어기조사 ‘呀’에 대한 고찰

Abstract

According to an analysis of ‘Ya(呀)’ use in the 50 Chinese conversation books currently published and used in Korea, 24.6% of examples of did not match the phonetic change rules of ‘A(啊)’. This phenomenon is quite common in Chinese. Thus, it can be assumed that ‘Ya(呀)’ and ‘A(啊)’ have different functions and source. This research explores how ‘Ya(呀)’ is used in modern standard Chinese and compares this situation to the problems with its usage that evidenced themselves in the Ming and Qing dynasties. There are 133 examples in the Peking University Chinese conversation book that are in compliance with phonetic change rules and well edited. All examples except five comply with these phonetic change rules. I assumed that these five sentences were meant to illustrate the use of special mood particles rather than to be the product of the writer’s speech habits. After conducting a survey of native Chinese speakers and analyzing the flow of the paragraphs in which these sentences were used, I discovered that the sentences used the modal particle ‘Ya(呀)’ in order to increase the persuasiveness of the content. To explore ‘Ya(呀)’s use during the Ming and Qing dynasties, I have analyzed several books. According to the analysis, ‘Ya(呀)’ during the Ming and Qing dynasties acted as an independent part of speech, a mood word, but this usage changed over this period. The phonemes at the end of the syllables preceding ‘Ya(呀)’, namely /a/, /o/, /e/, /i/, /ü/, and /ê/, which are behind the distribution of that syllable, were changed to variants of ‘A(啊)’. Other parts are still independent modal particle in modern Chinese.