Korean, spoken by over 75 million people primarily in South Korea and North Korea, is one of the world’s most unique languages. According to the eLinguistics.net analysis using specific software modules to assess linguistic relationships, the five languages most similar to Korean are Cantonese, Gan, Mandarin, Finnish, and Hakka.
- Cantonese (29.7)
Spoken primarily in Guangdong province and Hong Kong, Cantonese differs significantly from Korean in terms of grammar and tonality. However, these languages do share some similar vocabulary, due to historical Chinese influence. - Gan (23.7)
Another Chinese language, Gan, which is predominantly spoken in Jiangxi province, shares some phonetic similarities with Korean. Chinese languages, have influenced Korean vocabulary to some extent, however the degree of similarity is not extensive. - Mandarin (21.9)
Mandarin, the most widely spoken Chinese language, also differs from Korean in being a tonal language. Still, Mandarin has contributed significantly to Korean vocabulary. However, pronunciation and context usage remain different. - Finnish (20.0)
The only non-Chinese language on this list is Finnish, a Uralic language. It shares more phonetic similarities with Korean than the Chinese languages do. Both have a relatively simple vowel system and use vowel harmony. However, there is little shared vocabulary. - Hakka (20.0)
Another Chinese language, primarily spoken in Southern China, shares some phonetic similarities with Korean but significantly differs due to its tonal nature. In addition, their vocabulary similarity is less pronounced compared to Mandarin.
(to be considered for the list, the language must be spoken by at least one million people)
한국어와 비슷한 언어: 칸토네스, 간, 만다린