' ㄹ ' 과 관련된 두 음운 변화

Abstract

In Middle Korean, syllable-final r was lost before coronal consonants. The main purpose of this paper is to explain the phonetic motivation, and to examine the range, of this well-known sound change. As a related matter, another sound change is dealt with, i.e. tensification of coronal consonants after ｒ, which has not been noticed as yet. The syllable-final liquid in Present-day Korean is realized as a lateral [l], but it was once a flap [r], supposedly. Therefore, it may be supposed that, when the loss of r took place, the syllable-final r was realized as a flap, which can be considered to be the most vulnerable to loss before coronal consonants because of its momentariness. Undoubtedly, the loss of r is phonetically motivated Thus, in spite of lack of synchronic alternation, we must assume that morpheme-internal r was lost, too. Present-day Korean has a morpheme structure rule as follows. [+coronal] → [+tense] / l ＿ This rule might be regarded as the result of the fact that the loss of r was accomplished only before lax coronal sounds whereas r before tense coronal sounds remained intact. It appears to be true that r before tense coronal sounds was not lost. By the way, the frequency of tense coronal sounds before r is several times as high as that of tense noncoronal sounds before r, while word-initial tense sounds do not show such an unbalance of distribution. This means that we should postulate tensification of coronal consonants after r. Fortunately such tensification is attested, and this means that the loss of r left exceptions.