Jeju language

Jeju (Jeju: ; Jeju RR: Template:Transliteration, or Korean: ; RR: Template:TransliterationTemplate:Category handler, or ; Template:TransliterationTemplate:Category handler), often called Jejueo or Jejuan in English-language scholarship, is a Koreanic language originally from Jeju Island, South Korea. It is not mutually intelligible with mainland Korean dialects. While it was historically considered a divergent Jeju dialect of the Korean language, it is increasingly referred to as a separate language in its own right. It is declining in usage and was classified by UNESCO in 2010 as critically endangered, the highest level of language endangerment possible. Revitalization efforts are ongoing.

The consonants of Jeju are similar to those of Seoul Korean, but Jeju has a larger and more conservative vowel inventory. Jeju is a head-final, agglutinative, suffixing language like Korean. Nouns are followed by particles that may function as case markers. Verbs inflect for tense, aspect, mood, evidentiality, relative social status, formality, and other grammatical information. Korean and Jeju differ significantly in their verbal paradigms. For instance, the continuative aspect marker of Jeju and the mood or aspect distinction of many Jeju connective suffixes are absent in Korean. Most of the Jeju lexicon is Koreanic, and the language preserves many Middle Korean features and words now lost in Standard Korean.Template:Sfn Jeju may also have a Peninsular Japonic substratum, but this argument has been disputed.

Jeju was already divergent from the Seoul dialect of Korean by the fifteenth century and unintelligible to mainland Korean visitors by the sixteenth century. The language was severely undermined by the aftermath of the Jeju uprising of 1948, the Korean War, and the modernization of South Korea. Many fluent speakers remaining in Jeju Island are now over seventy years old. Most people in Jeju Island now speak a variety of Korean with a Jeju substratum. The language may be somewhat more vigorous in a diaspora community in Osaka, Japan, as many Jeju people migrated to Osaka in the 1920s, but even there, younger members of the community tend to speak Japanese.

Nomenclature and relationship to Korean

Template:Data bars

Nomenclature of Jeju in the titles of South Korean academic publications

Various terms in both Korean and English exist for the Jeju language, which also vary depending on whether it is considered a separate language or a dialect of Korean by the speaker.

Among native speakers, the term "Jeju speech" (; Template:TransliterationTemplate:Category handler) is most commonly used.Template:Sfn In English-language scholarship, it is often called Jejueo or Jejuan.

Language or dialect distinction

Jeju is closely related to Korean. It was traditionally considered an especially divergent dialect of Korean, and Template:As of is still referred to as such by the National Institute of Korean Language and the South Korean Ministry of Education.Template:Sfn

Until the 2000s, South Korean academia preferred the term "Jeju dialect" (; Template:TransliterationTemplate:Category handler). While the term "Jeju language" (; Template:TransliterationTemplate:Category handler) was first used in 1947, it was not until the mid-1990s that the term gained traction. The majority of South Korean academic publications switched to using "Jeju language" by the early 2010s.Template:Sfn Since somewhat earlier, "Jeju language" has also been the term preferred in local law, such as the 2007 Language Act for the Preservation and Promotion of the Jeju Language,Template:Efn and by non-governmental organizations working to preserve the language.Template:Sfn The only English-language monograph on Jeju, published in 2019, consistently refers to it as a language as well.Template:Sfn

Mutual intelligibility with modern South Korean Korean

Jeju is not mutually intelligible with even the southernmost dialects of South Korea. In a 2014 survey measuring intelligibility, Korean speakers from three different dialect zones (Seoul, Busan, and Yeosu) were exposed to one minute of spoken Jeju, with a control group of native Jeju speakers. On average, South Korean native speakers from all three dialect zones answered less than 10% of the basic comprehension questions correctly, while native Jeju speakers answered over 89% of the questions correctly. These results are comparable to the results of an intelligibility test of Norwegian for native Dutch speakers.Template:Sfn Diaspora Jeju speakers living in Japan have also reported that they find it difficult to understand South Korean news media, and resort to Japanese subtitles when watching South Korean TV shows.Template:Sfn

Geographic distribution

Jeju was traditionally spoken throughout Jeju Province except in the Chuja Islands, halfway between Jeju Island and mainland Korea, where a variety of Southwestern Korean is found.Template:Sfn The language is also used by some of the first- and second-generationTemplate:Efn members of the Zainichi Korean community in Ikuno-ku, Osaka, Japan.Template:Sfn

Compared to mainland Korean dialect groups, there is little internal variation within Jeju. A distinction between a northern and southern dialect with a geographic divide at Hallasan is sometimes posited, but an eastern-western dialectal divide cutting through Jeju City and Seogwipo may better explain the few dialectal differences that do exist.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn A 2010 survey of regional variation in 305 word sets suggests that the north–south divide and the east–west divide coexist, resulting in four distinct dialect groups.Template:Sfn

• An east–west divide is salient in the Jeju words for "lizard". Eastern Seogwipo uses Script error: No such module "Lang". Template:Transliteration while western Seogwipo uses Script error: No such module "Lang". Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn
  An east–west divide is salient in the Jeju words for "lizard".
  Eastern Seogwipo uses Template:Transliteration while western Seogwipo uses Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn
• A north–south divide is more noticeable in the Jeju words for "crab".
  A north–south divide is more noticeable in the Jeju words for "crab".

History

Pre-modern history

The Koreanic languages are likely not native to Jeju Island; it has been proposed that the family has its roots in Manchuria, a historical region in northeastern Asia. It is thought that Koreanic speakers migrated from southern Manchuria between the third and eighth centuries CE. Linguist Alexander Vovin suggests that the ancient kingdom of Tamna, which ruled the island until the twelfth century, may have spoken a Japonic language that left a substrate influence on Jeju. When exactly this putative Japonic language may have been replaced by the Koreanic ancestor of Jeju remains unclear.Template:Sfn

During the late thirteenth century, Jeju Island came under direct Yuan administration, which lead to significant migration of Mongol soldiers to the island. Acting as a superstratum, their language contributed to the change of the local language. Yang Changyong, a linguist, speculates that Mongol influence played a significant role in the formation of Jejueo as a distinct language independent from standard Korean.Template:Sfn

By the fifteenth century, when the invention of Hangul greatly improved the understanding of Korean phonology, Seoul Korean and Jeju were already divergent; the Seoul prestige dialect of fifteenth-century Middle Korean disallowed the diphthong , which Jeju allows.Template:Sfn Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century references to the language of Jeju by mainland Korean literati state that it was already unintelligible to mainland Koreans.Template:Sfn Kim Sang-heon (1570—1652), who from 1601 to 1602 served as the island's pacification commissioner,Template:Efn gives six words in the "provincial language" with clear cognates in modern Jeju and also writes:Template:Sfn

"The exiled man Shin Jangnyeong was originally a government interpreter. He said, 'The language of this island is most like Chinese, and the sounds they make while driving cattle and horses are yet more impossible to tell apart. Is this because the climate is not far from that of China, or because the Yuan dynasty once ruled and appointed officials here and the Chinese mingled with them?'... What is called the provincial language is but high and thin and cannot be understood."

In 1629, the Korean government banned the emigration of Jeju Islanders to the mainland, further restricting linguistic contacts between Jeju and Korean.Template:Sfn At the same time, the island was also used throughout the Joseon era (1392—1910) as a place of exile for disgraced scholar-officials. These highly educated speakers of Seoul Korean often tutored the children of their Jeju neighbors during their exile and established a continuous and significant Seoul Korean superstratum in Jeju.Template:Sfn

Japanese colonial period (1910–1945)

Under the Japanese colonial rule, Jejueo remained the dominating language in both public and private spheres on Jeju Island. However, with the entrance of Japanese loanwords to the lexicon, some speakers became monolingual Japanese speakers. Migration of Jeju Islanders to Japan began to skyrocket in 1911, with significant communities established, more so in cities like Osaka, becoming home to 38,000 Jeju Islanders by 1911. Despite gaining independence, citizens of Jeju and Korea still migrated to Japan, continuing to impact the linguistic landscape of Jeju Island as the younger generations within the diaspora communities only spoke Japanese, leading the decline in fluency in Jejueo.

Modern period and decline (1945–present)

File:Jeju Massacre.jpg

Jeju inhabitants awaiting execution in late 1948

Severe disruption to the Jeju language community began after the end of Japanese rule and World War II in 1945. Korea was divided between an American-backed government in the South and a Soviet-backed government in the north, which were succeeded by South Korea and North Korea correspondingly in 1948. Popular opposition to the division and many other issues led to a rebellion on Jeju island on 3 April 1948. The Syngman Rhee regime suppressed the rebellion with mass killings of civilians. As many as 60,000 Jeju Islanders, or a full fifth of the pre-rebellion population, were killed. 40,000 more fled to Japan. Out of the 400 villages of the island, only 170 remained.Template:Sfn

The devastating impact of the massacres on the Jeju language community was exacerbated by the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. While Jeju was never occupied by the North Korean army, nearly 150,000 Korean-speaking refugees from the mainland fleeing North Korean invasion arrived in Jeju in the first year of the war.Template:Sfn

The above events shattered the Jeju language's former dominance on the island,Template:Sfn and Standard Korean began to displace Jeju in the public sphere by the 1950s.Template:Sfn The 1970s Saemaeul Undong, an ambitious rural modernization program launched by Park Chung Hee, disrupted the traditional village community where Jeju had thrived. The language came to be perceived as an incorrect dialect of Korean; students were even subject to corporal punishment if they used it in school.Template:Sfn Standard Korean became more commonplace in private settings even outside of Jeju City.Template:Sfn The language attitude of native Jeju speakers in this period was self-disparaging, and even Jeju people regarded the use of Jeju "with contempt".Template:Sfn A 1981 survey of language attitudes among high school and university students natively speaking Seoul Korean, Chungcheong Korean, Southwestern Korean, Southeastern Korean, and Jeju showed that Jeju speakers were the most likely among the five groups to ascribe negative traits to their native variety.Template:Sfn

A 1992 study of code-switching by native Jeju speakers shows that Jeju was by then in an unfavorable diglossic relationship with Korean, and was largely restricted to informal contexts even between Jeju natives.Template:Sfn Within a primarily Jeju conversation, Standard Korean was used to emphasize the rationality or truth value of statements. Switching to Jeju in a primarily Standard Korean conversation signified that the speaker was making a subjective statement or being less serious.Template:Sfn

Code-switching rules in early 1990s JejuTemplate:Sfn

Participants	Formality	Intimacy	Social status	Preferred variety
Includes mainlander				Standard Korean
Only Jeju natives	Formal
	Informal	Participants are not emotionally intimate	Speaker is socially inferior to addressee
			Speaker is socially superior to addressee	Jeju / Jeju Korean
		Participants are emotionally intimate

The same study notes that by 1992, even this variety restricted to the informal domain was usually a Korean dialect with a Jeju substratum, rather than the traditional Jeju language:

"As for the Jeju language [[[:Template:Lit]]] in general use nowadays [as of 1992], the situation is that its differences from Standard Korean are greatly diminishing compared to the past. Its greatest differences with Standard Korean [now] lie especially in the suffix paradigm, and in other areas the differences are being minimized. The Jeju people accordingly understand that Jeju and Standard Korean are in a form of dialect continuum, and refer to the native language formerly in use as "thick (or intense) Jeju language" and the Jeju language currently in use as "light Jeju language" or "mixed (with Korean) language."

Current status and ongoing endangerment

Since 2010,Template:Sfn UNESCO has classified Jeju as a critically endangered language, defined as one whose "youngest speakers are grandparents and older... [who] speak the language partially and infrequently."Template:Sfn In 2018, the Endangered Languages Archive at SOAS University of London collected audio and video recordings of native Jeju speakers having everyday conversations, singing traditional songs, and performing rituals.

The official language of South Korea is Standard Korean. Nearly all residents of Jeju Island are bilingual in Standard Korean and Jeju, while many younger individuals are even more fluent in English than in Jeju. Standard Korean is most commonly used in the majority of public areas, while Jeju tends to be reserved for use at home and a few local markets. All schools located on Jeju Island are required to teach Standard Korean and only offer Jeju as an elective course. In addition, many Jeju Islander migrate to mainland Korea for a number of various reasons such as education, employment, and marriage contributing to decline of the Jejueo language. As a result, there are currently no monolingual speakers of Jeju.

The distinctive phonological, syntactic, and lexical features of the Jeju Island language, known as Jejueo or Jeju dialect, compared to Standard Korean, pose obstacles to effective communication. Phonological differences, such as variations in pitch accent and vowel distinctions, may lead to misunderstandings or difficulties in comprehension between Jeju natives and speakers of Standard Korean. Communication can also be made more difficult by syntactic variances, word order flexibility, and particle usage inconsistencies between Standard Korean and Jejueo. In contrast to the mainstream linguistic rules observed in mainland Korean, Jejueo maintains earlier grammatical structures and syntactic patterns that may lead to misunderstandings or confusion during conversations.

As of 2018, fluent speakers in Jeju Island were all over seventy years of age, while passive competence was found in some people in their forties and fifties. Younger Islanders speak Korean with Jeju substrate influenceTemplate:Sfn found in residual elements of the Jeju verbal paradigm and in select vocabulary such as kinship terms.Template:Sfn The language is more vigorous in Osaka, where there may be fluent speakers born as late as the 1960s.

A 2008 survey of adult residents' knowledge of ninety Jeju cultural words showed that only twenty-one were understood by the majority of those surveyed.Template:Sfn Lack of heritage knowledge of Jeju is even more severe among younger people. In 2010, 400 Jeju teenagers were surveyed for their knowledge of 120 basic Jeju vocabulary items, but only 19 words were recognized by the majority while 45 words were understood by less than 10%.Template:Sfn A 2018 study suggests that even the verbal paradigm, among the more resilient parts of the substratum, may be in danger; the average middle schooler was more competent in the verb system of English, a language "taught only a few hours a week in school and in private tutoring institutions", than of Jeju.Template:Sfn

Local attitudes towards Jeju

Historically, the Jeju language was seen as impolite or uncultured. Jeju uses fewer honorifics and has four levels of politeness, in comparison to the seven levels in Standard Korean. Because of the linguistic differences and cultural differences, Jeju Islanders were marginalized and excluded among mainland Koreans. In a 2011 Korea Times article, a student said they believed the language was not respectful enough to use with professors, and that the Seoul dialect was more sophisticated. In addition, Jeju is often associated with the countryside, as the majority of speakers tend to have traditional occupations, including farming, fishing, and diving. As a result, many younger children express a disinterest in learning the language.

Improving sentiment

However, recent surveys show improved sentiment towards the Jeju language. In a National Institute of the Korean Language survey in 2005, only 9.4% of Jeju Islanders were very proud of the regional variety. When the same survey was readministered in 2015, 36.8% were very proud of the language,Template:Sfn and Jeju Islanders had become the most likely among South Korean dialect groups to have "very positive" opinions of the regional variety.Template:Sfn In a 2017 study of 240 Jeju Islanders, 82.8% of those sampled considered Jeju to be "nice to listen to", and 74.9% hoped that their children would learn the language.Template:Sfn But significant generational differences in attitudes were also observed. For instance, only 13.8% of Jeju Islanders between 20 and 40 much preferred Jeju over Standard Korean, while 49.1% of those above 80 did.Template:Sfn

In a 2013 survey of Jeju natives, 77.9% agreed with the statement that "[the Jeju language] has to be passed down as part of Jeju culture."Template:Sfn But a 2015 study of approximately 1,000 Jeju Islanders suggests that even though most Jeju Islanders believe the language to be an important part of the island's culture, the vast majority are skeptical of the language's long-term viability, and more people are unwilling than willing to actively participate in language preservation efforts.Template:Sfn

Revitalization efforts

File:Jeju Language Preservation Society Textbook "Hawndi baeu-neun Jeju-eo".jpg

Template:Transliteration, an introductory textbook published by the Jeju Language Preservation SocietyTemplate:Sfn

Revitalization efforts have been ongoing.

Government efforts

On 27 September 2007, the Jeju provincial government promulgated the Language Act for the Preservation and Promotion of the Jeju Language,Template:Sfn which established five-year plans for state-backed language preservation. The Act encouraged public schools on Jeju Island to offer Jeju as an extracurricular activity, as well as to incorporate the language as a part of regular classes if relevant and feasible. In addition, multiple programs were provided for adults. For example, adult language programs are offered every year at the Jeju National University and are free of charge. There are also several local centres on Jeju Island that offer classes in Jeju Language specifically to marriage-based immigrants.

However, it was not until UNESCO's 2010 designation of Jeju as critically endangered that the provincial government became proactive in Jeju preservation efforts.Template:Sfn In 2016, the provincial government allotted ₩685,000,000 (US$565,592 in 2016) to revitalization programs,Template:Sfn and the government-funded Jeju Research Institute has compiled phrasebooks of the language.Template:SfnTemplate:Clarify The provincial Ministry of Education has also published Jeju textbooks for elementary and secondary schools, although some textbooks really teach Standard Korean interspersed with Jeju lexical items. Some public schools offer after-school programs for Jeju, but the short duration of these classes may be insufficient to promote more than "symbolic" use by students.Template:Sfn The linguistic competence of many teachers has also been challenged.Template:Sfn

On 12 August 2011, the Research Centre for Jeju Studies was opened with the purpose of implementing projects for the revitalization and safeguarding of Jeju Language. The project encouraged the promotion of Jeju Language in schools by tasking the Education Bureau with several initiatives, including a training program for teachers. The project also started a radio broadcast in Jeju Language, as well as a radio campaign for Jeju slang and an annual Jeju Language festival. An iPhone application was developed, including a glossary, as well as a collection of proverbs, poems, and quizzes in Jeju Language. Finally, an introductory conversation brochure was distributed to both citizens and visitors of Jeju Island.

Popular media efforts

The Jeju Language Preservation Society,Template:Efn founded in December 2008, publishes a bimonthly Jeju-language magazine Deongdeureong-makke () and holds Jeju teaching programs and speaking contests.Template:Sfn Children's books and a 2014 poetry anthology have also been published. Local bands and theater troupes have made Jeju-language performances.Template:Sfn Regional newspapers such as the Jemin Ilbo and the Halla Ilbo include Jeju-language sections.

Local branches of KBS and MBC have launched Jeju radio programs and a television series.Template:Sfn Recent South Korean media with nationwide appeal, including the 2010 television series Life is Beautiful and The Great Merchant, the 2012 drama film Jiseul, and the 2015 television series Warm and Cozy, have also featured spoken Jeju.Template:Sfn

Cultural differences

In addition to the difference in language and dialect, Jeju Islanders and mainland Koreans share a number of cultural differences.

The historical isolation and unique identity of Jeju Island, which have nourished a strong sense of regional pride and unity among Jeju inhabitants, are two significant cultural differences. Jeju Island's distinct cultural traditions, folk beliefs, and practices set it apart from the Korean mainland are a result of the island's geographic isolation. For example, Jeju's traditional women divers, or haenyeo, represent the ideals of resiliency, collaboration, and environmental care and represent the island's matriarchal legacy and collective spirit.

Moreover, Jeju Island's tumultuous history, including the Jeju rebellion and subsequent mass killings, has left a profound impact on the collective memory and social identity of Jeju Islanders. The trauma and scars of historical events continue to resonate in the cultural consciousness, shaping perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors among Jeju natives. These experiences have contributed to a distinct sense of identity and solidarity among Jeju Islanders, often manifesting in cultural expressions, artistic forms, and community rituals that reflect resilience and resistance against oppression.

Religious practices on Jeju Island encompass a diverse range of beliefs, including shamanism, Buddhism, and Christianity, each contributing to the island's rich religious heritage and spiritual landscape. These religious traditions intersect with cultural rituals and festivals, such as the annual Jeju Fire Festival and Seongsan Sunrise Festival, which celebrate Jeju's natural beauty, cultural heritage, and community solidarity.

Orthography

Jeju has historically had no written language.Template:Sfn Two recently devised standard orthographies are currently in use: a system created in 1991 by scholars of the Jeju Dialect Research Society,Template:Efn and a system promulgated by the provincial government in 2014.Template:Sfn Both systems use the Korean alphabet Hangul with one additional letter , which was used in the Middle and Early Modern Korean scripts but is now defunct in written Korean. Similar to the modern Korean script, Jeju orthographies have morphophonemic tendencies, meaning that transcribing the underlying morphology generally takes precedence over the surface form.Template:Sfn The two orthographies differ largely because they are based on different morphological analyses of the language, especially of the verbal paradigm, as seen in the example below.Template:Sfn

Orthography	Underlying morphemes			Jeju word	Necessary analysis
Research Society orthography	Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Fs interlinear	Stem-final vowel Template:Transliteration is lost before vowel-initial suffix
Government orthography	Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Fs interlinear	Conditional suffix Template:Transliteration requires epenthetical vowel Template:Transliteration after consonant

This article will use the government's orthography where the two differ.

Transliteration or romanization

The transliteration scheme generally used in Korean linguistics, including when transcribing Jeju, is the Yale Romanization system. Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019 instead use a variant of the Revised Romanization system with the addition of the sequence aw for .Template:Sfn

This article also uses Revised Romanization with the addition of aw, but without Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019's one-to-one correspondence between Hangul glyphs and the Latin alphabet.

Phonology

Consonants

The non-approximant consonants of Jeju correspond to the nineteen non-approximant consonants of Standard Korean, and Jeju displays the three-way contrast between stops and affricates characteristic of Modern Korean. Whether the voiced glottal fricative , absent in Standard Korean, exists as a phoneme in Jeju or merely as an allophone of remains disputed.Template:Sfn A 2000 acoustic and aerodynamic study of eight native Jeju speakers concludes that "the consonants of the two languages seem to be the same in every respect... the phonetic realization of all [Jeju] consonants are the same as those found in [Seoul] Korean."Template:Sfn

Consonant phonemes

		Bilabial	Alveolar	(Alveolo-) Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link Template:Efn
Stop and affricate	lax	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	tense	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	aspirated	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Fricative	lax/aspirated		Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link (Template:IPA link )
	tense		Template:IPA link
Liquid			Template:IPA link~Template:IPA link
Approximant		Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	(Template:IPA link)

Consonantal phonological processes

Jeju allophony involves a number of phonological processes also found in Seoul Korean. As in Korean, surfaces as intervocally. Also as in Korean, lax stops and affricates have fully voiced allophones in medial position, all obstruents have unreleased allophones in final position, and syllable-final sibilants surface as .Template:Sfn Whether non-lax stops and affricatesTemplate:Efn can appear in final position is controversial. The morphological analysis necessary for the government's orthography permits them, while the analysis behind the Jeju Language Research Society's orthography forbids them.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Lax obstruent	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
Initial allophone	~	~		~	~
Medial allophone
Final allophone

Most non-morphophonological consonant assimilation rules of Standard Korean are also found in Jeju. and are regularly palatalized to before or . Lax obstruents are tensed following another obstruent. aspirates both the preceding and the subsequent lax obstruent. A nasal consonant nasalizes a preceding obstruentTemplate:Sfn or . becomes following all consonants except itself or , and this can itself nasalize the preceding obstruent so that the underlying sequence is realized as . On the other hand, underlying and both produce .Template:Sfn

Non-morphophonological consonant allophonyTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Jeju word	Underlying phonemes	Realization
"strength"			Palatalization before high vowel
"on purpose"			Lax obstruent tensed after another obstruent
"ox"
"bloodsucker"			aspirates surrounding obstruents
"pig's tooth"			Nasals nasalize preceding obstruent
"camphor tree"
"firewood"
"cleverness"			is realized as after most consonants; underlying will nasalize preceding obstruent
"cooperation"
"blade"			assimilates both preceding and subsequent
"difficulty"

Jeju also has consonant allophones that appear only at morpheme boundaries. Some of these are found in Standard Korean, such as the insertion of before or at most word-internal morpheme boundaries; the palatalization of to before an affixal ; and the tensing of obstruents following certain morpheme-final nasals. Other rules are absent in Standard Korean. For instance, a sonorant-final word or morpheme can trigger aspiration (for older speakers) or tensing (for younger speakers) in a subsequent lax consonant. In some cases this is due to an underlying consonant cluster, but not all cases can be explained in this way. Other Jeju-specific processes include the doubling of a word-final consonant when followed by a vowel, glide, or , and the lenition of to at some word boundaries.Template:Sfn

Consonant allophony at morpheme boundariesTemplate:Sfn

Jeju word (morphemes hyphenated)	Underlying phonemes	Realization
Template:Transliteration "inner leaf"			-insertion before
Template:Transliteration "eldest child"			palatalized before , voiced in medial position
Template:Transliteration "to be black" [honoring addressee]			Obstruent tensed after verb stem-final nasal
Template:Transliteration "alcohol bottle"			Aspiration after sonorant (for older speakers)
Template:Transliteration "bakery"
Template:Transliteration "January"			Consonant doubling
Template:Transliteration "girl"
(from Template:Transliteration) "bamboo field"			Lenition of

Verbal conjugation can also lead to consonantal changes. Verb stem-final and are lost before . In the case of verb stems ending in , . , and , the final consonants are always preserved in so-called regular verbs, but in irregular verbs, and are lenited to and respectively while and are lost when followed by a vowel.Template:Sfn

Final-consonant allomorphy in irregular verbsTemplate:Sfn

Underlying morphemes		Surface realization	Regular verb
Template:Transliteration "to run"	Template:Transliteration Template:Interlinear	Template:Transliteration "runs, and"	Template:Transliteration "receives, and"
	Template:Transliteration Template:Interlinear	Template:Transliteration "runs"	Template:Transliteration "receives"
Template:Transliteration "to pour"	Template:Transliteration Template:Interlinear	Template:Transliteration "pours, and"	Template:Transliteration "wears, and"
	Template:Transliteration Template:Interlinear	Template:Transliteration "pours"	Template:Transliteration "wears"
Template:Transliteration "to compose writing"	Template:Transliteration Template:Interlinear	Template:Transliteration "composes writing, and"	Template:Transliteration "builds, and"
	Template:Transliteration Template:Interlinear	Template:Transliteration "composes writing"	Template:Transliteration "builds"
Template:Transliteration "to lie down"Template:Efn	Template:Transliteration Template:Interlinear	Template:Transliteration "lies down, and"	Template:Transliteration "eats, and"
	Template:Transliteration Template:Interlinear	Template:Transliteration "lies down"	Template:Transliteration "eats"

Underlying consonant clusters

While not permitted in the surface representation of Jeju, morpheme-final consonant clusters can exist in the underlying form. Many cases of post-sonorant aspiration involve morphemes whose Middle Korean cognates feature a final , suggesting that an underlying final after the sonorant should be posited in Jeju as well.Template:Sfn Besides these -final clusters, Jeju permits a number of other final consonant clusters, including , , , ,Template:Sfn and (in the analysis of the government's orthography) .Template:Sfn These clusters surface as a single consonant in isolation or before a consonant, but are fully realized when followed by a vowel.

Realization of final consonant clustersTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Underlying form	Realization in isolation/before consonant	Realization before vowel
Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Fs interlinear
Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Fs interlinear
Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Fs interlinear
Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Fs interlinear
Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Fs interlinear

Vowels

Jeju traditionally has a nine-vowel system: the eight vowels of Korean with the addition of ㆍ ,Template:Sfn a Middle Korean phoneme lost in Seoul in the eighteenth century.Template:Sfn The Jeju-do dialect is known to exhibit more conservative vowel sounds preserving older vowel distinctions, compared to standard Korean.

Vowel phonemesTemplate:Efn

	Front		Central		Back
Close	Template:Transliteration	Template:IPAslink	Template:Transliteration	Template:IPAslink	Template:Transliteration	Template:IPAslink
Mid	Template:Transliteration	Template:IPAslink	Template:Transliteration	Template:IPAslink	Template:Transliteration	Template:IPAslink
Open	Template:Transliteration	Template:IPAslink	Template:Transliteration	Template:IPAslink	Template:Transliteration	Template:IPAslink

The phonemic identity of is controversial,Template:Sfn but native speakers most commonly realize the phoneme as .Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and are only distinguished in the initial syllable.Template:Sfn

Among younger and less fluent speakers, and have both raised to and or Template:Efn respectively, resulting in a seven-vowel system identical to the vowel inventory of Seoul Korean.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The raising of Jeju occurred before the raising of ,Template:Sfn and may have predated Standard Korean's ongoing merger of and . The subsequent loss of may have been motivated by a language-internal desire for symmetry in the vowel system.Template:Sfn On the other hand, the vowel mergers are accelerated among Jeju speakers living in coastal communities more exposed to Standard Korean.Template:Sfn

Jeju has two or three glides: , , and possibly . can occur with all vowels except and . and have merged even among speakers who distinguish the monophthongs,Template:Sfn and many speakers who retain also merge with .Template:Sfn cannot occur with the three back vowels or with . occurs only with , and the resulting diphthong is generally realized as word-initially and otherwise.Template:Sfn

Glide-vowel sequences may be analyzed as diphthongs, with the phonemic identities of , , and being , , and respectively.Template:Sfn

IPA	Hangul	ExampleTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	,	Template:Transliteration	"quiz; riddle"
		Template:Transliteration	"neck"
		Template:Transliteration	"here; this place"
		Template:Transliteration	"Confucianism"
		Template:Transliteration	"history"
		Template:Transliteration	"several"
		Template:Transliteration	"danger"
	, ,	Template:Transliteration	"left side"
		Template:Transliteration	"to be in a hurry"
		Template:Transliteration	"calendar"
		Template:Transliteration~Template:Transliteration	"fog"

Vowel phonological processes

Several phonological processes affect the surface realization of Jeju vowels. In one process shared with Standard Korean, a bisyllabic vowel sequence may be contracted to a monosyllabic polyphthong.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

English	Uncontracted Jeju form	Contracted Jeju form
"it was caught"	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
"cucumber"	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration

Vowel-affecting processes are particularly numerous in the verbal paradigm. Verb stem-final Template:Transliteration is lost before a vowel-initial suffix.Template:Sfn Similar to Standard Korean, a stem-final diphthongizes a subsequent vowel by inserting the onglide . Unlike in its sister language, Jeju insertion may occur even with an intervening consonant,Template:Sfn and between a verb stem ending in Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, or Template:Transliteration and a suffix with initial Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn

Many of Jeju's consonant-initial verbal suffixes take an initial epenthetic vowel if the previous morpheme ends with a consonant.Template:Efn The default epenthetic vowel is Template:Transliteration , but the vowel surfaces as Template:Transliteration following a sibilant and as Template:Transliteration following an underlying labial.Template:Sfn

Vowel shifts in conjugated verbsTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

English	Underlying morphemes			Surface realization
"is sad, and"	Template:Transliteration "to be sad"	Template:Transliteration Template:Interlinear		Template:Transliteration
"rests, and"	Template:Transliteration "to rest"	Template:Transliteration Template:Interlinear		Template:Transliteration
"was fast"	Template:Transliteration "to be fast"	Template:Transliteration Template:Interlinear	Template:Transliteration Template:Interlinear	Template:Transliteration
"mixed with water"	Template:Transliteration "to mix with water"	Template:Transliteration Template:Interlinear	Template:Transliteration Template:Interlinear	Template:Transliteration
"did"	Template:Transliteration "to do"	Template:Transliteration Template:Interlinear	Template:Transliteration Template:Interlinear	Template:Transliteration
"if [it] burns"	Template:Transliteration "to burn"	Template:Transliteration Template:Interlinear		Template:Transliteration
"if [he] believes"	Template:Transliteration "to believe"			Template:Transliteration
"if [it] is bad"	Template:Transliteration "to pick"			Template:Transliteration
"if [he] puts in the soup"	Template:Transliteration "to put into soup"			Template:Transliteration

Like Standard Korean but unlike Middle Korean, Koreanic vowel harmony is no longer generally applicable in all native morphemesTemplate:Sfn but remains productive in sound symbolism and certain verbal suffixes. Jeju has two harmonic classes, yin and yang. The neutral vowel can occur with either class.Template:Sfn

Harmonic class	Vowel correspondences				Sound symbolism
Yin					Dark; heavy; dull; negative
Yang					Bright; light; sharp; positive
Neutral					—

For instance, the perfective aspect marker Template:Transliteration takes the vowel harmonic allomorph Template:Transliteration after verb stems whose (final) vowel is yang:Template:Sfn

Yin-class allomorph	Yang-class allomorph
Template:Transliteration "ate"	Template:Transliteration "plowed"
Template:Transliteration "was bad"	Template:Transliteration "hid"
Template:Transliteration "drew a line"	Template:Transliteration "ran"
Template:Transliteration "washed"

In certain cases, suffix allomorphs do not match the harmonic class of the previous vowel. Verb stems with final vowel or take the yang allomorph if their Middle Korean forms were , thus conserving their original harmonic class while violating their current one. Disyllabic stems that end in also take the yang allomorph, but monosyllabic stems or disyllabic stems do not.Template:Sfn

Phonotactics

Jeju syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C) with G being a glide.Template:Sfn

Syllable structure	JejuTemplate:Sfn	IPA
V	Template:Transliteration "this"
CV	Template:Transliteration "earth"
GV (or VV)	Template:Transliteration "cause; principle"
CGV (or CVV)	Template:Transliteration "filling" [for dumplings, etc.]
VC	Template:Transliteration "egg"
CVC	Template:Transliteration "edge"
GVC (or VVC)	Template:Transliteration "neighbor"
CGVC (or CVVC)	Template:Transliteration "lunatic"

As in Standard Korean, Template:Transliteration cannot occur syllable-initially, and Template:Transliteration does not occur word-initially in native words.Template:Sfn

Prosody

Jeju does not have phonemic vowel length, stress, or tone. Its phonological hierarchy is characterized by accentual phrases similar to those of Standard Korean, with a basic Low-High-Low-High tonal pattern varying according to sentence type, but there are also important differences in the two languages' prosody.Template:Sfn Jeju has a weaker tonal distinction within the first half of the accentual phrase than Seoul Korean does, while its aspirate consonants do not produce as significant a high pitch as their Seoul equivalents.Template:Sfn Jeju uses more contour tones, where the pitch shifts within a single syllable, than Seoul Korean.Template:Sfn Unlike in Seoul Korean, older and fluent speakers of Jeju will also lengthen the final vowel of both clauses in alternative questions.Template:Sfn

Grammar

ORD: ordinal numeral INTR: interrogative MED: medial demonstrative SE: sentence ender CE: canonical ending REP : reportive NPST: nonpast

Jeju is typologically similar to Korean, both being head-final agglutinative languages.Template:Sfn However, the two languages show significant differences in the verbal paradigm, such as Jeju's use of a dedicated conditional suffix.Template:Sfn

Nouns

Jeju nouns may be a single morpheme, a compound of multiple nouns, or a base noun with a merged attributive verb, or form through derivational affixes attached to nouns or verb stems.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In compound nouns that include a native morpheme, the phoneme may intervene between the two elements.Template:Sfn Because this "in-between " appears only after a vowel and before a consonant, it is never realized as but almost always surfaces as .Template:Sfn

• Single-morpheme noun: Template:Transliteration "cattle"
• Noun compound:

• Noun compound with :

• Noun with merged attributive verb:

• Noun derived from noun through affix:

• Noun derived from verb through affix:

• Verbal noun:

(Examples from Yang C., Yang S, and O'Grady 2019 and Ko J. 2011aTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn)

Some Jeju nouns are bound nouns, meaning that they cannot appear independently without a noun phrase.Template:Sfn The example below features the bound noun Template:Transliteration "worth" accompanied by the obligatory attributive verb.

Jeju has two suffixing plural markers, which are obligatory for plural nouns accompanied by determiners and optional otherwise. The plural marker Template:Transliteration can occur with all nouns and pronouns. The marker Template:Transliteration is restricted for humans and pronouns, and can also have an associative meaning: e.g. Template:Transliteration "Mansu and his family" (Template:Literal translation). The combined sequence Template:Transliteration is sometimes also used.Template:Sfn

Nouns accompanied by numerals usually take a variety of classifiers, such as Template:Transliteration for counting trees and Template:Transliteration for counting songs. Classifiers for cardinals are unmarked, but those for ordinals are followed by the ordinal-marking Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn

Noun particles

Jeju marks noun case and other semantic relations through suffixing noun particles.Template:Sfn Particles that mark the nominative, accusative, and genitive cases are very frequently omitted.Template:Sfn The table below is not exhaustive and lists only some of the most significant particles.

Function	ParticleTemplate:Efn	Allomorphy and variants	Example	Usage notes
NominativeTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn	Template:Transliteration	After vowel: Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Does not appear in the complement, unlike in Standard Korean.Template:Sfn Cannot be topicalized.Template:Sfn
AccusativeTemplate:Sfn	Template:Transliteration	Rare, formal post-vowel form: Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Unlike in Korean, can be followed by other particles, e.g. Template:Transliteration Template:Interlinear "with you".Template:Sfn
GenitiveTemplate:Sfn	Template:Transliteration	—	Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Transliteration is rare, but required when the subsequent noun phrase begins with an adnominal clause.Template:Sfn
	Template:Transliteration		Template:Fs interlinear	Called "pseudo-genitive" in Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019.Template:Sfn Appears in certain compounds, as mentioned above. May also follow a locative marker to attribute a noun.
DativeTemplate:Sfn	Template:Transliteration		Template:Fs interlinear	Restricted to human addressees of verbs of speaking.
	Template:Transliteration		Template:Fs interlinear	May be used with the verb Template:Transliteration "to exist" to form possessive constructions, with the dative marking the possessor. May also be suffixed with the allative particle Template:Transliteration to give further emphasis and a connotation of movement, or with the locative particle Template:Transliteration to express an ablative meaning.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	Template:Transliteration	Due to interference from Korean cognate Template:Transliteration: Template:Transliteration, Template:TransliterationTemplate:Sfn	Template:Fs interlinear
	Template:Transliteration	—	Template:Fs interlinear
Topic-markingTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn	Template:Transliteration	Rarely, after vowel: Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Either introduces a new topic or establishes a contrast. Must have a contrastive meaning sentence-internally.
	Template:TransliterationTemplate:Efn	—	Template:Fs interlinear	Contrastive meaning only.
	Template:TransliterationTemplate:Efn	Also used: Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear
Location-relatedTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn	Template:Transliteration	After and possibly : Template:Transliteration Occasionally after any vowel: Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Refers to location for stative verbs and direction for dynamic verbs; may also refer to time. According to Kim Jee-hong 2015, Template:Transliteration is not an allomorph but a different locative morpheme used for clearly bounded spaces, such as tables or containers.
	Template:Transliteration	Post-vowel form Template:Transliteration sometimes occurs after consonant.	Template:Fs interlinear	Refers to location for action verbs.
	Template:Transliteration	—	Template:Fs interlinear	Variants of Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration used to emphasize the boundedness of the referent. Analyzed by Yang S., Yang C., and O'Grady 2019 not as a separate morpheme but as a bound noun meaning "place", juxtaposed with the locational noun.
	Template:TransliterationTemplate:Efn	After liquid consonant and sometimes after vowel: Template:Transliteration Initial syllable Template:Transliteration also found as Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, or Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Denotes direction of movement, like English "to; into; toward". Moon S. and Kim W. 2017 analyzes Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration as distinct particles, with Template:Transliteration having a solely directional meaning while Template:Transliteration simultaneously emphasizes both the direction and the location of the direction's destination.Template:Sfn Most sources treat the two as allomorphs, especially when appended to nouns.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Comitative and conjunctiveTemplate:Sfn	Template:Transliteration	—	Template:Fs interlinear	Kim Jee-hong 2015 notes: "These case markers only have differences of connotation, and may be interchangeably used without the least change in meaning." Like in Middle Korean but unlike in Modern Seoul Korean, comitative markers may occur on the final element being linked and also take other case markers.Template:Sfn Template:Fs interlinear
	Template:TransliterationTemplate:Efn		Template:Fs interlinear
	Template:Transliteration	Also used: Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear

Verbs

The Jeju verb consists of a root that is followed by suffixes that provide grammatical information such as voice, tense, aspect, mood, evidentiality, relative social status, and the formality of the utterance. Jeju verbs include not only action verbs familiar to English speakers such as Template:Transliteration "to eat" or Template:Transliteration "to see", but also adjectival verbs such as Template:Transliteration "to be heavy" or Template:Transliteration "to be thick".Template:Sfn Verbs can take derivational suffixes to form adverbs and nouns.Template:Sfn

• Template:Transliteration "to be close"Template:Sfn → Template:Transliteration "closely"
• Template:Transliteration "to be bad" → Template:Transliteration "badness"
• Template:Transliteration "to wear" → Template:Transliteration "wearing"

Especially for wh-questions and exclamations, Jeju speakers commonly use a verbal noun in place of a verb inflected for tense-aspect-mood.Template:Sfn

Verbs may also be given an attributive meaning through one of four adnominal suffixes.Template:Sfn

• Adnominal suffix Template:Transliteration:Template:Efn Past event for action verbs, achieved state for adjectival verbsTemplate:Sfn

• Adnominal suffix Template:Transliteration: Habitual action in the pastTemplate:Sfn

• Adnominal suffix Template:Transliteration:Template:Efn Nonpast/present event or state, commonly habitual; cannot occur with other suffixes and must combine directly with the bare verb stem;Template:Sfn can occur with adjectival verbs, unlike in KoreanTemplate:Sfn

• Adnominal suffix Template:Transliteration:Template:Efn Future/conjectural event or stateTemplate:Sfn

Pre-final suffixes

Jeju has a number of pre-final verbal suffixes: tense-aspect-mood markers which follow the verb stem but cannot appear at the end of the inflected verb.Template:Sfn The exact number of these suffixes is unclear because scholars disagree on the correct morphological segmentation. One analysis of the suffix paradigm, as presented in Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019, is given below.

File:Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019's Jeju verb.png

There is relatively widespread agreement on the existence of the following four discrete TAM morphemes, presented in the order they co-occur: the continuative aspect marker Template:Transliteration, the perfective aspect marker Template:Transliteration, the prospective mood marker Template:Transliteration, and the realis mood marker Template:Transliteration.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Depending on the analysis of the aforementioned epenthetical vowels that precede many verbal suffixes, the base forms of the three morphemes may alternately be analyzed as Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, and Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn

Template:Transliteration is an imperfective or continuative aspect particle, referring to a process perceived as ongoing and similar to the English construction "be VERB-ing."Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn With an adjectival verb, it has an inchoative ("beginning to; become") meaning. A verb with Template:Transliteration is interpreted as either present or future by default,Template:Sfn and some analyses interpret the particle as also conveying the present tense for specific events and states.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The suffix has a vowel-harmonic variant Template:Transliteration, as well as allomorphs Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, and Template:Transliteration when following certain vowels.Template:Sfn

Often characterized as a perfective aspect marker,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Template:Transliteration has also been described as a present perfect markerTemplate:Sfn and as behaving as a perfective marker with some verbs and as a past tense marker with others.Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration can express non-past events in certain constructions that call for verbs "conceptualized in their entirety", such as a hypothetical future event. In adjectival verbs, it may also refer to a current state that contrasts with a past situation.Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration can also be doubled for a habitual or a past perfect interpretation.Template:Sfn Also like Template:Transliteration, this suffix takes the vowel-harmonic variant Template:Transliteration and has allomorphs Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, and Template:Transliteration after certain vowels.Template:Sfn

The prospective mood marker Template:TransliterationTemplate:Efn marks the subject's intention in first-person-subject declarative sentences or second-person-subject interrogative sentences, and the speaker's conjecture otherwise. Template:Transliteration may also have a future-tense interpretation.Template:Sfn

Template:Transliteration can only be followed by a small number of suffixes in Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019's analysis.Template:Sfn Some analyses treat the initial vowel of the following suffix as part of an allomorph or nuanced variant of Template:Transliteration, so that Template:Transliteration "[I] will go" may be segmented as Template:Transliteration or Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn

The realis or indicative mood marker Template:TransliterationTemplate:Efn indicates "a fact or habitual action in the nonpast"Template:Sfn which the speaker perceives to be true in general, permanently, or over a longer duration of time, as demonstrated in the contrast below.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The putative non-past-tense marker Template:Transliteration may also be analyzed as an allomorph of Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn In this context, the morpheme Template:Transliteration has also been interpreted as a perfect marker (not to be confused with the perfective marker).Template:Sfn

The existence of the Korean subject-honorific marker Template:Transliteration is controversial for Jeju, with some scholars arguing that it was entirely absent and others that it was restricted to higher registers.Template:Sfn Ko J. 2011b notes that it was used only "by officials while referring to people of very high status and by the seonbi of the educated classes."

Segmenting verb-final suffixes

The segmentation of verb-final elements is controversial. The two recent extensive treatments of the topic, Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019 and Kim Jee-hong 2015, give incompatible analyses of the suffix paradigm.

Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019 includes a slot for tense in the Jeju verb, with three dedicated markers.Template:Sfn

• Non-past tense: Template:TransliterationTemplate:Efn
• Past tense: Template:Transliteration, with vowel-harmonic allomorph Template:Transliteration
• Future tense: Template:TransliterationTemplate:Efn

They further divide verb-final suffixes into three categories: Type 1, which cannot occur with tense markers; Type 2, which must occur with either a tense marker or the aspect marker Template:Transliteration, which loses its underlying before a Type 2 suffix; and a mixed type, which can occur with the non-past marker but not with the other two tense markers. The vast majority of suffixes are categorized as Tense 1 and thus cannot follow a tense marker.Template:Sfn Uniquely among pre-final suffixes, the past tense marker Template:Transliteration can also appear without a final suffix.Template:Sfn

Examples of Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019's segmentation are given below.

Aspect + Type 1 sequence		Tense + Type 2 sequence
Template:Fs interlinear		Template:Fs interlinear

In Kim Jee-hong's analysis, verb-final single morphemes are termed "canonical endings". Canonical endings are contrasted with a wide variety of "non-canonical endings", formed by the fusion of various grammatical elements such as multiple canonical endings, truncated conjunctive and embedded sentences, and bound nounsTemplate:Efn connected to the verb stem or a canonical ending via an attributive or a nominalizer.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The most common canonical component of these non-canonical endings is the suffix Template:Transliteration (vowel-harmonic allomorph Template:Transliteration), which Kim calls the unmarked "default ending".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Since Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019's tenses align with the aforementioned attributive suffixes,Template:Sfn sentences they analyze as "Tense-Type 2 Suffix" sequences are often analyzed as non-canonical endings with a "Canonical ending-Attributive-Bound noun" composition by Kim Jee-hong. Many of Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019's Type 1 suffixes are also interpreted as polymorphemic non-canonical endings. Kim Jee-hong also segments some of Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019's mixed-type suffixes so that the base form of the suffix includes the Template:Transliteration of the latter's non-past tense marker.Template:Sfn

Examples from Kim Jee-hong 2015's analysis, directly corresponding to the examples above of Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019, are given below. The "default ender" Template:Transliteration is bolded.

Sentence enders

Jeju has a number of clause-final suffixes, called "sentence enders" in Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019Template:Sfn and "terminal suffixes" (; Template:TransliterationTemplate:Category handler) in Korean,Template:Sfn that provide information such as degree of formality, social status, evidentality, and modality.Template:Sfn Sentence enders may consist of one or multiple morphemes.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Kim Jee-hong argues for four speech levels in Jeju, defined by the degree of formality and deference their sentence enders connote: informal and plain (non-honorific); formal and plain; informal and honorific, marked by the morpheme Template:Transliteration, and formal and honorific, featuring the morpheme Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn An archaic speech level showing extreme deference is attested from shamanic chants.Template:Sfn

As different segmentation hypotheses produce different sentence enders. the chart below will list only a small, illustrative sample of the dozens of suffixes that appear in Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019 and Kim Jee-h. 2015. The classification is based on Kim Jee-hong 2017,Template:Sfn which differs from Kim Jee-hong 2015.Template:Efn

Informal and plain

MorphemeTemplate:Efn		ExampleTemplate:Efn	Usage	Sources
	Template:TransliterationTemplate:Efn	Template:Fs interlinear	Kim Jee-hong considers Template:Transliteration the unmarked sentence ender. Depending on suprasegmentals, the suffix may be used in a plain statement, a question, a command, an exclamation, or a construction in which the speaker informs the addressee of information that the latter did not know and expects a confirmatory response. The suffix is also found in Standard Korean with a similar degree of versatility and widespread use.	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	According to Kim Jee-hong, Template:Transliteration conveys a statement of presumption or assumption without direct supporting experience, and invites the addressee to confirm the statement's veracity. Kim also states that Template:Transliteration may end a confirmatory question with the implication that the addressee should agree with the speaker. According to Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady, Template:Transliteration expresses a statement of intention or strong assertion with a first-person subject and a statement of judgement or assumption with a third-person subject, and may also convey regret or advice.	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Transliteration generally conveys a statement of fact that the speaker has directly observed, or has inferred from a direct observation. In Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019, the suffix is given as Template:Transliteration, a special Type 2 suffix which can only combine with the two tense markers ending in Template:Transliteration. Kim Jee-hong classifies it as a non-canonical ending composed of a fused attributive Template:Transliteration and bound noun.	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Transliteration is used for both statements and questions, but only when the speaker and addressee are emotionally intimate. When the verb is inflected for aspect, Template:Transliteration is used to refer to a past event that was observed or inferred from observation. If uninflected, the suffix denotes an ongoing event.	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Formal and plain

MorphemeTemplate:Efn		ExampleTemplate:Efn	Usage	Sources
	Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Unmarked formal statement ender. Dictionary citation form.Template:Sfn	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Template:Transliteration expresses a factual statement with the premise that the addressee is unaware of the fact, and may implicitly either urge the addressee to accept this new information or rebuke the addressee for not having known it. With a first-person subject, Template:Transliteration conveys the speaker's intention to do something. Whether these two uses of Template:Transliteration are connected uses of the same morpheme, or whether they are two different homophonous morphemes, is disputed.	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Expresses a statement of fact with the implication that it is an intrinsic or permanent quality or state; commonly found with proverbs and aphorisms. Template:Transliteration is also used to ask questions about facts (including non-permanent facts), where it has a "somewhat authoritative tone". As with Template:Transliteration, whether these two uses reflect the same morpheme or two homophonous ones is disputed.	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Expresses a statement of surprise or excitement. Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019 gives the suffix as Template:Transliteration instead. Kim Jee-hong reports that the suffix can be shortened to a single syllable Template:Transliteration.	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Conveys a question directed to the addressee. Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019 analyzes the suffixes as Type 2 ender Template:Transliteration, with Template:Transliteration not a genuine ending but Template:Transliteration following a tense marker ending in Template:Transliteration. Kim Jee-hong distinguishes the canonical ending Template:Transliteration with the non-canonical Template:Transliteration, which is analyzed as having a fused attributive.	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Has a conjectural connotation. Often used in questions addressed to oneself, and is less direct than Template:Transliteration when asked to the addressee. Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019 analyzes the suffix as mixed type ender Template:Transliteration, with Template:Transliteration being Template:Transliteration preceded by the non-past tense marker (and gaining this conjectural meaning only in the presence of the non-past tense marker). Kim Jee-hong analyzes it as a non-canonical ending with a fused attributive.	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Used to ask a question about which the addressee has direct relevant experience. In most cases the addressee is the subject of the verb, although third-person subjects have been attested. Appears in Kim Jee-hong's work in the contracted form Template:Transliteration.	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Used in propositions (not commands as in Standard Korean).	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Used to command immediate action.	Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	Template:Transliteration Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Used by older women when talking to younger adults not old enough for honorifics and not young or emotionally close enough for informal speech. May convey statements, questions, requests, and proposals.	Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The honorific verbs, which show deference to the addressee, are formed by a special suffix that can be followed only by a small number of sentence enders.

The informal honorific forms are marked by Template:Transliteration or Template:Transliteration.Template:Efn The former is used with the copula verb Template:Transliteration and with all inflected verbs, and the latter is used with uninflected adjectival verbs. Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration may take the alternative form Template:Transliteration after a verb inflected for aspect and a non-liquid consonant, respectively.Template:Sfn The informal honorific form cannot occur with uninflected action verbs.Template:Sfn The two suffixes may only be followed by the sentence enders in the table below.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Informal honorific requests cannot be formed morphologically.Template:Sfn

Honorific	Sentence ender	Example	Usage
Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Used for statements.
	Template:Transliteration Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Used to report new information; restricted to inflected verbs.
	Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Used to report new information or an opinion; restricted to uninflected verbs.
	Template:TransliterationTemplate:Sfn Template:Transliteration Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Used in questions. Template:Transliteration is generally restricted to inflected verbs. Due to sound symbolism, the tense endings are considered emphatic.Template:Sfn

The formal honorific forms involve the honorific marker Template:TransliterationTemplate:Efn followed by one or two morphemes. Only the six following formal honorific forms are possible.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Honorific	Evidential	Sentence ender	ExampleTemplate:Efn	Usage
Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	A formal statement founded on prior knowledge, e.g. of Mansu's foot size. Implies that the rationale for the statement continues in the present and may be shared or experienced by the addressee.
		Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	A formal question that the addressee is expected to be able to answer without direct observation.
	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	A formal statement motivated by a direct, external past observation that cannot be experienced firsthand by the addressee. As the observation must be external, the first-person singular subject is prohibited except in highly atypical situations such as dissociation.
		Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	A formal question that the addressee is expected to answer based on a past observation relating to a third party.
	—	Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	A formal request.
		Template:Transliteration	Template:Fs interlinear	Expresses speaker's intention with a first-person subject and advice or judgment otherwise; widely used for suggestions and propositions.

Connectives

Jeju uses an array of verb-final connective suffixes to link clauses within sentences,Template:Sfn much as English does with conjunctions such as and, or, that, but, and because.

Some Jeju connectives, such as the suffixes Template:Transliteration "and", occur in pairs with one variant ending in Template:Transliteration and the other in Template:Transliteration. Hong Chong-rim and Song Sang-jo both note that the choice between Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration is often determined by the inflections of the subsequent clause; certain pre-final suffixes and sentence enders require a Template:Transliteration-connective in the previous clause, while others require a Template:Transliteration-connective.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Hong suggests that Template:Transliteration is used for specific and objective events and states, while Template:Transliteration implies a general and subjective event or state.Template:Sfn Song argues that Template:Transliteration is used for completed or achieved verbs, and Template:Transliteration for incomplete or unachieved verbs.Template:Sfn The nuances below are thus possible.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The distinction between Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration does not exist in mainland Korean varieties.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019 reports that "the contrast between Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration appears to be disappearing, and the distinctions that remain are subtle and variable."Template:Sfn

An important class of connectives, used for reporting speech and thoughts, is formed by the suffix Template:Transliteration, which fuses with sentence enders as in the example of Template:Transliteration below.Template:Sfn

Similarly, informal honorific conjectural Template:Transliteration becomes Template:Transliteration; plain forms Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration become Template:Transliteration; question enders Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration become Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration; honorific imperative Template:Transliteration becomes Template:Transliteration; and so forth.Template:Sfn These fused suffixes may be used for both quotative and reportive purposes. In Standard Korean, indirect speech is strictly distinguished from the quotative by the removal of addressee honorifics and the switching of pronouns. In Jeju, the lines between direct and indirect speech are more blurred. All four forms below—given in order of increasing indirectness—are in use, and have the same meaning, "He said [to a superior] that he was going home."Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

Other connectives include Template:Transliteration "if"; Template:Transliteration "because"; and Template:Transliteration "after".Template:EfnTemplate:Sfn

Auxiliary and light verbs

Jeju has many auxiliary verbs that are linked to the preceding main verb by the morpheme Template:Transliteration.Template:Efn These include Template:Transliteration "to give", for an action that benefits a superior; Template:Transliteration "to throw away", for an action yielding a complete result; and Template:Transliteration "to become", for a change of state. Template:Transliteration is also used to indicate ability.Template:Sfn

Jeju also uses light verbs, which have little semantic meaning but combine with nouns to form verbs. The most common light verb is Template:Transliteration "to do", e.g. Template:Transliteration "errand" → Template:Transliteration "to run an errand".Template:Sfn There is also a large inventory of periphrastic phrases that convey modality.Template:Sfn

Post-phrasal particles

Jeju has a small group of particles that commonly occur at the very end of phrases or sentences, many of which play important roles as discourse markers. The four principal ones are the formality marker Template:Transliteration and the emphatic markers Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, and Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn

Template:Transliteration (variants Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration) may occur after subsentential phrases such as a bare or case-inflected noun, or attach to a small number of mostly plain sentence enders.Template:Sfn The particle shows the speaker's deference towards the addressee, but is considered more emotionally intimate than the verbally inflected honorifics. In certain contexts, Template:Transliteration may be used with an intention to snub the addressee.Template:Sfn

Template:Transliteration is a discourse marker that attaches to adverbs, nouns and noun particles, and both sentence enders and connectives. It adds emphasis to the utteranceTemplate:Sfn and is often used to agree with or confirm something the addressee has just said.Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration is used similarly to Template:Transliteration, but is weaker in its emphasis.Template:Sfn Both cannot be used while addressing a social superior, and Template:Transliteration also cannot appear in formal speech.Template:Sfn Both particles can also appear in isolation: Template:Transliteration as a strong affirmation to a question, Template:Transliteration as an indication that the speaker has not heard or does not believe what has been said.Template:Sfn

Template:Transliteration shows deference, but is considered more informal than Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn At the end of a sentence, it emphasizes the speaker's beliefs or attitudes. For example, a question becomes a rhetorical one when Template:Transliteration is attached: Template:Transliteration "Could there be?" → Template:Transliteration "How could there be?"Template:Sfn The particle is also commonly used for sarcastic mock deference, such as by parents while scolding children.Template:Sfn Sentence-initially or internally, the suffix may establish the preceding element as the topic of discourse.Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration is also used in isolation as an interjection to get the attention of unfamiliar individuals, such as a shopkeeper, or to request the addressee to repeat what they have just said.Template:Sfn

In the example below from Yang C. 2009, three of the four particles discussed above are used.Template:Sfn

Granddaughter:	Template:Fs interlinear
Grandmother:	Template:Fs interlinear
Granddaughter:	Template:Fs interlinear

Note the granddaughter's use of the verbally inflected honorific Template:Transliteration and the deference-marking Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration while addressing the grandmother.

Pronouns and deixis

Jeju has the following basic personal pronouns.Template:Sfn

	Singular	Plural	Usage
1st person	Template:Transliteration "I; me"	Template:Transliteration "we; us"
2nd person	Template:Transliteration "you (s.)"	Template:Transliteration "you (pl.)"	For younger, emotionally intimate, or socially inferior individuals
	Template:Transliteration "you (s.)"	Template:Transliteration "you (pl.)"	For younger individuals, but more respectful than Template:Transliteration
	No overt pronoun		For older individuals
3rd person	None per se. Informally, demonstratives used before Template:Transliteration: Template:Transliteration "him/her" (Template:Literal translation), etc.

According to Yang C., Yang S., and O'Grady 2019, there are four basic deictic demonstratives in Jeju.Template:Sfn Most other sources mention three, which are identical to those of Standard Korean.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

• Proximal: Template:Transliteration "this"
• Medial or absent: Template:Transliteration "that"
• Distal: Template:Transliteration "that"

Vocabulary

Most of the Jeju lexicon is Koreanic, and "a sizeable number" of words are identical with Korean.Template:Sfn There are false friends between the languages, such as Korean Template:Transliteration "to wash hair" and Jeju Template:Transliteration "to wash the body".Template:Sfn Jeju also preserves many Middle Korean terms now lost in Korean, such as Template:Transliteration "wife; woman" and Template:Transliteration "parent".Template:Sfn Like Korean, Jeju uses many Sino-Korean words based on local readings of Classical Chinese.Template:Sfn

Jeju Island was ruled by the Mongols in the late thirteenth century and some Middle Mongol terms still survive in the language, though the extent of Mongol influence is disputed. Popular claims of hundreds of Mongol loans in Jeju are linguistically unsound.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Uncontroversial Mongol loans are most common in terms relating to animal husbandry.Template:Sfn

English	Jeju	Middle Mongol
bridle	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
halter	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
two-year-old cattle	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration "two-year-old horse"
classifier for houses	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration "house"

Jeju may have loans from an ancient Japonic substratum.Template:Sfn As the last fluent generation of Jeju speakers were born under or shortly after Japanese rule, remaining speakers also use many loans from Modern Japanese.Template:Sfn

English	Jeju	Japanese
noisy	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
chopsticks	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
habit	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration

Sound symbolism

Jeju has widespread sound symbolism in ideophones.Template:Sfn The use of sound symbolism to form emphatic variants of words is more common in Jeju than in Seoul Korean.Template:Sfn

Jeju sound symbolism operates with both consonants and vowels. The intensity of a Jeju word may be strengthened by using tense and especially aspirate obstruents.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The sound symbolism may also be emphasized through the addition of consonants,Template:Sfn by adding the sequence Template:Transliteration to both reduplicated segments, and with fortition or lenition.Template:Sfn The yang harmonic class of vowels has a bright, small connotation, and the yin vowel class gives a dark, large connotation.Template:Sfn Ko Jae-hwan also gives examples of three or four layers of vowel sound symbolism.Template:Sfn

• Consonant sound symbolism:
  • Template:Transliteration "savory" → Template:Transliteration "[very] savory" → Template:Transliteration "[extremely] savory"Template:Sfn
  • Template:Transliteration "[small] sound of rat gnawing teeth" → Template:Transliteration "[large] sound of rat gnawing teeth"Template:Sfn
  • Template:Transliteration "easily angered" → Template:Transliteration "[very] easily angered"Template:Sfn
  • Template:Transliteration "neatly aligned" → Template:Transliteration "[very] neatly aligned"Template:Efn
• Vowel sound symbolism:
  • Template:Transliteration "round [of a small object]" → Template:Transliteration "round [of a large object]"Template:Sfn
  • Template:Transliteration "[small and light] sound of muttered complaints" → Template:Transliteration "[large and heavy] sound of muttered complaints" → Template:Transliteration "[very large and very heavy] sound of muttered complaints"Template:Sfn
  • Template:Transliteration "smooth to the touch [of a very small or dry object]" → Template:Transliteration "smooth to the touch [of a somewhat small or dry object]" → Template:Transliteration "slippery to the touch [of a somewhat large or wet object]" → Template:Transliteration "slippery to the touch [of a very large or wet object]"Template:Sfn

Multiple sound-symbolic strategies may combine in a single word. Kang S. 2008 gives eight sound symbolic variants of the ideophone Template:Transliteration "the shape of many objects being blunt", each more intense than the other:Template:Sfn

Template:Transliteration → Template:Transliteration → Template:Transliteration → Template:Transliteration → Template:Transliteration → Template:Transliteration → Template:Transliteration → Template:Transliteration

Kinship terminology

The kinship terminology of Jeju has been the focus of particular attention.Template:Sfn Jeju has a complex kinship system that distinguishes the gender of both the speaker and the relative. Gender distinctions are particularly noticeable in sibling terminology. The words Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration refer to "older same-gender sibling" and "younger same-gender sibling" respectively, while Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration refer specifically to "brother of a female" and "sister of a male" respectively.Template:Sfn Female speakers also tend to refer to relatives with native compounds, whereas male speakers prefer Sino-Korean terms. For instance, the same cousin may be referred to by a man as Template:Transliteration "cousin" but by a woman as Template:Transliteration "paternal aunt's daughter."Template:Sfn A major distinction between Jeju and Korean kinship terms is that women do not use honorifics to refer to their in-laws, reflecting weaker historical influence from Confucian patriarchal norms.Template:Sfn

Jeju also uses supplementary prefixes to clarify the type of kinship, equivalent to "step-" or "maternal" in English.Template:Sfn These include Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, and Template:Transliteration for paternal relations, Template:Transliteration for maternal relations, Template:Transliteration for step-relations,Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration for a male's in-laws, and Template:Transliteration for a woman's in-laws.Template:Sfn Five other prefixes, which may be combined, mark relative age: Template:Transliteration or Template:Transliteration "eldest", Template:Transliteration "second eldest of three or more", Template:Transliteration "third eldest of four or more", and Template:Transliteration "youngest". These are used to distinguish relatives of the same generation.Template:Sfn

• Template:Transliteration "grandfather"
  • Template:Transliteration "oldest brother of one's grandfather"
  • Template:Transliteration "second brother of one's grandfather"
  • Template:Transliteration "third brother of one's grandfather"
  • Template:Transliteration "fourth brother of one's grandfather"
  • Template:Transliteration "fifth brother of one's grandfather"
  • Template:Transliteration "youngest brother of one's grandfather"Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Other prefixes include Template:Transliteration, used in Template:Transliteration "great-grandfather", and Template:Transliteration, used to refer to a sibling of one's grandparent generally.Template:Sfn

Sample text

The following is an excerpt from a version of the Menggam bon-puri, one of the epic chants recited by Jeju shamans. In this narrative, the poacher Song Saman discovers an abandoned skull in the hills and cares for it as if it were his own ancestor. The skull reciprocates by warning Song Saman of his early death and advising him on how to avoid the chasa, the three gods of death.Template:Sfn

This version was transcribed between 1956 and 1963Template:Sfn from the recitation of the shaman Byeon Sin-saeng, born Template:Circa 1904.Template:Sfn The transcription predates both standardized orthographies of Jeju. The transcriber openly notes that the orthography is inconsistent. No attempt was made in this article to standardize or update the orthography.

Jeju originalTemplate:Sfn	Korean translationTemplate:Efn
RomanizationTemplate:Efn
Template:Transliteration
English
"You, Song Saman, your life will end at only thirty, and the year you turn thirty, your life will end at any day of any month, so take me to the wooded forest while your feet are still alive and you can move... Go to three villages and gather three shamans and raise a great flagstaff in the household hall, and hold the Great Gut [[[:Template:Literal translation]]]..." Once they laid out everything, [Song Sawman and his wife] went back a hundred steps and prostrated themselves. Quietly kneeling and lying prone, they saw the three chasa descend... "Are they not doing devotional acts at Song Saman's household?" The chasa coming in last [responded], "At Song Saman's household, they are worshipping a hundred-year-old skull. It seems that the hundred-year-old skull told [them] that we were coming to capture Song Sawman... We have partaken of the offerings [[[:Template:Literal translation]]], but there is a date that they told us to capture him by, so what should we do?"

See also

• Bon-puri, Jeju-language narrative poems explaining the origins of deities.

References

Bibliography

English

• Template:Cite thesisTemplate:Dead link
• Template:Dead link
• Template:Cite thesis

Korean

• Template:Cite report
• Template:Cite report
• Template:Dead link
• Template:Cite thesis
• Template:Cite report
• Template:Dead link
• Template:Cite report
• Template:Cite report
• Template:Cite report

External links

• jejueo.com: The official Korean-language website of the Jeju Language Preservation Society, the leading language revival organization.
• Jejueo: The Language of Jeju Island: An English-language website maintained by Yang Changyong, Yang Sejung, and William O'Grady, authors of the only English-language monograph on the language. The site includes an audio sample (found in the section "Jejueo Intelligibility Test") and a short Jeju-English dictionary.
• "A multi-modal documentation of Jejuan conversations": An annotated audio-video corpus of spoken Jeju, maintained by the Endangered Languages Archive at SOAS University of London
• Jejuan DoReCo corpus compiled by Soung-U Kim. Audio recordings of narrative texts with transcriptions time-aligned at the phone level, translations, and time-aligned morphological annotations.