August 31st, 2006 at 9:33 pm
The International Herald Tribune has an interesting report on the difficulties in communicating between North Korea and South Korea because of the way their language has split and evolved. They are working on a joint dictionary to reunify the vocabularies.
It’s not quite newspeak, but looking at the phrases in question, it looks like some elements of propaganda were employed in either the DPRK or the ROK:
When a North Korean says squid, it means octopus in the South; when a South Korean says octopus, it means squid in the North. A word common on both sides, “mije,” means “American imperialist” in the North and “Made in the U.S.A.” in the South.(skipping)
What should be done with the word “sooryong,” for example? In the North, the word is the highest honorific, only applied to the regime’s leader, Kim Jong Il. In the South, it is slightly derogatory, meaning the head of any political faction, clique or even gang of bandits.
And what about “pukgoe?” A term listed in every South Korean dictionary, it means “North Korean puppet regime.”
A similiar dictionary may be useful for our government officials. May I suggest the first term: “budget cut”.
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