Editing Korean language (section)

==Dialects==
{{Main|Korean dialects|Koreanic languages}}
[[File:Korean dialect zones.svg|thumb|Korean dialect zones]]
Korean has numerous small local [[dialect]]s (called ''mal'' ({{Korean|hangul=말|labels=no|lit='speech'}}), ''saturi'' ({{lang|ko|사투리}}), or ''bangeon'' ({{Korean|hangul=방언|hanja=方言|labels=no}})). South Korean authors claim that the [[standard language]] (''pyojuneo'' or ''pyojunmal'') of both South Korea and North Korea is based on the dialect of the area around Seoul (which, as Hanyang, was the capital of [[Joseon]]-era Korea for 500 years), but since 1966, North Korea officially states that its standard is based on the Pyongyang speech.<ref>{{cite web |last1=전 |first1=영선 |script-title=ko:북한 언어문화의 변화양상과 전망 |url=https://www.gyeoremal.or.kr/file/conference05.pdf |access-date=28 April 2023 |archive-date=2 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230802012237/https://www.gyeoremal.or.kr/file/conference05.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Lucien |last2=Yeon |first2=Jaehoon |title=The handbook of Korean linguistics |date=2015 |pages=477, 484 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |location=Malden, MA |isbn=9781118371008 |edition=1st}}</ref> All dialects of Korean are similar to one another and largely are [[mutually intelligible]] (with the exception of dialect-specific phrases or nonstandard vocabulary unique to dialects) though the [[Jeju dialect|dialect of Jeju Island]] is divergent enough to be generally considered a separate language.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Yang |first1=Changyong |chapter=Revising the Language Map of Korea |date=2019 |title=Handbook of the Changing World Language Map |pages=1–15 |editor-last=Brunn |editor-first=Stanley D |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-73400-2_110-1 |isbn=978-3-319-73400-2 |last2=O'Grady |first2=William |last3=Yang |first3=Sejung |last4=Hilton |first4=Nanna Haug |last5=Kang |first5=Sang-Gu |last6=Kim |first6=So-Young |s2cid=188565336 |editor2-last=Kehrein |editor2-first=Roland |chapter-url=https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/95566880/Yang2019_ReferenceWorkEntry_RevisingTheLanguageMapOfKorea.pdf |access-date=26 September 2023 |archive-date=2 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231102123748/https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/95566880/Yang2019_ReferenceWorkEntry_RevisingTheLanguageMapOfKorea.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=김보향 (Kim Bo-hyang) |date=August 2014 |title=Osaka Ikuno-ku jiyeok jaeil Jejuinui Jeju bangeon sayong siltaee gwanhan yeongu |script-title=ko:오사카 이쿠노쿠 지역 재일제주인의 제주방언 사용 실태에 관한 연구 |trans-title=A Study on the Jeju Dialect Used by Jeju People Living in Ikuno-ku, Osaka, Japan |journal=영주어문 학술저널 |volume=28 |page=120 |trans-journal=Yeongju Language and Literature Academic Journal |issn=1598-9011 |url=https://www.dbpia.co.kr/journal/articleDetail?nodeId=NODE10878526 |access-date=2023-09-25 |archive-date=2 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231102123748/https://www.dbpia.co.kr/journal/articleDetail?nodeId=NODE10878526 |url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Yukjin dialect]] in the far northeast is also quite distinctive.{{sfnp|Lee|Ramsey|2000|p=313}}

One of the more salient differences between dialects is the use of tone: speakers of the [[Seoul dialect]] make use of vowel length, but speakers of the [[Gyeongsang dialect]] maintain the [[Pitch-accent language|pitch accent]] of Middle Korean. Some dialects are conservative, maintaining Middle Korean sounds (such as ''z, β, ə''), which have been lost from the standard language, and others are highly innovative.

{{harvp|Kang Yoonjung|Han Sungwoo|2013}}, {{harvp|Kim Mi-Ryoung|2013}}, and {{harvp|Cho Sunghye|2017}} suggest that the modern Seoul dialect is currently undergoing [[tonogenesis]] based on the finding that in recent years [[Fortis and lenis|lenis consonants]] (ㅂㅈㄷㄱ), [[aspirated consonant]]s (ㅍㅊㅌㅋ) and fortis consonants (ㅃㅉㄸㄲ) were shifting from a distinction via [[voice onset time]] to that of pitch change;<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Kang Yoonjung|author2=Han Sungwoo |date=September 2013 |title=Tonogenesis in early Contemporary Seoul Korean: A longitudinal case study |journal=Lingua |volume=134|pages=62–74 |doi=10.1016/j.lingua.2013.06.002}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Kim Mi-Ryoung |date=2013 |title=Tonogenesis in contemporary Korean with special reference to the onset-tone interaction and the loss of a consonant opposition |journal=The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America |volume=133|issue=5 Supplement |at=3570|doi=10.1121/1.4806535 |bibcode=2013ASAJ..133.3570K}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |author=Cho Sunghye|date=2017|type=PhD |title=Development of pitch contrast and Seoul Korean intonation |publisher=University of Pennsylvania|url=https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4012&context=edissertations|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200321141401/https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4012&context=edissertations|archive-date=2020-03-21|url-status=dead}}</ref> however, {{harvp|Choi Jiyoun|Kim Sahyang|Cho Taehong|2020}} disagree with the suggestion that the consonant distinction shifting away from voice onset time is due to the introduction of tonal features, and instead proposes that it is a [[Prosody (linguistics)|prosodically conditioned change]].<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Choi Jiyoun |author2=Kim Sahyang |author3=Cho Taehong |date=October 22, 2020 |title=An apparent-time study of an ongoing sound change in Seoul Korean: A prosodic account |journal=PLOS ONE|volume=15|issue=10 |at=e0240682 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0240682 |bibcode=2020PLoSO..1540682C |pmid=33091043 |pmc=7580931 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

There is substantial evidence for a history of extensive [[dialect levelling]] or even [[convergent evolution]] or intermixture of two or more originally-distinct linguistic stocks, within the Korean language and its dialects. Many Korean dialects have a basic vocabulary that is etymologically distinct from vocabulary of identical meaning in Standard Korean or other dialects. For example, "[[garlic chives]]" translated into Gyeongsang dialect is {{IPA|/t͡ɕʌŋ.ɡu.d͡ʑi/}} ({{Korean|hangul=정구지|rr=jeongguji|labels=no}}), but in Standard Korean, it is {{IPA|/puːt͡ɕʰu/}} ({{Korean|hangul=부추|rr=buchu|labels=no}}). This suggests that the Korean Peninsula may have at one time been much more linguistically diverse than it is today.<ref>{{cite web|last=정(Jeong)|first=상도(Sangdo)|url=http://www.kookje.co.kr/news2011/asp/newsbody.asp?code=1700&key=20170401.22019192614|script-title=ko:도청도설 부추와 정구지|date=31 March 2017|work=[[The Kookje Daily News]]|language=ko|access-date=2 April 2021|archive-date=14 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414142006/http://www.kookje.co.kr/news2011/asp/newsbody.asp?code=1700&key=20170401.22019192614|url-status=live}}</ref> See also the [[Japanese–Koguryoic languages]] hypothesis.