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Korean dialects
Topic Started: May 29 2018, 09:29:50 AM (76 Views)
black man
The Right Hand
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Topic split from http://www.anthropedia.science/topic/10037963/ .

Nurizone
May 15 2018, 03:32:04 PM
It is true that people of Jeju Island have their own local culture that is slightly different from the mainland peninsular culture. Jeju is well known for having plenty of three things (1. rocks 2. wind 3. women)1. Well, Jeju Island was the place to which many ostracized peoples were sent, as in former scholars on exile and prisoners, etc. It was and has always been a strongly matriarchial society, as evidenced by the haenyeo's2, and this strongly sets them apart from the mainland which has been dominated by the more typical patriarchal Confucianism.

I can't speak much to the physical anthropological differences unique to the region other than my own unscientific observations, but I do know that the language of Jeju Island is very different from Standard Korean. To a native Korean speaker like myself, it bears a stronger resemblance to Middle Korean (Jeju dialect has retained an archaic Korean vowel "arae A")3, as well as having some similarities to both Mongolian and Japanese in its lexicon and even phonology. At least that's my first impression of it as someone who's only spoken standard Seoul Dialect all my life.

This is a short video clip of four Korean guys teaching an American dude (in the middle) some phrases of their dialect. I actually find this video rather interesting as the guys represent some of the more stereotypical phenotypes of their region (from left to right: SW Korea, Seoul, SE Korea, Jeju).

If you're also perceptive, you will also hear that while the dialects of Seoul, SW Korea and SE Korea are more or less similar, the Jeju dialect is often the odd man out.

(Video has eng subtitles, so please watch it if you have time and let me know your thoughts):



1. https://myhubs.org/2017/06/05/jeju-do-the-island-of-wind-rocks-and-women/
2.http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1314
3.https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/Jeju_language.html


I made this a separate topic in order to increase the statistical chances of your post getting replies.

From my reply at http://www.anthropedia.science/single/?p=10000827&t=10037963 :
Quote:
 
what I noticed first when watching the video is that the faces of the Seoul and Busan representatives seemed to be more similar to each other. If I'm not mistaken, the Seoul dialect-speaker also commended the Busan dialect-speaker because of a kind of masculine expressiveness. By contrast, Jeolla representative was called "friendly" according to the translation. And the Jeju representative was, as far as I can judge, relatively calm when compared with the others. The Busan representative would perhaps be in between the Seoul representative and the two others.


Moreover, as I also mentioned there, I'm not a linguist. But I can discuss pragmatic aspects of languages in some detail. So if you know anything about local, regional or social variations of "matriarchal"/"patriarchal" contents in spoken Korean dialects, we could elaborate something like a "pragmatic" classification of Korean dialects and compare them with non-Korean languages, dialects, sociolects etc.
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luxemen
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Thanks for making this a separate thread.

Not sure if any linguists have done a study looking at the relationship between the matrilineal/patriarchial orientation and language itself.. Most studies I can find are more in the field of historical comparative linguistics, with some studies linking the archaic Baekje languages to proto-Japanese, and linking the Jeju dialect to some vestigal Mongolian and Japanese language influences. Of course, the Korean language has been greatly influenced by Hanja (aka Hanzi) but I'm talking more about the more basic grammar or lexicon similarities between these cultures.

This is a very interesting Ph.D. dissertation I came across that examines Koreans' own perceptions of their most "standard" vs. least "standard" dialects, going back to your comment about how the Seoul guy in the video commanded the guy from Southeast (Busan) as sounding "masculine".

It's a long paper, but if you have any thoughts on some of the findings, perhaps we can make that into a separate discussion.

(abstract: Koreans from Southeast evaluated their own dialect against the Seoul dialect and described their own to be more "masculine", using words such as "angry", "stiff", "aggressive", etc. It's very interesting).

https://sdsu-dspace.calstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.3/162968/Kang_sdsu_0220N_10950.pdf?sequence=1
Edited by luxemen, May 30 2018, 03:32:38 PM.
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black man
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What the Korean dialect speakers said reminded me of English, the way it is used by people from different locations and in different occupational groups. The way English is represented to English learners in Europe one might think of a language proper for normal people who have families. But in the internet one comes across many direct and indirect expressions which are misogynist to the extent that one might get the impression the use of the language as such could already prevent people from starting families. In this sense, there is for sure one or the other "fratriarchal" or "bachelor sociolect" of English language.

By contrast, language use in so-called "matriarchal" societies seems to be very different. Among those communities where feminist researchers like to work are certain Minangkabau settlements. People at these locations are well-off and managed to maintain both a geographical and a cultural distance from the more common patriarchal and fratriarchal settlements of other ethnic groups. According to one author, men always seem to think of the well-being of pregnant women whenever they do or say anything.

That said, there seems to be regional variation within China with "more fratriarchal" dialects possibly being spoken in the vicinities of former garrisons.




Thanks for the link. I'll read the work later on.
Edited by black man, May 30 2018, 03:57:43 PM.
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luxemen
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black man
May 30 2018, 03:53:26 PM
What the Korean dialect speakers said reminded me of English, the way it is used by people from different locations and in different occupational groups. The way English is represented to English learners in Europe one might think of a language proper for normal people who have families. But in the internet one comes across many direct and indirect expressions which are misogynist to the extent that one might get the impression the use of the language as such could already prevent people from starting families. In this sense, there is for sure one or the other "fratriarchal" or "bachelor sociolect" of English language.

By contrast, language use in so-called "matriarchal" societies seems to be very different. Among those communities where feminist researchers like to work are certain Minangkabau settlements. People at these locations are well-off and managed to maintain both a geographical and a cultural distance from the more common patriarchal and fratriarchal settlements of other ethnic groups. According to one author, men always seem to think of the well-being of pregnant women whenever they do or say anything.

That said, there seems to be regional variation within China with "more fratriarchal" dialects possibly being spoken in the vicinities of former garrisons.




Thanks for the link. I'll read the work later on.
That's a very interesting observation. Yes, if you post a thread on the variations within Chinese languages with respect to the society being more "fratriarchal" or more "matriarchal", I'd love to read that.
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black man
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See http://www.anthropedia.science/topic/10039321/1/
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