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Today on the Korean Atlas and History: Korean Dialects. Jeju.

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The dialect of Jeju comes from Jeju Island, a small, province off of the

southern shore of South Korea. The dialect is often known as a language of its own,

as it differs greatly from the Korean spoken on mainland Korea. Due to mass media,

the dialect, or language, of Jeju is fading away, and now it is spoken mainly by the

older residents of the island. The number of active speakers is around 10,000.

Starting in 2014, the Jeju National University Foreign Language Institute has made

efforts to save the language. According to the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s

Endangered Languages, the language of Jeju is critically endangered. Only 5 to 10

thousand people actively speak the language, all of whom are above seventy years

of age. The language may be extinct in twenty to forty years.

Koreans have four main names for the language of Jeju: 제주 방언, 제주

사투리, 제주어, 제주말, all of which can be translated into either Jeju dialect or Jeju

language. The language is considered a dialect by the Korean people, as Jeju is a

province of South Korea, however, linguists consider it to be a separate language, as

it is mutually unintelligible with mainland Korean dialects. Jeju also incorporates

some Japanese and Mongolian into their language, further separating it from

mainland Korean.

The origins of the language is unknown, and hard to say. It is known that in

ancient times, the island of Jeju was ruled by the 탐라 kingdom, and had little to no

contact with mainland Korea. Yet, as the kingdoms of Baekje, Silla, and Goryeo rose,

탐라 took on tributary relationships with them. The languages of these kingdoms

and 탐라 were quite distinct, but around this time, some synthesis began to occur.

From 1231, the Korean peninsula was frequently invaded by the Mongolian empire.

During the 삼별초 Rebellion, from 1270-1273, the island lay contested between the

Mongols and Goryeo, and from this time until 1294, the Mongols directly controlled

the 탐라 kingdom. From then, it maintained local autonomy, until in 1404, King

Taejeong of the Joseon Dynasty placed Jeju under firm control and brought 탐라 to

an end. During this time of Mongolian influence and control, the Mongolian

language strongly influenced the language of Jeju.

During the Joseon Dynasty, there were not many records from the island, but

few sources mention it as being very different. During World War II, the U.S. Military

used Navajo to prevent the Japanese from understating communications. A similar

tactic was used during the 1951 battle of 도솔산, in which Jeju speakers were used

to prevent eavesdropping.
 Sadly, one of the main reasons that Jeju youths today are not using the

language, is in order to avoid discrimination. For a considerable amount of time, a

teachers and students were prevented from using the Jeju language in the

classroom. In the past, the mass media has used the dialects of Yeong-Nam, Hun-

Nan, and Chung-Cheong as comedic dialects. The language of Jeju has been

forgotten in this sense, until the present, as it is just now being used in media,

usually for comedic purposes.

The language itself is characterized by a heavy accent containing many

informal words and phrases considered to be Korean slang. The language survives in

diasporic enclaves in Japan. Efforts have been made to revitalize the language,

including a Jeju-eo-to-Korean dictionary and the establishment of the Jeju

Developmental Institute. Yet, progress has been slow due to an ever widening

generation and culture gap between youths and the main bulk of the speakers.

The phonetic properties of the Jeju language are similar to those in the Seoul

dialect. The main difference lies in the Jeju vowel system and other components of

grammar. Jeju maintains the arae-a vowel, which has been lost from standard

Korean.

A notable difference between mainland Korea and the Jeju language is that

Jeju lacks the honorific form. For example, a young speaker of the Gyeonggi dialect

may say 반갑습니다, or “Pleasure to Meet you,” to an older person, yet a speaker of
Jeju would say 반갑수다, which is roughly equivalent to “Howdy” or “Nice ta meet

ya.” This would be considered inappropriate in the mainland dialects. Thus, Jeju was

dubbed inferior to the mainland dialects due to its casual tone and lack of formal

morphemes at the end of verbs.

The Jeju language has also preserved many words have been lost, and

borrowed words not found in standard Korean. Some examples of these words

include: 아방 for father as compared to mainland “abeoji”, 어멍 for mother as

compared to mainland “eomeoni” and 고냉이 for cat as compared to the mainland

“koyangi.” The usage of many words is different as well. The word 삼춘 takes its

reference from the mainland word “samchon,” yet the word 삼춘, on Jeju, refers to

all middle aged men and women. On mainland Korea, the word “samchon” refers

only to one’s uncle. The word 대비 refers to the word sock. The mainland word for

sock is “yangmal.” The Jeju variant comes from the Japanese “tabi” which means

“traditional Japanese socks.” For a short list of these words, check out

Wikipedia.com.

The Jeju language also contains for forms of the locative case marker. In

mainland Korea, only the form –ae (ey) exists, but Jeju has –ey, -ley, -I, and –ti.

The Jeju language also has some profanity that is found only on the island.

Most Koreans misunderstand the profanity, or find it comedic.

 The dialect of Jeju is found in notable media today, including television and

dramas. The singer 혜은 was famous in the 1970s for a hit song sang in the Jeju

dialect. The drama 탐나는도다 carefully portrayed the language of Jeju. The drama

인생은 아름다워 has Jeju as its background, so often the language can be heard

there. Of course, the programs that air from Jeju often use the language.

Residents of Jeju who speak some of the language are currently being

encouraged to write down what they remember. Even if it is in a corner of the

Internet, if you speak any of the Jeju language, write it down. If it disappears with

you, it truly disappears.

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Thank You for listening to this episode of the Korean Atlas and History. Most

of today’s information was taken from the 나무 Wiki and Wikipedia. All of our

episodes can be found and downloaded from koreanatlasandhistory.com. Thank

you for listening and we’ll see you next time.