Master of Intimacy (Uncensored) - Chapter 14

A modern South Korean transported to the Joseon era would find it nearly impossible to engage in free conversation with locals. Though the language shares ancestral roots, centuries of linguistic evolution have rendered modern Korean nearly unrecognisable to Joseon-era ears. Archaic vocabulary, rigid social speech hierarchies, and unfamiliar honorifics would create immediate barriers to communication. The traveller’s pronunciation and casual phrasing might be perceived as disrespectful or incoherent, while the locals’ use of Sino-Korean expressions and Confucian idioms would sound foreign and opaque. Without extensive historical linguistic training, mutual understanding would be halting at best—more pantomime than dialogue.