마흔

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Korean

[edit]
Korean numbers (edit)
 ←  30 40 50  → 
4
    Native isol.: 마흔 (maheun)
    Native attr.: 마흔 (maheun)
    Sino-Korean: 사십 (sasip)
    Hanja: 四十

Etymology

[edit]

First attested in the Yongbi eocheon'ga (龍飛御天歌 / 용비어천가), 1447, as Middle Korean 마ᅀᆞᆫ〮 (Yale: màzón).

The h consonant in the modern form is unexpected, possibly influenced by Middle Korean 셜흔 (syelhun, thirty) (modern 서른 (seoreun)).

Pronunciation

[edit]
Romanizations
Revised Romanization?maheun
Revised Romanization (translit.)?maheun
McCune–Reischauer?mahŭn
Yale Romanization?mahun

Numeral

[edit]

마흔 (maheun)

  1. (native numerals) forty
    Synonym: 사십(四十) (forty, Sino-Korean numeral)

Usage notes

[edit]

In modern Korean, numbers are usually written in Arabic numerals.

The Korean language has two sets of numerals: a native set of numerals inherited from Old Korean, and a Sino-Korean set which was borrowed from Middle Chinese in the first millennium C.E.

Native classifiers take native numerals.

Some Sino-Korean classifiers take native numerals, others take Sino-Korean numerals, while yet others take both.

Recently loaned classifiers generally take Sino-Korean numerals.

For many terms, a native numeral has a quantifying sense, whereas a Sino-Korean numeral has a sense of labeling.

  • 반(班) (se ban, three school classes, native numeral)
  • 반(班) (sam ban, Class Number Three, Sino-Korean numeral)

When used in isolation, native numerals refer to objects of that number and are used in counting and quantifying, whereas Sino-Korean numerals refer to the numbers in a more mathematical sense.

  • 하나 주세 (hana-man deo juse-yo, Could you give me just one more, please, native numeral)
  • 더하기 ? (il deohagi ir-eun?, What's one plus one?, Sino-Korean numeral)

While older stages of Korean had native numerals up to the thousands, native numerals currently exist only up to ninety-nine, and Sino-Korean is used for all higher numbers. There is also a tendency—particularly among younger speakers—to uniformly use Sino-Korean numerals for the higher tens as well, so that native numerals such as 일흔 (ilheun, “seventy”) or 아흔 (aheun, “ninety”) are becoming less common.