Similarities between the languages Korean and Tamil

Lousy pic courtesy: I, me, myself

Context: Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken in several countries in South Asia. Historical and modern linguists classify Korean as a language isolate (Source: Wikipedia, yes, pretty lame, but hey, this is not an academic article, this was written mostly for fun, no matter how geeky it reads).

When a friend (thanks, girl!) suggested a Korean drama on Netflix, I reluctantly watched one. But soon enough, I was hooked. I was completely taken with how the words sounded musical to the ears (not when the mom yells at her adult daughter who wouldn’t marry the guy or remains unmarried past the marriageable age, which btw takes place in a Tamil household too). Both the Korean and South Indian cultures ride a two-wheel cart trying to balance the age-old traditions and the social change the countries are undergoing.

This interest in the language, drama, and culture led me to consider learning Korean seriously. Adding a South-Asian language other than India's (I speak 4 of them) to the kitty was too tempting, especially when I didn’t have to learn complex looking drawings for letters. Korean alphabets seemed like a manageable lot to learn.

In the five months that I have been learning Korean, I grappled a lot in the dark because I was learning it by myself. I still do. As I discovered the similarities that the Korean language shared with Tamil, my motivation sparked like the elusive fireflies in the night.

So, let’s dive right into what I learned.

1. Both are Subject-Object-verb languages. This means one needs to wait for the sentence to end before knowing what the verb and the tense will be.
2. Both are agglutinative languages. Particles are added to the subject and verb to show which is which.
3. Both have three different honorifics — casual, formal, written form.
4. Both have single-letter consonants for sounds like ka/ga and pa/ba. Unless you know how to pronounce a word, chances are you will pronounce it with the wrong sound.
5. There are more than 800 words that are the same or similar in both languages.

I want to look past the similar-sounding words making the rounds on Youtube or any other search engine that involves a Korean and a Tamilian swapping notes on vocab. So the examples I’m presenting here are my own.

그는 집에 있었습니다. (Romanization: geuneun jib-e iss-eosseubnida)

அவர் வீட்டில் இருந்தார். (R: Avar veetil irundhaar)

He was at home.

Note: The problem with this English sentence is it doesn’t tell me if the ‘he’ merits an honorific. But when you look at the Korean and Tamil sentences, you know immediately that the ‘he’ is not the speaker’s peer by age, social or economic status.

이것은 아픔니까? (R: igeos-eun apeubnikka)

இது வலிக்கிறதா? (R: idhu valikkiradhaa?)

Does it hurt? / Is it hurting?

Note: In this example sentence, it is a word for word translation between Tamil and Korean.

This example is a bit bizarre, but I had fun figuring this out.

The first k-drama I watched was Something in the rain. The Korean title was 밥 잘 사주는 예쁜 누나 (Bap Jal Sajuneun Yeppeun Noona). The literal translation is something like Pretty sister who buys me food. The series wasn’t too bad because it wasn’t a uni-dimensional story. It showed the reality of a career woman, who is past the ‘marriageable age’, and who falls in love with a man younger than her, a man belonging to the lower status. All tropes that are relevant to the Tamil society.

It took me quite a while to figure out what each word meant.

So, the Korean title translates into Tamil as உணவு/சாப்பாடு/சோறு நன்றாக/நல்லா வாங்கி தரும் அழகான அக்கா (uNavu/saapaadu/Soaru naDraga/nallaa vaangi tharum azhagaana akka). The words separated by ‘/’ have different levels of formal-ness attached to them.

It looks like 누나 (noona) is more like an older woman than a sister. Like how a Tamilian would call a slightly older female stranger as அக்கா (akka). I don’t know how to explain — let’s just say that it has two usages, one to call one’s older sister as akka and the other one’s to call anyone who’s not related to you but you don’t know/can’t call them by their name out of respect. This makes me to extend to 누나 (noona) too.

Looking at both the sentences posed side by side or here one below the other, one can see that every word matches in the same order in both languages.

Let’s stick with a 판말 (panmal; in informal register) sentence here.

சோறு நல்லா வாங்கி தரும் அழகான அக்கா

밥 잘 사주는 예쁜 누나

밥 (Bap) means சோறு (food)

잘 (Jal) is நல்லா (well)

사주는 (Sajuneun) is வாங்கி தரும் (buy and give); here, even the combination of verbs 사다 and 주다 are the same as வாங்குவது and தருவது

예쁜 (Yeppeun) is அழகான (beautiful)

누나 (noona) is அக்கா (sister)

Needless to say, I have never come across a language that corresponded so seamlessly from/into Tamil.

This hypothesis holds true for simple sentences and phrases. I look forward to more discoveries as I learn more complex sentences.

So, there you have it! I hope you enjoyed reading about the similarities between the two languages. I hope the Korean language doesn’t feel so ‘isolated’ anymore.