Abstract
This article examines how English words pronunciations were transcribed into Hangeul (Korean letter) in Ahakpyeon, a multilingual lexicon which was originally written and compiled by Jeong Yakyong in circa 1804 and edited again by Ji Seokyeong & Jeon Yonggyu in 1908 with the addition of Korean, Japanese and English annotations for Hanja literacy education for children. It is revealed with many illustrations that English words pronunciations were transcribed into Hangeul in a systematic way that is based on close observation and profound understanding of both Korean and English phonetics and phonology: Firstly, broadly speaking, English voiced stops ‘b, d, g’ were transcribed into hapyong byeongseo ‘ㅅㅂ, ㅅㄷ, ㅅㄱ’, especially in word-initial position which were used for the so-called tense stops in Korean. This means that English ‘b, d, g’ were perceived and produced especially in word-initial position (sometimes erratically) as tense stops to Koreans. Secondly, English fricatives, most of which are not in Korean, were also transcribed into forms of hapyong byeongso again, but this time, as hapyong byeongseo in which o appears on the left side of the byeongso. Transcription of English liquids r and l into Korean is also achieved in a creative, witty and shrewd manner that makes use of positional variants of Korean liquid , that is, ‘으’ is epenthesized in front of a word-initial English ‘r’ but ‘을’ before Englis ‘l’.
Published Version
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