Listening exercise with transcript #2: Let me tell you about the 경상 dialect

On the first listening exercise, I provided the transcript for the first part of a series of two advertisements below. I would like to provide the rest of the transcription today. But before doing so, I need to talk about the dialects ("사투리") of Korea so that you can understand exactly what is going on in that clip.

There are several different dialects in Korea, roughly corresponding with the provinces of Korea, and even within the provinces, there are different dialects corresponding to major cities. Most Korean that you hear on TV is the "standard language" or "표준어," which mostly derives from the Seoul dialect. The Seoul dialect is so close to the standard language that the word "서울말" (서울 + 말 = Seoul language) is often synonymous with the "표준어." However, there are some minor differences!

In your Korean studies, you might have noticed an interesting verb change. The verb conjugation "-(으)려고" signifies your intention to do something. For example, in standard Korean:
"먹다 (to eat)" + "-으려고" --> "먹으려고" (I'm going to eat)
"자다 (to sleep)" + "-려고" --> "자려고" (I'm going to sleep)
However, you might see many Koreans write instead "먹을려고" or "잘려고." This inclusion of "ㄹ" in your verb conjugation derives from the Seoul dialect! But in general, these are minor differences, and the Seoul dialect mostly coincides with the standard language.

The Seoul dialect or the standard language is perceived by the speakers of the other dialects to be gentle and soft (for example, North Korean refugees often remark on just how gentle the Koreans must be, based on their soft accent, or 부드러운 억양.) There are almost no inflections or accents placed in any part of the sentences, and unless the word itself calls for it, no accented strong consonants (such as ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ) are substituted.

On the other hand, the 경상 dialect (the major cities using this dialect include 부산 Busan, 대구 Daegu, and 울산 Ulsan, and in Korean we would call it 경상도 사투리) makes heavy use of inflections and strong consonants!

For example, the number "2" and the English letter "E" are both written as "이" in Korean alphabet. So using the Seoul dialect, the two things sound exactly the same. However, in the 경상 dialect, they sound different.

First of all, the inflection is different. The "2" is pronounced at a slightly lower tone than "E." Secondly, while "2" is pronounced in the usual Seoul dialect fashion, "E" is pronounced by trying to make the "ㅇ" a strong consonant by closing your throat completely before releasing the sound (think about the difference between "E" and "Yee.") This distinction enables the 경상 dialect to distinguish the following four mathematical expressions, which the standard Korean speakers cannot do! (Quick note: "a to the power of b" is read "a의 b승" in Korean.) When the Koreans realized this, this blew up the Korean internet for a few days!

Below is a video clip of a speaker of the 경상 dialect pronouncing these four things, compared with the speaker of the standard Korean. Note the strong consonants and a much more exaggerated inflection, not just in these four pronunciations, but also when they are speaking!

By the way, since you cannot describe some of these difference over text, some Korean internet users will use arrows to informally describe the inflectional differences (you might have seen these on the internet!) For example: to pronounce "E," the Koreans will describe its pronunciation as "이↘", signifying that it starts high and ends low. For "2", the right description might be "이→" or "이↗", emphasizing the relative lower starting point of the pronunciation.

Even without these inflections, there are major differences between the standard Korean and the 경상 dialect. For one, 경상 dialect is very short and to the point (leading to the stereotype that the men of 경상도 are the strong and silent type.) For example, it often omits non-essential particles:

"니가 그렇게 하니까 내가 이렇게 하지 (Seoul dialect: It's because you're acting that way that I'm acting like this)" becomes "니 그카이 내 이카지." I first encourage you to read this out loud. Even Koreans won't understand many dialects when it's written out, but usually pronouncing it out loud helps a lot with understanding. The particle "가" is completely suppressed, and only the essential parts of the pronunciation of "그렇게 하니까" seems to have survived!

Another difference that I will mention is that the 경상 dialect uses very few compound vowels, especially the ones such as ㅝ, ㅘ, ㅙ, etc, so "뭐라고? (what did you say?)" would be pronounced closer to "머라꼬?" (note that the ㄱ can become a strong consonant, another characteristic of the 경상 dialect). The people speaking this dialect often has difficulty distinguishing the last names Choi (최) and Chae (채) as well.

Finally, most sentences will end in -다, -라 if it's an assertive sentence, and -나, -노 if it's a question. For example, in Seoul, you may have a dialogue such as "A: 밥 먹었어? B: 응, 먹었어 (Did you eat? Yes, I ate)" while in 경상 dialect, you might hear "A: 밥 뭇나? B: 뭇다." (Again, please read it out loud!)

This is becoming a long post, so without further ado, we turn to the following clip, beginning at 1:26. Here, the two speakers are having a frustrating time, because of the 경상 dialect. First listen, and see how much you can pick up. Try to notice the inflection, the strong consonants, and very short sentences (another characteristic of the 경상 dialect). The transcription and the explanation follows. For some cases, I will provide the corresponding Seoul dialect version as well:

Man: 와? (Seoul: 왜?)
Woman: 오빠, 엄마가 반찬 갖다주란다.
Man: 잘댔네. 이따 올때 내 가면 가온나. (Seoul: 잘됐네. 있다가 올때 내 가면좀 가지고 와.)
Woman: 응? 오빠 가면? 오빠야 니 어디가는데? (Seoul: 응? 오빠 가면? 오빠 어디가는데?)
Man: 머라노? 내가 가긴 어딜가? (Seoul: 뭐? 내가 가긴 어딜 가?)
Woman: 오빠가 니 가면 오라메. (Seoul: 오빠가 방금 오빠가 가면 오라면서.)
Man: 아니, 내 가면 가오라꼬. (Seoul: 아니, 내 가면 가지고 오라고.)
Woman: 그니까. 오빠야 어디가냐고?
Man: 아니, 그게 아니라, 내 가면!
Woman: 그래, 니 가면!
Man: 그래, 내 가면!
Woman: 그래, 니 가면!
Man: 그래, 내 가면!
Woman: 니 지금 내랑 장난하나? 그니까, 니 어디가냐고? (Seoul: 오빠 지금 나랑 장난해? 그러니까, 오빠 어디 가냐고?)
Man: (trying to speak in a Seoul accent) 사랑하는 내 동생 나진아, 이따가 니가 올거잖아, 응?
Woman: 아, 근데?
Man: 그때 내 가면 가 오라고!
Woman: 그니까, 니가 가면 오라메. 그니까 어디가냐고!
Man: 내 가면!
Woman: 어딜?
Man: 가면!
Woman: 어딜?
Man: 가면!
Woman: 어딜?
Man: 가면!
Woman: 아 어딜?
Man: 가면! 가면!

Man: 아우 이게 진짜 오빠한테 진짜!

Man: 이쪽, 이쪽!
Woman: 이쪽?
Man: 아니, 이쪽말이야!
Woman: 아, 쫌!

The issue that is causing the confusion is the fact that the man is using the phrase "내 가면." In standard Korean, this means only one thing, "my mask." However, because the 경상 dialect tends to suppress particles, it picks up a secondary meaning "내(가) 가면," meaning "when I leave."

So while the man is trying to tell his sister "bring my mask when you bring banchan," the sister keeps understanding it in the secondary meaning "bring the banchan when I leave," and wants to know where he's going, leading to massive frustration on both parties. It's a clever ad, no?

As an aside, many speakers of the 경상 dialect would find this advertisement unsatisfactory! It is likely that both actors (the woman for sure!) are not actual speakers of the dialect. In fact, the inflection of "가면" is different for the two meanings, so it would have enabled you to distinguish the two meanings of "내 가면" even with the suppressed particle. To say "mask," the right inflection is "가면↗" while "to go" is "가↘면," so there is a touch of artificiality in the above ad (but most Koreans won't pick up on it, so it doesn't matter, right?)

You could write an entire book about dialects of Korea (and many such books have indeed been written), and these dialects often amuse the internet because even the Koreans themselves are not aware of all of its interesting facts. I hope to write more about the dialects in the future, but in the meantime, if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I will be happy to answer them!