Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-12T23:27:05.509Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 7 - Vowel Harmony

from Part II - Phonetics and Phonology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2022

Sungdai Cho
Affiliation:
Binghamton University, State University of New York
John Whitman
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Get access

Summary

Chapter 7 deals with a longstanding controversy from both historical and theoretical linguistic perspectives. The chapter provides a description of Korean vowel harmony beginning with an overview of its historical and theoretical linguistic background. Middle Korean displays relatively rigorous patterns of vowel harmony; contemporary varieties show reduced but still complicated patterns that are confined to certain morphological contexts, as a result of historical changes. The description of Korean vowel harmony in this chapter is divided mainly into two parts: the relatively complete vowel harmony system in Middle Korean, and vowel harmony in contemporary (chiefly Seoul) Korean. The former provides an historical and typological overview of the productive MK patterns, while the latter focuses on the exceptions and variations of the remnant harmony patterns in ideophones and verbal inflections. The remainder of the chapter introduces a number of theoretical approaches, from early generative treatments to more recent Optimality Theoretic analyses.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Archangeli, Diana B., and Pulleyblank, Douglas George. 1994. Grounded Phonology. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Archangeli, Diana B., and Pulleyblank, Douglas George. 2007. Harmony. In De Lacy, Paul V., ed., The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 353–78.Google Scholar
Cho, Mi-Hui. 1994. Vowel harmony in Korean: a grounded phonology approach. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Ph.D. dissertation.Google Scholar
Cho, Mi-Hui, and Lee, Shinsook. 1997. Korean ideophone harmony in Optimal Domains Theory. Studies in Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology 3: 279–94.Google Scholar
Chung, Chin-Wan. 2000. An optimality-theoretic account of vowel harmony in Korean ideophones. Studies in Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology 6(2): 431–50.Google Scholar
Činggeltei, . 1959. Mongɣol kelen-ü baɣarin ayalɣun-u abiy-a-yin jüi ba üges-ün jüi [Phonology and morphology of the Baarin dialect of Mongolian]. Öbör Mongɣol-un Yeke Surɣaɣuli-yin Erdem Sinjilegen-ü Sedgül: Gün Uqaɣan Neyigem Sinjilekü Uqaɣan [Journal of Inner Mongolia University: Philosophy and Social Sciences] 1959(2): 196.Google Scholar
Činggeltei, . 1963. Mongɣol kelen-ü abiyan-u sistem [The Mongolian sound system]. Öbör Mongɣol-un Yeke Surɣaɣuli-yin Erdem Sinjilegen-ü Sedgül: Gün Uqaɣan Neyigem Sinjilekü Uqaɣan [Journal of Inner Mongolia University: Philosophy and Social Sciences] 1963(2): 184.Google Scholar
Clements, G. N., and Sezer, Engin. 1982. Vowel and consonant disharmony in Turkish. In van der Hulst, Harry G. and Smith, Norval, eds., The Structure of Phonological Representations (Part II). Dordrecht: Foris Publications, pp. 213–55.Google Scholar
Doak, Ivy G. 1992. Another look at Coeur d’Alene harmony. International Journal of American Linguistics 58(1): 135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dresher, Bezalel Elan. 2009. The Contrastive Hierarchy in Phonology (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 121). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dresher, Bezalel Elan, and Zhang, Xi. 2005. Contrast and phonological activity in Manchu vowel systems. The Canadian Journal of Linguistics / La revue canadienne de linguistique 50(1/2/3/4): 4582.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Beatrice L., and Hall, R. M. R.. 1980. Nez Perce vowel harmony: An Africanist explanation and some theoretical questions. In Vago, Robert Michael, ed., Issues in Vowel Harmony: Proceedings of the CUNY Linguistics Conference on Vowel Harmony, 14th May 1977 (Studies in Language Companion Series (SLCS) 6). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Han, Eunjoo. 2009. Vowel harmony in hiatus contexts in Korean verbal morphology. Studies in Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology 15(2): 341–60.Google Scholar
Hattori, Shirō. 1975. Boin chōwa to chūki chōsengo no boin taikei [Vowel harmony and the Middle Korean vowel system]. Gengo no Kagaku 6: 122.Google Scholar
Hayata, Teruhiro. 1975. A note on vowel harmony in Middle Korean. Gengo Kenkyū [Journal of the Linguistic Society of Japan] 68: 104–18.Google Scholar
Hong, Sung-Hoon. 2008. Variation and exceptions in the vowel harmony of Korean suffixes. The Journal of Sudies in Language 24(2): 405–28.Google Scholar
Huh, Woong. 1965. Kaykosinphan kwuke umwunhak [(Revised) Korean Phonology]. Seoul: Cengumsa.Google Scholar
Huh, Woong. 1985. Kwuke umwunhak: wulimal soliuy onul, ecey [Korean Phonology: The Present and Past of the Speech Sounds]. Seoul: Saym Mwunhwasa.Google Scholar
Hyun, Woo-Jong. 1992. Ceycwu pangen holsoliuy silhem umsenghakcek yenkwu [An experimental phonetic study of the vowels of Cheju dialect]. Seoul: Konkuk University Ph.D. dissertation.Google Scholar
Janhunen, Juha. 1981. Korean vowel system in North Asian perspective. Hangeul 172: 129–46.Google Scholar
Johnson, Robert. 1975. The role of phonetic detail in Coeur d’Alene phonology. Pullman, WA: Washington State University Ph.D. dissertation.Google Scholar
Jun, Jongho. 2018. Morpho-phonological processes in Korean. In Aronoff, Mark, ed., Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kang, Hijo. 2012. Diachrony in synchrony: Korean vowel harmony in verbal conjugation. Stony Brook, NY: Stony Brook University Ph.D. dissertation.Google Scholar
Kang, Sinhang. 1980. Kyeylim yusa Kolye pangen yenkwu [A study of Koryeo dialect in the Jīlín lèishì]. Seoul: Sungkyunkwan University Press.Google Scholar
Kang, Yoonjung, and Ryu, Na-Young. 2015. Variation in Korean vowel harmony and the emergent locality effect. Presented at the joint meeting of the ICKL (International Circle of Korean Linguistics) and the Harvard-ISOKL (International Symposium on Korean Linguistics), University of Chicago, USA.Google Scholar
Kaun, Abigail Rhoades. 1995. The typology of rounding harmony: an Optimality Theoretic approach. Los Angeles: UCLA Ph.D. dissertation.Google Scholar
Kaun, Abigail Rhoades. 2004. The Typology of Rounding Harmony. Phonetically Based Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 87116.Google Scholar
Kenstowicz, Michael J. 1979. Chukchee vowel harmony and epenthesis. In Clyne, Paul R., Hanks, William F., and Hofbauer, Carol, eds., The Elements: A Parasession on Linguistic Units and Levels (Including Papers from the Conference on Non-Slavic Languages of the USSR). Chicago, IL: Chicago Linguistic Society, University of Chicago, pp. 402–12.Google Scholar
Kim, Cha-Gyun. 1984. 15 seyki kwukeuy tanmoum cheykyey [Monophthong system of the 15th century Korean]. Saykyel pakthaykwen sensayng hwakapkinyemnonchong. Busan: Ceyil Mwunhwasa.Google Scholar
Kim, Cha-Gyun. 1985. Hwunmincengum haylyeyuy moumcheykyey [Vowel system of Hunminjeongeum Haerye]. Senotang kimhyengki sensayng phalcilkinyem kwukehak nonchong. Seoul: Changhaksa.Google Scholar
Kim, Cha-Gyun. 1995. Hye okulimkwa wulimal holsoli ewullimuy eceywa onul [Tongue contraction and the past and present of vowel harmony in Korean]. Hangeul 229: 2179.Google Scholar
Kim, Chin-Wu. 1973. Adjustment rules in phonology. In Kenstowicz, Michael J. and Kisseberth, Charles W., eds., Issues in Phonological Theory. The Hague and Paris: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 130–44.Google Scholar
Kim, Jong Shil. 2007. Vowel harmony in Korean verbs. Studies in Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology 13(3): 433–51.Google Scholar
Kim, Jong-Kyoo. 2000. Quantity-sensitivity and feature-sensitivity of vowels: a constraint-based approach to Korean vowel phonology. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Ph.D. dissertation.Google Scholar
Kim, Juwon. 1988. Moumcohwawa selchwuk: Hwunminjengum haylyeyuy selchwukey tayhaye [Vowel harmony and “selchwuk”: On the tongue retraction in Hunminjeongeum]. Eoneohag [Journal of the Linguistic Society of Korea] 9/10: 2948.Google Scholar
Kim, Juwon. 1993. Moumcohwauy yenkwu [A Study on Vowel Harmony in Korean]. Kyeungsan [Gyeongsan]. Seoul: Yeungnam University Press.Google Scholar
Kim, Juwon. 1999. Selkunhwuchwukkwa selkuncencin [RTR and ATR]. Eneuy yeksa [History of Languages: In Honor of Professor Baeg-in Seong]. Seoul: Thaehaksa, pp. 311–41.Google Scholar
Kim, Pang-Han. 1964. Kwukemoumcheykyeyuy pyentongey kwanhan kochal [On the reconstruction of the vocalic system of Middle Korean]. Tong-A Mwunhwa 2: 2980.Google Scholar
Kim, Wan-Jin. 1963. kwuke moumcheykyeyuy sinkochal [An investigation of Korean vowel system]. Cintanhakpo 24: 6399.Google Scholar
Kim, Wan-Jin. 1971. umwun hyensangkwa hyengthayloncek ceyyak [Phonological phenomena and morphological restrictions]. Journal of the National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Korea (Humanties and Social Sciences) 10: 116–42.Google Scholar
Kim, Wan-Jin. 1978. moumcheykyeywa moumcohwaey tayhan panseng [Reflections on the vowel system and vowel harmony of Korean]. Language Research 14(2): 127–39.Google Scholar
Kim, Wan-Jin. 1996. kotaykwukeuy moumcohwaey tayhan ilkochal [A study on vowel harmony in Old Korean]. umwunkwa mwunca [Phonemes and Graphemes]. Seoul: Shin-gu Publishing, pp. 99107.Google Scholar
Kim, Young Song. 1977. Hwunmincengumuy “selchwuk” cacil [The feature “tongue contraction” in Hunminjeongeum]. Eoneohag [Journal of the Linguistic Society of Korea] 2: 157–66.Google Scholar
Kim, Young-Jin. 1990. moeum cheykyey [Vowel system]. In Kwuke Yenkwuhoy of Seoul National University, ed., kwuke yenkwu etikkaci wassna [The current status of the study of the Korean language]. Seoul: Tong-A Chwulphansa, pp. 5567.Google Scholar
Kim, Young-Seok. 1984. Aspects of Korean morphology. Austin, TX: University of Texas at Austin Ph.D. dissertation.Google Scholar
Kim, Young-Seok. 1988. Ideophones in Korean: A nonlinear analysis. In The Linguistic Society of Korea, ed., Linguistics in the Morning Calm 2: Selected Papers from SICOL-1986. Seoul: Hanshin Publishing Company, pp. 443–66.Google Scholar
Kim-Renaud, Young-Key. 1976. Semantic features in phonology: evidence from vowel harmony in Korean. Chicago Linguistic Society 12: 397412.Google Scholar
Ko, Seongyeon. 2010. Cwungseykwuke moumcheykyeyui taylip wikyeywa ku pyenhwa [Contrastive hierarchy and its change in the Middle Korean vowel system]. Eoneohag [Journal of the Linguistic Society of Korea] 56: 87118.Google Scholar
Ko, Seongyeon. 2013. The end of the Korean vowel shift controversy. Korean Linguistics 15(2): 199221.Google Scholar
Ko, Seongyeon. 2018. Tongue Root Harmony and Vowel Contrast in Northeast Asian Languages (Turcologica 112). Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.Google Scholar
Ko, Seongyeon. 2020. Hankwuke moumchwuiseley tayhan piphancek conghapcek kochal [A critical and comprehensive review of the Korean Vowel Shift hypothesis]. Hangeul 329: 617–54.Google Scholar
Ko, Seongyeon, Joseph, Andrew, and Whitman, John. 2014. Comparative consequences for a tongue root harmony analysis for proto-Tungusic, proto-Mongolic, and proto-Korean. In Bisang, Walter and Robbeets, Martine Irma, eds., Paradigm Change: In the Transeurasian Languages and Beyond (Studies in Language Companion Series (SLCS)). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 141–76.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, Peter. 1964. A Phonetic Study of West African Languages: An Auditory-Instrumental Survey (West African Language Monographs 1). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Larsen, Darrell, and Heinz, Jeffrey. 2012. Neutral vowels in sound-symbolic vowel harmony in Korean. Phonology 29: 433–64.Google Scholar
Lee, Byung-Gun. 1985. Moum cohwauy thukseng [Some tangible properties of vowel harmony]. Inmwunnonchong [Seoul National University Journal of Humanities] 15: 336.Google Scholar
Lee, Duck-Young. 1994. Korean vowel harmony: ATR-harmony. Hangeul 223: 157–99.Google Scholar
Lee, Hyunbok. 1989. hankwukeuy phyocwunpalum [The standard pronunciation of Korean]. Seoul: Kyoyuk kwahaksa.Google Scholar
Lee, Jin-Seong. 1992. Phonology and sound symbolism of Korean ideophones. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Ph.D. dissertation.Google Scholar
Lee, Ki-Moon. 1964. Mongolian loan-words in Middle Korean. Ural-altaische Jahrbücher 35: 188–97.Google Scholar
Lee, Ki-Moon. 1972a. Kwukesa kaysel [Outline of the History of the Korean Language], 2nd edition. Seoul: Tower Press.Google Scholar
Lee, Ki-Moon. 1972b. Kwuke umwunsa yenkwu [A Study of the Phonological History of Korean]. Seoul: Hankwuk Mwunhwa Yenkwuso.Google Scholar
Lee, Ki-Moon. 1978. 16seyki kwukeuy yenkwu [A study of 16th century Korean]. Seoul: Tower Press.Google Scholar
Lee, Ki-Moon, and Ramsey, S. Robert. 2011. A History of the Korean Language. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, Pyong-Geun. 1970. Kyengkiciyekeuy moumcheykyeywa piwenswunmoumhwa [The vowel system of Kyeongki regional dialect and delabialization]. Tong-A Mwunhwa 9: 151–67.Google Scholar
Lee, Sung-Nyong. 1940. ‘·’-umko [On the sound of ‘·’ in the Korean alphabet]. Cintanhakpo 12: 1106.Google Scholar
Lee, Sung-Nyong. 1949. Study of vowel harmony in the Korean language. Cintanhakpo 16: 7115.Google Scholar
Lee, Yongsung. 1993. Topics in the vowel phonology of Korean. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Ph.D. dissertation.Google Scholar
Li, Bing. 1996. Tungusic Vowel Harmony: Description and Analysis (HIL Dissertations 18). Dordrecht: Holland Institute of Generative Linguistics.Google Scholar
Martin, Samuel Elmo. 2000. How have Korean vowels changed through time? In Ree, Joe J., ed., Korean Linguistics [Journal of the International Circle of Korean Linguistics] 10: 160.Google Scholar
McCarthy, John J. 1983. Phonological Features and Morphological Structure. The Interplay of Phonology, Morphology, and Syntax. Chicago, IL: Chicago Linguistic Society, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Miller, Roy Andrew. 1971. Japanese and the Other Altaic Languages (History and Structure of Languages). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Moon, Yang-Soo. 1974. A phonological history of Korean. Austin, TX: University of Texas at Austin Ph.D. dissertation.Google Scholar
Nam, Phunghyun. 1993. cwungseykwukeuy uysenguythaye [Onomatopoeic and mimetic words in Middle Korean]. Saykwukesaynghwal 3(2); 93115.Google Scholar
Nevins, Andrew. 2010. Locality in Vowel Harmony (Linguistic Inquiry Monograph 55). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Novikova, Klavdija A. 1960. Ocherki dialektov Evenskogo jazyka: ol’skij govor, volume 1. Leningrad: Nauka.Google Scholar
Oh, Kwang-Keun. 1993. 15seki cengum mwunhene nathananun moum iphoki yenkwu [A study of misspellings in the 15th century “cengum” texts]. Sengkyunemwunyenkwu 29: 185201.Google Scholar
Oh, Sang-Suk. 1998. The Korean Vowel Shift revisited. Language Research 34(2): 445–63.Google Scholar
Park, Jong-Hee. 1983. Kwuke umwunlon yenkwu [A Study on Korean Phonology]. Iri: Wonkwang University Press.Google Scholar
Park, Jong-Hee. 1994. Cwunglipmoum /i/-uy poncilkwa moumcohwa [The nature of the neutral vowel /i/ and vowel harmony]. In nonchongkanhayngwiwenhoy (ed.), Wulimal yenkwuuy saymthe. Daejeon: Mwunkyeng Press, pp. 134–53.Google Scholar
Park, Jong-Hee. 2002. Cwungsengmoum /i/-uy thwumyengsengkwa pwulthwumyengseng [The transparency and opacity of the neutral vowel /i/ in Middle Korean]. Hangeul 257: 71101.Google Scholar
Park, Jong-Hee, and Kwon, Pyong-Ro. 2009. Moumcheykyeyuy pyenchenkwa cacilkyelhap coken [The change of vowel system and featural combination conditions in Middle Korean]. Kwukemwunhak 47: 3761.Google Scholar
Poppe, Nicholas N. 1960. Vergleichende Grammatik der altaischen Sprachen. Teil I. Vergleichende Lautlehre [Comparative Grammar of the Altaic languages, Part 1: Comparative Phonology]. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.Google Scholar
Ramstedt, Gustaf John. 1952. Einführung in die altaische Sprachwissenschaft I-III. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura.Google Scholar
Robbeets, Martine Irma. 2005. Is Japanese Related to Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic? Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.Google Scholar
Rose, Sharon, and Walker, Rachel. 2011. Harmony systems. In Goldsmith, John, Riggle, Jason, and Yu, Alan C. L., eds., The Handbook of Phonological Theory, 2nd edition. Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 240–90.Google Scholar
Sasa, Tomomasa. 2009. Treatment of vowel harmony in optimality theory. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Iowa.Google Scholar
Sohn, Ho-min. 1999. The Korean Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sohn, Hyang-Sook. 1987. Underspecification in Korean phonology. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Starostin, Sergei Anatolyevich. 1991. Altajskaja problema i proisxoždenie japonskogo jazyka. Moskva: Nauka.Google Scholar
Stewart, John M. 1967. Tongue root position in Akan vowel harmony. Phonetica 16: 185204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Svantesson, Jan-Olof. 1985. Vowel harmony shift in Mongolian. Lingua 67(4): 283327. doi:10.1016/0024-3841(85)90002-6.Google Scholar
Svantesson, Jan-Olof, Tsendina, Anna, Karlsson, Anastasia Mukhanova, and Vivan, Franzén. 2005. The Phonology of Mongolian. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
van der Hulst, Harry. 2018. Asymmetries in Vowel Harmony: A Representational Account. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
van der Hulst, Harry, and Jeroen, van de Weijer. 1995. Vowel harmony. In Goldsmith, John A., ed., The Handbook of Phonological Theory, 1st edition. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 495534.Google Scholar
Vaux, Bert. 2009. [atr] and [back] harmony in the Altaic languages. In Tatevosov, Sergei, ed., Investigations into Formal Altaic Linguistics: Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Altaic Formal Linguistics (WAFL 3). Moscow: MAKS Press, pp. 5067.Google Scholar
Vovin, Alexander. 2000. On the Great Vowel Shift in Middle Korean and position of stress in Proto-Korean. In Ree, Joe J., ed., Korean Linguistics [Journal of the International Circle of Korean Linguistics] 10: 6178.Google Scholar
Walker, Rachel. 2012. Vowel harmony in Optimality Theory. Language and Linguistics Compass 6(9): 575–92.Google Scholar
Whitman, John. 2015. Old Korean. In Brown, Lucien and Yeon, Jaehoon, eds., The Handbook of Korean Linguistics. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell, pp. 419–38.Google Scholar
Zhang, Xi. 1996. Vowel systems of the Manchu-Tungus languages of China. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Ph.D. dissertation.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Vowel Harmony
  • Edited by Sungdai Cho, Binghamton University, State University of New York, John Whitman, Cornell University, New York
  • Book: The Cambridge Handbook of Korean Linguistics
  • Online publication: 30 September 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108292351.008
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Vowel Harmony
  • Edited by Sungdai Cho, Binghamton University, State University of New York, John Whitman, Cornell University, New York
  • Book: The Cambridge Handbook of Korean Linguistics
  • Online publication: 30 September 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108292351.008
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Vowel Harmony
  • Edited by Sungdai Cho, Binghamton University, State University of New York, John Whitman, Cornell University, New York
  • Book: The Cambridge Handbook of Korean Linguistics
  • Online publication: 30 September 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108292351.008
Available formats
×