Do you live in an "In" neighborhood?

The following is a Korean address for a neighborhood in Kangneung City, Gangwon Province, South Korea:

강원도 강릉시 구정면 어단리

Unlike in the United States, where addresses are listed from small to big (street / city / state), Korean addresses are listed from big to small (province / city / district / neighborhood). Notice that the above address starts with the name of the province (도), then the city (시), then the district (면), and finally the village (리) or neighborhood (동):

1. Gangwon Province (강원도)
2. Gangneung City (강릉시)
3. Gujeong District (구정면)
4. Eo-Dan Village (어단리)

The reason you see a village (리) inside a city (시) is because the city most likely expanded over time to eventually include the nearby village or villages. Anyway, the following is the same address written in Chinese characters:

江原道 (강원도) 江陵市 (강릉시) 邱井面 (구정면) 於丹里 (어단리)

Notice that the name of the neighborhood or village is 於丹里 (어단리). Since 里 (리) means village, does that mean the name of the village is 어단 (於丹)? I don't so. I think the name of the village was originally Red (단 丹) Village (里) because the 於 (어) in 於丹里 (어단리) is just the Chinese character for the prepositions at and in, which are usually written as 에 and 에서 in Korean. So, 於丹里 (어단리) literally translates as in Red Village.

In Korean, prepositions are placed after nouns, so they are more accurately called post-positions instead of pre-positions, but Chinese prepositions come before nouns, just as in English, which is why 於 (어) comes before 丹里 (단리) in the above Korean address.

In Korean, if you wanted to say or write, "I live in Gangneung City, Gangwon Province," you would say or write "나는 강원도 강릉시에서 산다." You would only use 에서 once, after the full place-name to which you are referring, and it would be the same if you were to give your full address. Therefore, apparently what happened was that some of the villagers in Red Village (단리 丹里), or their friends who were writing to them from other places, started adding 於 (어) to the addresses on their letters to indicate that they wanted to send their letters to people who lived in Red Village (於丹里 어단리). Eventually, people (probably those who did not really understand Chinese characters) began to think 어단리 was the village name instead of being the village name with a preposition. The rest is history.

Another reason I do not think 어 (於) was originally part of the village name is that there are hundreds of examples of this happening in Korean addresses. Below are just a few of them. Notice that the 어 (於) only appears in the last part of the address, similar to how 에서 would appear at the end of an address if someone were telling you in spoken Korean where he or she lived. Among the following addresses, one of them even ends with just 於里 (어리), which simply means in the village, suggesting that there is/was only one village in that particular district.

• 강원도 (江原道) 강릉시 (江陵市) 성산면 (城山面) 어흘리 (於屹里)
• 강원도 (江原道) 동해시 (東海市) 어달동 (於達洞)
• 강원도 (江原道) 삼척시 (三陟市) 하장면 (下長面) 어리 (於里)
• 경기도 (京畿道) 양주시 (楊州市) 어둔동 (於屯洞)
• 경기도 (京畿道) 이천시 (利川市) 모가면 (暮加面) 어농리 (於農里)

Besides the above examples, hundreds more that can be seen HERE.