Seoul dialect
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The Seoul dialect is the basis of the standard language of Korean in South Korea. It is spoken in the Seoul National Capital Area, which includes Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi. The dialect does not merely mean 'a standard accent'. The exact form of the South Korea's standard accent is that of broadcast news readers.
The vowels for e and ae are merged for young speakers. Vowel length is not distinguished consistently, if at all.
Among young speakers or in informal contexts, the postpositions -do (-도, "also"), -ro (-로, "to") and -go (-고, "and then") and their derivatives tend to be pronounced with -du (-두), -ru (-루) and -gu (-구). The sentence-final verb ending -yo tends to be pronounced with a schwa, which is sometimes transcribed as -yeo (-여) on the Internet in informal contexts.
Samchon (삼촌, "uncle") is usually pronounced as samchun (삼춘).
Young Seoul dialect speakers tend to end interrogative sentences (questions) with -nya? (-냐), which is common in Jeolla dialect. They also use unique intonations slightly different from those used by broadcast news readers. The informal ending -eo (-어) is also used quite commonly in both Seoul dialect questions and sentences.
[edit] Variations
The Seoul accent can be divided into three variations: conservative, general, and modified. The conservative form is often found in those who have been born or have lived in Seoul before the industrialisation in the 1970s. To some people, this can slightly sound like a North Korean accent. Good examples can be found in speeches of a famous singer, Lee Mun-se. Older broadcast recordings (including so-called Daehan News) can also be typical examples of this accent.
The general form can be found in most broadcast news readers these days. This variation may lie in between the conservative and the modified forms. This accent may be used for recordings of Korean-language listening comprehension tests to high school students.
The last variation is usually spoken by younger generations (including teenagers) and lower-class middle-aged persons in the Seoul Metropolitan Area. Even a few young news readers may speak with some features of this accent nowadays. The most notable characteristic of this form is that the pitch goes up at the end of a sentence, which many people who speak with Gyeongsang accents find offensive or irritating. The pitch-up feature is due to influence by migrants from Jeolla regions into Seoul during the industrialisation.
[edit] See also
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