사과와 능금, 그리고 멎 = Three cognate terms relevant to malus

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The ultimate goal of this paper is to attain to read 悶子訃(計) or men-tsi¨-fu from Kyerim-Yusa(that is, gi-lin-lei-shi 鷄林類事) in an appropriate form. The meaning of the word is self-evident due to the corresponding Chinese heading lin-kin 림금 `apple, or malus` in Latin, whereas the Korean counterpart men-tsi¨-fu has been an annoyance, adequate forms hard to be found in any stages of the Korean language. Now I propose a solution of textual criticism for the troublesomeness. The third character fu is a mischievous intrusion of the head syllable of the next word. And it should be, authentically, huang 黃 of 黃漆 `dendropanax, but not varnish tree` ; fu is a correction of huang in my opinion. Now, the remaining men- tsi¨ corresponds to the M.K. m??cˇ meaning wild apples which grow naturally in Korea. In the due course to the conclusion, I examined, in pretty detail, three competing terms relevant to malus. In China, once dominant as it was, lin-kin was repleaced by the mighty ping-gu, sha-gu scarcely surviving in the dictionary, nai(奈), on the other hand, suffered a mysterious change into a bigger version of apple from a wild species. In Korea, niŋ kim(＜lin-kin) is fighting a losing battle against sakwa(＜shagu), the latter being sweet and delicious. m??cˇ does not exist any more except in the north-east dialect, with the meaning changed into plu, Lin-kin thrives very well in Japan, almost unchallenged in the form of ringgo.