이 글의 목적은 母音調和의 붕괴 과정을 音韻史的으로 해석함과 동시에, 母音體系의 재정립 과정의 動因을 밝히는 데에 있다. 모음조화의 붕괴 과정에 대한 기존의 通說과 文獻에 반영된 모음조화 붕괴의 실상 사이에는 적지 않은 차이가 있다. 특히 모음조화의 붕괴는 ①制約의 擴大, ②規則의 隨意化, ③異形態의 單一化라는 誘因이 작용하여 本格化되는데, 格助詞 및 語尾의 내부 음절 구조, 母音 사이의 대립관계가 모음조화 붕괴의 擴散에 영향을 미친다. 單母音體系의 재정립은 이른바 中性 母音 /i/ 및 半母音 /j/의 조음상의 견인력이 큰 영향을 미친 것으로, 단순히 ‘’의 非音韻化에 이어 일어난 前舌母音系列의 성립이라는 목록의 변화를 통해서 설명되기보다는 斜線的 대립체계에서 垂直的 대립체계로의 변화라는 對立軸의 변화로 설명되어야 한다. 이는 모음조화의 붕괴와 모음체계 재정립을 가져온 音韻史的 誘因이 동일한 것임을 의미한다.

On the Relatedness of the Vowel System Restructuring and the Declination of Vowel Harmony Han, Young-gyun The aim of this paper is to clarify the relatedness between the restructuring of vowel system and declination of vowel harmony rules in Korean. The Declination of vowel harmony rules seems to have three reasons, at least ; ① Expansion of contraints on the environments of rule application ② Change of characteristics of the rule, which means that the vowel harmonic rule was an obligaroy one originally but becomes an optional one ③ Morphological levelling, which means that the allomorphs of the grammatical morphemes which showes alternations through the application of vowel harmonic rule tends not to show alternation. It is also argued that the restructuring of vowel system, especially the phonemization of the front vowels such as /ㅐ/ /ㅔ/ /ㅚ/ should be interpreted as results of backward assimilation of front high vowel /i/ and jod. If we accept this observations, it comes to the conclusion that the restructuring of vowel system and declination of vowel harmony rules have the same phonological background.

On the Relatedness of the Vowel System Restructuring and the Declination of Vowel Harmony Han, Young-gyun The aim of this paper is to clarify the relatedness between the restructuring of vowel system and declination of vowel harmony rules in Korean. The Declination of vowel harmony rules seems to have three reasons, at least ; ① Expansion of contraints on the environments of rule application ② Change of characteristics of the rule, which means that the vowel harmonic rule was an obligaroy one originally but becomes an optional one ③ Morphological levelling, which means that the allomorphs of the grammatical morphemes which showes alternations through the application of vowel harmonic rule tends not to show alternation. It is also argued that the restructuring of vowel system, especially the phonemization of the front vowels such as /ㅐ/ /ㅔ/ /ㅚ/ should be interpreted as results of backward assimilation of front high vowel /i/ and jod. If we accept this observations, it comes to the conclusion that the restructuring of vowel system and declination of vowel harmony rules have the same phonological background.