Introduction
There are four tones (四聲, 사성) in Classical Chinese: (1) plain tone (平聲, 평성), (2) rising tone (上聲, 상성), (3) departing tone (去聲, 거성), and (4) entering tone (入聲, 입성). It should be especially noted that these are not the same four tones of modern Mandarin. Although colloquial Korean is typically not tonal, Korean pronunciation of Chinese characters maintain these same four tones. In fact, most Korean Chinese character dictionaries, known as Okpyeon (玉篇, 옥편), do include the notations which tone each character is.
How do these four tones sound? Shi Zhenkong (釋眞空, 석진공, Seok Jingong, ?-?) of the Ming Dynasty (明, 명, 1368-1644) described them in the following poem:
玉鑰匙歌訣 옥약시가결
The Song of the Jade Key
平聲平道莫低昻 평성평도막저앙
上聲高呼孟烈强 상성고호맹렬강
去聲分明哀遠道 거성분명애원도
入聲短促急收藏 입성단촉급수장
A plain tone is plainly spoken, neither falling nor rising;
A rising tone is a high cry, with vigor and strength;
A departing tone is lucidly sorrowful and spoken to a distance;
An entering tone is short and quickly stored away.
The Hunminjeongeum (訓民正音, 훈민정음), which promulgated the Korean alphabet, describes these four tones allegorically, making allusions to Neo-Confucian philosophy [1]:
平聲安而和, 春也, 萬物舒泰.
평성안이화, 춘야. 만물서태.
上聲和而擧, 夏也, 萬物漸盛.
상성화이거, 하야. 만물점성.
去聲擧而壯, 秋也, 萬物成熟.
거성거이장, 추야. 만물성숙.
入聲促而塞, 冬也, 萬物閉藏.
입성촉이새, 동야. 만물폐장.
A plain tone is peaceful and soft like Spring, and all things blossom large.
A rising tone is soft and going higher like Summer, and all things gradually become flourishing.
A departing tone is going higher and becoming strong like Autumn, and all things achieve ripeness.
An entering tone is quick and obstructive like Winter, and all things stop and hide.
In summary, a plain tone is spoken leveled, without any rising or falling in tone. A rising tone is pronounced starting from a lower tone and ending at a higher tone. A departing tone is pronounced such that the tone dips in the middle. Finally, an entering tone is any character with a -k (ㄱ), -p (ㅂ), or -l (ㄹ) consonant ending [2]. A common Korean mnemonic for memorizing the consonants of the entering tone is guk-sul-bap (국술밥), which means soup-wine-rice.
Tones (聲, 성) should be distinguished from pronunciation (音, 음). For instance, 東, 動, and 洞 are all pronounced 동 (Dong) in Korean; however, the first is a plain tone, the second a rising tone, and the third a departing tone.
Notes:
1. Chosun dynasty scholars mistakenly believed that Korean was a tonal language. The Hunminjeongeum (訓民正音, 훈민정음) includes notations for indicating tones called side points or bangjeom (傍點, 방점). These were for not only notating pronunciations of Chinese characters but also for pure Korean words:
諺語平上去入, 如활爲弓而其聲平, :돌爲石而其聲上, ·갈爲刀而其聲去, 붇爲筆而其聲入之類.언어평상거입, 여활위궁이기성평, :돌위석이기성상, ·갈위도이기성거, 붇위필이기성입지류.
The vernacular language has plain, rising, departing, and entering tones. Likewise, Hwal (활) means bow and its tone is plain; Dol (:돌) means stone and its tone is rising. Gal (·갈) means knife and its tone is departing. But (붇) means brush and its tone is entering.
凡字之左, 加一點爲去聲, 二點爲上聲, 無點爲平聲…
범자지좌, 가일점위거성, 이점위상성, 무점위평성…
In general, left of the character, add one point (·) for departing tone, add two points (:) for rising tones, and no points for plain tones…
It is true that Korean has been historically a pitch language.
2. For Chinese dialects that have maintained the entering tone, such as Cantonese (廣東語, 광동어), the three consonant endings are -k, -p, and -t. In Korean, -t ending morphed to -l (ㄹ) sometime during the 15th century.
Copyright Notice This work by Kuiwon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. |