What are the vowels used in the Yanbian dialect of Korean?
I've read in this article (https://www.korean.go.kr/nkview/nklife/1998_4/8-4.html) that Hamgyeong dialect, related to Yanbian dialect, has had a merger of ㅓ and ㅗ into ㅗ, and ㅡ and ㅜ into ㅡ. However, the corresponding article for Yanbian dialect (https://www.korean.go.kr/nkview/nklife/1998_4/8-8.html) still has them separate as ㅓ ə, ㅗ o, ㅜ u, and ㅡ ɨ. However, there are other examples in the same article where they seem to have merged , e.g. 루 > 르 (for the particle 로 in Standard Korean).
However, there are also two other changes I've heard but haven't been able to find much on. 1. Northern dialects use ɔ for ㅓ, which is an allophone for o ㅗ in the South. Is the ㅓ/ㅗ merger really a merger or does it just use a different vowel? 2. 구 "and" (고 in Standard Korean) is often pronounced as 기, such as 먹고 싶다 > 먹구 싶다 > 먹기 싶다. Is this because ㅡ is pronounced as ɨ in Yanbian and is an allophone for ㅣ or is there some other process going on here?