juda) when the latter is used as an auxiliary verb, while 올리다 (ollida, literally "raise up") is used for 주다 (juda) in the sense of "offer".
Pronouns in Korean have their own set of polite equivalents, e.g. 저 (jeo) is the humble form of 나 (na, "I") and 저희 (jeohui) is the humble form of 우리 (uri, "we"). However, Koreans usually avoid using the second person singular pronoun, especially when using honorific forms, and often avoid the third person pronouns as well. So, although honorific form of 너 (neo, singular "you") is 당신 (dangsin, literally, "friend" or "dear"), that term is used only as a form of address in a few specific social contexts, such as between two married couples or in an ironic sense between strangers. Other words are usually substituted where possible, e.g. the person's name, a kinship term, a professional title, the plural 여러분 yeoreobun, or no word at all, relying on context to supply meaning instead.
Ssi (Hangul: 씨, Hanja: 氏) is the most commonly used honorific used amongst people of approximately equal speech level. It is attached at the end of the full name,such as Kimcheolsu-ssi (김철수씨) or simply after the first name, Cheolsu-ssi (철수씨) if the speaker is more familiar with someone. Appending -ssi to the surname, for instance Kim-ssi (김씨), can be quite rude, as it indicates the speaker considers himself to be of a higher social status than the person referred to. Ssi is derived from the Chinese character 氏, meaning surname and has its equivalent (and cognate) in the Japanese 氏(し;shi), pronounced 'shi' or 'uji'.
Previously, higher-ranked individuals used -ssi to address individuals of lower ranks; recently however, -ssi has begun to be used symmetrically, for two individuals of approximate equal standing. This change perhaps indicates towards the leveling out of previously rigid, hierarchical Korean social rankings.
Seonsaeng (선생, 先生), commonly translated as "teacher", has much more formality and is used to show respect to the addressee. It is related to the Japanese honorific, sensei (先生(せんせい）)and shares the same pair of Chinese characters, representing 'mister' or 'one born earlier' (literal).
Seonbae (선배, 先輩) is used to address senior colleagues or mentor figures, e.g. students referring to or addressing more senior students in schools, junior athletes more senior ones in a sports club, or a mentor or more experienced or senior colleague in a business environment. As with English titles such as Doctor, Seonbae can be used either by itself or as a title. Hubae (후배, 後輩) is used to refer to juniors. However, the term is not normally addressed to them directly, and is mainly used in the third person.
This is nearly identical in Japanese with Senpai/Kohai honorifics.
Gun (군, 君, Chinese: jun) is used moderately on very formal occasions, such as weddings, to a male only. Yang (양, 孃, Chinese: niang) is the female equivalent of 군. Both are used in a similar fashion to Ssi, succeeding either the whole name or the surname in solitude. 군 is derived from the Chinese character 君, which means 'lord'. Gun is not to be confused with its Japanese cognate 君 (くん;kun) which is used less formally.
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