In the korean linguistics the consonantal changes have been studied very much and the are very clear and content. So one can say, that it is absurd to mention it further. But I think the studies on consonantal changes made up to now are only such a de...
In the korean linguistics the consonantal changes have been studied very much and the are very clear and content. So one can say, that it is absurd to mention it further. But I think the studies on consonantal changes made up to now are only such a description as "one phoneme changes to a certain phoneme, when it contacts with certain phoneme." Such descriptions don't tell us the character and the fundamental principle of the consonantal changes. In this paper I'd like to reveal their characters and fundamental rules by studing them on the autosegmental-phenological point of view.
There are two kinds of consonantal changes in korean. One is inevitable and universal changes and the other is arbitrary and universal changes. I'll describe them apart. And in this paper I describe manner features and place features on diferent tiers. The manner tier is above the segmental tier and the place tier is beneath it.
1. Inevitable and universal changes
Here are two examples of inevitable and universal consonantal changes descri-bed on the autosegmental-phonological point of view:
◁그림삽입▷(원문을 참조하세요)
◁그림삽입▷(원문을 참조하세요)
By such studies we know, that the character of the inevitable and universal consonantal changes in Korean consists in that it is just an assimilation of mann-er features and that place features have no importance in it. And we can make their fundamental rules as below:
◁그림삽입▷(원문을 참조하세요)
【NOTE】The 3 rules must be adopted one after another
The above rules tell us, that the features [+-nas] and [+-lat] are very important and they have the power of branching. Here we have the question, why only /n/and /l/ have such a power. According to Kim Ch'a-gyun (1976) we suppose, that
their power come out of their sonority.
2. Arbitrary and universal changes
Here are two examples of arbitrary and universal consonantal changes describ-ed on the autosegmental-phonological point of view:
◁그림삽입▷(원문을 참조하세요)
By such studies we know, that the character of the arbitrary and universal consonantal changes in Korean konsists in that it is just an assimilation of place features and that the manner features have no importance in it. And we can make fundamental rules of it as below:
◁그림삽입▷(원문을 참조하세요)
In the making of this rule we have several un-solved problems as below
1) Why do appear only consonants with the feature [-cor] on C2?
2) Why do appear only consonants wi th the feature [+ant] on C1?
3) Why doesn't appear /l/ on C1?
These 3 problems give us suggest ions, that is, only the consonants pronounced with the tongue up in the mouth or the consonants whose point of articulation is on lips appear on C1, and only the consonants pronounced with the tongue flattened appear on C2. And the result of the change is that the C1 consonants pronounced with the tongue up in the mouth change to consonants with flat tonge and the point of articulation also changes. But the consonants whose point of articulation is on lips don't change the tongue but change only the point of articulation. After all in any case the result is that, the tongue becomes flat after the con-sonantal change.
And after studying the arbitrary and universal changes we can predict some
possible consonantal changes, that is, 〈k+p〉 〈??+m〉 〈??+p〉 〈l+m〉 〈l+p〉 〈l+k〉. Among the 6 possible changes, 〈??+p〉 〈l+m〉 〈l+p〉 〈l+k〉 are less possible than 〈k.p〉 and 〈??+m〉, because those 4changes demand the changes of both manner features and place features, chi le the latter 2 changes demand only the change of place features.