현대 국어 正書法의 문제점들에 대한 종합 검토 : 맞춤법 改定을 앞두고

Abstract

Since the inauguratíon of the National Institute of Korean Language ís imminent and its first task will be the revísion of the Code for the Unification of Korean Spelling," this' paper presents some investigations of problem areas in the Code for consideration by the Institute. In the principles of Korean orthography, as in other spelling systems, there has been parallelism as follows.

A: phonographic principle based . on real pronunciation-- B: pseudo-ideographic principle based on fixed (underlying) form--

A: phonemic transcription-- B: morphophonemic transription--

A: no consideration of etymology--few syllable final consonants B: consideration of etymology--various syllable final consonants

It seems that the Code presently in use has its basis in B above and any revised code in the future should also follow this line because of abundant morphophonemic changes in Korean. It is desirable to complement shortcomings in the present Code with reference to the central points of the theory but alse to matters of detail. For an example of those details, let us consider the following problem. The individual names of the characters used in the Korean alphabet consist of the CVVC syllable structure i.e., piup for ㅂ (p). Due to the occurrence of a final consonant, especially in the case of stops, the development of acronyms is very difficult. The most desirable syllable structure of acronyms is naturally CVCV… but in the Korean case there may be frequent occur. rence of a consonant cluster consisting of final stop in the name of preceding cha. racter plus the following initial consonant, if any, in the name of the one which fol. lows. 1 think this change in Korean is analogous to the change from British English z[zed] to American English z[zi:]; in both languages the sound change appears to be an attempt to avoid the final stop. (The American change may of course be a simple attempt by primary school teachers to improve the rhyme scheme of alphabet recitation.)