까치

Korean

Etymology

First attested in the Yongbi eocheon'ga (龍飛御天歌 / 용비어천가), 1447, as Middle Korean 가〯치〮 (Yale: kǎchí). The spontaneous gemination of the initial consonant occurred in the late nineteenth century. Spontaneous gemination is a recurrent phenomenon in Modern Korean, motivated by sound-symbolic effects.

Probably cognate to Japanese 鵲 (kasasagi, “the Eurasian magpie”). No known connection to 어치 (eochi, “Eurasian jay”).

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [ˈk͈a̠(ː)t͡ɕʰi]
• Phonetic hangul: [까(ː)치]
  • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

Romanizations
Revised Romanization?	kkachi
Revised Romanization (translit.)?	kkachi
McCune–Reischauer?	kkach'i
Yale Romanization?	kkā.chi

Noun

까치 • (kkachi)

1. magpie
2. In particular, the Eurasian magpie (Pica pica) or the Oriental magpie (Pica serica).

Synonyms

• (Eurasian magpie): 유라시아까치 (yurasiakkachi)
• (Oriental magpie): 한국까치 (韓國—, han'gukkkachi)

Derived terms

• 까치 두루마기 (kkachi durumagi, “kkachi durumagi”)
• 때까치 (ttaekkachi, “shrike”)
• 한국까치 (韓國—, han'gukkkachi)