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A Contact-zone Person Reconnects a Divided Language: Cho Seung-bog’s Movement for Korean Linguistic Homogenization

  • Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • 2026, 83(1), pp.411~442
  • Publisher : Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : January 12, 2026
  • Accepted : February 14, 2026
  • Published : February 28, 2026

KYOUNGHWA LIM 1

1중앙대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study explores a new practical model for addressing the linguistic divergence between North and South Korea through the life history and intellectual activities of Cho Seung-bog (1922–2012), a linguist and a quintessential “contact zone person” (gyeonggyein). To date, discourses on linguistic unification have primarily focused on state-led efforts to reconcile South Korea’s Standard Language (pyojuneo) and North Korea’s Cultural Language (munhwaeo). Consequently, the existential practices of Korean diasporas outside the peninsula have often been overlooked in academic discussions. This paper highlights Cho’s unique “locality” and neutral perspective, shaped by his journey from Kando to Japan and the United States, followed by his exile in Sweden. Upon visiting his hometown in Yanbian in the late 1970s, Cho discovered the Yanbian dialect and defined it as a “third Korean language” capable of mediating between the South and the North and serving as a bulwark for recovering linguistic homogeneity. He introduced the academic value of Yanbian Korean to Western academia while emphasizing that linguistic unification is a prerequisite for cultural and political integration, proposing a neutral “language planning” acceptable to both Koreas. Furthermore, from the late 1980s, Cho engaged in practical language movement by collaborating with South Korean academia and organizing groups such as the “Association for the Restoration of Homogeneity in Our Language and Culture” (Dongchuhoe). Based on the ideal of a neutral civil society free from state intervention, he envisioned the Korean diaspora playing the role of a “bridge” connecting the two Koreas. Although his movement failed to reach fruition due to a complex interplay of factors — the structural barriers of the national division system on the Korean Peninsula, the impracticality of his adherence to archaic linguistic norms, and his personal uncompromising principledness — his “open nationalism,” which sought to expand the category of the nation based on linguistic and cultural ties rather than bloodline, offers significant implications for today’s transition to a multicultural society. His efforts mark a vital manifestation of practical nationalism that aimed to dismantle the boundaries of the Korean national division system and embrace new national assets in the realm of culture and language.

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