계사 ‘이-’의 기원형 ‘*일-’을 찾아서

Abstract

The copula ‘i-’ had some peculiarities in morphology, especially at conjugation and in syntax in Late Middle Korean. In Late Middle Korean the copula construction, it had a syntactic peculiar characteristic of its direct combination with pre-final endings and conjunctive endings of verbs, as well as conjugational peculiarities demanding some alternations such as ‘-o-→-ro-’, ‘-a→-ra’, ‘/k/→ø’, ‘/t/→/r/’. The author has discussed that these peculiarities could be solved by establishing ‘*-ir’ as the prototype of the copula ‘i-’. The problem of ‘/t/→/r/’ has not solved so far in the learned circles of Korean linguistics, but the author has attempted to solve this phenomenon as a sort of assimilation. The /t/ after the /r/ was assimilated to the voiced alveolar fricative // and // was transcribed as ‘ㄹ’/r/ in Late Middle Korean. Furthermore, the ‘-r’, which enters into two interrogative endings of haera-style, ‘-ra/ro’, found in Andong district, Kyungsangbuk- do, has been identified as a trace of ‘*-ir’. In addition, it has been explained that ‘X-ka/ko’ found in Kyungsang dialect(①) as well as in Late Middle Korean, X-ika/ko found in Kyungsang dialect(②), and ‘X-ra/ro’ used in Andong regional dialect can be separately derived by the analogical process and the weakening, followed by deletion, of /k/ from one underlying form.