Zainichi Korean is a variety of

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

as spoken by

Zainichi Koreans comprise ethnic Koreans who have permanent residency status in Japan or who have become Japanese citizens, and whose immigration to Japan originated before 1945, or who are descendants of those immigrants. They are a group distinct from South ...

(

ethnic Korean Koreans ( South Korean: , , North Korean: , ; see names of Korea) are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula. Koreans mainly live in the two Korean nation states: North Korea and South Korea (collectively and simply refer ...

citizens or residents of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

). The speech is based on the southern dialects of

, as the majority of first-generation immigrants came from the southern part of the peninsula, including

Gyeonggi-do Gyeonggi-do (, ) is the most populous Administrative divisions of South Korea, province in South Korea. Its name, ''Gyeonggi'', means "京 (the capital) and 畿 (the surrounding area)". Thus, ''Gyeonggi-do'' can be translated as "Seoul and the s ...

Jeolla-do Jeolla Province (, ) was one of the historical Eight Provinces of Korea during the Kingdom of Joseon in today Southwestern Korea. It consisted of the modern South Korean provinces of North Jeolla Province, North Jeolla, South Jeolla Province, Sou ...

and Jeju-do. Due to isolation from other Korean speech-communities and the

influence Influence or influencer may refer to: *Social influence, in social psychology, influence in interpersonal relationships ** Minority influence, when the minority affect the behavior or beliefs of the majority *Influencer marketing, through individ ...

of Japanese, Zainichi Korean language exhibits strong differences from the standard Korean of either North or South Korea.

Languages among Zainichi Koreans

The majority of Zainichi Koreans use Japanese in their everyday speech, even among themselves. The Korean language is used only in a limited number of social contexts: towards first-generation immigrants, as well as in '' Chosŏn Hakkyo'', (, or ; , "Korean School"), pro-

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populat ...

ethnic schools supported by

Chongryon The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan,
" ''

. Since most Zainichi Koreans learn Korean as their second language, they tend to speak it with a heavy Japanese accent. This variety of speech is called Zainichi Korean language, a name which, even when used by Zainichi Koreans themselves, often carries a critical connotation.''Io'', a magazine published by , had a report titled ''(Zainichi Korean language is strange in these ways)'', criticizing this variety of Korean, which ''can't be'' called '' urimal'' (literally "our language") anymore"

/ref>

Sounds

Vowels

While Standard Korean distinguishes eight

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (len ...

s, Zainichi Korean distinguishes only five, as in Japanese. :

Initial consonants

In syllable-initial position, standard Korean distinguishes among plain, aspirated, and tense

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced w ...

s, such as , , and . Zainichi Korean, on the other hand, distinguishes only between unvoiced and voiced

s ( and ), as in Japanese. : There are no

geminate In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...

s after

nasal consonants In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast major ...

. Thus , in Standard, becomes , not . As in the North Korean standard, initial or never change their values. in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

is in

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

, or among Zainichi Koreans.

Final consonants

Seven consonants occur in the final position of Standard Korean

syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological ...

s, namely , , , , , , and . In Zainichi Korean, again, those sounds are treated differently. :

Grammar

Zainichi Korean grammar also shows influence from Japanese. Some

particle In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from ...

s are used differently from the Standard Korean. For instance, "to ride a car" is expressed as () in standard Korean, which can be interpreted as "car-(direct object) ride". In Zainichi Korean, the same idea is expressed as (; "car-into ride"), just like Japanese (). Standard Korean distinguishes (, referring to a continuous state) and (, referring to a continuous action). For instance, "to be sitting" is (), not ' (), as the latter would mean "being in the middle of the action of sitting, but has not completed the action yet". Zainichi Korean, however, does not distinguish these two, as Japanese does not either; it uses form for both continuous state and continuous action.

Writing system

Zainichi Korean is not typically written; standard Korean is used as the

literary language A literary language is the form (register) of a language used in written literature, which can be either a nonstandard dialect or a standardized variety of the language. Literary language sometimes is noticeably different from the spoken langua ...

. For example, a speaker who pronounces the word (; "however") as (), will still spell the word in the former form. In much the same way, Standard Korean speakers retain the

grapheme In linguistics, a grapheme is the smallest functional unit of a writing system. The word ''grapheme'' is derived and the suffix ''-eme'' by analogy with ''phoneme'' and other names of emic units. The study of graphemes is called '' graphemi ...

difference between and , even though they may pronounce the two identically.

References

External links

*

(Zainichi Korean language) {{DEFAULTSORT:Zainichi Korean Language Korean language Korean dialects Languages of Japan Zainichi Korean culture Korean language in Japan