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A descriptive study on the Chinese pronunciation of Korean Hanja at the syllable level
Author(s)
Date Issued
2018
Conference
Citation
Luo, X., Yang, Y., Sun, J., & Chen, N. (2018 Oct 22). A descriptive study on the Chinese pronunciation of Korean Hanja at the syllable level. Buckeye East Asian Linguistics Forum 3, Columbus.
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Korean has a large number of Sino-Korean words, which are etymologically rooted in logographic Chinese characters (Hanja) but are pronounced with Korean phonology and written in alphabetic Hangul (Wang, Yeon, Zhou, Shu, & Yan, 2016). Sino-Korean words serve as a useful source for Chinese native (L1) speakers to learn vocabulary in Korean as a second language (L2) (Im & Lee, 2008). Correspondence between the Korean and Chinese pronunciation of Hanja has been measured at the phonemic level (Im & Lee, 2008). However, since Chinese L1 speakers tend to apply “whole-word processing” when reading words in an alphabetic L2 (Akamatsu, 2003, p. 210), it is vital to have a better understanding of the correspondent relation between the two languages with regards to Hanja pronunciation at the syllable level instead of at the phoneme level. From a historical linguistic perspective, Korean language started receiving and using Chinese characters and imitating pronunciations of Chinese characters since the era of Old Chinese (or Archaic Chinese, 上古漢語) and Ancient Chinese (or Middle Chinese, 中古漢語) (Moon, 2005). However, the modern pronunciations of Chinese characters in Mandarin and Korean appear to be very different because the pronunciations changed a lot in China due to historical reasons, such as wars and cultural communications with other ethnic groups since the
Jin Dynasty (Moon, 2005). The changes in the pronunciations of Chinese characters in Mandarin happened in various aspects. For example, the disappearance of final consonants or checked tones (e.g., 入聲, such as -k, -m, -t, -p) in the Chinese pronunciation of Chinese characters, except for n and ng, is one of the major sources of the difference in pronunciation between the two languages. In ancient Chinese, the pronunciations of many characters (e.g., 福, 感, 習) contain a final consonant. As time went by, such final consonants disappeared. However, the final consonants still exist in the pronunciation of Chinese characters in Korean and varieties of Chinese (i.e., Cantonese).
Research Method: The present study involves synchronic linguistic analysis and imitated Kim and Shin (2015)’s research method. The comparison was conducted based on the contemporary Mandarin and Korean pronunciation of Chinese characters (Hanja). The Mandarin pronunciations of Hanja were addressed because we expect that the research outcome can inform the learning of Korean as an L2 by native Chinese speakers, most of whom speak Mandarin as theirL1 regardless of the dialects they speak. In addition, Mandarin tones were not considered because this study aims to construct the correspondent relation of phonological pattern of Hanja pronunciation between the two languages and including tones of Mandarin increases the complexity of the research purpose. Moreover, relevant literatures in this topic did not take tones into account as well (Im & Lee, 2008; Moon, 2005). For example, Im and Lee exclude tones in their study because of the diverse change of tones in Mandarin and that it was difficult to set up a representative pattern for one Hanja’s tone.
The research method is explained as follows: First, based on the 1,800 frequently used Chinese characters (Hanja) in South Korea, we formed Hanja families. A Hanja family contains all the Hanja that have the same Korean pronunciation in Korean. Second, within each Hanja family, we classified Hanja members into sub-families according to their Mandarin pronunciation without considering tones. Third, the following categories in each Hanja family were counted: the number of Hanja, the number of Hanja with the same Mandarin pronunciation, and the number of Korean-Chinese syllable correspondent pairs (K-C pairs). In addition, this study calculated the Korean-Chinese syllable pair correspondent rate (K-C rate), which is the result of division of the number of Hanja with the same Mandarin pronunciation by the total number of Hanja in a Hanja family. An example can be found in Table 1.
Results and Discussion: A total of 406 Hanja families in Korean constituted 846 K-C pairs in total, among which 179 pairs (21.2%) had a K-C rate of 1, suggesting a one-on-one correspondent relation between Korean and Chinese syllables. There were 667 K-C pairs (78.8%) with a K-C rate less than 1, of which 212 (25.1%) had a K-C rate higher than or equal to 0.5 and 455 (53.8%) had a K-C rate lower than 0.5 (See Table 2). The 179 K-C pairs with a K-C rate of 1 can facilitate meaning inference for Chinese learners of Korean as L2 when processing unfamiliar Sino-Korean words that contain the Korean syllables in such K-C pairs because learners only have one candidate of Chinese syllable to correspond to. The Korean syllables from the 212 pairs with a K-C rate between 0.5 and 1 have more than one correspondent Chinese syllable and readers are more likely to correspond such Korean syllables to the Chinese syllables with the highest K-C rate.
For the K-C pairs with a K-C rate of 0.5, readers have two candidates with equal chance to corresponded to. The K-C pairs with a K-C rate lower than 0.5 may cause more difficulties in meaning inference because readers may be less likely to correspond the target Korean syllables to the Chinese syllables with a low K-C rate. These results provide useful guidelines for teaching Korean to L1 Chinese speakers.
Pedagogical Implications: The present study suggests that Chinese L1 speakers who learn Korean as an L2 need to pay more attention to the Sino-Korean words containing Korean syllables that have a lower K-C rate than 0.5. For example, the Sino-Korean word 분주(奔走) 하다 (Korean pronunciation: bun-ju; Mandarin pronunciation: ben zou) means to be busy with something. The first Korean syllable of the Sino-Korean word, 분(bun), has a low K-C rate of 0.14 to correspond to the Mandarin syllable ben. However, it has a high K-C rate of 0.86 to correspond to the Mandarin syllable fen. The same situation happens to the 주(ju) syllable whose K-C rate with the Mandarin syllable zhu is 0.47, 0.35 with zhou, and 0.12 with zou. If the word is unknown or unfamiliar to a Chinese learner, the learner may infer the word’s correspondent Chinese pronunciation as fen zhu or fen zhou, neither of which is correct. As a result, we suggest that more attention should be paid to the K-C pair with a correspondent rate lower than 0.5.
Research Method: The present study involves synchronic linguistic analysis and imitated Kim and Shin (2015)’s research method. The comparison was conducted based on the contemporary Mandarin and Korean pronunciation of Chinese characters (Hanja). The Mandarin pronunciations of Hanja were addressed because we expect that the research outcome can inform the learning of Korean as an L2 by native Chinese speakers, most of whom speak Mandarin as theirL1 regardless of the dialects they speak. In addition, Mandarin tones were not considered because this study aims to construct the correspondent relation of phonological pattern of Hanja pronunciation between the two languages and including tones of Mandarin increases the complexity of the research purpose. Moreover, relevant literatures in this topic did not take tones into account as well (Im & Lee, 2008; Moon, 2005). For example, Im and Lee exclude tones in their study because of the diverse change of tones in Mandarin and that it was difficult to set up a representative pattern for one Hanja’s tone.
The research method is explained as follows: First, based on the 1,800 frequently used Chinese characters (Hanja) in South Korea, we formed Hanja families. A Hanja family contains all the Hanja that have the same Korean pronunciation in Korean. Second, within each Hanja family, we classified Hanja members into sub-families according to their Mandarin pronunciation without considering tones. Third, the following categories in each Hanja family were counted: the number of Hanja, the number of Hanja with the same Mandarin pronunciation, and the number of Korean-Chinese syllable correspondent pairs (K-C pairs). In addition, this study calculated the Korean-Chinese syllable pair correspondent rate (K-C rate), which is the result of division of the number of Hanja with the same Mandarin pronunciation by the total number of Hanja in a Hanja family. An example can be found in Table 1.
Results and Discussion: A total of 406 Hanja families in Korean constituted 846 K-C pairs in total, among which 179 pairs (21.2%) had a K-C rate of 1, suggesting a one-on-one correspondent relation between Korean and Chinese syllables. There were 667 K-C pairs (78.8%) with a K-C rate less than 1, of which 212 (25.1%) had a K-C rate higher than or equal to 0.5 and 455 (53.8%) had a K-C rate lower than 0.5 (See Table 2). The 179 K-C pairs with a K-C rate of 1 can facilitate meaning inference for Chinese learners of Korean as L2 when processing unfamiliar Sino-Korean words that contain the Korean syllables in such K-C pairs because learners only have one candidate of Chinese syllable to correspond to. The Korean syllables from the 212 pairs with a K-C rate between 0.5 and 1 have more than one correspondent Chinese syllable and readers are more likely to correspond such Korean syllables to the Chinese syllables with the highest K-C rate.
For the K-C pairs with a K-C rate of 0.5, readers have two candidates with equal chance to corresponded to. The K-C pairs with a K-C rate lower than 0.5 may cause more difficulties in meaning inference because readers may be less likely to correspond the target Korean syllables to the Chinese syllables with a low K-C rate. These results provide useful guidelines for teaching Korean to L1 Chinese speakers.
Pedagogical Implications: The present study suggests that Chinese L1 speakers who learn Korean as an L2 need to pay more attention to the Sino-Korean words containing Korean syllables that have a lower K-C rate than 0.5. For example, the Sino-Korean word 분주(奔走) 하다 (Korean pronunciation: bun-ju; Mandarin pronunciation: ben zou) means to be busy with something. The first Korean syllable of the Sino-Korean word, 분(bun), has a low K-C rate of 0.14 to correspond to the Mandarin syllable ben. However, it has a high K-C rate of 0.86 to correspond to the Mandarin syllable fen. The same situation happens to the 주(ju) syllable whose K-C rate with the Mandarin syllable zhu is 0.47, 0.35 with zhou, and 0.12 with zou. If the word is unknown or unfamiliar to a Chinese learner, the learner may infer the word’s correspondent Chinese pronunciation as fen zhu or fen zhou, neither of which is correct. As a result, we suggest that more attention should be paid to the K-C pair with a correspondent rate lower than 0.5.
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