This study is intended to establish the phonological system of Andong area's local language, which are sub-dialects of Gyeongbuk dialects, and describe the system with focus on synchronic phonological phenomena. The purpose is to clarify the uniquenes...
This study is intended to establish the phonological system of Andong area's local language, which are sub-dialects of Gyeongbuk dialects, and describe the system with focus on synchronic phonological phenomena. The purpose is to clarify the uniqueness of Andong area's local language and identify its generality to develop an overall understanding of Korean language and provide an overview of a language that could soon disappear as a record.
The phonological phenomena of Andong area's local language can be summarized as follows.
Chapter 1 explored the history and geographical location of Andong, the target area for studying its dialects, and described the purpose and researcher of this study.
Chapter 2 examined the phonological system of Andong area by dividing it into consonants and vowels. The consonants are as follows: pure consonants of /p, ph, pʼ, t, th, tʼ, c, ch, cʼ, k, kh, kʼ, s, s’, m, n, ŋ/, a liquid consonant of /r/, and glides of /w, j, h, ʔ/. The vowels include monophthongs of i, E, ɨ, ə, a, u, o. In particular, although s and s’ are not distinguished in many areas of Gyeongsang province, they serve as independent phonemes in this region. In addition, diphthongs include /j/ series of /ja, jə, jE, ju, jo/ and /w/ series of /wi, wE, wə, wa/. Monophthongization is common behind consonants with no diphthongs.
In Chapter 3, phonological phenomena of consonants were explored among all the phonological changes. Phenomena of consonants were explored with focus on simplification of consonant cluster, becoming aspirated consonants, becoming fortis consonants, palatalization, liquidization, and nasalization. In particular, this region has stem-final consonant cluster of /ks, ps, rm, rh, rtʰ, rk, rp, nč, nh/ that are simplified, and for /rtʰ, rk, rp/, only /r/ is simplified. Becoming fortis consonants occur differently between inflection and utilization. For inflection, when a noun doesn't have nasal sound, becoming fortis consonants and non-fortis consonants occur simultaneously. For utilization, if the stem-final sound is a pure consonant, the combined initial sound of an ending of a word, / t, c, k/ each becomes / tʼ, cʼ, kʼ /. It suggests the phenomenon of a stem-final sound becoming fortis consonants occurs more frequently in utilization than in inflection. Palatalization is another frequent consonant phenomenon.
In Chapter 4, phonological phenomena of vowels were explored among all the phonological changes with focus on vowel harmony, monophthongization, vowel fronting, vowel rounding, umlaut, vowel nasalization, and n. ŋ deletion. In this region, vowel harmony showed the following phenomenon: If a stem-final vowel is /a or o/, the ending becomes /-a/, and for other stems, it becomes /-ə/. Meanwhile, vowel rounding is active under the /m/ as well as /p/, /pʰ/, /pʼ/. Umlaut refers to a phenomenon of vowel fronting of back vowels with influence of [i] or [j], which are high front vowels. This phenomenon is relatively active unless ( [ c / +cor ] ) intervenes. For vowel nasalization and n. ŋ deletion, vowel nasalization environment is more essential and predominant than [n], in case of vowel nasalization caused by [ŋ], and deletion of nasal sound vowel is more active after nasalization.
Chapter 5 summarized the previously-described content and presented tasks for follow-up studies.
This study explored the synchronic phonological phenomena of dialects of Andong based on Silla language. In-depth reestablishment work as to complex tones and other phonological phenomena, which this study did not deal with, will be the future tasks.