Archaisms and Innovations in Soviet Korean Dialects

Abstract

Based on more than five months of linguistic fi eld work in the (former) Soviet Union, this paper outlines some of the main features of the two major Soviet Korean dialects. Both dialects have their origins in North Hamkyeng province : the most widespread is Myengchen- Kilcwu dialect, but a small number of old Soviet Koreans still speaks a variety of the extremely conservative 'Yuk.up dialect. This paper seeks to show how the sum total of archaisms, innovations and features of as-yet- unknown origin in the phonetics and phonology, morpho-syntax and lexicon of Soviet Korean dialects leads to a situation of significant divergence between Modern Seoul Standard Korean and Soviet Korean "Koryô Mar".