The Korean Dialect Materials in Matveev's 1900 Reference Book to the City of Vladivostok

Abstract

This paper analyzes a valuable Russian-Korean vocabulary published in 1900 in Vladivostok, and recently discovered by the author. The Korean of the materials is N. Hamkyeng dialect, and shows many interesting and archaic features at the a) phonetic, b) phonological, c) morpho-syntactic and d) lexical levels. E.g.: a)/1I is [r] before C, Late Middle Korean (LMK) Isy + V/ is preserved as [s+ V], Icl and /t/ are unaffected by palatalization and affrication, LMK layl has failed to undergo monophthongization in some instances; b) /ŋ/ > ø/_+-i, and/ m,n/ >[b.d]/#_;c) V-final words suffix "nominative" /-i/, and there is no sign of /-ka/; WH-questions take a different sentence ending /-ko/ than non-WH questions; d) there are many typically N. Hamkyeng words, e.g. hammuri "river," sodab "laundry," xa-minzu "snack," as well as words of Chinese, Russian and unknown origin.