적천사(磧川寺) 『묘법련화경』 목판의 국어학적 특성

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the woodblocks of “Lotus Sutra” found in Jeokcheonsa Temple located in Cheongdo-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do and examine the characteristics of Hangul markings to identify their value as a new historical data for Korean language. 9 types of woodblocks were found in Jeokcheonsa Temple, and 3 of them were Lotus Sutra which had 9 editions written in Hangul which became the subject of this paper. Since the exact title is unidentified as nothing has been published in books, this paper will assume the “Lotus Sutra” as a provisional title based on the ‘홍뎐셔’ recording of ‘Myobeopryeonhwagyeong’ shown on <홍뎐셔一>. The woodblocks of 18 pages on 9 editions have differences in each of their sizes, forms, and endings. The title at the center of text in woodblocks appear in various forms such as 홍뎐셔, 셔, 요션, 요셔, 판, 과판, etc. Although the overall constitution is to be similar to the “Beopheagyeongoseoeonhae”, it cannot be certain because there is no content after Book <二十>. The existence of Lotus Sutra in Jeokcheonsa Temple has not been known since the published book recordings have not appeared, this paper assumed the publication period to be from the late 17th century to the early 18th century by identifying the marking characteristics. The orthography had complicated separated spelling, double spelling, and repeated consonants, etc., and examples of confusing consonant cluster were also found. The writing of final sounds ‘ㅅ’ and ‘ㄷ’ were noticeably intermixed. There was no example of stage 2 changes for ‘·’. Examples of ‘ㄷ’ palatalization were also found, and ‘ㅿ’ had complex intermixed writing. Phonological readings of Chinese characters also appeared. Especially, this woodblock printed book had examples writing dialects, and wrong carvings or different writings of characters were found in many parts.