Korean dialects

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Korean
Native speakers
76 million (2007)[1]
Koreanic
  • Korean
Dialects
Northwestern
Central
Jeolla (SW)
Language codes
ISO 639-3 kor
Glottolog kore1280[2]
220px

A number of Korean dialects are spoken in the Korean Peninsula. The peninsula is extremely mountainous and each dialect's "territory" corresponds closely to the natural boundaries between different geographical regions of Korea. Most of the dialects are named for one of the traditional Eight Provinces of Korea. One is sufficiently distinct from the others to be considered a separate language, the Jeju language.

The standard language

  • In South Korea, Standard Korean (표준어/標準語) is defined by the National Institute of the Korean Language as "the modern speech of Seoul widely used by the well-cultivated" (교양있는 사람들이 두루 쓰는 현대 서울말). In practice, it tends not to include features that are found exclusively in Seoul.[citation needed]
  • In North Korea, the adopting proclamation stated that the Pyongan dialect spoken in the capital of Pyongyang and its surroundings should be the basis for the North Korean standard language (Munhwaŏ); however, in practice, it remains "firmly rooted" in the Seoul dialect, which had been the national standard for centuries.[3]

Despite North–South differences in the Korean language, the two standards are still broadly intelligible. One notable feature within the divergence is the North's lack of anglicisms due to isolationism and self-reliancepure/invented Korean words are used in replacement.[citation needed]

Regional dialects

Various words for "dragonfly" (Standard Korean of South Korea: 잠자리).

Korea is a mountainous country, and Korean is consequently divided into numerous small local dialects. There are few clear demarcations, so dialect classification is necessarily to some extent arbitrary. Nonetheless, the following divisions are commonly cited in the literature:

A recent statistical analysis of these dialects suggests that the hierarchical structure within these dialects are highly uncertain, meaning that there is no quantitative evidence to support a family-tree-like relationship among them. [5]

Outside of the Korean peninsula

Classification

Korean
Continental
Northeastern

Hamgyŏng dialect



Ryukchin dialect



Northwestern

Pyongan dialect


Central

Hwanghae dialect



Seoul dialect



Yeongdong dialect



Chungcheong dialect



Southeastern

Gyeongsang dialect


Southwestern

Jeolla dialect



Insular

Jeju language



See also

References

  1. Nationalencyklopedin "Världens 100 största språk 2007" The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007
  2. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Lee & Ramsey, 2000. The Korean language
  4. Janhunen, Juha, 1996. Manchuria: an ethnic history
  5. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

pl:Język koreański#Dialekty