Researching language differences between North and South Korea has been challenging, and there have been reports of inaccurate results. First of all, it's hard to know how North Koreans use their standard language because of the heavy propaganda against it.[citation needed] North Korea states its standard language as the language of Pyongyang. However, South Korean authors have claimed it is more similar to the pre-divided Seoul dialect than the pre-divided Pyongyang dialect, and suggested that its pronunciation[2] and grammar are based on the Seoul area rather than the Pyongyang area.[3]
In South Korea, there is also heavy political propaganda against the standard language of North Korea, with some officials believing that it is strange that North and South Korean speech are similar,[4] and the lack of information about North Korea means that defectors often speak a dialect rather than a standard language in North Korea.[5]
Some argue that North and South Koreans are also confused by North Korean propaganda and the South's over-interpretation of it. North Korea emphasizes the purity of its language and claims to have reduced the use of foreign words, but the reality is that many foreign words appear in North Korean dictionaries and textbooks. North Korean defectors say they knew that the language spoken by South Koreans contained foreign words, but they didn't realize that the words they used in North Korea also contained many foreign words.[6]
In some cases, South Korean schools have taught North Koreans to use purified words that are not actually used in North Korea, leading to disputes in South Korea over whether a North Korean defector actually uses the word in North Korea.[7] Some scholars have also been reluctant to believe a study that found that the most common loanwords in North Korea were not Russian loanwords but English loanwords.[8]
Development
In 1954, North Korea set out the rules for Korean orthography (Korean:조선어 철자법;MR:Chosŏnŏ Ch'ŏlchapŏp). Although this was only a minor revision in orthography that created little difference from that used in the South, from then on, the standard languages in the North and the South gradually differed more and more from each other.
In the 1960s, under the influence of the Juche ideology, came a big change in linguistic policies in North Korea. On 3 January 1964, Kim Il Sung issued his teachings on "A Number of Issues on the Development of the Korean language" (조선어를 발전시키기 위한 몇 가지 문제;Chosŏnŏrŭl Palchŏnsik'igi Wihan Myŏt Kaji Munje), and on 14 May 1966 on the topic "In Rightly Advancing the National Characteristics of the Korean language" (조선어의 민족적 특성을 옳게 살려 나갈 데 대하여;Chosŏnŏŭi Minjokchŏk T'ŭksŏngŭl Olk'e Sallyŏ Nagal Te Taehayŏ), from which the "Standard Korean Language" (조선말규범집;Chosŏnmalgyubŏmchip) rules followed in the same year, issued by the National Language Revision Committee that was directly under the control of the cabinet.
From then on, more important differences came about between the standard language in the North and the South. In 1987, North Korea revised the aforementioned rules further, and these have remained in use until today. In addition, the rules for spacing were separately laid out in the "Standard Spacing Rules in Writing Korean" (조선말 띄여쓰기규범;Chosŏnmal Ttiyŏssŭgigyubŏm) in 2000 but have since been superseded by "Rules for Spacing in Writing Korean" (띄여쓰기규정;Ttiyŏssŭgigyujŏng), issued in 2003.
South Korea continued to use the Hangeul Matchumbeop Tong-iran as defined in 1933, until its amendment "Korean Orthography" (Korean:한글 맞춤법;RR:Hangeul Matchumbeop), together with "Standard Language Regulations" (Korean:표준어 규정;RR:Pyojuneo Gyujeong), were issued in 1988, which remain in use today.
As with the Korean phonology article, this article uses IPA symbols in pipes || for morphophonemics, slashes // for phonemes, and brackets [] for allophones. Pan-Korean romanized words are largely in Revised Romanization, and North Korean-specific romanized words are largely in McCune-Reischauer. Also, for the sake of consistency, this article also phonetically transcribes ㅓ as /ʌ/ for pan-Korean and South-specific phonology, and as /ɔ/ for North-specific phonology.
Hangul / Chosŏn'gŭl
The same Hangul / Chosŏn'gŭl letters are used to write the language in the North and the South. However, in the North, the stroke that distinguishes ㅌ|tʰ| from ㄷ|t| is written above rather than inside the letter, as is done in the South.
In the South, the vowel digraphs and trigraphs ㅐ |ɛ|, ㅒ |jɛ|, ㅔ |e|, ㅖ |je|, ㅘ |wa|, ㅙ |wɛ|, ㅚ |ø|, ㅝ |wʌ|, ㅞ |we|, ㅟ |y|, ㅢ |ɰi|, and the consonant digraphs ㄲ |k͈|, ㄸ |t͈|, ㅃ |p͈|, ㅆ |s͈|, ㅉ |tɕ͈|, are not treated as separate letters, whereas in the North they are. Some letters and digraphs have different names in the North and in the South:
Letter
North Korean name
South Korean name
ㄱ|k|
기윽[ki.ɯk̚]
기역[ki.jʌk̚]
ㄷ|t|
디읃[ti.ɯt̚]
디귿[ti.ɡɯt̚]
ㅅ|s|
시읏[ɕi.ɯt̚]
시옷[ɕi.ot̚]
ㄲ|k͈|
된기윽[tøːn.ɡi.ɯk̚]
쌍기역[s͈aŋ.ɡi.jʌk̚]
ㄸ|t͈|
된디읃[tøːn.di.ɯt̚]
쌍디귿[s͈aŋ.di.ɡɯt̚]
ㅃ|p͈|
된비읍[tøːn.bi.ɯp̚]
쌍비읍[s͈aŋ.bi.ɯp̚]
ㅆ|s͈|
된시읏[tøːn.ɕi.ɯt̚]
쌍시옷[s͈aŋ.ɕi.ot̚]
ㅉ|tɕ͈|
된지읒[tøːn.dʑi.ɯt̚]
쌍지읒[s͈aŋ.dʑi.ɯt̚]
The names used in the South are the ones found in the Hunmongjahoe (훈몽자회, 訓蒙字會, published 1527). The names used in the North are formed mechanically with the pattern "letter + 이 + 으 + letter". Also for the tensed consonants, in the South, they are called "double" (쌍- /s͈aŋ-/) consonants, while in the North, they are called "strong" (된- /tøːn-/) consonants.
Sort order
Initial consonants
North:
ㄱ
ㄴ
ㄷ
ㄹ
ㅁ
ㅂ
ㅅ
ㅈ
ㅊ
ㅋ
ㅌ
ㅍ
ㅎ
ㄲ
ㄸ
ㅃ
ㅆ
ㅉ
ㅇ
[k]
[n]
[t]
[l]
[m]
[p]
[s]
[tɕ]
[tɕʰ]
[kʰ]
[tʰ]
[pʰ]
[h]
[k͈]
[t͈]
[p͈]
[s͈]
[tɕ͈]
[∅]
South:
ㄱ
ㄲ
ㄴ
ㄷ
ㄸ
ㄹ
ㅁ
ㅂ
ㅃ
ㅅ
ㅆ
ㅇ
ㅈ
ㅉ
ㅊ
ㅋ
ㅌ
ㅍ
ㅎ
[k]
[k͈]
[n]
[t]
[t͈]
[l]
[m]
[p]
[p͈]
[s]
[s͈]
[∅]
[tɕ]
[tɕ͈]
[tɕʰ]
[kʰ]
[tʰ]
[pʰ]
[h]
Vowels
North:
ㅏ
ㅑ
ㅓ
ㅕ
ㅗ
ㅛ
ㅜ
ㅠ
ㅡ
ㅣ
ㅐ
ㅒ
ㅔ
ㅖ
ㅚ
ㅟ
ㅢ
ㅘ
ㅝ
ㅙ
ㅞ
[a]
[ja]
[ɔ]
[jɔ]
[o]
[jo]
[u]
[ju]
[ɯ]
[i]
[ɛ]
[jɛ]
[e]
[je]
[ø]
[y]
[ɰi]
[wa]
[wɔ]
[wɛ]
[we]
South:
ㅏ
ㅐ
ㅑ
ㅒ
ㅓ
ㅔ
ㅕ
ㅖ
ㅗ
ㅘ
ㅙ
ㅚ
ㅛ
ㅜ
ㅝ
ㅞ
ㅟ
ㅠ
ㅡ
ㅢ
ㅣ
[a]
[ɛ]
[ja]
[jɛ]
[ʌ]
[e]
[jʌ]
[je]
[o]
[wa]
[wɛ]
[ø]
[jo]
[u]
[wʌ]
[we]
[y]
[ju]
[ɯ]
[ɰi]
[i]
Final consonants
North:
(none)
ㄱ
ㄳ
ㄴ
ㄵ
ㄶ
ㄷ
ㄹ
ㄺ
ㄻ
ㄼ
ㄽ
ㄾ
ㄿ
ㅀ
ㅁ
ㅂ
ㅄ
ㅅ
ㅇ
ㅈ
ㅊ
ㅋ
ㅌ
ㅍ
ㅎ
ㄲ
ㅆ
South:
(none)
ㄱ
ㄲ
ㄳ
ㄴ
ㄵ
ㄶ
ㄷ
ㄹ
ㄺ
ㄻ
ㄼ
ㄽ
ㄾ
ㄿ
ㅀ
ㅁ
ㅂ
ㅄ
ㅅ
ㅆ
ㅇ
ㅈ
ㅊ
ㅋ
ㅌ
ㅍ
ㅎ
In the North, the consonant letter ㅇ (|∅| and |ŋ|) is placed between ㅅ|s| and ㅈ|tɕ| when pronounced |ŋ|, but after all consonants (after ㅉ|tɕ͈|) when used as a placeholder indicating a null initial consonant (for syllables that begin with a vowel).
Pronunciation
Dialects of Korean
The standard languages in the North and the South share the same types and the same number of phonemes, but there are some differences in the actual pronunciations. The South Korean standard pronunciation is based on the dialect as spoken in Seoul, and the North Korean standard pronunciation is based on the dialect as spoken in Pyongyang.[9] However, South Korean authors have argued that the standard language of North Korea is actually not based on the Pyongyang dialect, but rather on the 1933 norms, which are based on the Seoul dialect. For example, in the view of such authors the dialect of Pyongyang has 8 monophthongs, while the standard North Korean language has 10 monophthongs, like the old Seoul dialect.[10]
Consonants
The following differences are recognised in the consonants. In the Seoul dialect, ㅈ, ㅊ and ㅉ are typically pronounced with alveolo-palatal affricates [tɕ], [tɕʰ], [tɕ͈]. In the Pyongyang dialect, they are typically pronounced with alveolar affricates [ts], [tsʰ], [ts͈]. Also, 지 and 시 can be pronounced without palatalisation as [tsi] and [si] in the Pyongyang dialect.
In the South, when ㄴ/n/ or ㄹ/l/ are at the beginning of a Sino-Korean word and are followed immediately by /i/ or /j/, they are dropped, and when ㄹ /l/ is not immediately followed by /i/ or /j/, it becomes ㄴ /n/, with this change being indicated in the orthography. But all initial ㄴ/n/ and ㄹ/l/ are written out and pronounced in the North. For instance, the common last name 이 [i] (often written out in English as Lee, staying true to the more conservative typography and pronunciation), and the word 여자[jʌdʑa] are written and pronounced as 리 [ɾi] and 녀자[njɔdʑa] in North Korean. Furthermore, the South Korean word 내일[nɛiɭ], which means "tomorrow", is written and pronounced as 래일[ɾɛiɭ] in North Korea. But this latter pronunciation was artificially crafted using older pronunciations in the 1960s, so it is common for older speakers to be unable to pronounce initial ㄴ/n/ and ㄹ/l/ properly, thus pronouncing such words in the same way as they are pronounced in the South.
In South Korea, the liquid consonant[ɾ] does not come after the nasal consonants[m] and [ŋ]. In this position, ㄹ is pronounced as [n] rather than [ɾ]. But in North Korea, ㄹ before vowels ㅑ, ㅕ, ㅛ, and ㅠ can remain [ɾ] in this context (or assimilate to [n]).[11]
Hangul
Hanja
North
South
침략
侵略
[tsʰimnjak̚] ch'imnyak or [tsʰimɾjak̚] ch'imryak
[tɕʰimnjak̚] chimnyak
협력
協力
[hjɔmnjɔk̚] hyŏmnyŏk or [hjɔmɾjɔk̚] hyŏmryŏk
[hjʌmnjʌk̚] hyeomnyeok
식료
食料
singnyo or singryo
singnyo
청류벽
淸流壁
ch'ŏngnyubyŏk or ch'ŏngryubyŏk
cheongnyubyeok
Vowels
Some South Korean linguists argue that the vowel system in the North Korean standard is based on the Pyongyang dialect. The vowel ㅓ /ʌ/ is not as rounded in the Seoul dialect as it is in the Pyongyang dialect. If expressed in IPA, it would be [ʌ̹] or [ɔ̜] for the one in Seoul dialect and [ɔ] for the one in Pyongyang dialect. Due to this roundedness, speakers of the Seoul dialect would find that ㅓ as pronounced by speakers of the Pyongyang dialect sounds close to the vowel ㅗ /o/. Additionally, the difference between the vowels ㅐ/ɛ/ and ㅔ/e/ is slowly diminishing amongst the younger speakers of the Seoul dialect. It is not well known if this is also happening with the Pyongyang dialect.
However, other South Korean linguists have argued that North Korean linguistic texts suggest that the vowel system and articulation positions of the North Korean standard language were completely consistent with those of the South.[12] In particular, the rules stipulated 10 monophthongs, just like the old Seoul dialect.
Pitch
The pitch patterns in the Pyongyang and Seoul dialects differ, but there has been little research in detail. On the other hand, in the Chosŏnmal Taesajŏn (조선말대사전), published in 1992, where the pitches for certain words are shown in a three-pitch system, a word such as 꾀꼬리 ([k͈øk͈oɾi] "black-naped oriole") is marked as having pitch "232" (where "2" is low and "3" is high), from which one can see some difference in pitch patterns from the Seoul dialect.[clarification needed]
Orthography
Inflected words
Informal non-polite suffix 어/여
In words in which the word stem ends in ㅣ |i|, ㅐ |ɛ|, ㅔ |e|, ㅚ |ø|, ㅟ |y|, ㅢ |ɰi|, in forms where -어 /-ʌ/ is appended to these endings in the South, but -여 /-jɔ/ is instead appended in the North. In actual pronunciation, however, the [j] sound often accompanies the pronunciation of such words, even in the South.
Inflected word
North inflection
South inflection
Meaning
피다[pʰida]
피여[pʰijɔ]p'iyŏ
피어 (펴)[pʰiʌ]([pʰjʌ])pi-eo (pyeo)
bloom
내다[nɛːda]
내여[nɛjɔ]nae-yŏ
내어 (내)[nɛʌ]nae-eo(nae)
take out
세다[seːda]
세여[sejɔ]se-yŏ
세어 (세)[seʌ]se-eo(se)
count
되다[tøda(tweda)]
되여[tøjɔ]toe-yŏ
되어 (돼)[tøʌ,tweʌ],([twɛ,twe])doe-eo (dwae)
become
뛰다[t͈wida]
뛰여[t͈wijɔ]ttwi-yŏ
뛰어[t͈wiʌ]ttwi-eo
jump
희다[çida]
희여[çijɔ]hi-yŏ
희어[çiʌ,çijʌ]hi-eo
white
Indication of tensed consonants after word endings that end with ㄹ
In word endings where the final consonant is ㄹ |l|, where the South spells -ㄹ까 (|-[l.k͈a]|) and -ㄹ쏘냐 (|-[l.s͈o.nja]|) to indicate the tensed consonants, in the North these are spelled -ㄹ가 |-l.ka|，-ㄹ소냐 |-l.so.nja| instead. These etymologically are formed by attaching to the adnominal form (관형사형 gwanhyeongsahyeong) that ends in ㄹ, and in the North, the tensed consonants are denoted with normal consonants. Also, the word ending -ㄹ게 |-l.ɡe| used to be spelt -ㄹ께 |-l.k͈e| in the South, but has since been changed in the Hangeul Matchumbeop of 1988, and is now spelt -ㄹ게 just like in the North.
Initial ㄴ |n| / ㄹ |l| appearing in Sino-Korean words are kept in the North. In the South, in Sino-Korean words that begin with ㄹ which is followed by the vowel sound [i] or the semivowel sound [j] (when ㄹ is followed by one of ㅣ |i|, ㅑ |ja|, ㅕ |jʌ|, ㅖ |je|, ㅛ |jo| and ㅠ |ju|), ㄹ is replaced by ㅇ |∅|; when this ㄹ is followed by other vowels it is replaced by ㄴ |n|. In the North, the initial ㄹ is kept.
Similarly, in Sino-Korean words that begin with ㄴ |n| and is followed by the vowel sound [i] or the semi-vowel sound [j] (when ㄴ is followed by one of ㅣ|i|, ㅕ|jʌ|, ㅛ|jo| and ㅠ|ju|), in the South, this ㄴ is replaced by ㅇ |∅|, but this remains unchanged in the North.
North
South
Hanja
Meaning
니승[nisɯŋ]nisŭng
이승[isɯŋ]iseung
尼僧
priestess
녀자[njɔdʑa]nyŏja
여자[jʌdʑa]yeoja
女子
woman
These are thus pronounced as written in the North as ㄴ |n| and ㄹ |l|. However, even in the South, sometimes in order to disambiguate the surnames 유 (柳Yu[ju]) and 임 (林Im[im]) from 유 (兪Yu[ju]) and 임 (任Im[im]), the former may be written or pronounced as 류 Ryu ([ɾju]) and 림 Rim林 ([ɾim]).
Hanja pronunciation
Where a Hanja is written 몌|mje| or 폐|pʰje| in the South, this is written 메|me|, 페|pʰe| in the North (but even in the South, these are pronounced 메/me/, 페/pʰe/).
North
South
Hanja
Meaning
메별|mebjɔl|mebyŏl
몌별|mjebjʌl|myebyeol
袂別
sad separation
페쇄|pʰeːswɛ|p'eswae
폐쇄|pʰjeːswɛ|pyeswae
閉鎖
closure
Some hanja characters are pronounced differently.
North
South
Hanja
거|kɔ|kŏ
갹|kjak̚|gyak
醵
외|ø|oe
왜|wɛ|wae
歪
Also in the North, the hanja 讐 is usually pronounced as 수su[su], except in the word 怨讐/원쑤 wŏnssu ("enemy"), where it is pronounced as 쑤ssu[s͈u]. It is thought[by whom?] that this is to avoid the word becoming a homonym with 元帥 ("military general"), written as 원수wŏnsu|wɔn.su|.
Word stems in compound words
While the general rule is to write out the word stem from which the compound word is formed in its original form, but in cases where the etymological origin is no longer remembered, this is no longer written in original form. This happens both in the North and in the South. However, whether a compound word is seen to have its etymological origin forgotten or not is seen differently by different people:
In the first example, in the South, the 올|ol| part shows that the etymological origin is forgotten, and the word is written as pronounced as 올바르다[olbaɾɯda]olbareuda, but in the North, the first part is seen to come from 옳다olt'a|olh.ta| and thus the whole word is written 옳바르다olbarŭda (pronounced the same as in the South). Conversely, in the second example, the South spelling catches the word as the combination of 벚beot and 꽃kkot, but in the North, this is no longer recognised and thus the word is written as pronounced as 벗꽃pŏtkkot.
Spacing
In the South, the rules of spacing are not very clear-cut, but in the North, these are very precise. In general, compared to the North, the writing in the South tends to include more spacing. One likely explanation is that the North remains closer to the Sinitic orthographical heritage, where spacing is less of an issue than with a syllabary or alphabet such as Hangul. The main differences are indicated below.
Bound nouns
Before bound nouns (North: 불완전명사: purwanjŏn myŏngsa/不完全名詞 "incomplete nouns"; South: 의존 명사: uijon myeongsa/依存名詞 "dependent nouns"), a space is added in the South but not in the North. This applies to counter words also, but the space is sometimes allowed to be omitted in the South.
North
South
Meaning
내것naegŏt
내 것nae geot
my thing
할수 있다halsu itta
할 수 있다hal su ittda
to be able to do
한개hangae
한 개han gae
one thing (counter word)
Auxiliaries
Before auxiliaries, a space is inserted in the South but not in the North. Depending on the situation, however, the space may be omitted in the South.
North
South
Meaning
먹어보다mŏgŏboda
먹어 보다/먹어보다meogeo boda/meogeoboda
to try to eat
올듯하다oldŭt'ada
올 듯하다/올듯하다ol deutada/oldeutada
to seem to come
읽고있다ilkkoitta
읽고 있다ilkko ittda
to be reading
자고싶다chagosip'ta
자고 싶다jago sipda
to want to sleep
In the above, in the rules of the South, auxiliaries coming after -아/-어 or an adnominal form allow the space before them to be omitted, but the space after -고 cannot be omitted.
Words indicating a single concept
Words formed from two or more words that indicate a single concept in principle are written with spaces in the South and without spaces in the North, as in Chinese and Japanese.
Note that since the spacing rules in the South are often unknown, not followed, or optional, spellings vary from place to place. For example, taking the word 국어 사전gugeo sajeon, people who see this as two words will add a space, and people who see this as one word will write it without a space. Thus, the spacing depends on how one views what "one word" consists of, and so, while spacing is standardised in the South, in reality the standard does not matter much.
Morphology
Nominal Morphology
Sai siot (사이 시옷, "middle ㅅ -s")
When forming compound words from uninflected words, where the so-called "sai siot" (-ㅅ- interfix), originating from an Old Korean genitive suffix, is inserted in the South. This is left out in the North.
North
South
Pronunciation
Meaning
저가락|tɕɔ.ka.lak|
젓가락|tɕʌs.ka.lak|
젇까락[tɕʌt̚k͈aɾak̚]chŏtkkarak/jeotkkarak or 저까락[tɕʌk͈aɾak̚]chŏkkarak/jeokkarak
Besides the deferential second person pronoun 당신 tangsin, which is a noun in origin, there is the pronoun 동무 tongmu (plural 동무들 tongmudŭl), from a noun meaning "friend, comrade", in North Korea that may be used when speaking to peers.
Third person feminine pronoun
The third person feminine pronoun is South Korea is 그녀 geu-nyeo (plural 그녀들 geu-nyeodeul) while in North Korea it is 그 녀자 kŭ nyŏja (plural 그 녀자들 kŭ nyŏjadŭl), both literally meaning "that woman".
Verbal Morphology
Informal polite suffix 오 -o
In the South, the polite suffixes are 요 /-jo/ after a vowel and 아요/어요 /-ajo, -ʌjo/ after a consonant. In the North, the suffixes 오 /-o/ and 소 /-s͈o/ are appended after a vowel and a consonant respectively. The northern forms of the suffix are older and considered obsolete in South Korea now. However, suffixes such as 아요/어요 and 요 are not uncommon in North Korea, and are even used in the nursery rhyme "대홍단감자(Daehongdan Potato)," which is a common expression in the standard North Korean language that can be used for children.
Informal polite suffix
Inflected word
North inflection
South inflection
Meaning
가다 [kada]
가오 [kao] ka-o
가요 [kajo] ka-yo
go
먹다 [mʌk̚t͈a]
먹소 [mɔk̚s͈o] mŏk-so
먹어요 [mʌɡʌjo] meog-eoyo
eat
뛰다[t͈wida]
뛰오[t͈wio]ttwi-o
뛰어요[t͈wiʌjo]ttwi-eoyo
jump
ㅂ p-irregular inflections
In the South, when the word root of a ㅂ-irregular inflected word has two or more syllables (for example, 고맙다 [komap̚t͈a]gomapda), the ㅂ is dropped and replaced with 우 in the next syllable. When conjugated to the polite speech level, the ㅂ-irregular stem resyllabifies with the 어요 -eoyo conjugation to form 워요 -woyo (as in 고맙다 gomapda → 고마우 gomau → 고마워요 gomaweoyo), appearing to ignore vowel harmony. ㅂ is not replaced with 우 in the North (as it also was in the South before the 1988 Hangeul Matchumbeop). The vowel harmony is kept in both the South and the North if the word root has only one syllable (for example, 돕다 [toːp̚t͈a]topta/dopda).
Inflected word
North inflection
South inflection
Meaning
고맙다[komap̚t͈a]
고마와[komawa]komawa
고마워[komawʌ]gomawo
thankful
가깝다[kak͈ap̚t͈a]
가까와[kak͈awa]kakkawa
가까워[kak͈awʌ]gakkawo
near
Emphasis
In the North, names of leaders 김일성 (Kim Il Sung), 김정일 (Kim Jong Il) and 김정은 (Kim Jong Un) are always set off from surrounding text, typically by bolding the characters, increasing the font size, or both.[citation needed]
Vocabulary
The standard language in the South (표준어/標準語pyojuneo) is largely based on the Seoul dialect, and the standard language (문화어/文化語munhwaŏ) in the North is largely based on the Pyongyang dialect. However, both in the North and in the South, the vocabulary and forms of the standard language come from Sajeonghan Joseoneo Pyojunmal Mo-eum 사정한 조선어 표준말 모음 published by the Korean Language Society in 1936, and so there is very little difference in the basic vocabulary between the standard languages used in the North and the South. Nevertheless, due to the difference in political systems and social structure, each country is constantly adding different words to its vocabulary.
Differences due to the difference in political system or social structure
The word 동무tongmu/dongmu that is used to mean "friend" in the North was originally used across the whole of Korea, but after the division of Korea, North Korea began to use it as a translation of the Russian term товарищ (friend, comrade), and since then, the word has come to mean "comrade" in the South as well and has fallen out of use there.
Differences in words of foreign origin
South Korea has borrowed a lot of English words, but North Korea has borrowed a number of Russian words, and there are numerous differences in words used between the two coming from these different borrowings.[13][14] Even when the same English word is borrowed, how this word is transliterated into Korean may differ between the North and the South, resulting in different words being adapted into the corresponding standard languages. For names of other nations and their places, the principle is to base the transliteration on the English word in the South and to base the transliteration on the word in the original language in the North.
The other differences between the standard languages in the North and in the South are thought to be caused by the differences between the Seoul and Pyongyang dialects.
North
South
Meaning
Korean
Transliteration
Korean
Transliteration
강냉이
kangnaeng-i
옥수수 (玉蜀黍)
oksusu
corn
달구지
talguji
수레
sure
cow cart
게사니
kesani
거위
geowi
goose
마치
mach'i
망치
mangchi
hammer
부루
puru
상추
sangchu
lettuce
우
u
위
wi
on, above
Words like 강냉이kangnaeng-i and 우u are also sometimes heard in various dialects in South Korea.
There are also some words that exist only in the North. The verb 마스다masŭda (to break) and its passive form 마사지다masajida (to be broken) have no exactly corresponding words in the South.
Problems
During the 2018 Winter Olympics, the two Korean countries decided to play jointly for the Korea women's national ice hockey team. This led to issues with the South Korean athletes communicating with the North Korean athletes since the former uses English-influenced words in their postwar vocabulary, especially for hockey, while the latter uses only Korean-inspired words for their postwar vocabulary.[15]
The language differences also pose challenges for researchers and for the tens of thousands of people who have defected from one side to the other since the Korean War. The defectors face difficulty and notably discrimination because they lack vocabulary, use differing accents, or have not culturally assimilated yet so may not understand jokes or references to pop culture.[15] South Koreans see the North Korean accent as strange and old-fashioned, making it a constant target of mockery and further exacerbating problems with North Korean integration.[14]
Korean is the native language for about 81 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea. The language has notable differences in each of the Koreas, in part owing to different official standardizations of the language. They are still largely mutually intelligible, however. South Korean newspaper Daily NK has claimed North Korea criminalizes the use of the South's standard language with the death penalty, and South Korean education and media often portray the North's language as alien and uncomfortable.
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol ⟨ə⟩, placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it usually represents the mid central vowel sound, produced when the lips, tongue, and jaw are completely relaxed, such as the vowel sound of the ⟨a⟩ in the English word about.
McCune–Reischauer romanization is one of the two most widely used Korean-language romanization systems. It was created in 1937 and the ALA-LC variant based on it is currently used for standard romanization library catalogs in North America.
Revised Romanization of Korean is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea. It was developed by the National Academy of the Korean Language from 1995 and was released to the public on 7 July 2000 by South Korea's Ministry of Culture and Tourism in Proclamation No. 2000-8.
A phonemic orthography is an orthography in which the graphemes correspond to the language's phonemes. Natural languages rarely have perfectly phonemic orthographies; a high degree of grapheme–phoneme correspondence can be expected in orthographies based on alphabetic writing systems, but they differ in how complete this correspondence is. English orthography, for example, is alphabetic but highly nonphonemic; it was once mostly phonemic during the Middle English stage, when the modern spellings originated, but spoken English changed rapidly while the orthography was much more stable, resulting in the modern nonphonemic situation. On the contrary the Albanian, Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian/Montenegrin, Romanian, Italian, Turkish, Spanish, Finnish, Czech, Latvian, Esperanto, Korean and Swahili orthographic systems come much closer to being consistent phonemic representations.
The writing system of the Korean language is a syllabic alphabet of character parts organized into character blocks representing syllables. The character parts cannot be written from left to right on the computer, as in many Western languages. Every possible syllable in Korean would have to be rendered as syllable blocks by a font, or each character part would have to be encoded separately. Unicode has both options; the character parts ㅎ (h) and ㅏ (a), and the combined syllable 하 (ha), are encoded.
In an alphabetic writing system, a silent letter is a letter that, in a particular word, does not correspond to any sound in the word's pronunciation. In linguistics, a silent letter is often symbolised with a null sign U+2205∅EMPTY SET. Null is an unpronounced or unwritten segment. The symbol resembles the Scandinavian letter Ø and other symbols.
Dutch orthography uses the Latin alphabet. The spelling system is issued by government decree and is compulsory for all government documentation and educational establishments.
The Portuguese language began to be used regularly in documents and poetry around the 12th century. Unlike neighboring Romance languages that adopted formal orthographies by the 18th century, the Portuguese language did not have a uniform spelling standard until the 20th century. The formation of the Portuguese Republic in 1911 was motivation for the establishment of orthographic reform in Portugal and its overseas territories and colonies. Brazil would adopt an orthographic standard based on, but not identical to, the Portuguese standard a few decades later.
Portuguese orthography is based on the Latin alphabet and makes use of the acute accent, the circumflex accent, the grave accent, the tilde, and the cedilla to denote stress, vowel height, nasalization, and other sound changes. The diaeresis was abolished by the last Orthography Agreement. Accented letters and digraphs are not counted as separate characters for collation purposes.
The Hamgyŏng dialect, or Northeastern Korean, is a dialect of the Korean language used in most of North and South Hamgyŏng and Ryanggang Provinces of northeastern North Korea, all of which were originally united as Hamgyŏng Province. Since the nineteenth century, it has also been spoken by Korean diaspora communities in Northeast China and the former Soviet Union.
Koryo-mar is a dialect of Korean spoken by Koryo-saram, ethnic Koreans who live in the countries of the former Soviet Union. It is descended from the Hamgyŏng dialect and multiple other varieties of Northeastern Korean. Koryo-mar is often reported as difficult to understand by speakers of standard Korean; this may be compounded by the fact that the majority of Koryo-saram today use Russian and not Korean as their first language.
This article is a technical description of the phonetics and phonology of Korean. Unless otherwise noted, statements in this article refer to South Korean standard language based on the Seoul dialect.
The New Korean Orthography was a spelling reform used in North Korea from 1948 to 1954. It added five consonants and one vowel letter to the Hangul alphabet, supposedly making it a more morphophonologically "clear" approach to the Korean language.
The Pyeongan dialect, alternatively Northwestern Korean, is the Korean dialect of the Northwestern Korean Peninsula and neighboring parts of China. According to North Korea, it is the base of the country's standard Korean, however some South Korean researchers have claimed that the Gyeonggi dialect is the foundation of standard Korean in both the North and the South.
Cia-Cia, also known as Buton or Butonese, is an Austronesian language spoken principally around the city of Baubau on the southern tip of Buton island, off the southeast coast of Sulawesi, in Indonesia.
The Yale romanization of Korean was developed by Samuel Elmo Martin and his colleagues at Yale University about half a decade after McCune–Reischauer. It is the standard romanization of the Korean language in linguistics.
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl (조선글) in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The letters for the five basic consonants reflect the shape of the speech organs used to pronounce them, and they are systematically modified to indicate phonetic features; similarly, the vowel letters are systematically modified for related sounds, making Hangul a featural writing system. It has been described as a syllabic alphabet as it combines the features of alphabetic and syllabic writing systems.
Initial sound rule is series of changes to hangul, the writing system for the Korean language, made in South Korea to better reflect modern Korean phonology. The changes affect syllable-initial ㄹ r and ㄴ n sounds in Sino-Korean vocabulary under certain conditions. North Korea orthography does not recognize this rule, making it one of a number of North–South differences in the Korean language.
↑ Bärtås, Magnus; Ekman, Fredrik (2014). Hirviöidenkin on kuoltava: Ryhmämatka Pohjois-Koreaan[All Monsters Must Die: An Excursion to North Korea] (in Finnish). Translated by Eskelinen, Heikki. Helsinki: Tammi. pp.64–65. ISBN978-951-31-7727-0.
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