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영어

Kim, young ok. 2018. A study on o-row long vowels in Japanese language textbooks during the Chosun Dynasty. Language Information. Volume 26. 33-50. This study examines how students in the past learned and studied long vowel that has been relatively ignored in contemporary Japanese studies by focusing on o-row long vowels in Japanese textbooks between the 15th and the 18th century. The result compared with those of Chinese and Christian data. In the 15th century, open-mid vowel is written as ‘ou, au, oo', and 'o’, and close-mid vowel is written as ‘ou’. However, since the 17th century, open-mid vowel is written as only ‘ou’, which is the same as close-mid vowel is written. Since close-mid vowel is written as [oo]type, both ‘ou’ and ‘oo’ are used at the end of 18th century. Since Japanese textbook is aimed at teaching Japanese to interpreters at that time and helping them speak Japanese in trade and hospitality, I expect that o-row long vowels were supposed to be used strictly but there were no distinction between open-mid vowel and close-mid vowel of o-row long vowel throughout the data. This seems to reflect the actual phonology of that time, as seen in Chinese and Christian data. It seems to become a good example of contemporary Japanese language education. It is important to teach students to pronounce long vowel correctly. However, I think that it is the right way to pronounce naturally long vowel which changes according to the phonological environment.