A Phonological Study of North Korean defectors from Anak in the Hwanghae province

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the freely spoken language of North Korean defectors from Anak, Hwanghae province using the Hwanghae-do dialect, and identify its phonological characteristics. The informants of this study acquired the language after the division of the Korean peninsula, so it is expected that they will show the characteristics of the modern Hwanghae-do dialect well. This data identified a total of 19 consonants. This is generally similar to the central dialect, but it is characteristic that /c/(ㅈ) is realized as alveolar. Eight simple vowels were also identified, but most of /ӧ/(ㅚ) suggested in the existing Hwanghae-do dialect research was realized as [e] in this data. /ə/(ㅓ) > /ɨ/(ㅡ) high vowelization appeared in the word-initial and intervocalic, in the short vowels and long vowels, and in the lexical morphemes and grammatical morphemes. /e/(ㅔ) > /i/(ㅣ) has been identified limitedly in some words. Also, /o/(ㅗ) > /u/(ㅜ) appears in some parts of the lexical morphemes, and is overwhelmingly identified in the grammatical morphemes. Front-vowelization has a wider realization environment than Han Young-soon (1967). And in Kim Young-bae (1981), Anak is reported as a non-realized area of front-vowelization. However, in the speaker s speech, it appeared in a limited capacity. Umlaut was only partially identified within the morpheme and in derived words. The vowel harmony was as follows. First, in the case of the monosyllabic stems, the pattern was similar to the preceding Hwanghae-do dialect studies. However, in the case of the polysyllabic stems, numerous cases were found to differ from these studies. In addition, in the case of p-irregular stems, the pattern was similar to the Pyeongan-do dialect. The t-palatalization showed the same pattern as its general appearance in normal Korean. h-palatalization was confirmed only in ‘simdeulda’ (himdeulda, ‘to be hard’), and k-palatalization did not appear at all. Finally, The environment of h-deletion was ‘root + -hada(verb-derived suffix) and ‘noun + hago(case marker) . Even if the coda consonant in the root (or noun) is obstruent, ‘h is usually deleted. The items covered in this study can be classified into three broad categories. The first is that which appears in both dialects. This is high vowelization, umlaut, and h-deletion. The second is maintaining the characteristics of the Hwanghae-do dialect. This includes the list of consonants, the place of articulation of /c/(ㅈ), and the t-palatation. This has long been the decisive criterion for distinguishing the Hwanghae-do dialect from the Pyeongan-do dialect. Because of this, Hwanghae-do dialect speakers could not easily accept the characteristics of the Pyeongan-do dialect. On the other hand, since there has been a tendency to pronounce /c/(ㅈ) as a phoneme in the Pyeongan-do dialect, it can be interpreted that speakers of the Hwanghae-do dialect did not accept the old form. Finally, there are certain aspects of the language that were influenced by the dialect of Pyeongan province. This includes a simple vowel list, front-vowelization, vowel harmony, h-palatalization, and k-palatalization. Unlike Hwang Dae-hwa (2007), these items appear in a very limited amount in this research. The speakers have a negative attitude toward these dialects, which can be understood as the acceptance of the Pyeongan-do dialect.