Korea’s fight against English word usage, and the challenge of translating borrowed words
As more English words enter the Korean language, linguists are fighting back – but finding alternatives to ‘asap’ and ‘deepfake’ isn’t easy
Kim Hyeong-bae, a South Korean linguist, had a problem: how to translate the word “deepfake” into Korean.
A senior researcher at the National Institute of Korean Language, a government regulator, Kim works in the public language department.
His job is to sift through the many foreign words that clutter everyday speech and bring them to the committee – called the “new language group” – to be translated into Korean.
Deepfake, which is pronounced “dihp-PAY-kuh” and has been appearing in newspaper headlines with increasing frequency, was a textbook candidate.
We can’t rework borrowed words as soon as they appear – we have to observe for a bit until it’s clear that it’s being used widely, after which we can step in
One participant suggested “intelligent modification”, only for another to object, saying: “That makes it sound like a good thing.”