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 (North Korea; hereafter "the North") and the Republic of Korea (South Korea; "the South.") From a linguistic point of view, the language used in the North and the South is one and the same. However, the length of time for which Korea has been divided has given rise to a number of small differences. Below are the language differences between the North and the South, centered around what is considered the standard language in each case.

Overview

Korean orthography, as defined by the Korean Language Society in 1933 in the "Proposal for Unified Korean Orthography" ("Han-geul Matchumbeop Tong-iran"; 한글 맞춤법 통일안) had continued to be used by the North and the South after the end of Japanese occupation of Korea, but with the establishments of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea in 1948, the two states have taken on differing policies regarding the language. In 1954, North Korea set out the rules for Korean orthography in "Chosŏnŏ Chŏljabŏp" (조선어 철자법), and although this was only a minor revision in orthography that created little difference from that used in the South, from then on, what is considered the standard language in the North and the South gradually differed more and more from each other.

However, in the 1960s, under the influence of the Juche idea came a big change in linguistic policies in North Korea. On 3 January 1964, Kim Il-sung issued his teachings on "A Number of Issues on the Development of the Korean language" (조선어를 발전시키기 위한 몇 가지 문제), and on 14 May 1966 on the topic "In Rightly Advancing the Racial Characteristics of the Korean language" (조선어의 민족적 특성을 옳게 살려 나갈 데 대하여), from which the "Standard Korean Language" (조선말규범집) rules followed in the same year, issued by the National Language Revision Committee that was directly under the control of the cabinet. From then on, bigger differences have come about between the standard languages used in the North and the South. In 1987 North Korea revised the aforementioned rules further, and these have remained in use until today. In addition, the rules for spacing were separately laid out in the "Standard Spacing Rules in Writing Korean" (조선말 띄여쓰기규범) in 2000, but have since been superseded by "Rules for Spacing in Writing Korean" (띄여쓰기규정), issued in 2003.

South Korea continued to use the "Han-geul Matchumbeop Tong-iran" as defined in 1933, until its amendment "Korean Orthography" ("Han-geul Matchumbeop", 한글 맞춤법), together with "Standard Language Regulations" (표준어 규정), were issued in 1988, which remain in use today.

"Jamo"

The same "jamo" (letters) are used to write the language in the North and the South. However in the North, in writing the letter ㅌ is typically not written as a stroke added inside the letter ㄷ, but as a stroke added above the letter ㄷ.

In the South, the compound vowel "jamos" ㅐ, ㅒ, ㅔ, ㅖ, ㅘ, ㅙ, ㅚ, ㅝ, ㅞ, ㅟ, ㅢ and the tensed consonants ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ are not treated as separate "jamo", whereas in the North these are regarded as separate "jamo".

Some "jamo" have different names in the North and in the South.

Indication of tensed consonants after word endings that end with ㄹ

In word endings where the final consonant is ㄹ, where the South spells -ㄹ까 and -ㄹ쏘나 to indicate the tensed consonants, in the North these are spelt -ㄹ가，-ㄹ소냐 instead. These etymologically are formed by attaching to the adnominal form (관형사형) that ends in ㄹ, and in the North, the tensed consonants are denoted with normal consonants. Also, the word ending -ㄹ게 used to be spelt -ㄹ께 in the South, but has since been changed in the "Hangeul Matchumbeop" of 1988, and is now spelt -ㄹ게 just like in the North.

ino-Korean words

Initial ㄴ / ㄹ (두음법칙 "Dueum beopchik", "initial sound rule")

Initial ㄴ / ㄹ appearing in Sino-Korean words are kept in the North. In the South, in Sino-Korean words that begin with ㄹ and is followed by the vowel sound [i] or the semi-vowel sound [j] (i.e. when ㄹ is followed by one of ㅣ, ㅑ, ㅕ, ㅖ, ㅛ and ㅠ), ㄹ is replaced by ㅇ; when this ㄹ is followed by other vowels it is replaced by ㄴ. In the North, the initial ㄹ is kept.

Some hanja characters are pronounced differently.

In the first example, in the South the _ko. 올 part shows that the etymological origin is forgotten, and the word is written as pronounced as _ko. 올바르다, whereas in the North the first part is seen to come from _ko. 옳다 and thus the whole word is written _ko. 옳바르다 (pronounced the same as in the South). Conversely in the second example, the South spelling catches the word as the combination of _ko. 벚 and _ko. 꽃, whereas in the North this is no longer recognised and thus the word is written as pronounced as _ko. 벗꽃.

pacing

In the South, the rules of spacing are not very clear-cut, whereas in the North, these are very precise. In summary, compared to the North, the writing in the South tends to include more spacing. The main differences are indicated below.

Bound nouns

Before bound nouns (North: _ko. 불완전명사 "incomplete nouns"; South: _ko. 의존 명사 "dependent nouns"), a space is added in the South but not in the North. This applies to counter words also, but the space is sometimes allowed to be omitted in the South.

Note that since the spacing rules in the South are not very clearly defined, spellings vary from place to place. For example, taking the word _ko. 국어 사전, people who see this as two words will add a space and people who see this as one word will write it without a space. Thus, the spacing depends on how one views what "one word" consists of, and hence in reality the spacing is not at all standardised in the South.

Vocabulary

The standard language in the South (표준어/標準語) is largely based on the Seoul dialect, and the standard language (문화어/文化語) in the North is largely based on the Pyongyang dialect. However, both in the North and in the South, the vocabulary and forms of the standard language come from "Sajeonghan Joseoneo Pyojunmal Mo-eum" 사정한 조선어 표준말 모음 published by the Korean Language Society in 1936, and so essentially there is very little difference in the basic vocabulary between the standard languages used in the North and the South. Nevertheless, due to the difference in political systems and social structure, newly-created words give rise to differences in vocabulary, and the number of these looks to increase further in the future.

Differences due to the difference in political system or social structure

Words like _ko. 강냉이 and _ko. 우 are also sometimes heard in various dialects in South Korea.

There are also some words that only exist in the North. The verb _ko. 마스다 (to break) and its passive form _ko. 마사지다 (to be broken) have no exactly corresponding words in the South.

ee also

*New Orthography for the Korean Language