[KS] Korean in North Korea

[Frank Hoffmann]

> when hearing words like "입종이" or "차림표." Must be from the Choson 
> period, right?

The second one clearly munhwaŏ and standard -- but the first one, is 
that a NORTH Korea term and not maybe Yŏnbyŏn slang?

By the way, seems to me American English could be one of the most 
static and conservative languages these days. Anyone shares that? (Am 
anything but a language person, just a harmless observation and 
question.)

Sone stats, quite impressive ones -- quoting Ross King:

"By 1991, the DPRK had coined as many as 50,000 new lexical items, in a 
highly significant reorientation of core Korean vocabulary away from 
foreign sources and towards a purified ‘true’ national language built 
on native Korean words. Given the rapid progress of the Korean language 
in South Korea in an entirely opposite direction and the adoption of 
increasingly more English loanwords (estimated in Sohn 1991: 99 to have 
reached 10,000 in number by 1991) despite certain government attempts 
at control of the lexicon, this has opened up a major gap between 
language in the North and that in the South, (...)."

Ross King, "North and South Korea," in _Language and National Identity 
in Asia_, ed. by Andrew Simpson, Oxford UP, 2007.

Werner Sasse wrote a nice piece on Munhwaŏ also, back in 1980:
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/jbp/kl/1980/00000002/00000001/art00004


Best,
Frank

--------------------------------------
Frank Hoffmann
http://koreanstudies.com