page_title: Koreanic languages
section_title: Extant languages
hierarchical_section_title: Koreanic languages / Extant languages
context_page_description: Koreanic is a compact language family consisting of Korean and the language of Jeju Island.
  The latter is often described as a dialect of Korean, but is distinct enough to be considered a separate language.
  A few scholars suggest that the Yukchin dialect of the far northeast should be similarly distinguished.
  Korean is richly documented since the introduction of the Hangul alphabet in the 15th century.
  Earlier renditions of Korean using Chinese characters are much more difficult to interpret.
  All modern varieties are descended from the Old Korean of the state of Silla.
  The little that is known of other languages spoken on the peninsula before the Sillan unification comes largely from placenames.
  Some of these languages are believed to have been Koreanic, but there is also evidence that Japonic languages were spoken in central and southern parts of the peninsula.
  There have been many attempts to link Koreanic with other language families, most often with Tungusic or Japonic, but no genetic linkage has been conclusively demonstrated.
context_section_description: The various forms of Korean are conventionally described as "dialects" of a single Korean language, but breaks in intelligibility justify viewing them as a small family or two or three languages.
caption: Dialect zones[1][2][3]