반치음
Korean
Etymology
Sino-Korean word from 半齒音, from 半 (“half”) + 齒 (“tooth”) + 音 (“sound”)
Pronunciation
- (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA(key): [ˈpa̠(ː)ɲt͡ɕʰiɯm]
- Phonetic hangul: [반(ː)치음]
- Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.
| Romanizations | |
|---|---|
| Revised Romanization? | banchieum |
| Revised Romanization (translit.)? | banchieum |
| McCune–Reischauer? | panch'iŭm |
| Yale Romanization? | pān.chium |
Noun
반치음 • (banchieum) (hanja 半齒音)
- the obsolete Korean consonant ㅿ, representing a voiced fricative (reconstructed as /z/; later corresponding to Mandarin r-).
Usage notes
Sino-Korean readings originally with ㅿ include: 日, 人, 弱, 穰, 兒, 入, 如, 潤, 容, 扔, 熱, 若, 軟, 銳, 壤, 䓴, 葇, 儒, 緌, 袵, 橈, 刃, 絍, 撋, 汝, 二, 貳, 邇, 栭, 栮, 餌, 珥 and 輀. Although most of these characters begin with R- in modern Mandarin (e.g. 日 Rì, 人 Rén), this reflects later sound changes within Chinese itself: Middle Chinese /ȵ-/ developed into Mandarin /ʐ-/ or /ɻ-/. Middle Korean borrowed the earlier value and represented it with ㅿ as a voiced fricative, reconstructed as /z/. A useful comparison is the Korean sound law known as the 두음 법칙 (Initial Sound Rule), by which a word like 李 shifted from *니* to modern *이*. In a similar way, Chinese shifted its historical initial into modern Mandarin R-, while Korean preserved it differently. This explains why Sino-Korean words from 반치음 are reconstructed with /Z/, yet their Mandarin cognates start with R-.