Middle Korean

Middle Korean
"Songs of the Moon Shining on a Thousand Rivers" (Worin Cheongang Jigok, 1447), a collection of Buddhist hymns composed by King Sejong
Region	Korea
Era	11th–16th centuries
Language family	Koreanic Middle Korean
Early forms	Proto-Koreanic Old Korean
Writing system	Hanja (Idu, Hyangchal, Gugyeol), Hangul
Language codes
ISO 639-3	okm
Linguist List	okm
Glottolog	midd1372
Korean name
Hangul	중세 한국어
Hanja	中世韓國語
Revised Romanization	Jungse hangugeo
McCune–Reischauer	Chungse han'gugŏ
North Korean name
Hangul	중세 조선어
Hanja	中世朝鮮語
Revised Romanization	Jungse joseoneo
McCune–Reischauer	Chungse chosŏnŏ

Middle Korean is the period in the history of the Korean language succeeding Old Korean and yielding in 1600 to the Modern period. The boundary between the Old and Middle periods is traditionally identified with the establishment of Goryeo in 918, but some scholars have argued for the time of the Mongol invasions of Korea (mid-13th century). Middle Korean is often divided into Early and Late periods corresponding to Goryeo (until 1392) and Joseon respectively. It is difficult to extract linguistic information from texts of the Early period, which are written using adaptations of Chinese characters. The situation was transformed in 1446 by the introduction of the Hangul alphabet, so that Late Middle Korean provides the pivotal data for the history of Korean.