▲ A stone grandfather (dol hareubang) greets a child in Jejueo. Image by Agne Latinyte

All of these excerpts are taken from “Jeju Iyagi,” a guide to Jeju in English and Jejueo published by Jeju Development Institute (click link for pdf). The Jeju Weekly would like to extend sincere thanks to authors Mun Sundeok and Oh Seunghun for allowing the use of their material.

Note: Jeju is the only region in the country to retain the “araea” vowel sound represented by • in Hangeul and /ɒ/ in phonetic script. It has also been reproduced using “ɒ” in the Romanized text below.

Key vocabulary: "Penan hɒuggwa" / 펜안우꽈 / How are you doing?; "Hɒuggwa?" / 우꽈?/ to do(be) (interrogative); "Chɒtda" / 다 / To find, look for; "Chɒmyeo hɒda" / 여다 / To participate

▲ Jeju Development Institute

Jejueo in Hangeul: “제주어로 인사헤 봅주”
유진: 펜안우꽈? 영수 씨 맞주양.
영수: 예. 날 무사 암수과?
유진: 제주어 여행에 여 거 축하헴수다.
영수: 경믄 제주어로 인사헤 봅주.

Romanized Jejueo: “Jejueoro insahe bobju”
Yujin: Penan hɒuggwa? Yeongsu ssi matjuyang?
Yeongsu: Ye, nal musa chɒtamsugwa?
Yujin: Jejueo yeohaeng-e chɒmyeohon geo chukhahemsuda.
Yeongsu: Gyeonghɒmeun Jejueoro insahe bopju!

In standard Korean
유진: 안녕하세요? 영수씨 맞죠?
영수: 네. 무슨 일이세요?
유진: 제주어 여행에 참여한 것을 축하해요.
영수: 그러면 제주어로 인사해 봅시다.

In English: “Let’s greet in the Jeju language”
Yujin: How are you doing? Are you Yeongsu?
Yeongsu: Yes, I am. Why do you ask?
Yujin: Congratulations on joining our tour of the Jeju language.
Yeongsu: Let’s greet then in the Jeju language.