Languages of North Korea - Overview

Overview

Korean orthography, as defined by the Korean Language Society in 1933 in the "Proposal for Unified Korean Orthography" (Hangul: 한글 맞춤법 통일안; RR: Han-geul Matchumbeop Tong-iran) continued to be used by the North and the South after the end of Japanese rule of Korea, but with the establishments of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea in 1948, the two states have taken on differing policies regarding the language. In 1954, North Korea set out the rules for Korean orthography in Hangul: 조선어 철자법; RR: Chosŏnŏ Chŏljabŏp, and although this was only a minor revision in orthography that created little difference from that used in the South, from then on, the standard language in the North and the South gradually differed more and more from each other.

In the 1960s, under the influence of the Juche idea came a big change in linguistic policies in North Korea. On 3 January 1964, Kim Il-sung issued his teachings on "A Number of Issues on the Development of the Korean language" (Korean: 조선어를 발전시키기 위한 몇 가지 문제), and on 14 May 1966 on the topic "In Rightly Advancing the Racial Characteristics of the Korean language" (Korean: 조선어의 민족적 특성을 옳게 살려 나갈 데 대하여), from which the "Standard Korean Language" (Korean: 조선말규범집) rules followed in the same year, issued by the National Language Revision Committee that was directly under the control of the cabinet. From then on, more important differences came about between the standard language in the North and the South. In 1987, North Korea revised the aforementioned rules further, and these have remained in use until today. In addition, the rules for spacing were separately laid out in the "Standard Spacing Rules in Writing Korean" (Korean: 조선말 띄여쓰기규범) in 2000 but have since been superseded by "Rules for Spacing in Writing Korean" (Korean: 띄여쓰기규정), issued in 2003.

South Korea continued to use the Han-geul Matchumbeop Tong-iran as defined in 1933, until its amendment "Korean Orthography" (Hangul: 한글 맞춤법; RR: Han-geul Matchumbeop), together with "Standard Language Regulations" (Korean: 표준어 규정), were issued in 1988, which remain in use today.

As with the Korean phonology article, this article uses IPA symbols in pipes | | for morphophonemics, slashes / / for phonemes, and brackets for allophones. Pan-Korean romanized words are largely in Revised Romanization, and North Korean-specific romanized words are largely in McCune-Reischauer. Also, for the sake of consistency, this article also phonetically transcribes ㅓ as /ʌ/ for pan-Korean and South-specific phonology, and as /ɔ/ for North-specific phonology.

According to a Ministry of Unification official, a South Korean can immediately recognize a North Korean by the speech. The official also stated that North Koreans avoid anglicisms but use communist political jargon unfamiliar to South Koreans, while a North Korean often understands approximately 60% of a South Korean.