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A number of different
KoreanKorean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers. It was formerly written using Hanja, borrowed Chinese characters pronounced in the Korean...
dialects are spoken in the
Korean peninsulaThe Korean Peninsula is a peninsula in East Asia. It extends southwards for about 684 miles from continental Asia into the Pacific Ocean and is surrounded by the Sea of Japan on the east, the East China Sea to the south, and the Yellow Sea to the west, the Korea Strait connecting the first two...
. The
peninsulaA peninsula is a piece of land that is nearly surrounded by water but connected to mainland via an isthmus. Word origin: Latin paenīnsula : paene, almost + īnsula, island.A peninsula can also be a headland, cape, island promontory, bill, point, or spit....
is extremely mountainous, and each dialect's "territory" corresponds closely to the natural boundaries between different geographical
regionsKorea has traditionally been divided into a number of unofficial regions that reflect historical, geographical, and dialect boundaries within the peninsula...
. Most of the dialects are named for one of
KoreaKorea is a civilization and formerly unified nation currently divided into two states. Located on the Korean Peninsula, it borders China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait....
's traditional
Eight ProvincesDuring most of the Joseon Dynasty, Korea was divided into eight provinces . The eight provinces' boundaries remained unchanged for almost five centuries from 1413 to 1895, and formed a geographic paradigm that is still reflected today in the Korean Peninsula's administrative divisions, dialects,...
.
Standard dialects
- 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.
- Seoul dialect
The Seoul dialect is the basis of the standard language of Korean in South Korea. It is spoken in the Seoul National Capital Area, which includes Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi. The dialect does not merely mean 'a standard accent'. The exact form of the South Korea's standard accent is that of...
(서울말) is the basis of the standard dialect in South KoreaSouth Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often simply referred to as Korea, is a country in East Asia, located on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by China to the west, Japan to the east, and North Korea to the north. Its capital is Seoul, the second largest...
, and is spoken in SeoulSeoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest city of South Korea. With a population of over 10 million, it is one of the world's largest cities. The Seoul National Capital Area, which includes the major port city of Incheon and most of Gyeonggi-do, has 24.5 million...
, IncheonIncheon, officially the Incheon Metropolitan City, is South Korea's third largest metropolis, after Seoul and Busan. As the largest seaport on the west coast and home to the country's largest airport, Incheon International Airport, Incheon is South Korea's most important transport hub...
, and Gyeonggi in South Korea, as well as in KaesŏngKaesŏng is a city in North Hwanghae Province, southern North Korea , a former Directly Governed City, and the capital of Korea during the Koryo Dynasty. The city is near Kaesŏng Industrial Region and it contains the remains of the Manwoldae palace. It was formally named Songdo while it was the...
in North KoreaNorth Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer area between North Korea and South Korea...
.
- P'yŏng'an dialect
The Pyongan dialect is the basis of the standard language of Korean in North Korea....
(평안방언) is the standard dialect in North KoreaThe North-South differences in the Korean language refers to the differences in the Korean language used in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea From a linguistic point of view, the language used in the North and the South is one and the same...
, and is spoken in P'yŏngyangPyongyang is the capital of North Korea, located on the Taedong River. According to preliminary results from the 2008 population census, it has a population of 3,255,388.The city was split from the South P'yŏngan province in 1946...
, the P'yŏng'anP'yŏngan was one of the Eight Provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. P'yŏngan was located in the northwest of Korea. The provincial capital was P'yŏngyang.-History:P'yŏngan Province was formed in 1413...
region, and ChagangChagang is an province in North Korea; it is bordered by China on the north, Ryanggang and South Hamgyong on the east, South P'yŏngan on the south, and North P'yŏngan to the west. Chagang was formed in 1949, when it was separated from North P'yŏngan. The provincial capital is...
Province.
Regional dialects
- Hamgyŏng dialect
Hamgyŏng dialect is a dialect of the Korean language used in the North Hamgyŏng, South Hamgyŏng, and Ryanggang Provinces of North Korea, as well as the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of northeast China...
(함경 방언) is used in the HamgyŏngHamgyŏng was one of the Eight Provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. Hamgyŏng was located in the northeast of Korea. The provincial capital was Hamhŭng.-History:...
(KwanbukKwanbuk is a region in North Hamgyong and South Hamgyong Provinces of North Korea. The region may once have been occupied by the Okjeo people. It was later controlled by Goguryeo and then Balhae, and subsequently contested by Goryeo and the Jurchen nation....
& KwannamKwannam is a traditional Korean term used to refer to the southern region of Hamgyong province, including portions of modern-day North Hamgyong and South Hamgyong, North Korea. Its literal meaning is "South of the Ridge", the ridge in question being Mach'ŏnnyŏng 마천령 摩天嶺...
) region and RyanggangRyanggang is a province in North Korea. The province is bordered by China on the north, North Hamgyong on the east, South Hamgyong on the south, and Chagang on the west. Ryanggang was formed in 1954, when it was separated from South Hamgyŏng. The provincial capital is Hyesan...
Province of North Korea as well as the Yanbian Korean Autonomous PrefectureYanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture in Jilin province, in the northeastern China. Yanbian is south of Heilongjiang, east of Jilin's Baishan City, north of North Korea's North Hamgyong Province, and west of Russia. Yanbian is designated as an autonomous prefecture due...
of northeast ChinaNortheast China is a geographical region of China, consisting of the three provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. It is separated from Russia largely by the Amur, Argun, and Ussuri rivers, from North Korea by the Yalu River and Tumen River, and from the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region by...
(in Jilin' , is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. Jilin borders North Korea and Russia to the east, Heilongjiang to the north, Liaoning to the south, and Inner Mongolia to the west...
).
- Hwanghae dialect (황해 방언) is used in the Hwanghae
Hwanghae was one of the Eight Provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty, and one of the thirteen provinces of Korea during the Japanese Colonial Period. Hwanghae was located in the northwest of Korea. The provincial capital was Haeju....
(Haesŏ) region of North Korea.
- Gangwon dialect (강원 방언) is used in Gangwon
Gangwon-do is a province of South Korea, with its capital at Chuncheon. Before the division of Korea in 1945, Gangwon and its North Korean neighbour Kangwŏn formed a single province.-History:...
Province in South Korea and neighbouring KangwŏnKangwŏn is a province of North Korea, with its capital at Wŏnsan. Before the division of Korea in 1945, Kangwŏn and its South Korean neighbour Gangwon-do formed a single province that excluded Wŏnsan.-History:...
Province in North Korea.
- Chungcheong dialect (충청 방언) is used in the Chungcheong
Chungcheong was one of the eight provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. Chungcheong was located in the southwest of Korea...
(Hoseo) region of South Korea, including the city of DaejeonDaejeon is located in the center of South Korea. It is the fifth largest city in South Korea, with a population of 1,442,856 at the end of 2005. It is at the crossroads of Gyeongbu railway, Honam railway, Gyeongbu Expressway, and Honam Expressway...
.
- Gyeongsang dialect
The Gyeongsang dialect is a dialect of the Korean language which is widely used in the Yeongnam region, which includes North and South Gyeongsang provinces. The Gyeongsang Dialect is considered the direct descendant of the Silla language by Korean linguists. A highly pronounced intonation...
(경상 방언) is used in GyeongsangGyeongsang was one of the eight provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. Gyeongsang was located in the southeast of Korea....
(YeongnamYeongnam is the name of a region that coincides with the former Gyeongsang Province in what is now South Korea....
) region of South Korea, including the cities of BusanBusan Metropolitan City, also known as Pusan is the largest port city in South Korea and the fifth largest port in the world. Busan has a population of about 3.6 million. It is South Korea's second largest metropolis, after Seoul. The city is located on the Southeasternmost tip of the Korean...
, DaeguDaegu , also spelled Taegu, and officially called the Daegu Metropolitan City, with over 2.5 million people, is the fourth largest city in South Korea after Seoul, Busan, and Incheon...
, and UlsanUlsan, officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's seventh largest metropolis with a population of over 1.1 million. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighboring Busan to the south and facing the Sea of Japan to the east.Ulsan is the industrial powerhouse of South...
. This dialect is easily distinguished from the Seoul dialect because its pitch is more varied.
- Jeolla dialect
Jeolla dialect is used in the Jeolla region of South Korea, including the city of Gwangju.Along with Chungcheong dialect, it is considered non-standard by some Koreans. Perhaps the most obvious difference comes from common verb endings...
(전라 방언) is used in the JeollaJeolla was one of the eight provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. Jeolla was located in the southwest of Korea. The provincial capital was Jeonju.-History:...
(HonamHonam is a region coinciding with the former Jeolla Province in what is now South Korea. Today, the term refers to North and South Jeolla Provinces....
) region of South Korea, including the city of GwangjuGwangju Metropolitan City is the sixth largest city in South Korea. It is a designated metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home Minister...
.
- Jeju dialect
Jeju dialect or Jeju language is the dialect used on the island of Jeju in Korea, with the exception of Chuja in former Bukjeju County area of Jeju City. It differs greatly from the dialects of the mainland, and preserves many archaic words which have since been lost in other Korean dialects...
(제주 방언) is spoken on Jeju IslandJeju-do is the only special autonomous province of South Korea, situated on and coterminous with the country's largest island. Jeju-do lies in the Korea Strait, southwest of Jeollanam-do Province, of which it was a part before it became a separate province in 1946...
, off the southwest coast of South Korea.
Outside of the Korean peninsula
- Koryo-mar
Koryo-mar, Goryeomal or Koryŏmal is the dialect of the Korean language spoken by the Koryo-saram, ethnic Koreans in the former USSR. It is descended from the Hamgyŏng dialect...
(Autonym: Корё мар/고려말, Standard Korean: 중앙아시아 한국어), usually identified as a descendant of the Hamgyŏng dialectHamgyŏng dialect is a dialect of the Korean language used in the North Hamgyŏng, South Hamgyŏng, and Ryanggang Provinces of North Korea, as well as the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of northeast China...
, is spoken by the Koryo-saramKoryo-saram is the name which ethnic Koreans in the post-Soviet states use to refer to themselves. Approximately 500,000 ethnic Koreans reside in the former Soviet Union, primarily in the now-independent states of Central Asia. There are also large Korean communities in southern Russia , the...
, ethnic Koreans in the former USSRThe post-Soviet states, also commonly known as the Former Soviet Union or former Soviet republics, are the 15 independent nations that split off from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in its breakup in December 1991...
. It consists of a Korean base vocabulary, but takes many loanwords and calques from RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
and the Turkic languagesThe Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken by some...
.
- Zainichi Korean language
Zainichi Korean language is a language or a dialect spoken by Zainichi Koreans . The speech is based on the southern dialects of Korean, as the majority of first-generation immigrants came from the southern part of the peninsula, including Gyeonggi-do, Jeolla-do, and Jeju-do...
(재일어; 재일조선어) is a language or a dialect spoken among Zainichi KoreanKoreans in Japan are the ethnic Korean residents of Japan. They currently constitute the largest ethnic minority group in Japan. The majority of Koreans in Japan are Zainichi Koreans, also often known as Zainichi for short, who are the permanent ethnic Korean residents of Japan...
s in Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, strongly influenced by Japaneseis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none have gained general acceptance...
.
- As discussed above, Koreans in China use a dialect nearly identical to Hamgyŏng dialect in North Korea, but there are still some differences, as the former has many modern terms that came from Chinese
Chinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
.
See also
- Korean language North-South differences
The North-South differences in the Korean language refers to the differences in the Korean language used in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea From a linguistic point of view, the language used in the North and the South is one and the same...
- List of Korea-related topics
- Eight Provinces (Korea)
During most of the Joseon Dynasty, Korea was divided into eight provinces . The eight provinces' boundaries remained unchanged for almost five centuries from 1413 to 1895, and formed a geographic paradigm that is still reflected today in the Korean Peninsula's administrative divisions, dialects,...
- Regions of Korea
Korea has traditionally been divided into a number of unofficial regions that reflect historical, geographical, and dialect boundaries within the peninsula...
- Tsushima dialect of Japanese, which contains loanwords from Korean.