The Korean language in Uzbekistan | Olga speaking Koryo-mar and Russian | Wikitongues

Koryo (also, Koryo-mar, Goryeomal, Koryŏmal, or Gore-mal) is an endangered variety of the Korean language from Uzbekistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan and spoken by the Koryo-saram community. In this video, Olga also speaks Russian.
More from Wikipedia:
"Koryo-mar, Goryeomal, or Koryŏmal (Korean: 고려말, Russian: Корё мар), otherwise known as Gore-mal (고레말) by speakers of the dialect, is a dialect of Korean spoken by the Koryo-saram, ethnic Koreans in the countries of the former Soviet Union. It is descended from the Hamgyŏng dialect and multiple other varieties of Northeastern Korean.[1] Koryo-saram is often reported as difficult to understand by speakers of standard Korean; this may be compounded by the fact that the majority of Koryo-saram today use Russian and not Korean as their first language.[2] According to German Kim, Koryo-mar is not widely used in the media and is not taught in schools. Thus it can be classified as endangered.[3]"
"Russian (русский язык, tr. rússkiy yazýk) is an East Slavic language native to the Russians in Eastern Europe. It is an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, as well as being widely used throughout the Baltic states, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages, one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages alongside, and part of the larger Balto-Slavic branch. There is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian. Russian was the de facto language of the Soviet Union until its dissolution on 26 December 1991. Russian is used in official capacity or in public life in all the post-Soviet nation-states. Large numbers of Russian speakers can also be found in other countries, such as Israel and Mongolia. Russian is the largest native language in Europe, and the most geographically widespread language in Eurasia. It is the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, with over 258 million total speakers worldwide. Russian is the seventh-most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers and the eighth-most spoken language in the world by total number of speakers. The language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second-most widespread language on the Internet, after English.Russian is written using the Cyrillic script; it distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. Almost every consonant has a hard or a soft counterpart, and the distinction is a prominent feature of the language. Another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Stress, which is unpredictable, is not normally indicated orthographically though an optional acute accent may be used to mark stress, such as to distinguish between homographic words, for example замо́к (zamók - a lock) and за́мок (zámok - a castle), or to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words or names."

[@Wikitongues]

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[@craftjj]

I'd like to add the captions for this video (except where she speaks Russian), but I am not sure how to do so with the link above. How could I do it?

[@Wikitongues]

@@craftjj Thank you for asking! First, you'll need to create an account on Amara (it's free). Once you do, you should see an option at that link to "Add/Edit subtitles" and from there, you can follow the on-screen prompts. Please write to [e-mail] if you run into any trouble and we'll do our best to help! Gomawoyo :)

[@clementhudson4788]

@@craftjj what happened? Were you able?

[@vlogkorea]

As a native Korean speaker, I could understand maybe about 70-80% of what she said, except for a few words that I missed, probably dialectal variations I'm unfamiliar with. I do speak Russian too, so that helped me piece together more information when it seemed like she was struggling with remembering Korean words for certain numbers, etc.

[@mc_rusophile]

She just says some words in Russian sometimes, probably cuz she doesn' t know how to say them in Korean

[@gwho]

oh that's cool. you'er just like her in terms of language mixture/proficiency

[@jamesmiller2521]

Did youy understand the song?

[@craftjj]

Thank you very much for uploading this video. As a modern Korean speaker I think this is a great heritage of our people, and I'd say I could understand 70% of it. There were some differences in vocabulary, and I think it's the russian influence. I also feel some kind of agony, as it reminded me their experiences of not being able to visit the home country during the soviet times.

[@dzimidrol475]

They still can’t because the Koryo-saram mostly come from North Korea

[@user-zk5dq2xv7r]

@@dzimidrol475 The South Koreans were also expelled from the Soviet Union So I can understand

[@turuus5215]

Treat them with some respect, not like 2nd class citizens.

[@yo2trader539]

Actually, neither North or South Korea could be their homeland. There were Koreanic people who used to live in Outter Manchuria or current Russian Far East since ancient times, especially as proto-Koreanic speakers originated in Inner Manchuria and migrated southward into the peninsula.

[@oleksandrbyelyenko435]

Would love to read English subtitles for her speech.

[@Wikitongues]

Thank you for watching! Any can add subtitles for this video here: amara.org/en/videos/Vv7602B6E2gC/ :)

[@proxymoxie]

I understood most of what she said except for the proper nouns that were in Russian/Uzbek but I can't help but notice she speaks closer to a north dialect (ex: don't worry/no problem/it's ok = 일 없습니다 instead of 괜찮습니다 in South Korean). She seems like a sweet lady and I kinda want to play 화투 with her too now haha! Спасибо за видео :)

[@yo2trader539]

Their physical location--before relocation by Stalin--was mostly adjacent regions to northeastern North Korea, just like the 朝鮮族 in Jilin Province. In theory, there should be a natural dialect-continuum.

[@Samui04]

@@fleurdargent7682У вас написано в метриках , где жили ваши предки до депортации. Корейцев депортировали с приморского края и там были сделаны записи . Большинство думают , что Сахалин депортировали , это здесь не которые говорят, хотя даже не знаю, что диалект другой. Я северный кореец , который выучил русский язык и ее язык на 10% похож на мой язык , который не изменен .

[@DIDCHOI]

Interesting how they name it after Goryeo and it’s not “Joseon-mal” or Han-mal. But yeah I understand most of it. Really cool! I’m also sure she’s had some Korean influences through media through the years that kept her somewhat connected and up to date in terms of some vocab.

[@nicholasbiniaz-harris398]

I interviewed her -- she said she sometimes listens to Korean songs from modern-day Korea and that she understands on average all but 2-3 words from a given song. She can understand the simple everyday terms in modern Korean but not the political vocab. So she has just a bit of continued connection to modern Korea. I showed this video to an expert in the Koryo-saram and he says that her dialect is quite unaffected by Seoul dialect.

[@marcoantonioribeiro3163]

Hasta este momento me era totalmente desconocida la existencia de variedades de coreano fuera de su región de origen. ¡Muchas gracias por la interesante información!

[@alejandroespinosa3502]

entonces no es una lengua aislada... o si???? Tienes razon, es interesante.

[@samuelbaquero6313]

@@alejandroespinosa3502 por qué significaría que no es lengua aislada?

[@yueyumyum7827]

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportation_of_Koreans_in_the_Soviet_Union

[@nortenodelsurrr]

@@alejandroespinosa3502sigue siendo porque es el mismo idioma

[@peynirformaggio6915]

@@alejandroespinosa3502sí es solo que fueron deportados a uzbekistan y kazahistan etc

[@andresfukazawa]

Fantastic video! This is fascinating. Thank you for posting this!

[@wannabedfens]

thank you so so much for uploading this :)) i've been incredibly curious to hear what koryo-mar sounded like ever since i first learned about it

[@bigbowl5044]

I am a native Korean speaker from Seoul. I understand almost everything she says except for the parts said using Russian words. (Having said that, my paternal grandparents come from regions that now belong to North Korea.)

[@kasyakyoubfgamindikisborat]

Why Koreans love Central Asia?

[@bigbowl5044]

@@kasyakyoubfgamindikisborat Because.. why not? 😅 There isn't a country I dislike, personally.

[@kasyakyoubfgamindikisborat]

@@bigbowl5044 itsa oke, but they aren't worried about being assimilated by Native people?

[@bigbowl5044]

@@kasyakyoubfgamindikisborat I think assimilations and cultural exchanges happen all over the world today, whether or not we like it.

[@MrLantean]

Koryo Saram language is descended primarily from the Hamgyŏng Korean dialect along with multiple varieties of Northeastern Korean dialects. After 100 years of living in Central Asia, Russian, Uzbek and other languages of Central Asia have influenced the Koryo Saram language with terms from these languages incorporated. The language also retains terms that may no longer exist in modern Korean language.

[@whuge]

Korea seems very close with the central Asian countries like Uzbekistan in trade. I’ve been to Tashkent and Bukhara and I’ve notice d there are lots of Korean products like air conditioner etc.

[@roejogan2693]

This is not a Korean who migrated to Uzbekistan. They were mass deported during Soviet times.

[@gwho]

i had no idea

[@turuus5215]

Yes2, they ended up in Kazakstan, Uzbekistan etc countries. Mostly North Koreans. Poor souls.

[@louschwick7301]

@@turuus5215 I wouldn't be too pitying of them, given that their alternative existence would be in north Korea

[@kasyakyoubfgamindikisborat]

If you know Central Asians share more trades with Muslims

[@pyrenaea3019]

A question for Korean speakers, do the grammar and the lexical change between peninsular Korean and this Korean? And at the same time, which are the main differences between the Korean spoken in 🇰🇷 and the one spoken on the "D"PRK 🇰🇵?

[@Alexosauruus]

I speak fluent Korean and I understand what she says very well expect when she mixes with Russian. The grammar is the same as Korean from Korean.

[@craftjj]

I'm a native Korean speaker from near Daejeon. I was able to understand about 70% she said and I didn't really feel grammatical and lexical changes. Maybe this is just because she substituted complicated sentences and vocabulary into Russian ones. For me, this Korean sounds closer to Korean spoken in North Korea. I think the reason for this is that the people living in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula emigrated to 연해주 (today's Primorsky Krai) during the Japanese colonial period, and as the Soviet Union occupied that region, they were forced to migrate to Central Asia. The differences between Korean spoken in ROK and DPRK is not very big I would say. We perfectly understand what they say, and vise versa. The differences in accent are quite big though. But as the dialects of the north and the south has lost contact, there are some differences in vocabulary and they are expected to increase as time passes. I just hope we get back to one nation like we were before.

[@pyrenaea3019]

@@craftjj That's a very interesting phenomenon, but very sad. I did once read that in South Korea many loanwords are being taken from English, like the one for 🍦, in 🇰🇷 would be _aisekeulim_ and in 🇰🇵 _aemulgdo_ , right? My best wishes of peace and thank you both for answering!

[@ReiKakariki]

@@craftjj I hope dor this day to of unification of all Korea, or Goryeo and China and Russia giving other northem parts of korea before japanese and mandchu invasions. Korea have a well nice great lang, tecnology, idiom and culture.

[@ogc3748]

The grammar of her Korean is virtually identical to that of Hamgyŏng Korean. The lexicon is also based on Northeastern Korean, but of course, there is a lot of influence from Russian. The second question requires a longer answer. First of all, standard DPRK Korean is *way* easier to understand than much of the southern dialects you can find in Gyeongsang or Jeolla. In fact, standard DPRK Korean is much easier to understand than the colloquial dialect of Pyongyang itself (and the rest of Pyongan), as it has a lot of influence from the Seoul dialect. But of course, the dialects of the more southern regions of North Korea (e.g. the city of Kaesong, which is only 50km away from Seoul) sound much less foreign than standard DPRK Korean. The northeastern dialects of Hamgyŏng are hardest for South Koreans to comprehend, since eastern dialects, being geographically separated by the Taebaek mountains, tend to be more conservative, and we get to hear them less than southeastern dialects.

[@gwho]

4:45 the interviewer also knows russian, korean (and english)!

[@nicholasbiniaz-harris398]

I was the person who interviewed her -- I don't really speak Russian but luckily her grandson interpreted for me. He speaks Korean, Russian, and English. :)

[@koin-dongjun]

As a Korean, I can understand some sentences and words in this video. but my grandpa's Gyeongsang dialect is much harder to understand than this.

[@tojuemilia6808]

Koryo-mar song - Olga

[@h.a.n.e.u.l]

Absolutely beautiful and I appreciate this video. Although… the title itself is misleading as she’s not speaking “고레말” but rather the standard northeastern dialect most likely for better intelligibility with a “한겨레” audience.

[@nicholasbiniaz-harris398]

Can you clarify your comment? She doesn't really consume much media from South or North Korea (beyond some songs that she listens to), so I'm not sure she knows "standard" North or South korean. My understanding was that this is the dialect she spoke growing up, which is Koryo-mar.

[@h.a.n.e.u.l]

Sure, I can clarify but first… I said the standard northeastern dialect of Korean… not the standard of “North Korea” // “South Korea”. Second… the criteria that makes up the 고레 language is missing from her speech. Such as the MK retention of ㄴ prior to certain consonants, the characterization of ㄹ as “r” in most circumstances, along with many other characteristics where pronunciations of vowels/consonants are different. Although, it’s simply an observation. I study linguistics but I’m in no way an expert. Regardless… I still appreciate the video due to one side of my family being Sakhalin-Korean.

[@anyahnacolman8636]

Thank you for sharing. But put in English close captions next time 🥰

[@Wikitongues]

Thank you for watching! Any can add subtitles for this video here: amara.org/en/videos/Vv7602B6E2gC/ :)

[@Cuyt24]

It sounds like Korean to me. I can understand her.

[@AnsgarisIoannes]

Can make a videos about Spanish language in Philippines and Muisca language in Colombia?

[@samyebeid4534]

Why is it called Goryeo-mal instead of Joseon-mal or Hanguk-mal? Are these speakers somehow directly related to the Goryeo dynasty?

[@권용국-t1m]

No, Goryeo-in(saram) and Joseon-in(saram) were just two most common ways to call Koreans so they picked Goryeo. Even today, the term Goryeo is used very widely in both South and North Korea. Even the word Korea itself originates from Goryeo so it isn’t strange

[@samyebeid4534]

@@권용국-t1m interesting, so the term Goryeo in reference to Koreans and their language didn't completely fall out of use after 1392?

[@권용국-t1m]

@@samyebeid4534 No. In fact, even in Ming and Japan, they called Joseon and its inhabitants based on Goryeo especially on unofficial ground multiple times and so Joseon government made multiple diplomatic protests.

[@mexicotaco0913]

Goryeo is one of many names that was used to refer to Korea. But due to the fact that the names Joseon and Han(guk) has close ties to North Korea and South Korea, and that Koreans living in FSU have different identity to the extant sovereign Korean states, they chose the name Goryeo as it has no ties to modern geopolitics.

[@tgyuidlodka3850]

ромолос

[@광동아재廣東大叔]

Her accent mostly resembles that of the 조선족(Chinese resident ethnic Korean), it's not the speech we South Koreans use.

[@israeldavidleonrodriguez2887]

It's a totally authentic Northeastern dialect of the Korean Peninsula. Even refugees from that region used to speak this dialect in South Korea after the Korean War.

[@JONGSUKIMXD]

This sounds like Hamgyong dialect

[@possiblyijt7400]

Most Koryo-Saram are descended from people from Hamgyong province and thus are either from Hamgyong or Yukjin speaking backgrounds. This lady tho seems to be more influenced by Yukjin due to the way she ends some sentences (e.g. 안녕하심둥)

[@comradesusiwolf1599]

i wish rare cool stuff like this be documented more lol Korean language in Soviet union! who would even know?

[@dankmemewannabe7692]

I’ve been searching for stuff on Soviet Korean for a while, but it’s so hard to find anything :( I’m so happy to have found this finally!! I mostly know of its existence due to Qazaq and Kyrgyz pop music lol

[@plveuk813]

@@dankmemewannabe7692 lots of info in russian langauge and some even in korean

[@dankmemewannabe7692]

@@plveuk813 trueeee I do need to more attentively explore those options lol, thank you I can still look on my own, but I’m curious, do you have any recommendations yourself?

[@plveuk813]

@@dankmemewannabe7692 You might need translator, I would just search up "Корейцы в СССР"

[@plveuk813]

@@dankmemewannabe7692 also maybe try using CIS/СНГ to find Koreans in the post soviet states

[@princesinha1680]

So fascinating! I'm not Korean, but I lived in Korea for two years and studied and picked up a little of the language while there. I understood some words and phrases here and there...she definitely 'sounded' Korean to me! The Korean language and its history (and writing system) really fascinate me.

[@sooyonkang]

발음이 정확하셔서 알아듣기 편안합니다. 그리고 노래 잘 하시네요 😊

[@letsTAKObout_it]

So cool! I love hearing heritage languages like this. I hope this language receives more attention and revitalization! Thanks for posting!

[@pakhyeoncheol]

It’s really interesting how it’s almost this sort of time traveler creole of Josun era Korean, North Korean, and modern Korean

[@MrAllmightyCornholioz]

Sounds like North Korean with a Russian accent.

[@gwho]

omg you're right

[@loneyplanet]

How is her Russian? Is her Russian perfectly fluent? When she speaks Korean, I understand around 60 to 70%.

[@nicholasbiniaz-harris398]

Was lucky enough to meet her and conduct this interview. Like most Koryo-saram in Uzbekistan nowadays, Russian is her most proficient language. It's the language she spoke for all of her adult life. She continues to speak both Russian and Korean with a small group of other Koryo-saram friends who are over the age of ~70.

[@dj3us]

@@nicholasbiniaz-harris398 That’s surreal. Living in UZBEKISTAN, the main language is RUSSIAN. I thought there’s Uzbek language in Uzbekistan?

[@loneyplanet]

@@dj3us The main language in Uzbekistan is Uzbek but most ethnic minorities including Koreans(Koryo-saram) still speak Russian as their first language.

[@polinapopova1178]

yes, she speaks Russian like a native. Russian is often used as a lingua franca in the post-Soviet countries, many of which are not composed of just one ethnicity, but dozens or even hundreds.

[@dj3us]

@@loneyplanet Moreover, many minorities speak JUST RUSSIAN, giving up on both native and state language in favor of a completely foreign language of the neighboring empire. Surreal, gosh.

[@ink2181]

생각보다 어렵지는 않네. 경상도사람인데 지명?인명빼고는 80퍼센트 정도 알아듣겠습니다. 여덟을 야들이라 하는 거 익숙하네요 ^^' Residents of the northern part of the Korean Peninsula seem to be able to understand this grandmother’s dialect more easily.

[@icylakepaxphile]

기본적으로 러시아말 좀 섞인 함경도말이라서요. 요즘 한국에서 자주 듣는 연변말이나 탈북자들이 쓰는 함경도 말이랑 같은 뿌리고,,, 강릉, 울진같은 강원도 영동, 경상북도 최북단 사투리랑도 매우 비슷함,

[@oleksandrbyelyenko435]

Some Russian news on TV.... Lol

[@gwho]

WHAT? how random! =]

[@xuser9980]

Koryo-mar?! Goryeomal.

[@oleksandrbyelyenko435]

She is speaking some mix of Korean and Russian. And that's strange as she lives in Uzbekistan. So more logical if she spoke Korean-Uzbek pigin. Or something like that...

[@sophiamagdalena111]

In the description, they explain that Koryomal is a mix of Korean and Russian bcuz of the Soviet Union. It is spoken by Koreans in Russia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine. Didn’t know about this dialect until now, it’s really cool

[@bannedonmoya3761]

Her age probably has a lot to do with it. Russian was taught in schools and as an institutional language in much of Eastern Europe/ Eurasia until fairly recently.

[@oleksandrbyelyenko435]

@@sophiamagdalena111 sorry I haven't checked the description

[@craftjj]

@@bannedonmoya3761 I'm a Korean speaker. According to her she moved to Uzbekistan in 1947 and is 85 years old.

[@nicholasbiniaz-harris398]

@@craftjj I interviewed her and she actually was born in 1937, maybe she mis-speaks in the video (I don't speak Korean). She was just a few months old when her family was deported in 1937.

[@fucchan_xo]

I'd love to hear a native North Korean speaker!