Korean Dialectology

[Karavinka]

These are some linnks about Korea dialects. These sites are exclusively in Korean, and they will be of little use for the learners on beginner/intermediate level.

I wasn't able to find a large enough sample of dialect corpus to analyze grammar and eventually draw up a lesson plan for that dialect.

I'm collecting samples of North Korean standard. Colloquial NK standard samples are scarce.

Honam
http://myhome.hanafos.com/~zooty93/dialect.htm - lexicon

Gyeongsang
http://kimjp11.netian.com/saturi/saturi1.htm - lexicon

Jeju
http://www.jeju.go.kr/jejunew/contents/ ... hp?mid=355 - 'Standard' Jeju language specifications
http://sangye.invil.org/travel_culture/ ... ntents.jsp - Samples
http://woaba.com.ne.kr/sa-jejudo.htm - Samples

North/South Korean
http://www.tufs.ac.jp/ts/personal/choes/Nmain.html

[Rounin]

Don't forget these two:

http://dprkorea.com/
http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-k.htm

I've no idea what dialects these are even in (or language, if you will), but in case you haven't seen them, they should probably have some useful links.

[polishboy]

hmmm, are there dialecs really in use?
I was interested about it, and one woman from Pusan told me that they don't use dialects in big cities.
But I read that on jeju Island they use a dialect other Koreans cannot undeerstand like 함수광 =합니까
And that some pople say it could be a separate language.

[Karavinka]

hmmm, are there dialecs really in use?
I was interested about it, and one woman from Pusan told me that they don't use dialects in big cities.
But I read that on jeju Island they use a dialect other Koreans cannot undeerstand like 함수광 =합니까
And that some pople say it could be a separate language.

The usage of dialect varies depends on the individual, but almost everyone is "standardised" to differing extents. Whilst some do retain dialects, it is probably not far from the truth that very few speak any dialect in the "pure" form. The massive movement of population in the mid-twentieth century from the Korean War to the urbanisation process in 70s, combined with the universal education, obscured and "flattened out" the dialect map and although it is still the trend for the dialects to converge, they are still distinguishable.

Many people, especially in the cities, think that they speak standard Korean but their claim may or may not be true. I have heard from a Pusanite that she realised her Korean was somewhat nonstandard (mostly in intonation) only after she came to live in Seoul. As it is the case in most dialects, rural areas tend to preserve the dialects better than the urban.

Most of the peninsular dialects are mutually intelligible, but this is largely due to the process of standardisation, especially in lexis where they are taught what is "standard" (and thus right) and not (and thus wrong). Some dialect speakers find it more difficult to mimic the standard than the others, such as Gyeongsang.

If you lack the means to travel to the rural areas to study the dialects (unlikely unless you are a dialectologist yourself) the best place to see the dialect may actually be literature. The most extensive is probably Honam, it was recorded in dialogue forms in a number of very long novels (note: Koreans are fond of 10+ volumes epic-scale novels.) and it left a deep trace in Pansori. But to be honest, I sometimes find them difficult myself. (Shame on me.)

"Pure" Jeju at a normal conversational speed would be entirely incomprehensible to the peninsular speaker. It was under Mongolian influence when the island was governed directly by the Mongol Yuan, and the relative isolation allowed Jeju to preserve many aspects from Middle Korean - for example, Jeju is the only variant which still retains the vowel ㆍ(/ɒ/). Its status is challenged in face of massive peninsular influences, and the dearth of materials available for general study (other than technical articles) makes it difficult to learn this. (I tried to find some but to no avail.) However, its prospect is not entirely dark as it is probably the only one under the process of revitalisation with the support from the Autonomous Provincial Government.

[eskandar]

For North Korean material, you might want to keep an eye out for the Korean Newspaper Reader which features a number of North Korean texts.

[polishboy]

hmmm, are there dialecs really in use?
I was interested about it, and one woman from Pusan told me that they don't use dialects in big cities.
But I read that on jeju Island they use a dialect other Koreans cannot undeerstand like 함수광 =합니까
And that some pople say it could be a separate language.

The usage of dialect varies depends on the individual, but almost everyone is "standardised" to differing extents. Whilst some do retain dialects, it is probably not far from the truth that very few speak any dialect in the "pure" form. The massive movement of population in the mid-twentieth century from the Korean War to the urbanisation process in 70s, combined with the universal education, obscured and "flattened out" the dialect map and although it is still the trend for the dialects to converge, they are still distinguishable.

Many people, especially in the cities, think that they speak standard Korean but their claim may or may not be true. I have heard from a Pusanite that she realised her Korean was somewhat nonstandard (mostly in intonation) only after she came to live in Seoul. As it is the case in most dialects, rural areas tend to preserve the dialects better than the urban.

Most of the peninsular dialects are mutually intelligible, but this is largely due to the process of standardisation, especially in lexis where they are taught what is "standard" (and thus right) and not (and thus wrong). Some dialect speakers find it more difficult to mimic the standard than the others, such as Gyeongsang.

If you lack the means to travel to the rural areas to study the dialects (unlikely unless you are a dialectologist yourself) the best place to see the dialect may actually be literature. The most extensive is probably Honam, it was recorded in dialogue forms in a number of very long novels (note: Koreans are fond of 10+ volumes epic-scale novels.) and it left a deep trace in Pansori. But to be honest, I sometimes find them difficult myself. (Shame on me.)

"Pure" Jeju at a normal conversational speed would be entirely incomprehensible to the peninsular speaker. It was under Mongolian influence when the island was governed directly by the Mongol Yuan, and the relative isolation allowed Jeju to preserve many aspects from Middle Korean - for example, Jeju is the only variant which still retains the vowel ㆍ(/ɒ/). Its status is challenged in face of massive peninsular influences, and the dearth of materials available for general study (other than technical articles) makes it difficult to learn this. (I tried to find some but to no avail.) However, its prospect is not entirely dark as it is probably the only one under the process of revitalisation with the support from the Autonomous Provincial Government.

thanks for answer!

I learn stard Korean of course, but i write with one girl from 대구 city.
and I wante to impress her that I know some of dialects hehe!
캉 =랑...
iti s funny that these dialects have different grammar too!