Something I’ve always been interested about with the Korean language are the different dialects it has. The Seoul accent is known as the “standard Korean” and the accent that most people here in Korean dramas or movies. There’s not much change in intonation with the Seoul accent, but Koreans that do have a dialect can even confuse Seoul-raised individuals. This is because the different dialects speak Korean in a different way and even use different words that people from other regions can’t understand at all. There are mainly three to five dialects in Korea such as Seoul, Jeolla Province, Gyeongsang Province, Choongcheong Province, Jeju Island, and Gangwon Province. Out of all the dialects, the three most frequently spoken dialects are Seoul, Jeolla, and Gyeongsang. It’s even said that people from the two regions, Jeolla and Gyeongsang often argue over which province is better. Though it’s mostly a joke, there have been serious conflict, historically and politically, between the two regions, so it is actually a pretty touchy subject for some. This Gyeonsang-Jeolla conflict is actually portrayed in some forms of entertainment such as the well-known Korean drama series the “Reply series” which portrays different eras of Korea in 1994, 1996, and 1998.
In comparison for the differences in language between North and South Korea, there are a number of differences in the spoken word. Some vowels are consonants that are not pronounced the same in the different regions, even to the point that some letters might be completely ignored when the residents of either South or North Korea pronounce the words. 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. There is also evidence present that the North Korean language’s pitch isn’t quite the same as in South Korea. I found myself to be interested in the differences between the two because when I was reading the scripts with my instructor during my Korean lessons, she found it amusing that I sounded like a North Korean when I tried to read the Korean phrases. The main reason she stated was due to my pitch. Though I don’t know what I did to make it sound that way, and I also don’t sound like that anymore when I read, there’s not much research in detail differing the pitches but it’s still important to address this difference.
Cultural Artifacts:
https://legal-translations.com.au/korean-language-key-differences-north-south/
https://www.90daykorean.com/korean/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMACbVpbfT8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North–South_differences_in_the_Korean_language
Replies