[AK View] The Lingering Issue Behind the "Licenne Woni" Dialect Controversy

"Confusion Between Dialect and Ilbe-style Expression" Sparks Debate

Difficult to Draw Conclusions, But the Concern Remains Valid

A Chance to Reflect on Far-right Hate Speech in Everyday Life

'Hello, this is Won Lee. Nice to meet you.' YouTube channel capture

A single dialect phrase has sent shockwaves online. It all began with a social media post by producer Kim Hyunji, who directed the documentary "Adult Kim Jangha." Woni, a member of the girl group Licenne and a native of Geoje in Gyeongsang Province, recently repeated the word "Museopno" ("Are you scared?") as prompted by the producer during the filming of a YouTube video that was subsequently released. Kim Hyunji raised concerns that both Woni and the producer might be confusing the Gyeongsang Province dialect with an Ilbe-style expression. The sentence-ending "~no" is commonly used in the Gyeongsang dialect, but in the far-right online community Ilgan Best Storage (Ilbe), it has long been used to mock the late former President Roh Moo-hyun. This sparked a heated debate among netizens, and the controversy grew out of control as political figures such as Cho Kuk and Lee Junseok joined the discussion.

However, it is difficult to immediately conclude that Woni's speech was an Ilbe-style expression. It could simply be the dialect naturally ingrained from growing up in Geoje, or she may have unconsciously picked it up through internet use or conversations with her peers. It could also be that she absentmindedly echoed the producer's words. Of course, (though hopefully not) we cannot rule out the possibility that it is a phrase she regularly uses. Even the National Institute of the Korean Language, which was drawn into the controversy, stated that "the usage of '~no' is interpreted differently by scholars, so it is difficult to make a definitive judgment." Faced with multiple possibilities, producer Kim focused solely on the second one: that Woni may have unconsciously adopted the expression. Language should be interpreted within its context, but Kim's judgment was based solely on her own linguistic experience, which is unfortunate.

That said, this controversy should not simply be dismissed as a fleeting incident. While the judgment may have been hasty, the underlying concern is valid. Kim stated, "Hate speech has become a game to the point that it is polluting the original forms of language used by ordinary people." I completely agree with this point.

Ilbe is adept at twisting and distorting the meanings of perfectly ordinary words. A prime example is how the word "democratization" was recreated into a mocking expression meaning "collective punishment." In the past, a celebrity carelessly used the word "democratization" without knowing its altered meaning and faced harsh criticism. Words that began as slang within a specific community gradually lose their original context as they spread online, eventually becoming part of everyday language for ordinary people.

Cynthia Miller-Idriss, an American sociologist who has studied ideological polarization, explains in her book "Where the Far Right Thrives" that extremism seeps into society not through political slogans, but through online culture—catchphrases, memes, and games. A word tossed out as a joke or a trendy phrase exchanged casually among friends can quickly become a conduit for spreading a particular worldview.

The more heated these controversies become, the more delighted far-right communities are. While people are busy suspecting and disparaging each other over whether something is a dialect or an Ilbe-style expression, the language these communities create slips even more naturally into everyday conversation. From their perspective, there could be no greater success. Now is the time for us to question the origins of the words we use. Are we unintentionally spreading phrases created to mock or hate others? In the moment we carelessly repeat them, what exactly are we helping to circulate?

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.