지역어의 위상 정립을 위한 시론 ― 1930년대 표준어 제정을 중심으로 ―

Abstract

Lately there has been an increasing phenomenon of language glottophagie that a standard language replaces local languages. What triggers this phenomenon is likely to be the myth of the standard language and the prejudice of the local language. The present paper aims to reveal that these myth and prejudice were made up in the 1930s when the standard language was enacted, and further to reestablish the status of the local language, by pointing out the problems during the process of standard language enactment and the relationship between the standard language and local languages. In doing so, first, the process of the enactment of the standard Korean language is investigated. The combination of Japanese colony and linguistic nationalism created a myth of standard language. With the idea that the standard language is an elaborated ideal language by definition as well as the communicational problem and value that the local language had, the demand of the standard language resulted in the distortion of the value of the local language. Moreover, while deciding a geographical standard for the standard language, the social circumstance at that time made the language used in Seoul as the standard language, and the local language was the object only for the completing standard language. This geographical standard was a starting point that made up today's myth of the standard language and the prejudice of the local language. Socio-political class segregation not reflecting linguistic reality at that time created the myth of the standard language as a classy language as well. This misunderstanding handed down to another myth that the standard language is “the language that intelligent people use.” Local language has unmeasurable values in the respects that it represents the life style of local people who use the language and the media of communication between local people, and that the diversity local language has can become the source of language development.