Week 6: South Korean Dialects

Just as we have different accents in America, Korea has something quite similar called dialects. The dialects differ based upon region, like accents changing from state to state. These dialects however, can vary enough so that Koreans who may not necessarily speak one dialect may not be able to understand those who do.

For this blog I’m going to focus on 6 South Korean dialects so, let’s get started!~

1. Seoul/ Gyeonggi- This is the standard Korean language that all Koreans are educated to speak. For those learning Korean outside of the country, this is the dialect you are most likely being taught in.
2. Chungcheong- Since this area is Seoul’s “next door neighbor”, the two dialects are very similar. The pronunciations and vocabulary are all pretty close to the standard Korean. Although similar to the standard Seoul dialect, the people from this region are known for speaking slowly.
3. Gangwon- Also known as Yeongdong. When looking at the area of this province it looks huge but, it is divided by the Taebaek Mountain Range which is why the population here has never been too big. As a result of little to no residents, no distinctive dialect was ever really formed. However, the part of Gangwon that meets with the Eastern coast managed to develop a rather unique dialect which used/ included tones (like Chinese and Vietnamese).
4. Gyeongsang- Can also be referred to as the Yeongnam region. This particular dialect is spoken with a strong and harsh accent. Due to the way the dialect sounds, the Yeongnam region has long been stereotyped to be the land of the manly men. Similar to the Gangwon dialect, this one is very dynamic with high peaks and low valleys resulting in the use of tones. Those who speak in the Gyeongsang dialect are also known for their inability to pronounce certain sounds that are commonly used in the standard Korean.
5. Jeolla- Honam region (Southwestern part). This province was able to develop its own highly distinctive dialect that is spoken at slower pace compared to the Seoul one but, faster than the Chuncheong dialect. There are also some tones (ups and downs) with the pronunciations but not nearly as much as in the Gyeongsang accent. One last thing to notice is that the people who use this dialect are known to use vowel conjugations to end a sentence instead of the normal, polite way.
6. Jeju- While this is Korea’s largest island, it is also the most geographically isolated. With this isolation, a proper Jeju dialect was established which caused many people to classify it as a different language. By looking at the grammar both “languages” appear the same but, the vocabulary is quite different. Since Jeju-do has been able to preserve very old Korean words and has imported words from China, Japan and Mongolia, there are many words that have stemmed from a mixture or from one of these languages. The lack of spreading this knowledge of vocabulary can be blamed on the island’s isolation [from mainland Korea], which is why mainland Koreans do not know/ understand a majority of the Jeju dialect.

Although I only focused on South Korean dialects, I found this interesting commercial which gives a small example of the different dialects in North and South Korea. 

Hope to see you again next week!