현대국어의 모음체계와 그 변화의 방향 = The Vowel System of Contemporary Korean and Direction of Change

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The vowel system of Korean is undergoing rapid change. It was caused by structural factors, disappearing of opposition, merging or shift of phonemes, by monophthongization of diphthongs. In each dialect, each change of system has a certain directionality based on some common factors, however, the points of change are definitely different in South and North Korean. In North Korean, the vowel system of the Northwest dialect has changed to a front∥back opposing 3∥3 system, and the Northeast dialect(including Yukcin dialect) has changed in the same direction. This change was caused by the dephonologization of `??`(/??/), after this the vowel system changed to 3∥3-2 system, the hole in the low back position induced the lowering of /ㅗ/(/o/), in turn /ㅓ/(/∂/) filled up the hole due to the lowering of /ㅗ/(/o/) by the rearward movement of /ㅓ/(/∂/). On the other hand, South Korean has changed to an asymmetrical 7 vowel system consisting of 2∥3-2 from a symmetrical 10 vowel system consisting of 3-2∥3-2, though the process of change is somewhat different in each dialect. The 2∥2-2 system of the Southeast dialect is the result of the dissolution of its 2∥3-2 system unbalance. Monopthongization of *uy, *oy is achieved through uy>wi>u¨(>i), oy>we>o¨(>e).