Dialectal forms are relatively similar along the midstream of Nakdong River but are different near Busan and Ulsan, Jinju and Pohang as well as along the eastern slopes of Mount Jiri.
Most Gyeongsang dialects have six vowels, a (ㅏ), e (ㅔ), i (ㅣ), eo (ㅓ), o (ㅗ), u (ㅜ).
[2] The study also identified a key difference between northern & southern Gyeongsang dialects: in the north, the sounds ㅡ(eu) and ㅓ(eo) are distinct, whereas in the south they are indistinguishable.
[3][4] Southern Gyeongsang (specifically, nearby Namhae) dialects lack the tense consonant ss (ㅆ).
[3][4] The tonal system of Middle Korean became largely extinct around the 17th century, but it lives on in the Gyeongsang dialects.
Pitch accent plays a grammatical role as well, for example distinguishing causative and passive as in jép-pida 'make s.o.
For example, Kim Young-sam's public speeches were the subject of much scrutiny and his pronunciation elicited both criticism and amusement.
Another humorous anecdote arose from another of his public speeches where audiences were said to have been surprised to hear that he would make Jeju a world-class location for "rape" (강간; gang-gan) instead of "tourism" (관광; gwan-gwang) by establishing "adultery" (간통하는; Gantonghanun) instead of "motorway" 관통하는; Gwantonghanun).