North–South differences in the Korean language

The Korean language has diverged between North and South Korea due to the prolonged separation and the mutual hostility between the two states.
The Korean Language Society in 1933 made the "Proposal for Unified Korean Orthography". But with the establishments of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea in 1948, the two states have taken on differing policies regarding the language.
Researching language differences between North and South Korea has been challenging, and there have been reports of inaccurate results. It is hard to know how North Koreans use their standard language because North Korean defectors often speak a dialect rather than the standard language. Some scholars argue that North Korean propaganda and the South's over-interpretation of it contributes to the confusion regarding the North Korean standard language. North Korean propaganda has characterized its language as being "pure", contrary to South Korea's.
North Korea states its standard language as the language of Pyongyang. However, South Korean scholars have claimed it is more similar to the pre-divided Seoul dialect than the pre-divided Pyongyang dialect, and suggested that its pronunciation and grammar are based on the Seoul area rather than the Pyongyang area.
In some cases, South Korean schools have taught North Korean purified words that are not actually used in North Korea, leading to disputes in South Korea over whether a North Korean defector actually uses the word in North Korea. Some scholars have also doubted a study that found that the most common loan words in North Korea were not Russian loanwords but English loanwords.

Development

In 1954, North Korea set out the rules for Korean orthography. Although this was only a minor revision in orthography that created little difference from that used in the South, from then on, the standard languages in the North and the South gradually differed more and more from each other.
In the 1960s, under the influence of the Juche ideology, came a big change in linguistic policies in North Korea. On 3 January 1964, Kim Il Sung issued his teachings on "A Number of Issues on the Development of the Korean language", and on 14 May 1966 on the topic "In Rightly Advancing the National Characteristics of the Korean language", from which the "Standard Korean Language" rules followed in the same year, issued by the National Language Revision Committee that was directly under the control of the cabinet.
From then on, more important differences came about between the standard language in the North and the South. In 1987, North Korea revised the aforementioned rules further, and these have remained in use until today. In addition, the rules for spacing were separately laid out in the "Standard Spacing Rules in Writing Korean" in 2000 but have since been superseded by "Rules for Spacing in Writing Korean", issued in 2003.
South Korea continued to use the as defined in 1933, until its amendment "Korean Orthography", together with "Standard Language Regulations", were issued in 1988 and amended in 2017.
As with the Korean phonology article, this article uses IPA symbols in pipes for morphophonemics, slashes for phonemes, and brackets for allophones. Pan-Korean romanized words are largely in Revised Romanization, and North Korean-specific romanized words are largely in McCune-Reischauer. Also, for the sake of consistency, this article also phonetically transcribes ㅓ as for pan-Korean and South-specific phonology, and as for North-specific phonology.

Hangul / Chosŏn'gŭl

The same Hangul / Chosŏn'gŭl letters are used to write the language in the North and the South. However, in the North, the stroke that distinguishes ㅌ from ㄷ is written above rather than inside the letter, as is done in the South.
In the South, the vowel digraphs and trigraphs ㅐ, ㅒ, ㅔ, ㅖ, ㅘ, ㅙ, ㅚ, ㅝ, ㅞ, ㅟ, ㅢ, and the consonant digraphs ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ, are not treated as separate letters, whereas in the North they are. Some letters and digraphs have different names in the North and in the South:

Letter	North Korean name	South Korean name
ㄱ	기윽	기역
ㄷ	디읃	디귿
ㅅ	시읏	시옷
ㄲ	된기윽	쌍기역
ㄸ	된디읃	쌍디귿
ㅃ	된비읍	쌍비읍
ㅆ	된시읏	쌍시옷
ㅉ	된지읒	쌍지읒

The names used in the South are the ones found in the Hunmongjahoe. The names used in the North are formed mechanically with the pattern "letter + 이 + 으 + letter". Also for the tensed consonants, in the South, they are called "double" consonants, while in the North, they are called "strong" consonants.

Sort order

Initial consonants
Vowels
Final consonants

In the North, the consonant letter ㅇ is placed between ㅅ and ㅈ when pronounced, but after all consonants when used as a placeholder indicating a null initial consonant.

Pronunciation

The standard languages in the North and the South share the same types and the same number of phonemes, but there are some differences in the actual pronunciations. The South Korean standard pronunciation is based on the dialect as spoken in Seoul, and the North Korean standard pronunciation is based on the dialect as spoken in Pyongyang. However, South Korean authors have argued that the standard language of North Korea is actually not based on the Pyongyang dialect, but rather on the 1933 norms, which are based on the Seoul dialect. For example, in the view of such authors, the dialect of Pyongyang has eight monophthongs, while the standard North Korean language has 10 monophthongs, like the old Seoul dialect.

Consonants

The following differences are recognised in the consonants. In the Seoul dialect, ㅈ, ㅊ and ㅉ are typically pronounced with alveolo-palatal affricates,,. In the Pyongyang dialect, they are typically pronounced with alveolar affricates,,. Also, 지 and 시 can be pronounced without palatalisation as and in the Pyongyang dialect.
In the South, when ㄴ or ㄹ are at the beginning of a Sino-Korean word and are followed immediately by or, they are dropped, and when ㄹ is not immediately followed by or, it becomes ㄴ, with this change being indicated in the orthography. But all initial ㄴ and ㄹ are written out and pronounced in the North. For instance, the common last name 이 , and the word 여자 are written and pronounced as 리 and 녀자 in North Korean. Furthermore, the South Korean word 내일, which means "tomorrow", is written and pronounced as 래일 in North Korea. But this latter pronunciation was artificially crafted using older pronunciations in the 1960s, so it is common for older speakers to be unable to pronounce initial ㄴ and ㄹ properly, thus pronouncing such words in the same way as they are pronounced in the South.
In South Korea, the liquid consonant does not come after the nasal consonants and. In this position, ㄹ is pronounced as rather than. But in North Korea, ㄹ before vowels ㅑ, ㅕ, ㅛ, and ㅠ can remain in this context.

Hangul	Hanja	North	South
침략	侵略	ch'imnyak or ch'imryak	chimnyak
협력	協力	hyŏmnyŏk or hyŏmryŏk	hyeomnyeok
식료	食料	singnyo or singryo	singnyo
청류벽	淸流壁	ch'ŏngnyubyŏk or ch'ŏngryubyŏk	cheongnyubyeok

Vowels

Some South Korean linguists argue that the vowel system in the North Korean standard is based on the Pyongyang dialect. The vowel ㅓ is not as rounded in the Seoul dialect as it is in the Pyongyang dialect. If expressed in IPA, it would be or for the one in Seoul dialect and for the one in Pyongyang dialect. Due to this roundedness, speakers of the Seoul dialect would find that ㅓ as pronounced by speakers of the Pyongyang dialect sounds close to the vowel ㅗ. Additionally, the difference between the vowels ㅐ and ㅔ is slowly diminishing amongst the younger speakers of the Seoul dialect. It is not well known if this is also happening with the Pyongyang dialect.
However, other South Korean linguists have argued that North Korean linguistic texts suggest that the vowel system and articulation positions of the North Korean standard language were completely consistent with those of the South. In particular, the rules stipulated 10 monophthongs, just like the old Seoul dialect.

Pitch

The pitch patterns in the Pyongyang and Seoul dialects differ, but there has been little research in detail. On the other hand, in the Chosŏnmal Taesajŏn, published in 1992, where the pitches for certain words are shown in a three-pitch system, a word such as 꾀꼬리 is marked as having pitch "232", from which one can see some difference in pitch patterns from the Seoul dialect.

Orthography

Inflected words

Informal non-polite suffix 어/여

In words in which the word stem ends in ㅣ, ㅐ, ㅔ, ㅚ, ㅟ, ㅢ, in forms where -어 is appended to these endings in the South, but -여 is instead appended in the North. In actual pronunciation, however, the sound often accompanies the pronunciation of such words, even in the South.

Inflected word	North inflection	South inflection	Meaning
피다	피여 p'iyŏ	피어 pi-eo	bloom
내다	내여 nae-yŏ	내어 nae-eo	take out
세다	세여 se-yŏ	세어 se-eo	count
되다	되여 toe-yŏ	되어 doe-eo	become
뛰다	뛰여 ttwi-yŏ	뛰어 ttwi-eo	jump
희다	희여 hi-yŏ	희어 hi-eo	white