59th Korean Language Evolves Into Dialects Abroad
Influx of Foreign Words, Diasporas Cause Diversification in Mother Tongue
By Ines Min
Contributing Writer
There are three ways to say "thank you" informally in Korean, depending on where you live.
For North Koreans it is "고마와," for the Koryo-saram in Central Asia it might be "아슴챠이타" and in standard Korean, based on the dialect of Seoul, it is "고마워." On top of this, the occasional English "thank you," can be heard.
The Korean language has long been transformed by a series of world powers and their corresponding linguistics. Within the southern peninsula, Korean has been climbing a peak of English usage ― in both Konglish and Engrish forms ― while simultaneously fading among Korean populations abroad.
These are signs of linguistic evolution, but they also demonstrate the growing divide among Korean-language speakers globally.
"The search for a pure, unadulterated form of Korean that is somehow unaffected by division or occupation is a fantasy ― language keeps changing, and is never frozen in time," said Dr. Ross King, a scholar, in an e-mail interview with The Korea Times.
King, the head of the Asian studies department at the University of British Columbia, Can., has done extensive research on the history of Korean linguistics and Soviet Koreans such as the Koryo-saram.
"Ethnic Koreans abroad are doomed to lose their command of Korean, usually within three generations at most," the scholar said. He added that the Korean governmental statistics that claim there are 75 million Korean speakers around the world is misleading because the speakers are not necessarily proficient or speak standard Korean.
In the case of the Koryo-saram, Koreans who were displaced to Central Asia from Eastern Russia in the 1930s by Joseph (AP uses Josef) Stalin, adopted a hybrid language called Koryo-mar ― a mix of Korean and Russian ― as their mother tongue, although these days few speak fluently and use Russian instead.
Although Koryo-mar has roots in the North Korean dialect of Hamgyeong, the absence of formal Korean education contributed to the loss of the original tongue.
"Koryo-mar has been in intense contact with Russian for over a century in what linguists call a 'roofless' situation ― there is no overarching umbrella or roof of a standard variety and standard norms for Korean in the former USSR ― not since deportation in 1937," King said.
During that time, "there was no such thing as 'standard Korean,' even in Korea itself."
However, some places have managed to retain the language, he said.
"A good comparison is Korean in China, where Korean is still 'roofed,' both through education and official recognition as a minority language, and through contact with adjacent North Korea," he said.
Signs of the dissipation of Korean are also seen in the United States, where less focus is placed on second-generation Koreans to learn their mother tongue.
As for South Korea, where English is indisputably ubiquitous, King sees it as a natural progression, although he personally has strong feelings against it.
"I don't know if we can say it is good or bad in a moral sense," King said about the abundance of English found in Korean. "But it is also inevitable and understandable.
"Since (Japanese) liberation, South Korea has been influenced by ― and eagerly so ― English far more than it ever was by Japanese. And the mechanisms by which English can assert itself now are much more powerful than they ever were for Japanese."
While Sino-Korean took over more than half of the native vocabulary, in principle English could follow, but at an accelerated rate with the aid of technology, education and media, he said.
"And South Koreans seem to want it ― look at how much they spend on English and then compare that with what they spend on promoting Korean (language) overseas," the professor said.
He added that English has been more pervasive than Japanese, although the occupation did affect the development of Korean.
"The real impact of Japanese colonization was that it stymied efforts on the part of Koreans to embark on a program of language cultivation and standardization," King said.
"Japanese colonization also led to the formation of the significant diasporas in Russia, China and Japan, which then underwent separate trajectories of linguistic development ― this is one of the real significant legacies of Japanese colonialism with respect to language," he said.
In order to maintain the survival and integrity of Korean, changing the way the language is presented abroad is the best option, the scholar said.
"Korean policy should focus on teaching Korean as a foreign language ― including planning for the second- and third-generation overseas Koreans who are bound to lose the language."
The National Institute of the Korean Language created a Web site ― Malteo.net ― in 1994 promoting the survival of Korean words over English equivalents that were being adopted into the language.
"It is a natural phenomenon to use foreign words that come into our language in terms of technology and culture," said Jo Tae-rin, an official from the institute. "However, I think that it's better to use Korean words over the foreign ones, in cases where there is a corresponding Korean word available.
"The problem arises when an excessive use of foreign languages undermines our culture and traditions," he added, agreeing, however, that it is inherent in all cultures to adopt foreign words.
King supports the institute's efforts, but cautions that such issues should not be overemphasized or approached from the wrong perspective.
"I think it is a worthwhile endeavor, as long as it is divorced from unproductive nationalist ideological discourse," he said. "And as long as language planners are willing to accept an eventuality where only a small proportion of their suggestions actually find acceptance."
Every two weeks a new word is introduced to Malteo.net and visitors are asked to come up with a corresponding Korean word. Four hundred words are proposed on average, with roughly 2,000 people participating in the vote, according to the official.