164-585: Girls' Generation ( Korean : 소녀시대 ; RR : Sonyeo Sidae ), also known as SNSD , is a South Korean girl group formed by SM Entertainment . The group is composed of eight members: Taeyeon , Sunny , Tiffany , Hyoyeon , Yuri , Sooyoung , Yoona , and Seohyun . Originally a nine-piece ensemble, member Jessica departed from the group in September 2014. Among the most known South Korean figures and successful K-pop groups worldwide, Girls' Generation has earned numerous accolades and
328-484: A Korean influence on Khitan. The hypothesis that Korean could be related to Japanese has had some supporters due to some overlap in vocabulary and similar grammatical features that have been elaborated upon by such researchers as Samuel E. Martin and Roy Andrew Miller . Sergei Starostin (1991) found about 25% of potential cognates in the Japanese–Korean 100-word Swadesh list . Some linguists concerned with
492-624: A banner with Kim Il Sung's name written in Hanja. Opinion surveys in South Korea regarding the issue of Hanja use have had mixed responses in the past. Hanja terms are also expressed through Hangul, the standard script in the Korean language. Hanja use within general Korean literature has declined since the 1980s because formal Hanja education in South Korea does not begin until the seventh year of schooling, due to changes in government policy during
656-423: A character is called eumhun ( 음훈 ; 音訓 ; from 音 'sound' + 訓 'meaning,' 'teaching'). The word or words used to denote the meaning are often—though hardly always—words of native Korean (i.e., non-Chinese) origin, and are sometimes archaic words no longer commonly used. South Korean primary schools ceased the teaching of Hanja in elementary schools in the 1970s, although they are still taught as part of
820-480: A core vowel. The IPA symbol ⟨ ◌͈ ⟩ ( U+0348 ◌͈ COMBINING DOUBLE VERTICAL LINE BELOW ) is used to denote the tensed consonants /p͈/, /t͈/, /k͈/, /t͡ɕ͈/, /s͈/ . Its official use in the extensions to the IPA is for "strong" articulation, but is used in the literature for faucalized voice . The Korean consonants also have elements of stiff voice , but it is not yet known how typical this
984-597: A division of Universal Music Japan , to venture out to the Japanese music scene. Their debut release was a DVD titled New Beginning of Girls' Generation , released in August 2011, which features seven of the group's music videos and a special bonus footage. The DVD debuted at number four on the Japanese Oricon DVD Chart on August 23, 2010, making Girls' Generation the first Korean girl group to earn
1148-667: A double platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of Japan. The album became the fifth and fifteenth best-selling album in Japan in 2011 in 2012 respectively, with total sales figures of 871,097 copies. A repackaged version titled The Boys was released in December 2011 and peaked at number five on the Oricon Albums Chart. In May 2012, Girls' Generation was certified million by
1312-475: A duo named Sugar , which never debuted. In 2007, on the recommendation of Korean-Japanese singer IconiQ , Sunny moved back to S.M. Entertainment and became a member of Girls' Generation. In July 2007, Girls' Generation had their first stage performance on Mnet 's School of Rock , where the group performed their first single, " Into the New World " ( 다시 만난 세계 ; Dasi mannan segye ). On August 5, 2007,
1476-417: A five-year hiatus to focus on their individual careers, they returned with their seventh Korean studio album Forever 1 (2022). The group's signature musical styles are characterized as electropop and bubblegum pop , though their sound has varied widely, incorporating various genres including hip hop , R&B , and EDM . In 2017, Billboard honoured Girls' Generation as the "Top K-pop Girl Group of
1640-427: A fourth concert tour. The group also concurrently embarked on their 4th Japan Tour, which commenced on December 12, 2015, at Nagoya. The Gaon Music Chart announced that Girls' Generation was the most successful girl group of South Korea in 2015. In August 2016, to commemorate the group's ninth anniversary, S.M. Entertainment released a single titled "Sailing (0805)". The lyrics were written by member Sooyoung, highlighting
1804-478: A full letter, which is the default style being used today) first appeared in the same period as government policy. With further adoption, during the 1970s, even when Hanja and mixed script were still used widely in society both as a writing system and as a style option, Koreans mostly gave up on mixed script at least in government documents and memorandums; The use of Hanja in type hindered the speed of writing and printing compared to only-Hangul usage, especially after
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#17327722643511968-594: A full-group comeback for their fifteenth anniversary, ending their five-year hiatus. To commence the anniversary promotion, the group took part in an 8-episode reality show, Soshi TamTam , which began airing on JTBC in July. Their seventh Korean-language studio album, Forever 1 , was released in August 2022, peaking at number two on the Circle Chart . The group performed at the SM Town Live 2022 concert during
2132-581: A large number of Chinese-borrowed words are still widely used in the North (although written in Hangul), and Hanja still appear in special contexts, such as recent North Korean dictionaries . The replacement has been less total in South Korea where, although usage has declined over time, some Hanja remain in common usage in some contexts. Each Hanja is composed of one of 214 radicals plus in most cases one or more additional elements. The vast majority of Hanja use
2296-545: A later founder effect diminished the internal variety of both language families. Since the establishment of two independent governments, North–South differences have developed in standard Korean, including variations in pronunciation and vocabulary chosen. However, these minor differences can be found in any of the Korean dialects , which are still largely mutually intelligible . The Chinese language , written with Chinese characters and read with Sino-Xenic pronunciations ,
2460-508: A mandatory requirement, it is now considered optional. Though North Korea rapidly abandoned the general use of Hanja soon after independence, the number of Hanja taught in primary and secondary schools is actually greater than the 1,800 taught in South Korea. Kim Il Sung had earlier called for a gradual elimination of the use of Hanja, but by the 1960s, he had reversed his stance; he was quoted as saying in 1966, "While we should use as few Sinitic terms as possible, students must be exposed to
2624-521: A possible relationship.) Hudson & Robbeets (2020) suggested that there are traces of a pre- Nivkh substratum in Korean. According to the hypothesis, ancestral varieties of Nivkh (also known as Amuric ) were once distributed on the Korean Peninsula before the arrival of Koreanic speakers. Korean syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), consisting of an optional onset consonant, glide /j, w, ɰ/ and final coda /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ, l/ surrounding
2788-610: A rare surname from Seongju ), and 怾 ( 기 ; Gi , an old name referring to Kumgangsan ). Further examples include 巭 ( 부 bu ), 頉 ( 탈 tal ), 䭏 ( 편 pyeon ), 哛 ( 뿐 ppun ), and 椧 ( 명 myeong ). See Korean gukja characters at Wiktionary for more examples. Compare to the parallel development in Japan of kokuji ( 国字 ) , of which there are hundreds, many rarely used. These were often developed for native Japanese plants and animals. Some Hanja characters have simplified forms ( 약자, 略字 , yakja ) that can be seen in casual use. An example
2952-452: A straight pop radio feel." Girls' Generation's 2012 single "Dancing Queen"—a remake of British singer Duffy's "Mercy" (2008)—features a " funky pop " production, as opposed to the group's signature electropop sound. Their 2013 single "I Got a Boy" was noted for its eclectic musical style, utilizing various genres ranging from bubblegum pop, electropop and drum and bass to pop-rap , EDM , and dubstep . Jeff Benjamin from Billboard lauded
3116-582: A strictly analytic, SVO structure in stark contrast to the generally polysyllabic, very synthetic, SOV structure, with various grammatical endings that encoded person, levels of politeness and case found in Korean. Despite the adoption of literary Chinese as the written language, Chinese never replaced Korean as the spoken language, even amongst the scholars that had immersed themselves into its study. The first attempts to make literary Chinese texts more accessible to Korean readers were hanmun passages written in Korean word order. This would later develop into
3280-638: A top-five DVD on the Oricon chart. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ). On August 25, 2010, the group performed to 22,000 fans at their first showcase in the country. In September 2010, Girls' Generation released the Japanese version of " Genie " as their debut single in Japan. It peaked at number four on the Japanese Oricon Singles Chart and was certified platinum by
3444-502: Is [REDACTED] , which is a cursive form of 無 (meaning 'nothing'). Each Hanja character is pronounced as a single syllable, corresponding to a single composite character in Hangul. The pronunciation of Hanja in Korean is by no means identical to the way they are pronounced in modern Chinese, particularly Mandarin , although some Chinese dialects and Korean share similar pronunciations for some characters. For example, 印刷 "print"
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#17327722643513608-523: Is So-nyuh Shi-dae ( Korean : 소녀시대 ; Hanja : 少女時代 ; RR : Sonyeo Sidae ), from the Sino-Korean root meaning "Generation of Girls"; they are also known as SoShi ( 소시 ) or SNSD , both of which are abbreviated forms of the group's Korean-language name. Because their name consists of Chinese roots, the group's name is similar in Chinese and Japanese: in Japan
3772-520: Is a Sino-Korean name and the Sino-Korean term for 'princess' was already adopted as a loan word. The hanja ' 主隱 ,' however, were read according to their native pronunciation but was not used for its literal meaning signifying 'the prince steals' but to the native postpositions ( 님 ) nim , the honorific marker used after professions and titles, and eun , the topic marker. In mixed script , this would be rendered as ' 善化公主님은 '. Hanja were
3936-466: Is a departure from their early singles. The group's 2011 single "The Boys" was noted for conveying a feminist theme and was compared to Beyoncé 's 2011 single " Run the World (Girls) " for the same "women-powered" content; Eun-Young Jun in the book The Korean Wave: Korean Media Go Global (2013) noted its lyrics for depicting "sexually daring women" who are confident in their sexuality. Girls' Generation
4100-619: Is also generated by longstanding alliances, military involvement, and diplomacy, such as between South Korea–United States and China–North Korea since the end of World War II and the Korean War . Along with other languages such as Chinese and Arabic , Korean is ranked at the top difficulty level for English speakers by the United States Department of Defense . Modern Korean descends from Middle Korean , which in turn descends from Old Korean , which descends from
4264-441: Is also recognized for continuing to support each other despite their solo activities. "We don't have any desire now to create a popular song like "Gee". Of course if that happened, we would be perfectly happy, but what we continue to strive for is performance. Girls' Generation's key advantage as a group is performance and vocal line so we worry a lot over songs that will fulfill both of these areas." –Member Sooyoung discussing
4428-434: Is also sometimes used to encompass both concepts. Because Hanja characters have never undergone any major reforms, they more closely resemble traditional Chinese and traditional Japanese characters, although the stroke orders for certain characters are slightly different. Such examples are the characters 教 and 敎 , as well as 研 and 硏 . Only a small number of Hanja characters were modified or are unique to Korean, with
4592-656: Is an agglutinative language . The Korean language is traditionally considered to have nine parts of speech . Modifiers generally precede the modified words, and in the case of verb modifiers, can be serially appended. The sentence structure or basic form of a Korean sentence is subject–object–verb (SOV), but the verb is the only required and immovable element and word order is highly flexible, as in many other agglutinative languages. Question 가게에 gage-e store- LOC 가셨어요? ga-syeo-sseo-yo go- HON . PAST - CONJ - POL 가게에 가셨어요? gage-e ga-syeo-sseo-yo store-LOC go-HON.PAST-CONJ-POL 'Did [you] go to
4756-511: Is closer to a near-open central vowel ( [ɐ] ), though ⟨a⟩ is still used for tradition. Grammatical morphemes may change shape depending on the preceding sounds. Examples include -eun/-neun ( -은/-는 ) and -i/-ga ( -이/-가 ). Sometimes sounds may be inserted instead. Examples include -eul/-reul ( -을/-를 ), -euro/-ro ( -으로/-로 ), -eseo/-seo ( -에서/-서 ), -ideunji/-deunji ( -이든지/-든지 ) and -iya/-ya ( -이야/-야 ). Some verbs may also change shape morphophonemically. Korean
4920-467: Is known for reinventing their fashion styles and stage performances throughout their career. In their early years, the group performed in uniforms; with the debut single "Into the New World", they introduced themselves as high school students. In 2009, the group set the "colorful skinny jeans" fashion trend with "Gee", and later opted for a marine-inspired image on wearing uniforms and shorts that highlighted their legs with "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)". In 2010,
5084-399: Is mainly reserved for specific circumstances such as newspapers, scholarly papers and disambiguation. Today Hanja is largely unused in everyday life but is still important for historical and linguistic studies. The Korean names for the language are based on the names for Korea used in both South Korea and North Korea. The English word "Korean" is derived from Goryeo , which is thought to be
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5248-399: Is of faucalized consonants. They are produced with a partially constricted glottis and additional subglottal pressure in addition to tense vocal tract walls, laryngeal lowering, or other expansion of the larynx. /s/ is aspirated [sʰ] and becomes an alveolo-palatal [ɕʰ] before [j] or [i] for most speakers (but see North–South differences in the Korean language ). This occurs with
5412-544: Is the native language for about 81 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the national language of both North Korea and South Korea . Beyond Korea, the language is recognized as a minority language in parts of China , namely Jilin , and specifically Yanbian Prefecture , and Changbai County . It is also spoken by Sakhalin Koreans in parts of Sakhalin , the Russian island just north of Japan, and by
5576-617: Is the earliest securely dated relic bearing hanmun inscriptions. Hanmun became commonplace in Goguryeo during the 5th and 6th centuries and according to the Book of Zhou , the Chinese classics were available in Goguryeo by the end of the 6th century. The Samguk sagi mentions written records in Baekje beginning in 375 and Goguryeo annals prior to 600. Japanese chronicles mention Baekje people as teachers of hanmun . According to
5740-523: Is the name of the capital, Seoul , a native Korean word meaning 'capital' with no direct Hanja conversion; the Hanja gyeong ( 경 ; 京 , 'capital') is sometimes used as a back-rendering. For example, disyllabic names of railway lines, freeways, and provinces are often formed by taking one character from each of the two locales' names; thus, Most atlases of Korea today are published in two versions: one in Hangul (sometimes with some English as well), and one in Hanja. Subway and railway station signs give
5904-747: Is well attested in Western Old Japanese and Northern Ryukyuan languages , in Eastern Old Japanese it only occurs in compounds, and it is only present in three dialects of the Southern Ryukyuan language group . Also, the doublet wo meaning "hemp" is attested in Western Old Japanese and Southern Ryukyuan languages. It is thus plausible to assume a borrowed term. (See Classification of the Japonic languages or Comparison of Japanese and Korean for further details on
6068-521: The Koryo-saram in parts of Central Asia . The language has a few extinct relatives which—along with the Jeju language (Jejuan) of Jeju Island and Korean itself—form the compact Koreanic language family . Even so, Jejuan and Korean are not mutually intelligible . The linguistic homeland of Korean is suggested to be somewhere in contemporary Manchuria . The hierarchy of the society from which
6232-1304: The gwageo required the thorough ability to read, interpret and compose passages of works such as the Analects ( 논어 ; 論語 ; Non-eo ), Great Learning ( 대학 ; 大學 ; Daehak ), Doctrine of the Mean ( 중용 ; 中庸 ; Jung-yong ), Mencius ( 맹자 ; 孟子 ; Maengja ), Classic of Poetry ( 시경 ; 詩經 ; Sigyeong ), Book of Documents ( 서경 ; 書經 ; Seogyeong ), Classic of Changes ( 역경 ; 易經 ; Yeokgyeong ), Spring and Autumn Annals ( 춘추 ; 春秋 ; Chunchu ) and Book of Rites ( 예기 ; 禮記 ; Yegi ). Other important works include Sūnzǐ's Art of War ( 손자병법 ; 孫子兵法 ; Sonja Byeongbeop ) and Selections of Refined Literature ( 문선 ; 文選 ; Munseon ). The Korean scholars were very proficient in literary Chinese. The craftsmen and scholars of Baekje were renowned in Japan, and were eagerly sought as teachers due to their proficiency in hanmun . Korean scholars also composed all diplomatic records, government records, scientific writings, religious literature and much poetry in hanmun , demonstrating that
6396-503: The gwageo system was maintained by Goryeo until after the unification of Korea at the end of the nineteenth century. The scholarly élite began learning the hanja by memorising the Thousand Character Classic ( 천자문 ; 千字文 ; Cheonjamun ), Three Character Classic ( 삼자경 ; 三字經 ; Samja Gyeong ) and Hundred Family Surnames ( 백가성 ; 百家姓 ; Baekga Seong ). Passage of
6560-474: The yangban aristocracy, who looked down upon it too easy to learn. However, it gained widespread use among the common class and was widely used to print popular novels which were enjoyed by the common class. Since few people could understand official documents written in classical Chinese, Korean kings sometimes released public notices entirely written in Hangul as early as the 16th century for all Korean classes, including uneducated peasants and slaves. By
6724-585: The Book of Liang , the people of Silla did not have writing in the first half of the 6th century but this may have been only referring to agreements and contracts, represented by notches on wood. The Bei Shi , covering the period 386–618, says that the writing, armour, and weapons in Silla were the same as those in China. The Samguk sagi says that records were kept in Silla starting in 545. Some western writers claimed that knowledge of Chinese entered Korea with
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6888-837: The Standard Korean Language Dictionary published by the National Institute of Korean Language (NIKL), approximately half (50%) of Korean words are Sino-Korean, mostly in academic fields (science, government, and society). Other dictionaries, such as the Urimal Keun Sajeon , claim this number might be as low as roughly 30%. There is traditionally no accepted date for when literary Chinese ( 한문 ; 漢文 ; hanmun ) written in Chinese characters ( 한자 ; 漢字 ; hanja ) entered Korea. Early Chinese dynastic histories,
7052-404: The gugyeol ( 구결 ; 口訣 ) or 'separated phrases,' system. Chinese texts were broken into meaningful blocks, and in the spaces were inserted hanja used to represent the sound of native Korean grammatical endings. As literary Chinese was very terse, leaving much to be understood from context, insertion of occasional verbs and grammatical markers helped to clarify the meaning. For instance,
7216-688: The Golden Disc award for Album of the Year (Disk Daesang), making the group the first and only female act to win the Album Daesang. Girls' Generation ventured into the Japanese music scene in 2011 with their eponymous Japanese album , which became the first album by a non-Japanese girl group to be certified million by the RIAJ . The group's third Korean studio album, The Boys , was the best-selling album of 2011 in South Korea. An English version of
7380-571: The Golden Disk Awards , making them the first girl group to win a Grand Prize three times in a row in the award's history and the first girl group to win an Album of the Year (Disk Daesang). They also won two Daesangs at the Seoul Music Awards , and were crowned both Artist of the Year and Best Female Group at the 2011 Mnet Asian Music Awards . Guinness World Records recognized Girls' Generation in its 2018 print edition as
7544-462: The Joseon balmyong jangryohoe 's ( 조선발명장려회 ) Hangul type contest, and Kim Dong Hoon's typewriter winning joint 3rd. During the 50s and 60s, alongside the Korean government's support for typewriting, new Hangul typewriters were developed, distributed, and adopted. Hangul type with both horizontal writing and moa-sseugi (모아쓰기; the style of Hangul where Hangul consonants and vowels mix in together to form
7708-574: The New York University wrote that despite the fact that Girls' Generation's styles are deemed "mainstream" in South Korea, the group "has grown sonically more experimental". Their 2011 single "The Boys" departs for a more "mature" style from the group's previous emphasis on "cutesy" themes; it incorporates elements from hip hop, a genre that Girls' Generation had never ventured into. The titular studio album, according to AllMusic 's reviewer Tim Sendra, includes uptempo dance tracks "with
7872-589: The Proto-Koreanic language , which is generally suggested to have its linguistic homeland somewhere in Manchuria . Whitman (2012) suggests that the proto-Koreans, already present in northern Korea, expanded into the southern part of the Korean Peninsula at around 300 BC and coexisted with the descendants of the Japonic Mumun cultivators (or assimilated them). Both had influence on each other and
8036-743: The SMTown Live '10 World Tour alongside their labelmates, which started on August 21 at Seoul Jamsil Olympic Stadium . Girls' Generation's third Korean EP Hoot ( 훗 ; Hut ) was released in October 2010. It charted atop the Gaon Album Chart and at number two on the Oricon Album Chart, and became the third best-selling album of 2010 in South Korea. The title track debuted atop the Gaon Digital Chart. At
8200-568: The Three Kingdoms of Korea (not the ancient confederacies in the southern Korean Peninsula), while " -eo " and " -mal " mean "language" and "speech", respectively. Korean is also simply referred to as guk-eo , literally "national language". This name is based on the same Han characters ( 國語 "nation" + "language") that are also used in Taiwan and Japan to refer to their respective national languages. In North Korea and China ,
8364-544: The Victoria University of Wellington and James Turnbull from Dongseo University expressed concern that the lyrics of K-pop girl groups may raise considerable questions about the empowering nature of "Girl Group Fever"—particularly with singles "Gee" and "Oh!" Several of Girls' Generation's songs, such as "Run Devil Run", "Hoot", and "Bad Girl" (from their 2011 eponymous Japanese album) are noted for portraying "confident young women with their own opinion", which
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#17327722643518528-490: The hanja ' 爲 ' was used for its native Korean gloss whereas ' 尼 ' was used for its Sino-Korean pronunciation, and combined into ' 爲尼 ' and read hani ( 하니 ), 'to do (and so).' In Chinese, however, the same characters are read in Mandarin as the expression wéi ní , meaning 'becoming a nun'. This is a typical example of Gugyeol words where the radical ( 爲 ) is read in Korean for its meaning ( hă —'to do'), whereas
8692-549: The hanja were chosen for their equivalent native Korean gloss. For example, the hanja ' 不冬 ' signifies 'no winter' or 'not winter' and has the formal Sino-Korean pronunciation of ( 부동 ) budong , similar to Mandarin bù dōng . Instead, it was read as andeul ( 안들 ) which is the Middle Korean pronunciation of the characters' native gloss and is ancestor to modern anneunda ( 않는다 ), 'do not' or 'does not.' The various idu conventions were developed in
8856-675: The honorific nickname "The Nation's Girl Group" in their home country. Girls' Generation debuted on August 5, 2007, with the single " Into the New World " from their eponymous Korean album . The group rose to fame in 2009 with the single " Gee ", which claimed the top spot on KBS 's Music Bank for a record-breaking nine consecutive weeks and was Melon 's most popular song of the 2000s decade. The group cemented their popularity in Asia with follow-up singles " Genie ", " Oh! ", and " Run Devil Run ", which were released between mid-2009 and early 2010. Their second Korean studio album, Oh! (2010), won
9020-646: The same sounds , two distinct Hanja words ( Hanjaeo ) may be spelled identically in the phonetic Hangul alphabet . Hanja's language of origin, Chinese, has many homophones, and Hanja words became even more homophonic when they came into Korean, since Korean lacks a tonal system , which is how Chinese distinguishes many words that would otherwise be homophonic. For example, while 道 , 刀 , and 島 are all phonetically distinct in Mandarin (pronounced dào , dāo , and dǎo respectively), they are all pronounced do ( 도 ) in Korean. For this reason, Hanja are often used to clarify meaning, either on their own without
9184-530: The 辛 ( Korean : 신라면 ; Hanja : 辛拉麵 ) used on Shin Ramyŏn packaging. Since June 1949, Hanja has not officially been used in North Korea, and, in addition, most texts are now commonly written horizontally instead of vertically. Many words borrowed from Chinese have also been replaced in the North with native Korean words, due to the North's policy of linguistic purism . Nevertheless,
9348-407: The "magnum opus" of modern Korean music. Spin labelled "Run Devil Run" and "Gee" the 11th and 5th greatest K-pop songs of all time, respectively. Billboard placed "I Got a Boy" at number 21 on their list of the 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs, describing it as "proof to why girl-group music is in a league of its own in terms of excitement and boundary pushing". In 2023, Rolling Stone named "Gee"
9512-829: The 17th century, the yangban had exchanged Hangul letters with slaves, which suggests a high literacy rate of Hangul during the Joseon era. In the context of growing Korean nationalism in the 19th century, the Gabo Reform of 1894 abolished the Confucian examinations and decreed that government documents would be issued in Hangul instead of literary Chinese. Some newspapers were published entirely in Hangul, but other publications used Korean mixed script , with Hanja for Sino-Korean vocabulary and Hangul for other elements. North Korea abolished Hanja in writing in 1949, but continues to teach them in schools. Their usage in South Korea
9676-416: The 2000 S.M. Open Audition, in which Hyoyeon danced for her audition. Yuri was the next Girls' Generation member to become an S.M. trainee after coming second in the 2001 S.M. Youth Best Dancer competition. Yoona was cast the following year through the 2002 S.M. Saturday Open Casting Audition, where she sang and danced to her favorite singers, BoA and Britney Spears . Seohyun , the group's youngest member,
9840-668: The 2010 and 2011 Seoul Music Awards , the group won two consecutive Artist of the Year awards, becoming the fourth South Korean act and the first girl group to do so. Girls' Generation continued their success in Japan with the single " Mr. Taxi / Run Devil Run ", released in April 2011. The single peaked at number two on the Oricon Singles Chart and as of April 2017, was certified Million by the RIAJ. After releasing three singles in Japan, their debut eponymous Japanese studio album
10004-413: The 20th century Koreans used hanja only for writing Sino-Korean words, while writing native vocabulary and loanwords from other languages in Hangul. By the 21st century, even Sino-Korean words are usually written in the Hangul alphabet, with the corresponding Chinese character sometimes written next to it to prevent confusion if there are other characters or words with the same Hangul spelling. According to
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#173277226435110168-408: The 20th century. The script uses 24 basic letters ( jamo ) and 27 complex letters formed from the basic ones. When first recorded in historical texts, Korean was only a spoken language . Since the turn of the 21st century, aspects of Korean culture have spread to other countries through globalization and cultural exports . As such, interest in Korean language acquisition (as a foreign language )
10332-548: The EP, which she labelled "a set of songs that offers something for every kind of Girls' Generation and expands their musical reach." The group's 2015 album Lion Heart brings back their signature bubblegum pop sound; its third single "You Think", however, is a hip hop song that incorporates trap beats in its instrumentation. Although most Girls' Generation's releases are written by songwriters for S.M. Entertainment, some members occasionally participated in songwriting. Member Yuri wrote
10496-1102: The Gaon Album Chart. She has released three studio albums, My Voice (2017), Purpose (2019), and INVU (2022), and three further EPs, This Christmas: Winter Is Coming (2017), Something New (2018), and Voice (2019). Tiffany was the second member to debut as a solo singer, releasing her debut EP I Just Wanna Dance in May 2016. After leaving SM Entertainment, Tiffany released her second EP, Lips on Lips , in February 2019. Seohyun followed with her debut EP, Don't Say No , in January 2017. Yuri and Yoona also released their debut EPs titled The First Scene (2018) and A Walk to Remember (2019), respectively. Since 2016, Hyoyeon has also released several solo singles both under her given name and her DJ Hyo moniker. In May 2022, Hyoyeon released her debut EP Deep . In December 2018, Sooyoung released "Winter Breath", her first solo single since departing from SM Entertainment. Since 2017,
10660-466: The Gaon Digital Chart and sold over 900,000 units. In July 2014, the group released their first Japanese greatest hits album , The Best , which is composed of the group's previous singles and four new tracks. It topped the Oricon Albums Chart for two consecutive weeks and has sold over 175,000 copies in Japan. With The Best reaching number one in Japan, Girls' Generation became the first non-Japanese female group in Asia to have three number-one albums in
10824-462: The Goryeo period but were particularly associated with the jung-in ( 중인 ; 中人 ), the upper middle class of the early Joseon period. A subset of idu was known as hyangchal ( 향찰 ; 鄕札 ), 'village notes,' and was a form of idu particularly associated with the hyangga ( 향가 ; 鄕歌 ) the old poetry compilations and some new creations preserved in the first half of
10988-410: The Goryeo period when its popularity began to wane. In the hyangchal or 'village letters' system, there was free choice in how a particular hanja was used. For example, to indicate the topic of Princess Seonhwa, a daughter of King Jinpyeong of Silla was recorded as ' 善化公主主隱 ' in hyangchal and was read as ( 선화공주님은 ), seonhwa gongju-nim-eun where ' 善化公主 ' is read in Sino-Korean, as it
11152-627: The Great promulgated Hangul (also known as Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea) through the Hunminjeongeum . It did not come into widespread official use until the late 19th and early 20th century. Proficiency in Chinese characters is, therefore, necessary to study Korean history. Etymology of Sino-Korean words are reflected in Hanja. Hanja were once used to write native Korean words, in a variety of systems collectively known as idu , but by
11316-503: The Hangul. Aside from academic usage, Hanja are often used for advertising or decorative purposes in South Korea, and appear frequently in athletic events and cultural parades, packaging and labeling, dictionaries and atlases . For example, the Hanja 辛 ( sin or shin , meaning 'spicy') appears prominently on packages of Shin Ramyun noodles. In contrast, North Korea eliminated the use of Hanja even in academic publications by 1949 on
11480-635: The Hanja, but this practice was reversed by post-independence governments in Korea. Since the 1970s, some parents have given their children given names that are simply native Korean words. Popular ones include Haneul ( 하늘 )—meaning 'sky'—and Iseul ( 이슬 )—meaning 'morning dew'. Nevertheless, on official documents, people's names are still recorded in both Hangul and in Hanja. Due to standardization efforts during Goryeo and Joseon eras, native Korean placenames were converted to Hanja, and most names used today are Hanja-based. The most notable exception
11644-678: The Japanese Oricon Singles Chart and was certified Gold by the RIAJ. According to SoundScan Japan , the single sold 103,000 copies within its first month of release. Three months later, the group released their fifth Japanese single " Oh! ", which was their first number-one single on the Oricon Singles Chart, and achieved a gold certification by the RIAJ. Girls' Generation released their second Japanese album, Girls & Peace , in November, which sold 116,963 copies within its first week of release and peaked at number two on
11808-493: The Korean scholars were not just reading Chinese works but were actively composing their own. Well-known examples of Chinese-language literature in Korea include Samguk sagi , Samguk yusa , Geumo Sinhwa , The Cloud Dream of the Nine , Akhak gwebeom , Hong Gildong jeon and Domundaejak . The Chinese language, however, was quite different from the Korean language, consisting of terse, often monosyllabic words with
11972-454: The Korean version was released worldwide on April 10, while the Japanese version was released on April 22, 2015. It peaked at number 19 in South Korea and number eight in Japan. The group's first album as an eight-member group, their fifth Korean studio album Lion Heart , was released on August 19, 2015. The album reached number one in South Korea, and at number 11 in Japan. The album sold over 145,000 copies in 2015. It produced three singles;
12136-417: The Koreans themselves. These characters are called gukja ( 국자 ; 國字 , literally 'national characters'). Most of them are for proper names (place-names and people's names) but some refer to Korean-specific concepts and materials. They include 畓 ( 답 ; dap ; 'paddy field'), 欌 ( 장 ; jang , 'wardrobe'), 乭 ( 돌 ; Dol , a character only used in given names), 㸴 ( 소 ; So ,
12300-400: The Oricon Albums Chart, while the latter peaked at number one on the Gaon Album Chart. Girls' Generation's third Japanese studio album, Love & Peace , was released in December 2013. The album debuted at number one on the Oricon Albums Chart and was certified gold by the RIAJ. The album spawned two singles: " Love & Girls " and " Galaxy Supernova ", charting at numbers four and three on
12464-448: The Oricon Albums Chart. It was subsequently certified platinum by the RIAJ and became the forty-first best-selling album of 2012 in Japan with 141,259 copies sold. The album was further preceded by a single titled " Flower Power ". In December 2012, Girls' Generation released " Dancing Queen "—a remake of British singer Duffy 's " Mercy " (2008)—as the lead single from their then-upcoming 2013 Korean studio album. On New Year's Day of 2013,
12628-526: The Oricon Singles Chart, respectively. Girls' Generation's fourth Korean EP, Mr.Mr , released in February 2014, reached number one in South Korea. With sales of over 163,000 copies, the EP was the 5th highest-album of the year in South Korea. In the United States, the EP debuted at number 110 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 3,000 copies. The title track was a number-one single on
12792-548: The Past Decade". They are the first Asian girl group to achieve five music videos with over 100 million views on YouTube with "Gee", "I Got a Boy", "The Boys", " Mr. Taxi ", and "Oh!". In Japan, they became the first non-Japanese girl group to have three number-one albums on the Oricon Albums Chart , and their three Japanese concert tours attracted a record-breaking 550,000 spectators. The group's Korean name
12956-420: The RIAJ, denoting shipments of one million copies in the country—it became the first album by a South Korean girl group and the second by a South Korean act to earn such achievement. The album won the award for Album of the Year at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards Japan . Following their successful Japanese debut, the group was regarded as the most popular K-pop girl group in Japan alongside Kara and both became
13120-420: The RIAJ. The following month, the group released their second Japanese single, " Gee ", which reached number two on the Oricon Singles Chart. "Gee" became the first single by a non-Japanese girl group to enter the top three of the Oricon chart since 1980. It sold 207,000 copies and achieved a million certification for sales of one million units by the RIAJ. Amidst their Japanese activities, they also participated in
13284-689: The Taiwanese G-Music chart. In November 2009, S.M. Entertainment announced the group's first concert tour, Into The New World , whose tickets for the South Korean shows were sold out in three minutes. The tour visited Seoul in December 2009, Shanghai in April 2010, and Taipei in October 2010. Girls' Generation's second studio album, Oh! , was released in January 2010. The album peaked atop South Korea's Gaon Album Chart and has sold over 240,000 copies in South Korea. The album's title track peaked atop South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart and
13448-565: The Year at the inaugural YouTube Music Awards in 2013, beating other popular nominees including Psy and Justin Bieber . This attracted attention from Western media outlets as the group was considered lesser-known compared to other candidates at the time. In February 2013, Girls' Generation embarked on the Girls & Peace: 2nd Japan Tour , which started in Kobe on February 9. The accompanying DVD
13612-483: The additional elements to indicate the sound of the character, but a few Hanja are purely pictographic, and some were formed in other ways. The historical use of Hanja in Korea has had a change over time. Hanja became prominent in use by the elite class between the 3rd and 4th centuries by the Three Kingdoms. The use came from Chinese that migrated into Korea. With them they brought the writing system Hanja. Thus
13776-604: The advent of the Sebeolsik layout ( 세벌식 자판 ) Park's Hanja ban was not formally lifted until 1992 under the government of Kim Young-sam . In 1999, the government of Kim Dae-jung actively promoted Hanja by placing it on signs on the road, at bus stops, and in subways. In 1999, Han Mun was reintroduced as a school elective and in 2001 the Hanja Proficiency Test hanja nŭngryŏk gŏmjŏng sihŏm ( Korean : 한자능력검정시험 ; Hanja : 漢字能力檢定試驗 )
13940-876: The artist that has earned the most awards at the Melon Music Awards (13 in total). In 2015, Girls' Generation became the first artist to accumulate 100 music show wins in Korea. The group's lasting success has inspired or influenced various female K-pop singers such as Twice 's Momo , Sana , and Mina , Mamamoo 's Moonbyul , Itzy 's Chaeryeong, Aespa 's Karina, Le Sserafim 's Sakura , Billlie 's Tsuki, Choi Ye-na , and Fifty Fifty 's Keena. Girl groups such as Apink , GFriend , Lovelyz , Oh My Girl , Red Velvet , Momoland , Iz*One , GWSN , STAYC , Melody Day , Dreamcatcher , Kep1er , Rocket Punch , and Mimiirose have declared them as their role models. Korean language Korean ( South Korean : 한국어 , Hanguk-eo ; North Korean : 조선어 , Chosŏnŏ )
14104-455: The beginnings of words. /l/ becomes alveolar flap [ɾ] between vowels, and [l] or [ɭ] at the end of a syllable or next to another /l/ . A written syllable-final ' ㄹ ', when followed by a vowel or a glide ( i.e. , when the next character starts with ' ㅇ '), migrates to the next syllable and thus becomes [ɾ] . Traditionally, /l/ was disallowed at the beginning of a word. It disappeared before [j] , and otherwise became /n/ . However,
14268-623: The book The Korean Wave opined that the group's concepts fall into two main categories—"innocent, cutesy, happy" (early singles "Gee", "Genie", "Oh!") and "more mature, yet not overly sexy, feminine" (later singles "Run Devil Run" and "Hoot"). A writer for the Korean Culture and Information Service deemed the group's image as "sexy" and "girly" "goddesses that are hard to approach". John Seabrook from The New Yorker described Girls' Generation as "a group of preppy-looking young women in skinny trousers. When they wear hot pants, it's to display
14432-497: The country as of 2009. In March 2008, the album was re-released under the title Baby Baby . The album was preceded by a single with the same name , which was released on digital music sites on March 17, 2008. Though Girls' Generation had gained some attention with their 2007 debut album, it was not until 2009 that the group rose to stardom. On January 7, the group released their debut extended play (EP) Gee , which has sold over 100,000 copies in South Korea. Its title track claimed
14596-458: The country. They also completed their third concert tour in Japan, Love & Peace , within that month. The group's three Japanese concert tours attracted 550,000 spectators in total, setting the record for a K-pop girl group. On September 30, 2014, member Jessica announced that she had been dismissed from the group. SM Entertainment confirmed her departure, stating Jessica was no longer a member of Girls' Generation due to conflicts between her and
14760-450: The equivalent Hangul spelling or in parentheses after the Hangul spelling as a kind of gloss. Hanja are often also used as a form of shorthand in newspaper headlines, advertisements, and on signs, for example the banner at the funeral for the sailors lost in the sinking of ROKS Cheonan (PCC-772) . In South Korea, Hanja are used most frequently in ancient literature, legal documents, and scholarly monographs, where they often appear without
14924-466: The equivalent Hangul spelling. Usually, only those words with a specialized or ambiguous meaning are printed in Hanja. In mass-circulation books and magazines, Hanja are generally used rarely, and only to gloss words already spelled in Hangul when the meaning is ambiguous. Hanja are also often used in newspaper headlines as abbreviations or to eliminate ambiguity. In formal publications, personal names are also usually glossed in Hanja in parentheses next to
15088-670: The fact that the word is composed of Hanja often help to illustrate the word's origin. As an example of how Hanja can help to clear up ambiguity, many homophones can be distinguished by using Hanja. An example is the word 수도 ( sudo ), which may have meanings such as: Hanja dictionaries for specialist usage – Jajeon ( 자전 ; 字典 ) or Okpyeon ( 옥편 ; 玉篇 ) – are organized by radical (the traditional Chinese method of classifying characters). Korean personal names , including all Korean surnames and most Korean given names , are based on Hanja and are generally written in it, although some exceptions exist. On business cards,
15252-399: The first Korean dynasty known to Western nations. Korean people in the former USSR refer to themselves as Koryo-saram or Koryo-in (literally, " Koryo/Goryeo persons"), and call the language Koryo-mal' . Some older English sources also use the spelling "Corea" to refer to the nation, and its inflected form for the language, culture and people, "Korea" becoming more popular in
15416-577: The first Korean girl groups to appear at Kōhaku Uta Gassen . Girls' Generation's third Korean studio album, The Boys , was released in October 2011. The album was released in the United States by Interscope Records , marking Girls' Generation's debut album in the country. To help The Boys connect with audiences worldwide, the group made their debut on US television upon performing on Late Show with David Letterman on January 31 and Live! with Kelly on February 1. They also performed on French television show Le Grand Journal on February 9. The Boys
15580-567: The first week, and sold over 167,000 copies by the end of 2017. In October 2017, Tiffany, Sooyoung, and Seohyun left SM Entertainment on the condition that the group remains together. With the group on an extended hiatus, all members primarily focused on their solo careers. Girls' Generation reunited in September 2021 with an appearance on variety show You Quiz on the Block , which marked their first group activity in four years. In May 2022, SM Entertainment announced that Girls' Generation would have
15744-553: The five South Korean musical acts that best represented K-pop during the past two decades by the Korea Creative Content Agency in 2015. In 2012, Girls' Generation became the first celebrities to have official postage stamps distributed by the Korea Post . In 2017, Billboard ranked Girls' Generation at number one on their "Top 10 K-pop Girl Groups of the Past Decade" list. The group's 2009 single "Gee"
15908-438: The gams, not the glutes." New York Magazine stated: "according to label executives and fans, [Girls' Generation's] appeal is not their music, which is catchy but derivative. Instead, the [group projects] a humility that gives their fans the illusion that 'when you see them on stage it's like they've come to see you.' " Taylor Glasby from Dazed remarked that not only the group's early "pure" image and music were appealing, but
16072-509: The greatest song in the history of Korean pop music. Girls' Generation became the first girl group to achieve four music videos with over 100 million views on YouTube in 2015, with "Gee", "I Got a Boy", "The Boys", and "Mr. Taxi", and the first Asian girl group to amass five such videos with the addition of "Oh!" in 2016. Billboard Boxscore reported that Girls' Generation was the top touring K-pop girl group by 2016. The group won two Digital Daesangs (2009 and 2011) and one Disk Daesang (2010) at
16236-495: The group officially made their debut on SBS 's Inkigayo , where they performed the same song. Girls' Generation subsequently released their self-titled debut studio album in November 2007, which was preceded by the singles " Girls' Generation " ( 소녀시대 ; Sonyeo sidae )—a remake of Lee Seung-cheol 's 1989 song, and " Kissing You ". Girls' Generation became the twelfth best-selling album of 2007 in South Korea, selling 56,804 copies. The album has sold over 120,000 copies in
16400-425: The group released their fourth Korean studio album titled I Got a Boy , and held an MBC special television program, Girls' Generation's Romantic Fantasy . The album peaked atop the Gaon Album Chart; and Billboard ' s World Albums Chart. The title track reached number one on Billboard ' s Korea K-Pop Hot 100 and the Gaon Digital Chart, and sold over 1.35 million copies. Its music video won Video of
16564-483: The group's activities, holding The Best Live concert at Tokyo Dome on December 9, 2014. The concert was a sellout and attracted 50,000 spectators. The recorded show was released as a DVD in April 2015, which topped both Oricon's DVD and Blu-ray charts simultaneously. Girls' Generation's first release as an eight-member group was " Catch Me If You Can ", released in March 2015. It was recorded in both Korean and Japanese;
16728-433: The group's image became more diverse: they used a cheerleader concept for "Oh!", while the performances of their 2010 single "Run Devil Run" was noted for conveying a darker theme, which was billed "Black SoShi". Later that year, the group transformed themselves to Bond Girls -inspired singers for the visual of "Hoot". In 2011, the group established a "heroine" image, with members choosing their own outfits, emphasizing each of
16892-437: The group's music styles Girls' Generation's music is predominantly bubblegum pop and electropop . The group's early singles such as "Gee", "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)" (2009), and "Oh!" (2010) are described as "cutesy" bubblegum pop; "Gee" also features elements of techno and hip hop , as noted by Abigail Covington from The A.V. Club . Nevertheless, the group's musical styles have varied widely ever since; Anzhe Zhang from
17056-484: The group's name is pronounced as Shōjo Jidai ( 少女時代 ) , and in Mandarin Chinese as Shàonǚ Shídài ( simplified Chinese : 少女时代 ; traditional Chinese : 少女時代 ). Prior to the group's debut, some of the members were already involved in the entertainment industry. Yoona had gone through about 200 auditions for music videos, dramas, and movies before becoming a singer for Girls' Generation. Sooyoung
17220-474: The group's schedules. Girls' Generation continued to promote as an eight-member group thereafter. During an event held in the same day in Shenzhen , the members were visibly emotional. The next day, the group's leader Taeyeon apologised to their fans, saying "From the start, we've only wanted to protect Girls' Generation ... Please believe in us one more time." The remaining eight members proceeded with
17384-474: The group's view on their popularity Girls' Generation has been regarded as a prominent figure in South Korean culture and the Korean wave . Their immense popularity in South Korea has earned the group the titles "The Nation's Singers" ( 국민가수 ; Gukmin gasu ) and "The Nation's Girl Group" ( 국민걸그룹 ; gukmin geolgeurup ). In South Korea, they are credited as the lead female group that shifted
17548-445: The hanja being used came from the characters already being used by the Chinese at the time. Since Hanja was primarily used by the elite and scholars, it was hard for others to learn, thus much character development was limited. Scholars in the 4th century used this to study and write Confucian classics. Character formation is also coined to the idu form which was a Buddhist writing system for Chinese characters. This practice however
17712-401: The highest profit earner for their label SM Entertainment. By 2012, Girls' Generation had sold over 30 million digital singles and 4.4 million physical albums, making them one of the best-selling artists in South Korea. Their songs have been widely recognized as the signature songs of K-pop: Pitchfork included "I Got a Boy" and "Gee" in their list of 20 essential K-pop songs, crediting them as
17876-485: The holders of such names—but not only them—tend to have one-syllable given names. Traditionally, the given name in turn consists of one character unique to the individual and one character shared by all people in a family of the same sex and generation (see Generation name ). During the Japanese administration of Korea (1910–1945), Koreans were forced to adopt Japanese-style names , including polysyllabic readings of
18040-479: The inflow of western loanwords changed the trend, and now word-initial /l/ (mostly from English loanwords) are pronounced as a free variation of either [ɾ] or [l] . All obstruents (plosives, affricates, fricatives) at the end of a word are pronounced with no audible release , [p̚, t̚, k̚] . Plosive sounds /p, t, k/ become nasals [m, n, ŋ] before nasal sounds. Hangul spelling does not reflect these assimilatory pronunciation rules, but rather maintains
18204-408: The issue between Japanese and Korean, including Alexander Vovin, have argued that the indicated similarities are not due to any genetic relationship , but rather to a sprachbund effect and heavy borrowing, especially from Ancient Korean into Western Old Japanese . A good example might be Middle Korean sàm and Japanese asá , meaning " hemp ". This word seems to be a cognate, but although it
18368-587: The language is most often called Joseon-mal , or more formally, Joseon-o . This is taken from the North Korean name for Korea (Joseon), a name retained from the Joseon dynasty until the proclamation of the Korean Empire , which in turn was annexed by the Empire of Japan . In mainland China , following the establishment of diplomatic relations with South Korea in 1992, the term Cháoxiǎnyǔ or
18532-412: The language originates deeply influences the language, leading to a system of speech levels and honorifics indicative of the formality of any given situation. Modern Korean is written in the Korean script ( 한글 ; Hangeul in South Korea, 조선글 ; Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea), a system developed during the 15th century for that purpose, although it did not become the primary script until
18696-455: The late 1800s. In South Korea the Korean language is referred to by many names including hanguk-eo ("Korean language"), hanguk-mal ("Korean speech") and uri-mal ("our language"); " hanguk " is taken from the name of the Korean Empire ( 대한제국 ; 大韓帝國 ; Daehan Jeguk ). The " han " ( 韓 ) in Hanguk and Daehan Jeguk is derived from Samhan , in reference to
18860-522: The lead single " Party " reached number one on the Gaon Digital Chart, and number ten on the Japan Hot 100. Following the release of "Party", Girls' Generation appeared on the Billboard Social 50 at number 44 on August 1, 2015. The following week, the group's position on the chart rose to number 22. The follow-up singles " Lion Heart " and " You Think " were made available in conjunction with
19024-525: The lyrics for "Mistake" from their 2010 EP Hoot . Sooyoung penned the lyrics to "How Great Is Your Love" on the group's 2011 studio album The Boys . Members Sooyoung, Yuri, and Seohyun wrote the lyrics for "Baby Maybe" and "XYZ" on the group's 2013 studio album I Got a Boy . The group's main lyrical themes as characterized by Chris True from AllMusic are "dance party" and "girls night out". Girls' Generation's songs have been criticized by Western media outlets for not portraying female empowerment but promoting
19188-838: The mandatory curriculum in grade 6. They are taught in separate courses in South Korean high schools , separately from the normal Korean-language curriculum. Formal Hanja education begins in grade 7 (junior high school) and continues until graduation from senior high school in grade 12. A total of 1,800 Hanja are taught: 900 for junior high, and 900 for senior high (starting in grade 10). Post-secondary Hanja education continues in some liberal-arts universities . The 1972 promulgation of basic Hanja for educational purposes changed on December 31, 2000, to replace 44 Hanja with 44 others. South Korea's Ministry of Education generally encourages all primary schools to offer Hanja classes. Officials said that learning Chinese characters could enhance students' Korean-language proficiency. Initially announced as
19352-551: The members began exploring their individual careers and have branched out into various entertainment fields. The range of activities include roles in movies, dramas and plays, variety shows appearances, starting personal YouTube channels, and also continuing to release music individually. By 2020, the diversity of their projects has been declared as an ideal example of growth for a veteran girl group. In particular, Yoona, Sooyoung, Yuri and Seohyun have received attention for their growth and diversity as actresses. Moreover, Girls' Generation
19516-679: The members' own tastes rather than performing in uniforms. For the performances of "I Got a Boy" (2013), the members opted for flat shoes instead of their signature high heels in order to perform the choreography correctly. Girls' Generation's visuals for their 2015 singles "Catch Me If You Can" and "You Think" were noted for intricate choreography moves with a more "powerful" and "sexy" image. Girls' Generation's image has often been regarded as "innocent", and their performances onstage are described as "youthful" and "colorful;" Ceejay Lee from Fem commented that Girls' Generation's outfits often reveal legs rather than "cleavages or derrières." Eun-Young Jung in
19680-520: The members' personalities as a whole "uniquely solidified the GG experience into an intimate family affair," noting that their supporters look up to all the members as "sisters, role models and icons". Discussing the public's scrutiny on the group's physical image, member Tiffany remarked: At first it always bothers you even though you say it doesn't. But I think if you want to exceed limits, you have to suck that all in and be happy with what you have. At first it
19844-411: The necessary Chinese characters and taught how to write them." As a result, a Chinese-character textbook was designed for North Korean schools for use in grades 5–9, teaching 1,500 characters, with another 500 for high school students. College students are exposed to another 1,000, bringing the total to 3,000. Because many different Hanja—and thus, many different words written using Hanja—often share
20008-601: The number-one position on KBS 's Music Bank for a record-breaking nine consecutive weeks, becoming the longest-running number-one song on Music Bank until 2012, when Psy 's " Gangnam Style " claimed the top spot for ten consecutive weeks. It was the best-selling single of 2009 in South Korea. The group's second EP, Tell Me Your Wish (Genie) ( 소원을 말해봐 ; Sowoneul malhaebwa ) and its titular lead single were released in June 2009. The EP sold 50,000 copies within its first week in South Korea, and charted at number eight on
20172-416: The only musical act to make the list. Japanese magazine Nikkei Business suggested the group's international expansion and success was the musical equivalent to Samsung 's global trend. A fixture on South Korean power rankings, the group placed within the top ten of Forbes Korea Power Celebrity 40 from 2010 to 2016, topping the list three times (2011, 2012, 2014). Girls' Generation consistently ranked in
20336-496: The only sources for very early Korea, do not mention a Korean writing system. During the 3rd century BC, Chinese migrations into the peninsula occurred due to war in northern China and the earliest archaeological evidence of Chinese writing appearing in Korea is dated to this period. A large number of inscribed knife money from pre- Lelang sites along the Yalu River have been found. A sword dated to 222 BC with Chinese engraving
20500-422: The opposite. Ceejay Lee from feminist magazine Fem criticized the "generic" themes of Korean girl groups like Wonder Girls or Girls' Generation as "sexist": "[They] infantilize themselves to emasculate males by pandering childlike, puritanical innocence [...] It only reinforces that females are weak beings that serve to gratify males and that males need to be "man" enough to "protect" them." Stephen Epstein from
20664-406: The orders of Kim Il Sung , a situation that has since remained unchanged. In modern Korean dictionaries, all entry words of Sino-Korean origin are printed in Hangul and listed in Hangul order, with the Hanja given in parentheses immediately following the entry word. This practice helps to eliminate ambiguity, and it also serves as a sort of shorthand etymology, since the meaning of the Hanja and
20828-411: The population was illiterate. In the 15th century King Sejong the Great personally developed an alphabetic featural writing system , known today as Hangul , to promote literacy among the common people. Introduced in the document Hunminjeongeum , it was called eonmun ('colloquial script') and quickly spread nationwide to increase literacy in Korea. The Korean alphabet was denounced by
20992-486: The public's focus back to female idols after the Korean music industry experienced an influx of male idol groups from 2002 to 2007. CNN noted the group as a "national phenomenon" in South Korea and labelled them the "Asian version" of British girl group Spice Girls , and Tyler Brûlé writing for the Financial Times selected the group as one of the ten most recognizable features of South Korea in 2011; they were
21156-536: The relationship between the group and their fans. In July 2017, Girls' Generation announced the release of their sixth Korean-language studio album to commemorate the group's tenth anniversary. The album, titled Holiday Night , was released on August 7, 2017. It debuted atop the Billboard World Albums chart, and peaked at number two on the Gaon Album Chart. The album surpassed The Boys as Girls' Generation's fastest-selling Korean-language album in
21320-478: The release of the album. They charted at numbers four and 30 on the Gaon Digital Chart, respectively. To promote the album, the group starred in a South Korean reality television program titled Channel Girls' Generation . They embarked on Girls' Generation's Phantasia , a concert tour which started on November 21, 2015, in Seoul. With this achievement, Girls' Generation became the first South Korean girl group to hold
21484-520: The rest being identical to the traditional Chinese characters . By contrast, many of the Chinese characters currently in use in mainland China , Malaysia and Singapore have been simplified , and contain fewer strokes than the corresponding Hanja characters. Until the contemporary period, Korean documents, history, literature and records were written primarily in Literary Chinese using Hanja as its primary script. As early as 1446, Sejong
21648-518: The same month, and also held a sold-out special event "Long Lasting Love" in September 2022. In August 2023, Sunny left SM Entertainment after her exclusive contract with the company ended. In April 2012, SM Entertainment formed a subgroup of Girls' Generation named TTS (or TaeTiSeo), composed of three members: Taeyeon, Tiffany, and Seohyun. TTS has released three extended plays: Twinkle (May 2012), Holler (September 2014), and Dear Santa (December 2015). In August 2018, SM Entertainment formed
21812-439: The second subgroup of Girls' Generation named Girls' Generation-Oh!GG , composed of five members: Sunny, Taeyeon, Yoona, Yuri and Hyoyeon. They released their debut single album, Lil' Touch , on September 5. Taeyeon was the first member of Girls' Generation to debut as a solo singer; her debut EP I was released in October 2015, which peaked at number two on the Gaon Album Chart. Taeyeon's second EP, Why (2016), peaked atop
21976-669: The short form Cháoyǔ has normally been used to refer to the standard language of North Korea and Yanbian , whereas Hánguóyǔ or the short form Hányǔ is used to refer to the standard language of South Korea. Korean is a member of the Koreanic family along with the Jeju language . Some linguists have included it in the Altaic family, but the core Altaic proposal itself has lost most of its prior support. The Khitan language has several vocabulary items similar to Korean that are not found in other Mongolian or Tungusic languages, suggesting
22140-447: The single " The Boys " was released in an attempt to expand the group's endeavor to the global music scene. The group's fourth Korean studio album, I Got a Boy (2013), was supported by the title track , which won Video of the Year at the inaugural YouTube Music Awards . Girls' Generation continued to build upon their popularity with their fifth and sixth Korean studio albums, Lion Heart (2015) and Holiday Night (2017). Following
22304-664: The sole means of writing Korean until King Sejong the Great invented and tried promoting Hangul in the 15th century. Even after the invention of Hangul, however, most Korean scholars continued to write in hanmun , although Hangul did see considerable popular use. Idu and its hyangchal variant were mostly replaced by mixed-script writing with hangul although idu was not officially discontinued until 1894 when reforms abolished its usage in administrative records of civil servants. Even with idu , most literature and official records were still recorded in literary Chinese until 1910. The Hangul-Hanja mixed script
22468-495: The song as "one of the most-forward thinking lead pop singles heard in any country". Both aforementioned singles' parent album, I Got a Boy (2013), combines elements from a wide range of genres such as 1980s new wave , EDM, and classic and contemporary R&B . Girls' Generation's 2014 EP, Mr.Mr. , features "exciting" R&B sounds with "cool, simple" melodies. AllMusic's Heather Phares also noted inspirations of EDM, hip hop, traditional K-pop sound, and late-1980s europop on
22632-504: The spread of Buddhism , which occurred around the 4th century. Traditionally Buddhism is believed to have been introduced to Goguryeo in 372, Baekje in 384, and Silla in 527. Another major factor in the adoption of hanmun was the adoption of the gwageo , copied from the Chinese imperial examination , open to all freeborn men. Special schools were set up for the well-to-do and the nobility across Korea to train new scholar officials for civil service. Adopted by Silla and Goryeo,
22796-510: The station's name in Hangul, Hanja, and English, both to assist visitors (including Chinese or Japanese who may rely on the Hanja spellings) and to disambiguate the name. Hanja are still required for certain disciplines in academia, such as Oriental Studies and other disciplines studying Chinese, Japanese or historic Korean literature and culture, since the vast majority of primary source text material are written in Hanzi , Kanji or Hanja. For
22960-663: The store?' Response 예/네. ye/ne AFF Hanja Hanja ( Korean : 한자 ; Hanja : 漢字 , Korean pronunciation: [ha(ː)ntɕ͈a] ), alternatively known as Hancha , are Chinese characters used to write the Korean language . After characters were introduced to Korea to write Literary Chinese , they were adapted to write Korean as early as the Gojoseon period. Hanja-eo ( 한자어 , 漢字 語 ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary , which can be written with Hanja, and hanmun ( 한문 , 漢文 ) refers to Classical Chinese writing, although Hanja
23124-454: The suffix 尼 , ni (meaning 'nun'), is used phonetical. Special symbols were sometimes used to aid in the reordering of words in approximation of Korean grammar. It was similar to the kanbun ( 漢文 ) system developed in Japan to render Chinese texts. The system was not a translation of Chinese into Korean, but an attempt to make Korean speakers knowledgeable in hanja overcome the difficulties in interpreting Chinese texts. Although it
23288-441: The tense fricative and all the affricates as well. At the end of a syllable, /s/ changes to /t/ (example: beoseot ( 버섯 ) 'mushroom'). /h/ may become a bilabial [ɸ] before [o] or [u] , a palatal [ç] before [j] or [i] , a velar [x] before [ɯ] , a voiced [ɦ] between voiced sounds, and a [h] elsewhere. /p, t, t͡ɕ, k/ become voiced [b, d, d͡ʑ, ɡ] between voiced sounds. /m, n/ frequently denasalize at
23452-465: The time. In 1956, one study found mixed-script Korean text (in which Sino-Korean nouns are written using Hanja, and other words using Hangul) were read faster than texts written purely in Hangul; however, by 1977, the situation had reversed. In 1988, 65% of one sample of people without a college education "evinced no reading comprehension of any but the most common hanja" when reading mixed-script passages. A small number of characters were invented by
23616-520: The top five of Gallup Korea 's Singer of the Year poll from 2007 to 2016, topping the list three times (2009, 2010, 2011). The Sisa Journal named the group the most influential entertainers of 2011 and 2012, while Asia Today [ ko ] included the group in their list of 50 Korean Power Leaders in 2011. The group was named one of South Korea's "super brands" by the Korean Institute for Industrial Policy Studies in 2011, and one of
23780-432: The traditional creative arts such as calligraphy and painting , a knowledge of Hanja is needed to write and understand the various scripts and inscriptions, as is the same in China and Japan. Many old songs and poems are written and based on Hanja characters. On 9 September 2003, the celebration for the 55th anniversary of North Korea featured a float decorated with the scenario for welcoming Kim Il Sung , which including
23944-464: The underlying, partly historical morphology . Given this, it is sometimes hard to tell which actual phonemes are present in a certain word. The traditional prohibition of word-initial /ɾ/ became a morphological rule called "initial law" ( 두음법칙 ) in the pronunciation standards of South Korea, which pertains to Sino-Korean vocabulary. Such words retain their word-initial /ɾ/ in the pronunciation standards of North Korea. For example, ^NOTE ㅏ
24108-428: The use and teaching of Hanja in public schools, as well as forbade its use in the military, with the goal of eliminating Hanja in writing by 1972 through legislative and executive means. However, due to public backlash, in 1972, Park's government allowed for the teaching of Hanja in special classes but maintained a ban on Hanja use in textbooks and other learning materials outside of the classes. This reverse step, however,
24272-416: The use of Hanja has plummeted in orthography until the modern day. Where Hanja is now very rarely used and is almost only used for abbreviations in newspaper headlines (e.g. 中 for China, 韓 for Korea, 美 for the United States, 日 for Japan, etc.), for clarification in text where a word might be confused for another due to homophones (e.g. 이사장 ( 李 社長 ) vs. 이사장 ( 理事長 )), or for stylistic use such as
24436-416: The use of Hanja is slowly fading away, with most older people displaying their names exclusively in Hanja while most of the younger generation using both Hangul and Hanja. Korean personal names usually consist of a one-character family name ( seong , 성 ; 姓 ) followed by a two-character given name ( ireum , 이름 ). There are a few two-character family names (e.g. 남궁 ; 南宮 , Namgung ), and
24600-525: Was a commonly used means of writing, and Hangul effectively replaced Hanja in official and scholarly writing only in the 20th century. Hangŭl exclusive writing has been used concurrently in Korea after the decline of literary Chinese. Mixed script could be commonly found in non-fiction writing, news papers, etc., until the enacting of Park Chung Hee 's 5 Year Plan for Hangŭl Exclusivity hangŭl jŏnyong ogaenyŏn gyehuik an ( Korean : 한글전용 5개년 계획안 ; Hanja : 한글專用 5個年 計劃案 ) in 1968 banned
24764-612: Was commercially successful in the group's home country, having sold over 460,000 copies and becoming the highest-selling album of 2011. The lead single, " The Boys ", peaked atop the Gaon Digital Chart and sold over 3.03 million copies in 2011. The group's endeavor to the United States, meanwhile, was met with limited success; The Boys entered the Billboard Top Heatseekers at number 17 and sold 21,000 copies. In June 2012, Girls' Generation released their fourth Japanese single, " Paparazzi ", which reached number two on
24928-541: Was declared "Song of the Decade" by Melon and is regarded as one of the first K-Pop songs to gain international attention, according to Google Statistics. Ian Martin of The Japan Times noted that the group's popularity was still strong even after the Korean Wave appeal had died down in Japan in 2011–12. During 2009–2011, the group generated ₩ 68.8 billion ( $ 62 million), raking in $ 20 million in profits and becoming
25092-483: Was developed by scholars of the early Goryeo Kingdom (918–1392), gugyeol was of particular importance during the Joseon period, extending into the first decade of the twentieth century, since all civil servants were required to be able to read, translate and interpret Confucian texts and commentaries. The first attempt at transcribing Korean in hanja was the idu ( 이두 ; 吏讀 ), or 'official reading,' system that began to appear after 500 AD. In this system,
25256-496: Was exposed to the Japanese music scene as a member of a pop duo named Route 0 , which disbanded one year after its debut in 2002. The first member of the group to join SM Entertainment 's training system was Jessica in 2000, after she and her sister, Krystal Jung , were scouted in a mall in South Korea during a family vacation. That same year, members Sooyoung and Hyoyeon were cast into S.M.'s training system through
25420-487: Was first introduced to Korea in the 1st century BC, and remained the medium of formal writing and government until the late 19th century. Korean scholars adapted Chinese characters (known in Korean as Hanja ) to write their own language, creating scripts known as idu , hyangchal , gugyeol , and gakpil. These systems were cumbersome, due to the fundamental disparities between the Korean and Chinese languages, and accessible only to those educated in classical Chinese. Most of
25584-510: Was introduced. In 2005, an older law, the Law Concerning Hangul Exclusivity hangŭl jŏnyonge gwahak pŏmnyul ( Korean : 한글전용에 관한 법률 ; Hanja : 한글專用에 關한 法律 ) was repealed as well. In 2013 all elementary schools in Seoul started teaching Hanja. However, the result is that Koreans who were educated in this period having never been formally educated in Hanja are unable to use them, and thus
25748-405: Was limited due to the opinion of Buddhism whether it was favorable at the time or not. To aid in understanding the meaning of a character, or to describe it orally to distinguish it from other characters with the same pronunciation, character dictionaries and school textbooks refer to each character with a combination of its sound and a word indicating its meaning. This dual meaning-sound reading of
25912-550: Was optional so the availability of Hanja education was dependent on the school one went to. Another reason for the decline is found in the Hangul typewriter, and the keyboard. The push for better Hangul typewriters mainly began in 1949, but as it was long before the Hanja ban, government institutions did not prefer typewriters altogether as they could not write in Hanja nor Mixed script. Kong Byung Wo's notable Sebeolsik type first appeared in March 1949, jointly winning second place in
26076-461: Was painful to watch all those things but now I take it as constructive criticism or I don't bother to look at it. "We always said this among ourselves in the beginning. Popularity, like the seasons, comes and goes around. If it's spring for one of us, let's not get conceited. What's important is not individual popularity, but the longevity of our team. When each and every one of us does well, Girls' Generation will do well." –Member Sunny discussing
26240-630: Was released in June 2011. To promote the album, Girls' Generation embarked on The 1st Japan Arena Tour starting in Osaka on May 31, 2011; the tour attracted 140,000 people in total and generated an estimated ₩20 billion in sales. The album was met with tremendous success in Japan, peaking atop the Japanese Oricon Albums Chart and becoming the first album by a foreign girl group to top the Oricon chart. Within its first month of release, Girls' Generation sold 500,000 copies and earned
26404-507: Was released in September 2013 and topped the Oricon DVD Chart. The group's first world tour, Girls' Generation World Tour Girls & Peace , spanned from June 2013 to February 2014 and consisted of ten concerts in seven Asian countries. Girls' Generation released a remix album titled Best Selection Non Stop Mix in March, and a live album titled 2011 Girls' Generation Tour in April 2013. The former charted at number six on
26568-612: Was scouted in the subway by an S.M. scout; she then auditioned in 2003, singing children's songs. The group's leader, Taeyeon , was cast in 2004 after winning first place in the S.M. Youth Singing Competition. That same year, member Tiffany auditioned at S.M.'s Starlight Casting System in Los Angeles, and joined the company in October 2004. The final member of the group to be added was Sunny , who had become an S.M. trainee in 1998 and trained for five years before moving to another company, Starworld. At Starworld, she trained to debut in
26732-481: Was the second best-selling digital single of 2010 in the country, selling over 3.3 million copies. Oh! was re-released under the title Run Devil Run in March 2010, which also reached number one on the Gaon Album Chart. Its titular single reached the top spot on the Gaon Digital Chart. Oh! and Run Devil Run were the second and fourth best-selling albums of 2010, respectively. In mid-2010, Girls' Generation signed with Nayutawave Records (now EMI Records Japan ),
26896-628: Was unearthed in Pyongyang . From 108 BC to 313 AD, the Han dynasty established the Four Commanderies of Han in northern Korea and institutionalized the Chinese language. According to the Samguk sagi , Goguryeo had hanmun from the beginning of its existence, which starts in 37 BC. It also says that the king of Goguryeo composed a poem in 17 BC. The Gwanggaeto Stele , dated to 414,
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