The Gyeongsang dialect is a dialect of the Korean language which is widely used in the Yeongnam region, which includes North and South Gyeongsang provinces. The Gyeongsang Dialect is considered the direct descendent of the Silla language by Korean linguists. A highly pronounced intonation distinguishes the Gyeongsang dialect from the standard language. Approximately 10 million Koreans use the Gyeongsang dialect. The Korean language (한국어 / 조선어) is the most widely used language in Korea, and is the official language of both North and South Korea. ... Yeongnam is the name of a region that coincides with the former Gyeongsang Province in what is now South Korea. ... North Gyeongsang is a province in eastern South Korea. ... South Gyeongsang is a province in the southeast of South Korea. ... Silla (also denoted as Shilla) was one of the three kingdoms of ancient Korea. ...

The Gyeongsang dialect also differs from area to area within the Yeongnam region. A native speaker can distinguish the dialect of Daegu from that of Busan. Dialectal forms are relatively similar along the midstream of Nakdong River but are different near Pusan, Jinju, and Pohang as well as along the eastern pastures of Mount Jiri. Yeongnam is the name of a region that coincides with the former Gyeongsang Province in what is now South Korea. ... Daegu is the 4th largest metropolitan area in South Korea, and is officially called Daegu Metropolitan City. ... Busan tower by night Haeundae beach at dawn, February 2005 Busan Metropolitan City, also commonly referred to as Pusan, is the largest harbor city in Korea, with a population of about 4 million, Busan is South Koreas second largest metropolis next to Seoul. ... The Nakdong River (Rakdong when referred from North Korea) is the longest river in South Korea, and passes through major cities such as Daegu and Busan. ... Jinju is a city in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. ... Pohang is a city in North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. ... Jiri-san is a mountain in the south of South Korea. ...

Vowels

The Gyeongsang Dialect lacks some of the vowels that are present in the standard dialect. For example, it lacks the vowels ㅟ(y) and ㅚ(oe). Thus, in the Gyeongsang Dialect, soegogi (쇠고기), meaning beef is pronounced sogogi. Furthermore, there is very little difference between the vowels ㅐ(ae) and ㅔ (e). In some areas of the Yeongnam region, there is very little difference between the vowels ㅡ(eu) and ㅓ(eo). This limits the vowels of dialect down to: a, e, eo, o, u, and i. The speakers of this dialect also have a tendency to leave out medial yoderised vowels and medial-diphthongs. For example, Gwaja (과자), meaning sweets, is pronounced Gaja. Unlike the standard Seoul Dialect, the lengths of vowels in the Gyeongsang dialect indicate the word's or postfix's definition. Yeongnam is the name of a region that coincides with the former Gyeongsang Province in what is now South Korea. ...

The speakers of the Gyeongsang Dialect loosely follow vowel harmony. For instance, oneul (오늘), meaning "today," is pronounced onal in the dialect. The main difference between the standard dialect vowel harmony and the Gyeongsang Dialect vowel harmony is that e is considered a "central" or "middle" vowel in the latter. In linguistics, a language is said to possess vowel harmony (also metaphony) when it has a phonological rule that requires all vowels in a word to belong to a single class. ... The Korean language (한국어 / ì¡°ì„ ì–´) is the most widely used language in Korea, and is the official language of both North and South Korea. ...

Consonants

The Gyeongsang Dialect lacks some of the tensed consonants, most notably the ss (ㅆ) consonant. Thus, the speakers of the dialect pronounce ssal (쌀), meaning rice, sal.

Grammar

The Gyeongsang dialect maintains a trace of Middle Age Korean: the grammar of the dialect distinguishes between a yes-no question and a wh-question, while Modern Korean doesn't. In the Gyeongsang dialect, yes-no questions end with "a" and wh-questions end with "o", instead of "i". For instance:

• Bap mugeutna? as opposed to Bap meogeotni? - Have you eaten?

• Meo hano? as opposed to Mwo hani? - What are you doing?

Notice that the first question can be answered with a yes or no, while the latter question is to be answered otherwise.

Recent History

During the military dictatorship (1960-1992) the Gyeongsang dialect had an informal supremacy over other dialects as all the presidents were natives of Gyeongsang province. This bias towards the dialect ended with the democratization of South Korea. 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ...

See also

• List of Korea-related topics
• Dialectology

This is a list of Wikipedia articles on Korea-related people, places, things, and concepts. ... Dialectology is the study of dialects of a language, their evolution, differentiation, inter-intelligibity, grammar, phonetics etc. ...

External links

• The characteristics of the Gyeongsang Dialect