How Did Korean Get -l for Middle Chinese Words Ending in - t?

Author: Martin S.E.

Source: Journal of East Asian Linguistics, Volume 6, Number 3, July 1997 , pp. 263-271(9)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

The Sino-Korean versions of the final labial and velar finals of the Middle Chinese "entering" tone are -p and -k, but the apical -t of Middle Chinese is borrowed as -l and was prescriptively treated as -LQ by the 15th-century Korean orthographers. This is best explained by assuming that a liquid articulation was used in the northern Chinese dialect that Koreans used as a model. That articulation was probably a flap [r], and it was part of the general erosion of the final stops that led to their gradual loss in northern Chinese. Sino-Korean offers no evidence for weakening of the labial stop, but a few aberrant loans may point to a weakened form of the velar.

Language: English

Document Type: Regular paper

Affiliations: 1: Department of Linguistics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8236 E-mail: semartin@pacifier.com

Publication date: 1997-07-01