Korean dialects

A number of Korean dialects are spoken in Korea and by the Korean diaspora. The peninsula is very mountainous and each dialect's "territory" corresponds closely to the natural boundaries between different geographical regions of Korea. Most of the dialects are named for one of the traditional Eight Provinces of Korea. In the Korean language, only the Jeju dialect is considered sufficiently distinct to be regarded as a separate language.

Dialect areas

Korea is a mountainous country, and this could be the main reason why Korean is divided into numerous small local dialects. There are few clear demarcations, so dialect classification is necessarily to some extent arbitrary and based on the traditional provinces.

A common classification, originally introduced by Shinpei Ogura in 1944 and adjusted by later authors, identifies six dialect areas:

Hamgyŏng (Northeastern)

Spoken in the Hamgyong Province (Kwanbuk and Kwannam) region, the northeast corner of Pyongan Province, and the Ryanggang Province of North Korea as well as Jilin, Heilongjiang of Northeast China; Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan of former Soviet Union. Nine vowels: the eight of the standard language plus ö.

Pyongan (Northwestern)

Spoken in Pyongyang, Pyongan Province, Chagang Province, and neighboring Liaoning, of China. In North Korea, the standard language known as Munhwaŏ is designated as "Pyongyang Speech." However, the "Pyongan dialect" is still considered a dialect unless it is explicitly designated as part of Munhwaŏ.