Language Difference between the North and the South Widening
The linguistic differences between the North and South is growing each day. Not only jargon, idioms and words of foreign origin but also common language are much different from that of the South.Many common words in South Korea that derived from foreign languages are not found in the North. For example, a 'donut' is called 'garakji pang (ring cake)', juice is termed 'kwail danmul (fruit sweet water)', and 'ramyon (instant noodle)' as 'koburang kugsu (twisted noodle)'. Lee Hang Ku, an expert in North Korea affairs said, 'North Korea celebrates January 15 as the anniversary of Hangul (Korean letters) proclamation. The North uses Hangul exclusively and has many aggressive words influenced by their revolutionary oriented ideology.' He added, 'The North's spelling principle is to strictly write according to pronunciation. The most different aspect is that North Korean society considers language as a tool of revolution and construction.'
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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