유길준의 『노동야학독본』과 『노동야학』의 한자 표기와 문체 변화의 특성 연구

Abstract

In this study, the author compares and analyzes the transcription of Chinese characters and characteristics of the writing style used in Nodongyahakdokbon and Nodongyahak by Yu Giljun. To this end, the author compares the two readers of Yu Giljun with the bible, newspapers, and textbooks from that period, wherein the Korean transcription style was presented to the readers. Moreover, the author tabulated the Chinese characters of the two readers, which have attached Korean transcriptions or remains without attachment in an attempt to reveal how Yu Giljun’s claim in his leading article reflected on the readers. Through this method, the author analyzed the characteristics of the Chinese characters shown in the two readers. Compared with the Korean Annotation of Gospel of Mark (『新約馬可傳福音書諺解』), Mansebo (<萬世報>), KeijoNippo (<京城日報>), and Yunyeonpildok (『幼年必讀』), and Nodong-yahakdokbon comprise less Chinese characters and the reading sound of Chinese characters are smoothly used alongside postpositions and endings. In the reader, the reading sound of Chinese characters are presented as Korean and phonetic readings in a similar proportion and the writing style indicates a tendency for modernizing by using native tongues and predicates of monosyllabic Chinese characters. However, the Korean reading of Chinese characters is not consistent in the book. In addition, Yu Giljun made beginners study Chinese characters by maintaining the use of Chinese characters when they are elementary words or homonyms or neologisms. This relates with why he hurried to write Nodongyahak while not maintaining the transcriptional method used in Nodongyahakdokbon. The Korean reading of Chinese characters was less standardized, compared with the phonetic reading of Chinese characters and was thus unsuitable for the Korean syllable structure. By minimizing Chinese characters in Nodongyahak, Yu Giljun started to deal with the ideogram i.e. Chinese characters in the context of the Korean alphabet, which is a phonogram. The two readers show that he had to go through two different writing styles to eventually reach the unification of the written and spoken language in the context of Chinese letters.