무슨

Korean

Etymology

First attested in the Gwonyyeom yorok (勸念要錄 / 권념요록), 1637, as Early Modern Korean 므슨 (Yale: musun), probably a hypercorrection of Middle Korean 므슴〮 (Yale: mùsúm) that was motivated by the adnominal suffix 은 (-eun) common in determiners.

Variants of 므슴〮 (Yale: mùsúm) with final ㅁ (m), e.g. 무슴 (museum) and 무삼 (musam), remained more common than 므슨 or 무슨 until the mid-nineteenth century and are still used by some older speakers of Gyeongsang dialect.

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [musʰɯn]

  • (file)

• Phonetic hangul: [무슨]

Romanizations
Revised Romanization?	museun
Revised Romanization (translit.)?	museun
McCune–Reischauer?	musŭn
Yale Romanization?	musun

Determiner

무슨 • (museun)

1. (in questions) what, what kind of

   무슨 일을 하세요?

   Museun ir-eul haseyo?

   What kind of work do you do?

2. (in statements) a certain, some; some kind of

   무슨 일이 있어서 못 왔어.

   Museun ir-i iss-eoseo mot wasseo.

   He couldn't come because he had some sort of work [to do].

3. what kind of; used for emphasis in a rhetorical question.

   내가 그 짓을 하면 무슨 사람이 되는 거겠어?

   Nae-ga geu jis-eul ha-myeon museun saram-i doeneun geo-gess-eo?

   If I did that, what kind of person would I be?

Usage notes

• 뭔 (mwon) and 무슨 (museun) are both common in speech. In written form, only the latter is accepted.

Alternative forms

• 뭔 (mwon) — contraction
• 무신 (musin), 므슨 (meuseun), 무순 (musun) — southern dialectal
• 므슴 (meuseum), 무슴 (museum), 무삼 (musam) — Early Modern, sometimes in contemporary Gyeongsang

Related terms

• 무엇 (mueot)

 

References

• 이광호 (Yi Gwang-ho) (2009) “'므스'와 '므슥/므슴/므슷'의 의미특성 및 형태변화 [meuseu wa meuseuk/meuseum/meuseut ui uimiteukseong mit hyeongtaebyeonhwa]”, in Gugeo gungmunhak, volume 151, pages 35—57
• 장요한 (Jang Yo-han) (2013) “중세국어 의문사 '므스'류의 교체 양상과 단일화 [jungsegugeo uimunsa meuseu ryuui gyoche yangsanggwa danilhwa]”, in Eoneowa jeongbo sahoe, volume 20, pages 235—259