Korea's fight against English word usage, and the challenge of translating borrowed words
Kim Hyeong-bae, a South Korean linguist, had a problem: how to translate the word 'deepfake' into Korean.
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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
Kim Hyeong-bae, a South Korean linguist
A word-for-word translation would sound like nonsense, so Kim and 14 other language experts in a video conference in autumn 2024 began with two essential questions. How could the word's negative connotations be accurately expressed in Korean? And was it necessary to use qualifiers like 'counterfeit' or '
artificial intelligence '?
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One participant suggested 'intelligent modification', only for another to object, saying: 'That makes it sound like a good thing.'
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