Lexico-phonetic aspects of Koryo mal in the 1950s based on the newspaper «Lenin kichi» and difficulties of translation

Abstract

The present article is focused on the lexical-phonetic aspect of ‘Koryo mar (dial.)’. At the present moment, researchers rely on the ‘Lenin kichi’ newspaper as the main written artifact of the Korean diaspora language. Phonetic and phonotactic (compatibility of sounds within a syllable) specifics of Koryo mal make it difficult to understand for the speakers of the ‘Seoul standard’ Korean. The translation of the non-equivalent vocabulary poses certain difficulties. Firstly, it is neologisms, secondly, Koryo mal of the newspaper ‘Lenin kichi’ of the 1950s – these are words of the Russian language presented by means of the Korean language; thirdly, it is toponyms which have changed and yet not recorded in the official sources (dictionaries).