The relations between South Korea and China have changed a lot in the political, cultural, economic and other various fields since the establishment of diplomatic relations on August 24th, 1992. Many Korean companies have been attracted by the more de...
The relations between South Korea and China have changed a lot in the political, cultural, economic and other various fields since the establishment of diplomatic relations on August 24th, 1992. Many Korean companies have been attracted by the more developed Yangtze River Delta area where Shanghai plays a central and leading role in economy. As a result the Korean language is becoming more and more popular as a communication tool and those human resources who can master it have become a new market demand. Since 2000, many universities in the Delta area have started to rapidly build Korean departments, like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, and learning Korean as a second language has become very popular.
Nowadays the majority of young people who are from the Yangtze River Delta area are bilinguals who not only can speak their mother tongue Wu-dialects, but also can speak Chinese Mandarin. So it is predictable that those Koreans learners will get interference both from the Wu-dialects and Chinese Mandarin. It is therefore necessary to do cross-linguistic phonological studies on these languages and find the correlations between them as a goal for learning Korean more effectively.
More than 64% of Modern Korean words are Sino-Korean. These words have been handed down from generation to generation without too many fundamental changes from Chinese. It would be beneficial to do a cross-linguistic study to seek the similarities and differences between Sino-Korean and Chinese pronunciations in the Wu-dialects. It is the author’s indirect purpose to promote the development of cross-linguistic studies with Korean and different Chinese dialects. As a Wu-dialect speaker, it is the author’s direct purpose of this thesis to find some relation between these two languages.
This thesis is a cross-linguistic phonological study of Sino-Korean modern Korean speakers with Suzhou dialect speakers that embody the typical examples of the Wu-dialects area who use the Middle Chinese pronunciation as a standard to seek the relations between them.) It also combined synchronic and diachronic studies by utilizing the theories of phonetics, phonology and contrastive linguistics.
This thesis used all IPA tags of Middle Chinese from <Hanzi Guyin Shouce> (漢字古音手冊, Handbook of old Chinese characters pronunciations, 1986) which is based on the archaic Chinese Phonology at <Guangwun>(광운, 廣韻, Guangyun). It collected about 3000 Chinese characters’ different pronunciations of Sino-Koreans and the Suzhou dialect of Wu-dialects from <HanYu Fangyin Zihui>(漢語方音字彙, 한어방음자휘, 2003) to clearly contrast and compare with their initials and finals to find some similarities and differences between them.
Chapter I discusses the motivation and purpose of the thesis, reviews previous studies on Sino-Korean and Chinese Wu-dialects and states the target areas, research methods and procedures of the thesis.)
Chapter II introduces the phonological initial systems of modern Sino-Korean and the Suzhou dialect. Then it synchronically and diachronically compares and analyzes the relations between them which is the basis of classifications of Middle Chinese initials by different places of articulation to look for similarities and differences separately. Those initials are classified as labials (脣音), linguals (舌音), velars (牙音), dentals (齒音) and glottal (喉音).
Chapter Ⅲ introduces the phonological final systems of Modern Sino-Korean and the Suzhou dialect of Wu-dialects in brief. The basis of the comparison between them are sixteen Shes (攝, 섭) of Middle Chinese final classifications which are Tongshe (通攝, 통성), Jiangshe (江攝, 강섭), Zhishe (止攝, 지섭), Yushe (遇攝, 우섭), Xieshe (蟹攝, 해섭), Zhenshe (臻攝, 진섭), Shanshe (山攝, 산섭), Xiaoshe (效攝, 효섭), Guoshe (果攝, 과섭), Jiashe (假攝, 가섭), Dangshe (宕攝, 탕섭), Gengshe (梗攝, 경섭), Zengshe (曾攝, 증섭), Liushe (流攝, 류섭), Shenshe (深攝, 심섭) and Xianshe (咸攝, 함섭) respectively. It also synchronically and diachronically compares and analyzes the relations between them separately to look for similarities and differences as a purpose.
Chapter Ⅳ organizes the discussion. Included is the comparison and contrast of initials and finals between Modern Sino-Korean and the Suzhou dialect of Wu-dialects by using a basis of pronunciations of Middle Chinese characters, and a conclusion is drawn that there are some common and different points. It discusses some limitations and the research plan for the future.
This thesis separated the initial systems and final systems of Chinese characters to find comparisons and contractions because of the huge data of 3000 Chinese characters. The author plans to do further study synthetically and fully on the relations of their syllable constructions, the select preferences between initials and finals, tone systems and intonations in the future and hopes that it can become a possible breakthrough for helping those learners who are studying Korean as a second language whose mother tongue use Wu-dialects and others who are interested in Chinese Wu-dialects and Sino-Korean.
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