무슨
Appearance
Korean
[edit]Etymology
[edit]First attested in the Gwonyyeom yorok (勸念要錄 / 권념요록), 1637, as Early Modern Korean 므슨 (Yale: musun), probably a hypercorrection of Middle Korean 므슴〮 (Yale: mùsúm) that was motivated by the adnominal suffix 은 (-eun) common in determiners.
Variants of 므슴〮 (Yale: mùsúm) with final ㅁ (m), e.g. 무슴 (museum) and 무삼 (musam), remained more common than 므슨 or 무슨 until the mid-nineteenth century and are still used by some older speakers of Gyeongsang dialect.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA(key): [musʰɯn]
Audio: (file)
- Phonetic hangul: [무슨]
Romanizations | |
---|---|
Revised Romanization? | museun |
Revised Romanization (translit.)? | museun |
McCune–Reischauer? | musŭn |
Yale Romanization? | musun |
Determiner
[edit]무슨 • (museun)
- (in questions) what, what kind of
- (in statements) a certain, some; some kind of
- what kind of; used for emphasis in a rhetorical question.
Usage notes
[edit]- 뭔 (mwon) and 무슨 (museun) are both common in speech. In written form, only the latter is accepted.
Alternative forms
[edit]- 뭔 (mwon) — contraction
- 무신 (musin), 므슨 (meuseun), 무순 (musun) — southern dialectal
- 므슴 (meuseum), 무슴 (museum), 무삼 (musam) — Early Modern, sometimes in contemporary Gyeongsang
Related terms
[edit]- 무엇 (mueot)
References
[edit]- 이광호 (Yi Gwang-ho) (2009) “'므스'와 '므슥/므슴/므슷'의 의미특성 및 형태변화 [meuseu wa meuseuk/meuseum/meuseut ui uimiteukseong mit hyeongtaebyeonhwa]”, in Gugeo gungmunhak, volume 151, pages 35—57
- 장요한 (Jang Yo-han) (2013) “중세국어 의문사 '므스'류의 교체 양상과 단일화 [jungsegugeo uimunsa meuseu ryuui gyoche yangsanggwa danilhwa]”, in Eoneowa jeongbo sahoe, volume 20, pages 235—259
Categories:
- Korean terms inherited from Early Modern Korean
- Korean terms derived from Early Modern Korean
- Native Korean words
- Korean terms inherited from Middle Korean
- Korean terms derived from Middle Korean
- Korean terms with audio pronunciation
- Korean terms with IPA pronunciation
- Korean lemmas
- Korean determiners
- Korean terms with usage examples
- Korean interrogative determiners