This study examines linguistic variation in Korean spoken by the first generation of Korean immigrants to the United States (1903–1924), a group that marked the beginning of Korean-American history. While some studies have explored the language of contemporary Korean Americans, limited prior research has addressed the Korean language of these early immigrants. Around 1975, second-generation Korean American Sonia Shinn Sunoo conducted a large-scale oral history project, interviewing early Korean immigrants. Among the collected recordings, more than 40 participants used Korean for their interviews. Despite their historical and linguistic value, these recordings do not appear to have been used for linguistic research. Analysis reveals that early immigrants’ Korean reflects the regional dialects of early twentieth-century Korea and extensive English lexical borrowing. Rather than showing large-scale lexical changes influenced by Japanese in Korea during the same period, their speech demonstrates a strong English influence. This study highlights the sociolinguistic and historical significance of the early Korean immigrants' language use and calls for further scholarly attention to this valuable linguistic heritage.

Abstract
1. 서론
2. 소니아 신 선우의 초기 이민 한인 구술사 자료 개관
    2.1. 소니아 신 선우와 구술사 프로젝트
    2.2. 인터뷰 대상자의 유형과 목록
    2.3. 구술 발화의 한국어 전사
3. 미국 ‘초기 이민’ 한인 1세 한국어의 어휘적 변이 분석
    3.1. 형식 및 의미의 잔존 양상
    3.2. 영어 차용의 양상 및 특징
    3.3. 영어의 영향에 의한 독특한 특징
4. 결론
참고문헌

• 정은진(Ph.D. Candidate, School of Education, Korea University, 145 Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02841, South Korea) | Eunjin Jung