모음조화와 설축 - 훈민정음해례의 설축에 대하여 -

Abstract

In Hun-min-chong-um(訓民正音) which was published in 1446 A.D)., there ie a description of the vowel quality of 15th century Korean. There was used the term [tongue retracted](舌縮), [tongue somewhat retractead](舌小縮), [tongue undetracted](舌小縮). By the description, we can classify the following 3 sets of vowels. tongue unretracted (이미지 처리) tongue somewhat retracted(陰 dark) (이미지 처리) tongue retracted(陽 light) (이미지 처리) There have been many controversies among scholars on the interpretation of the term[縮] (retracted). One of the reason is that modern phonetics talk about the height and the frontness of the body of the tongue, but not about the retraction of the tongue. However by the evidence of vowel harmony of other languages, I concluded that [tongue retracted] (舌縮) means [retraction of the tongue root] (舌根後縮). The type of vowel harmony of Late Middle Korean is the same as that of the following languages. From the 1960s a new type of vowel harmony (that is, vowel harmony by the retraction of the tongue root) was investigated in several languages independently ; 1. In Mongolian (especially the Chachar dialect of Inner Mongolia) Chinggeltai(1959, 1983) proved that the traditional term of vowel classification masculine/feminine is interpreted as tense/lax vowels. Tense vowels are articulated with the retraction of the tongue root, and lax vowels not. 2. In Manchu-Tungus (especially in Ewen, Ewenki) Novikova(1960) proved by X-ray picture of the organs of speech that the traditional term strong/weak vowel is interpreted as pharyngealized/unpharyngealized vowels. By these X-ray pictures, we can confirm that pharyngealized vowels are articulated with the retraction of the tongue root. 3. In West African languages (especially Igbo and Akan) several scholars had investigated vowel harmony of the languages by an experimental method. They concluded that by the position of the tongue root, they can classify the vowel sets of vowel harmony. One set is tongue root unadvanced: the other one is tongue root advanced. We can conclude that the term [tongue retracted] is a linguistically significant one in the explanation of the vowel harmony of these several languages, especially in the Altaic languages to which Korean is supposed to belong. The phenomenon was, surprisingly enough, investigated first in the 15th century by a group of Korea scholars who also created the scientific phonetic alphabet HANGUL,