Gyeongsang dialect

The Gyeongsang dialects (Korean: 경상도 사투리; RR: Gyeongsangdo saturi), also known as Southeastern Korean (동남 방언; Dongnam Bangeon; lit. Southeastern Dialect), are dialects of the Korean language from the historical region of Gyeongsang Province. Today, that region is divided into Daegu, Busan, Ulsan, North Gyeongsang Province, and South Gyeongsang Province.

Gyeongsang dialects vary. A native speaker can distinguish the dialect of Daegu from that of the Busan-Ulsan area although the first city is less than 100 kilometers away from the latter two cities. Dialectal forms are relatively similar along the midstream of Nakdong River but are different near Busan and Ulsan, Jinju and Pohang as well as along the eastern slopes of Mount Jiri.

After Standard Korean, it is the next most prevalent Korean dialect.^[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 in Jeonbuk or Jeonnam.^[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 and y are generally dropped after a consonant, especially in South Gyeongsang dialects. For example, soegogi (쇠고기) 'beef' is pronounced sogogi (소고기), and gwaja (과자) 'confectionery' is pronounced ggaja (까자).

Vowels are fronted when the following syllable has a y or i, unless a coronal consonant intervenes. For example, eomi 'mother' is emi, and gogi 'meat' is gegi.^[3][4]

Southern Gyeongsang (specifically, nearby Namhae) dialects lack the tense consonant ss (ㅆ). Thus, the speakers pronounce ssal (쌀), meaning "rice", the same way as sal (살), meaning "flesh". Palatalization is widespread: gy-, gi, ki and ky- are pronounced j and ch, e.g. 귤 is jul and 기름 is jileum, while hy- is pronounced s, e.g. 힘 is sim. Many words have tense consonants where the standard is tenuis. Middle Korean z and β are preserved as s and b, as in 새비 saebi for Standard Korean 새우 saeu "shrimp" or 가새 gasae for Standard Korean 가위 gawi "scissors".^[3][4]

The tonal system of Middle 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 on pitch 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 distinguishes sóni 'guest', sōni 'hand', and sòni 'grandchild'. Pitch accent plays a grammatical role as well, for example distinguishing causative and passive as in jép-pida 'make s.o. catch' and jepída '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]

• 메누리[mé̞.nu.ɾi] ('daughter-in-law')
• 어무이[ə.mú.i] ('mother')
• 원어민[wə.nə.mín] ('native speaker')
• 오래비[ó̞.ɾé̞.bi] ('elder brother')

The Gyeongsang dialect maintains a trace of Middle Korean: the grammar of the dialect distinguishes between a yes–no question and a wh-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:

• "밥 뭇나?" [Bap múnna?] or "밥 묵읏나?" [Bap múgeunna?] as opposed to "밥 먹었니?" [Bap meogeonní?] or "밥 먹었어?" [Bap meogeosséo?] (casual greetings in Korean.)

 — "Did you have a meal?" or "Did you eat?" 

• "머 뭇노?" [Meo munno?] as opposed to "뭘 먹었니?" [Meol meogeonni?] or "뭘 먹었어?" [Meol meogeosseo?]

 — "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.

• "이거 와 이래 맛있노" [Igeo wa irae masinno.]

 - 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.

• "Eopje, geújya?" (업제, 그쟈?) as opposed to "Eopji, geureotchí?" (없지, 그렇지?)

 — "It isn't there, is it?"

This section needs expansion with: The sociolinguistics of this dialect in modern South Korea, including its significant covert prestige, needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2020)

While most Korean speakers favour their home dialects, Gyeongsang speakers do not view their own dialect positively and prefer Standard Korean.^[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 the National 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 feel linguistic inferiority.

From the Park Chung Hee to the Kim Young-sam governments (1961–1997), the Gyeongsang dialect had greater prominence in the Korean media than other dialects as all of the presidents except Choi Kyu-hah were natives of Gyeongsang province. That is why some South Korean politicians or high-rank officials have been misunderstood for not trying to convert to the Seoul accent, which is considered standard in South Korea. For example, Kim Young-sam's public speeches were the subject of much scrutiny and his pronunciation elicited both criticism and amusement. He once mistakenly pronounced Foreign Minister (외무부 장관; Waemubu Jang-gwan) as 'Making-out Minister' (애무부 장관; Aemubu Jang-gwan). Another humorous anecdote arose from another of his public speeches where audiences were said to have been surprised to hear that he would make Jeju a world-class location for "rape" (강간; gang-gan) instead of "tourism" (관광; gwan-gwang) by establishing "adultery" (간통하는; Gantonghanun) instead of "motorway" 관통하는; Gwantonghanun).^[13]

• Dialectology

• The characteristics of the North Gyeongsang Dialect (Korean)