국어학 : 남북한 맞춤법 통일 방안에 대한 비판적 검토 = A Critical Review of the Unification Plans for the Orthography between North and South Korea

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The purposes of this study were to compare the orthography related to the initial law between North and South Korea and to come up with desirable plans to unify the rules. The previous study tends to support the orthography of North Korea that doesn`t approve the initial law based on their fundamental principles. But depending on the linguistic interpretations of the current orthography in setting forth the unified version can raise many problems. The most important matter is the feasibility of the public using the language. In other words, it should be taken into account if the people of North and South Korea can accept the unified rules of spelling. For the consideration, it`s important to understand the uses of the language in North and South Korea and the characteristics of Korean related to the initial law. The initial law is still in effect both in North and South Korea in terms of not only the reality of the people`s pronunciations but also the historical aspects. But with the aspects of practice considered, while it`s not very hard for the people of North Korea to learn the initial law, it`s extremely difficult for those of South Korea to learn the original sounds of Chinese words and write ㄹ or ㄴ as the initial sound. The language competitivity of North and South Korea should also be considered. South Korea claims even more competitive edge not only in the population that use the language but also in the amount of publications and documents in the Internet. Considering those elements in and outside the language, the unified rules of spelling related to the initial law should follow the current rules of South Korea.