Native to South Korea Language family Koreanic
Sillan
Jeju Glottolog jeju1234 | Region Jeju Province ISO 639-3 jje | |
 | ||
Native speakers 5,000–10,000 (2012)
(all born before 1950) | ||
Jeju (Cheju) is a Koreanic language spoken in the Jeju Province of South Korea. It differs greatly from the Korean dialects of the mainland. Standard Korean is the most common form of communication in Korea, whereas the Jeju dialect is considered a very local language. The Jeju language is mainly understood and spoken by the older generation. As of October 2014, the Jeju National University Foreign Language Institute has made efforts to save the fading language. Currently, only a select group consisting of fewer than ten thousand individuals use the language today.
Contents
Name
The name is transcribed Jeju in Revised Romanization and Cheju in McCune–Reischauer. In Korean, it is known as 제주 방언 (濟州方言) Jeju bang-eon or 제주 사투리 Jeju sathuri "Jeju dialect", as 제주어 (濟州語) Jejueo "Jeju language", or as 제주말 Jejumal "Jeju speech". The last term, mal means both "language" and "dialect".
Classification
Although many South Koreans, including those who speak Jeju, consider it a dialect of the Korean language, it can be considered a separate language because it is mutually unintelligible with the Korean dialects on the mainland. Japanese and Mongolian are also incorporated into Jeju, indicating further separation from Standard Korean. Jeju is characterized by a heavy accent containing many informal words and phrases, considered to be Korean slang. It has been recognized as a distinct language locally and by UNESCO. Glottolog also classifies it as a distinct language. Government support of this language is provided through the Jeju Ministry of Education, and institutional support is provided by the Jeju Preservation Society.
Demographics
There are 5,000–10,000 fluent speakers, all born before 1950. Jeju was once spoken across Jeju Island, apart from the Chuja islands in the former Bukjeju County (currently Jeju City), where the Chuja dialect, a variety of the Jeolla dialect, is spoken. It also survives in diasporic enclaves in Japan.
Domestic efforts have been carried out in an attempt to revitalize the language, such as the publication of a Jeju-eo-to-Korean dictionary and the establishment of the Jeju Development Institute. However, it has been difficult to see progress due to a widening cultural and generational gap.
In January 2011, UNESCO added Jeju to its Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger as a "critically endangered language".
Phonology
The phonetic properties of obstruents in Jeju dialect is similar to Seoul Korean. The unintelligibility of Jeju comes in larger part from other components of grammar such as morphosyntactic and/or lexical differences, e.g. differences in the vowel system.
There are 9 vowels:
Jeju maintains the arae-a vowel ㆍ [ɒ], which has been lost from standard Korean.
Pragmatics
A notable difference between Jeju and the dialects of mainland Korea is a lack of speech formality or honorific deference. For example, while a speaker of the Gyeonggi dialect might say 안녕하세요 annyeong haseyo ("Hello") or 반갑습니다 ban'gapseumnida ("Pleasure to meet you") to an older person, a speaker of the Jeju dialect would say 반갑수다 ban'gapsuda, which is roughly equivalent to "Howdy" or "Nice meetin' ya". In mainland Korea, it would be inappropriate for a child to say this to an adult, but this usage is acceptable in Jeju.
Vocabulary
Jeju preserves many archaic words which have been lost elsewhere, and has borrowed foreign words that are not found in standard Korean. Many words come from the Japanese, Chinese, Manchu and Mongolian languages There are also many words which have not been traced to external sources, and which possibly derive from the language of the ancient kingdom of Tamna.
Verb
Jeju honorifics differ from Standard Korean. Where the standard has declarative ㅂ니다 -mnida, Jeju has 암/엄수다 -amsuda or -eomsuda. Where Korean has interrogative ㅂ니까? -mnikka?, Jeju has 암/엄수과? -a/eomsugwa?
Stative verbs ("adjectives") are similar. Where standard has ㅂ니다/까 -mnida/mnikka or 습니다/까 -seumnida/seumnikka, Jeju has 우다/꽈 -uda/uggwa or 수다/꽈 -suda/suggwa.
Jeju past declarative 앗/엇수다 -assuda/eossuda corresponds to standard 았/었습니다 -asseumnida/eusseumnida and interrogative 앗/엇수과? -assugwa/-eossugwa to standard 았/었습니까? -asseumnikka/eosseumnikka.