論韓國漢字音ㄹ／-l／韻尾

On the Sino-Korean Coda /-l/

「山、臻」攝入聲韻尾的中古音為-t，粵語、客家話等入聲俱全的漢語方言一般將之讀為／-t／。然而韓國漢字音的表現較為特殊，將舌尖入聲韻尾一律讀／-l／。值得注意的是，韓語音韻系統內有／-t／，見於許多固有詞彙中。既然如此，漢字的讀音為何不用／-t／而讀／-l／呢？這是一直以來學者議論紛紛的問題。本文從語音調整的角度探討韓漢音ㄹ／-l／韻尾的形成。根據學者研究，早期韓語有*-t與*-r兩種舌尖韻尾，而當時輔音韻尾的發音習慣和現代韓語不同，伴隨開放口腔中央通道的除阻動作。除阻音與無聲除阻音最為顯著的差別是產生氣流與否：除阻音放開口腔封閉後，將會產生較明顯的氣流；無聲除阻音因無除阻階段，則不會產生氣流。本文著眼於這一點，認為引進漢字音時早期說韓語人士將漢語的-t調整為*-r，以便呈現其不帶氣流之特色。後來*-r又經歷韻尾不除阻化音變，進一步演變為 現代韓語的ㄹ／-l／。

The Middle Chinese ending -t consistently corresponds to the Sino-Korean coda /-l/, whereas the Middle Chinese endings -p and -k correspond to the Sino-Korean codas /-p/ and /-k/, respectively. Modern Korean phonology allows /-t/ at the coda position as numbers of “native” Korean words end with /-t/. How did Sino-Korean get /-l/ for Middle Chinese -t? The question has been attracting a number of scholars’ attention, yet it still merits further discussion. This paper examines the Sino-Korean coda /-l/ from the perspective of phonological nativization. Old Korean had two contrastive alveolar consonant codas, namely *-t and *-r. Old Korean consonants were released at the coda position contrary to Modern Korean consonant codas. A marked difference between released and unreleased consonant codas is the release of airflow. After the block of air in the oral cavity, released consonant codas involve the release of airflow, while unreleased consonant codas do not involve the release of airflow. On the basis of this phenomenon, this paper argues that Old Korean speakers adapted Chinese ending [-t⌝ ] as *-r rather than *-t to approximate the Old Korean released coda to unreleased Chinese ending [-t ⌝]. Afterward, Old Korean *-r developed into modern Korean /-l/ as the Korean consonant coda changed from released to unreleased.