| Gyeongsang | |
|---|---|
| Southeastern Korean | |
| 경상도 방언(사투리)慶尙道 方言 | |
| Native to | South Korea |
| Region | Yeongnam (Gyeongsang Province) |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | kyon1247 |
TheGyeongsang dialects (Korean: 경상도 사투리;RR: Gyeongsangdo saturi), also known asSoutheastern Korean (동남 방언;Dongnam Bangeon;lit. Southeastern Dialect), are dialects of theKorean language from the historical region ofGyeongsang Province. Today, that region is divided intoDaegu,Busan,Ulsan,North Gyeongsang Province, andSouth Gyeongsang Province.
Gyeongsang dialects vary. A native speaker can distinguish the dialect ofDaegu from that of theBusan-Ulsan area although the first city is less than 100 kilometers (62 miles) away from the latter two cities. Dialectal forms are relatively similar along the midstream ofNakdong River but are different near Busan and Ulsan,Jinju andPohang as well as along the eastern slopes ofMount Jiri.
AfterStandard Korean, it is the next most prevalent Korean variety.[1] There are approximately 13,000,000 speakers.
Most Gyeongsang dialects have six vowels,a (ㅏ),e (ㅔ),i (ㅣ),eo (ㅓ),o (ㅗ),u (ㅜ).
In most areas, the vowelsㅐ(ae) and ㅔ (e) are conflated. A 2015 study found that Gyeongsang dialect speakers merged these sounds more significantly than speakers from central regions of Korea, but less so than speakers from southwestern Korea inJeonbuk orJeonnam.[2] The study also identified a key difference between northern & southern Gyeongsang dialects: in the north, the sounds ㅡ(eu) and ㅓ(eo) are distinct, whereas in the south they are indistinguishable.[2]
W andy are generally dropped after a consonant, especially in South Gyeongsang dialects. For example,soegogi (쇠고기) 'beef' is pronouncedsogogi (소고기), andgwaja (과자) 'confectionery' is pronouncedggaja (까자).
Vowels arefronted when the following syllable has ay ori, unless acoronal consonant intervenes. For example,eomi 'mother' isemi, andgogi 'meat' isgegi.[3][4]
Southern Gyeongsang (specifically, nearbyNamhae) dialects lack the tense consonantss (ㅆ). Thus, the speakers pronouncessal (쌀), meaning "rice", the same way assal (살), meaning "flesh". Palatalization is widespread:gy-, gi, ki andky- are pronouncedj andch, e.g. 귤 isjul and 기름 isjileum, whilehy- is pronounceds, e.g. 힘 issim. Many words have tense consonants where the standard is tenuis.Middle Koreanz andβ are preserved ass andb, as in 새비saebi for Standard Korean 새우saeu "shrimp" or 가새gasae for Standard Korean 가위gawi "scissors".[3][4]
The tonal system ofMiddle Korean became largely extinct around the 17th century, but it lives on in the Gyeongsang dialects.[5]
Dialects are classified as North Gyeongsang or South Gyeongsang based onpitch accent. North Gyeongsang has high tone, low tone (short vowel), and high tone (long vowel), whereas South Gyeongsang has high, mid, and low tone.[6][7][8][9][4] For example, South Gyeongsang distinguishessóni 'guest',sōni 'hand', andsòni 'grandchild'. Pitch accent plays a grammatical role as well, for example distinguishing causative and passive as injép-pida 'make s.o. catch' andjepída 'be caught'.[3]
In North Gyeongsang, any syllable may have pitch accent in the form of a high tone, as may the two initial syllables. For example, in trisyllabic words, there are four possible tone patterns:[10]
The Gyeongsang dialect maintains a trace of Middle Korean: the grammar of the dialect distinguishes between ayes–no question and awh-question, while Standard Modern Korean does not. With an informal speech level, for example, yes–no questions end with "-a (아)" and wh-questions end with "-o (오)" in the Gyeongsang dialect, whereas in standard speech both types of questions end in either "-ni (니)" or "-eo (어)" without a difference between the types of questions. For example:
— "Did you have a meal?" or "Did you eat?"
— "What did you eat?"
Notice that the first question can be answered with a yes or no, while the latter question requires detail explanation of the food eaten.
However,-no also works as a rhetorical question ending.
- Literal meaning "Why is this so delicious?", actual meaning "This is so delicious."
This phenomenon can also be observed in tag questions, which are answered with a yes or no.
— "It isn't there, is it?"
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion with: The sociolinguistics of this dialect in modern South Korea, including its significant covert prestige, needs expansion. You can help byadding to it.(August 2020) |
While most Korean speakers do not favour their home dialects, Gyeongsang speakers view their own dialect positively.[11] In 1993, a study of 1365 people from across Korea revealed that Gyeongsang speakers felt less affection and pride towards their dialect compared to speakers of other dialects.[12] In a 2010 study by theNational Institute of Korean Language, 20% of speakers from the Gyeongsang region reported feeling 'awkward' when conversing with Standard Korean speakers.[1] This suggests that some Gyeongsang speakers may feellinguistic inferiority.
From thePark Chung Hee to theKim Young-sam governments (1961–1997), the Gyeongsang dialect had greater prominence in the Korean media than other dialects as all of the presidents exceptChoi Kyu-hah were natives ofGyeongsang province. That is why some South Korean politicians or high-rank officials have been misunderstood for not trying to convert to theSeoul accent, which is considered standard in South Korea.