The Gyeongsang dialect is the variety of Korean native to the Yeongnam region of South Korea, corresponding to the historic Gyeongsang provinces and including the major cities of Daegu, Busan and Ulsan. With an estimated 13 million speakers it is the second most widely spoken Korean dialect after the Seoul-based standard, and it gained particular national prominence between 1961 and 1997, when several of South Korea's presidents were native speakers of the dialect. Its most striking feature is a tonal pitch-accent system directly descended from Middle Korean and largely lost elsewhere in the Korean-speaking world, with South Gyeongsang preserving three distinct tones against two in North Gyeongsang, alongside widespread palatalization and sentence-final endings that still distinguish yes-no questions from wh-questions in the manner of Middle Korean.
Facts
Regionthe Yeongnam region of South Korea, corresponding to the historic Gyeongsang provinces and including the cities of Daegu, Busan and Ulsan 1 Speaker Communityroughly 13 million speakers, the second most widely spoken Korean dialect after the Seoul-based standard; the dialect gained particular prominence in national media and politics from 1961 to 1997, a period in which several South Korean presidents were native Gyeongsang speakers 1 Distinguishing Featuresa tonal, pitch-accent system directly descended from Middle Korean, with South Gyeongsang preserving three tones, high, mid and low, against two in North Gyeongsang, at a time when the rest of Korean has lost tonal contrast entirely; widespread palatalization, so that historical gy or ki sequences shift toward j and hy shifts toward s; distinct sentence-final endings that, as in Middle Korean, still separate yes-no questions from wh-questions 1 Classification
Variety Kind Connections
Descends From
Source Wikipedia: Gyeongsang Dialect
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Gyeongsang Dialect
Wikimedia FoundationTone section
The tonal system of Middle Korean became largely extinct around the 17th century, but it lives on in the Gyeongsang dialects.
Variety kind, Gyeongsang Dialect entity page
The Gyeongsang dialect is the variety of Korean native to the Yeongnam region of South Korea, corresponding to the historic Gyeongsang provinces and including the major cities of Daegu, Busan and Ulsan.
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