母史

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Old Korean[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Possibly related to Goguryeo 也次, an element found in two ancient place name glosses from the Samguk Sagi.

Noun[edit]

母史 (*Esi)

  1. parent
  2. mother
    • 765, 忠談師 (Chungdamsa), “安民歌 (Anmin-ga)”, in 三國遺事 (Samguk Yusa):
      君隐父也 臣隐愛賜尸母史
      *KWUN-un API-ye / SIN-un TOSO-si-l Esi-ye
      The king is a father, and the ministers are loving mothers

Reconstruction notes[edit]

In Old Korean orthography, native terms with clear Chinese equivalents are usually written with an initial Chinese character (logogram) glossing the meaning of the word, followed by one or more Chinese characters (phonograms) that transcribe the final syllable or coda consonant of the term. In the case of 母史, the first character shows that this is the native Old Korean word for “mother”, and the subsequent character(s) show(s) that the final syllable of this word is *-si. Because the semantics and the final phoneme(s) match, the word is conventionally reconstructed as *Esi, the ancestor of Middle Korean 어ᅀᅵ〮 (Yale: èzí). Note that the reconstruction was not necessarily the actual pronunciation. Rather, it should simply be considered as a method of representing an Old Korean form phonetically by using its Middle Korean reflex.

According to scholarly convention, the elements of the reconstruction which are not directly represented by phonograms are given in capital letters. This allows readers to identify what part of the reconstruction is attested and what part is applied retroactively from the Middle Korean reflex.

Descendants[edit]

  • Middle Korean: 어ᅀᅵ〮 (èzí)

References[edit]

  • 남풍현 (Nam Pung-hyeon) (2019) “安民歌의 새로운 해독 [A new reading of the Anmin-ga]”, in Gugyeol Yeon'gu, volume 42, pages 33-49