Who we are


We are a three girl group which studies first year of Translation and Interpreting in the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas, Madrid.
We have been asigned North Korea in our subject Metodología de Estudio y Análisis.
Our names are Lucía Carrión, Paula de Blas and Blanca Barthe.
Lucía Carrión will be the person in charge of economy aspects, Paula de Blas of politic and Blanca Barthe society.

viernes, 5 de diciembre de 2014

Lucía Carrión's Essay

The unnatural evolution of the North Korean language




The idea that languages mainly evolve as a result of the modernization of world countries and societies is widely spread. Through time, new words are created or loaned from other languages to describe new realities, and those that have been in disuse for some years end up being removed from the dictionary. However, it is not that simple; many other aspects, such as geographical situation or policy, are involved in the evolution of a language. The aim of this essay is to outline the main differences that exist nowadays between the languages spoken in North and in South Korea, as well as to analyse how the division of the country and its political system has affected the North Korean language.
The division of Korea took place in 1948; until then, the same language had been spoken in all the territory without almost any geographical variation. Only a few years later, concretely between 1950 and 1953, occurred the Korean War, which evidenced that the North and the South of the country differed in plenty of important aspects. It was not only the beginning of the still remaining enmity between North and South Korea, but also the starting point of the divergent evolution of each of them, which affected the politic, economic and social realm and made the language evolve differently in each half of Korea.
Despite the fact that Korean language has been developing on separate trajectories for several decades, it is still considered as the only official language of the whole Korean territory. What is spoken in North and South Korea are called varieties or dialects of Korean: in the North, the dialect is the Phyong’yang, while in the South of Korea the official variety is the Seoul. The main dissimilarities between these dialects have to do with disparity in pronunciation, verb inflection, and differences in lexicon.
“The North Korean language is a relic.” [1] By this I want to point out that, during the more than six decades that have passed since the country was divided, the North Korean variety has not changed much whereas a wide range of new vocabulary has been added the one spoken in South Korea. This shows once again the intention of the North Korean government of keeping tradition and avoiding any significant changes regardless of the cost. Korean leaders have the idea that with any minor external influence or with a single trace of modernization their political dictatorship or their policy of isolation would be in danger. However, as far as I am concerned, this internal rigidity and the evident manipulation of all the aspects of public life is causing the North Korean government plenty of internal and external problems.
Once given an overview of the present situation of the Korean language and of its historic background, I would like to focus on the analysis of the factors that explain how a language has been able to develop in two so different ways in only a few decades. It must be admitted that the evolution of Korean language, more concretely the changes that had affected the Phyong’yang dialect (North Korea), seems quite artificial. Languages usually develop slowly, accumulating small changes for a long time. However, Korea was divided in 1948; this means that the country has been partitioned into North and South for only 66 years, which is very few time for a dialect with so different from the original language to be formed.
The explanation is actually quite simple: the evolution of the North Korean language has not been natural, but politically induced. One of the main artificial changes that the North Korean government forced was the elimination of Chinese characters and loan words. Due to its geographical proximity to China, the Korean language is deeply influenced by the Chinese language. But when the Juche thesis, which promoted the self-sufficiency of the country, was developed by the North Korean leader Kim Il-sung during the 1960’s, every shadow of external influence was erased. That is why in the South Korea dialect plenty of borrowed words from Chinese, Hindi, or even European languages such as English can be found whereas in the North variety loan words are no more frequent.
But that policy of elimination of vocabulary with a foreign origin and, of course, of prevention of adoption of any new loan words, did not seem enough for the North Korean leaders. In addition, they decided to deliberately alter the language in their own benefit. An accurate example of this unnatural changes is mentioned in a book written by a lecturer at the Ewha Institute for Unification Studies in Seoul, in which it is explained how an existing word has had its meaning altered since the division of the country. "Sun-mul, in Korean language, sun-mul, which means present to your friend. But now, North Korean way of speaking this sun-mul, sun-mul is the reserved word by Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il.  So, only Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il are the only two who can give sun-mul to another person." [2]
Personally, I have always supported cultural pluralism and been for anything related to language and social diversity. Nevertheless, in the concrete case of Korea’s situation, there are so many drawbacks that I even reconsider my position. First of all, I would define a language as a distinctive cultural sign which is deeply related to the feeling of belonging to a country and to a social and cultural group. But the North Korean government has been using language to brainwash people for decades, destroying all the positive things that a language represents and charging the North Korean language of negative connotations. There is nothing pure or natural behind this dialect, but a political intention, and, as far as I am concerned, using language in benefit of political ideology is a serious attempt against culture and tradition. Last but not least, inhabitants of North and South Korea are losing the sense of unity that they have shared for so many time before the division; there will even might be a day when North and South Koreans will no more be able to understand each other if the language difference between the North and the South keeps on increasing. As I see it, this is an invaluable cultural lost that, at least for the moment and specially if things keep on going the same way as they do now, will not be easily replaced. 

Bibliography:
  •       http://books.google.es/books?id=Sx6gdJIOcoQC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=evolution+language+korea&source=bl&ots=qoLZlf5XnH&sig=4JwCxj8LPWI4kFRJ_fgVbevku2g&hl=es&sa=X&ei=wA96VMqlOZHoaMTmAQ&ved=0CGUQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=evolution%20language%20korea&f=false



  •         http://books.google.es/books?id=H4CsWDEi52IC&pg=PA237&lpg=PA237&dq=evolution+language+north+korea&source=bl&ots=tEPbhjR6vd&sig=zG186qXo2LJ99JBD4OWoZcXVtkE&hl=es&sa=X&ei=jg96VOGCG9XcapKrgsgK&ved=0CC0Q6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=evolution%20language%20north%20korea&f=false







[1] Sixty Years After Division, Korean Language Has Gone in Separate Directions (2009). The Voice of America.


[2] Seok-Hyang, Kim (1993). The Juche Ideology of North Korea: Socio-political Roots of Ideological Change. California.