| Sino-Korean has been used to refer to the Korean pronunciation of Chinese characters. This Sino-Korean pronunciation as we currently use it, is a coherent and regulated system, which allows only one monosyllabic sound per one Chinese character unless the Chinese character allows multiple readings. This Sino-Korean pronunciation is generally assumed to reflect the Middle Chinese (MC) sounds, although Korea had started using Sinographs much earlier than the time of MC. The purpose of this research is to collect extant examples of Old Sino-Korean: the contacts between Chinese and Korean that predate the current Sino-Korean layer. These examples are commonly presented to be 'native' Korean morphemes, not associated with Chinese characters but fossilized outside the linguistic sphere designated as Sino-Korean.; Chapter 1 introduced the nature and history of the Sino-Korean linguistic contacts, in which I propose that there have been more than one stratum of Sino-Korean. Since the study finds traces of Old Sino-Korean within the earliest attested non-Sinographic data, i.e. Middle Korean (MK) recorded in Hankul, Chapter 2 discussed the MK phonology. Chapter 3 is a collection of 145 examples, examined for their validity as evidence of Old Sino-Korean through comparison with Old Chinese (OC) words. The methodological filters with which we examine these examples are xiesheng [phonetic sharing] profiles, OC and MK phonology, and philological findings. Chapter 4 summarized the discussion with a tentative correspondence between consonants of OC and MK.; In most cases, syllable-initial consonants showed homorganic correspondences (e.g. OC *p-, *ph-, *b- with MK p-, ph-), but there are also unexpected matches: e.g. OC *hm- with MK p- and MK h-; OC *l- (Li's OC *d-) with MK n-. We also see some OC dental initials corresponding to MK sibilants, and OC velar initials (*k-, *kw-, * kh-, *khw-, *hng-, *hngw -) varying freely in MK k-, kh-, h-, and &phis;-. In the non-final position, OC voiced final consonants, which are abandoned by most post-Karlgrenian reconstructions, show their traces in MK: OC *-b with MK *-p; OC *-d with MK -t (also, -s), -y, -l, or &phis;, OC *- g with MK -t (also, -s/-c), - v, -k, or &phis;, and OC *- r with MK -l. In addition, we have MK examples suggesting that for some Division-2 words the OC final consonants disappeared after the Division-2 medial *-r- had been resyllabified in Korean. |
