The Hamgyong dialect, also called the Northeast dialect, is a variety of Korean spoken mainly in the Hamgyong and Ryanggang provinces of northeastern North Korea, and it has also taken root in diaspora communities in northeast China and in former Soviet territories since the nineteenth century. It keeps a distinct high-low pitch accent system that distinguishes words that would otherwise sound identical, a feature that reflects the tones of Middle Korean and sets it apart from standard Seoul speech. Its phonology shows extensive palatalization and widespread vowel fronting, and it preserves older consonant sounds between vowels that have disappeared in other dialects, while its grammar is unusual in placing negative particles between the main verb and its auxiliary. Distinctive vocabulary includes kinship terms such as abai for father, used in place of the standard aboji, along with its own grammatical markers. Not every part of the historical Hamgyong province speaks this dialect, since the Yukjin dialect and certain southern counties retain their own separate features.
Facts
RegionSpoken in most of North and South Hamgyong and Ryanggang provinces of northeastern North Korea, all originally united as Hamgyong Province, and since the 19th century by Korean diaspora communities in Northeast China and the former Soviet Union. 1 Speaker CommunityIn the 1930s Stalin had the entire Korean population of the Russian Far East, some 250,000 people, forcibly deported to Soviet Central Asia, particularly Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, where their Koryo-mar speech survives in small communities under severe pressure from local languages and Standard Seoul Korean. 1 Distinguishing FeaturesLike the southeastern Gyeongsang dialect but unlike most other Korean dialects, Hamgyong has a distinct high-low pitch accent system used to distinguish what would otherwise be homophones. 1 Classification
Variety Kind Sources
1. Wikipedia: Hamgyong Dialect
Wikimedia FoundationLead section
The Northeast Dialect, sometimes called the Hamgyong Dialect...is a dialect of the Korean language used in most of North and South Hamgyŏng and Ryanggang provinces of northeastern North Korea, all of which were originally united as Hamgyŏng Province. Since the nineteenth century, it has also been spoken by Korean diaspora communities in Northeast China and the former Soviet Union.
History and distribution section
In the 1930s, Stalin had the entire Korean population of the Russian Far East, some 250,000 people, forcibly deported to Soviet Central Asia, particularly Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. There are small Korean communities scattered throughout central Asia maintaining forms of Korean known collectively as Koryo-mar, but their language is under severe pressure from local languages and Standard Seoul Korean and has been expected to go extinct within the early 21st century.
Phonology section
Like the southeastern Gyeongsang dialect but unlike other Korean dialects, the Hamgyŏng dialect has a distinct high-low pitch accent system used to distinguish what would otherwise be homophones.
Variety kind, Hamgyong Dialect entity page
The Hamgyong dialect, also called the Northeast dialect, is a variety of Korean spoken mainly in the Hamgyong and Ryanggang provinces of northeastern North Korea, and it has also taken root in diaspora communities in northeast China and in former Soviet territories since the nineteenth century.
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