On the Formation of ‘rʌ’ Irregular: Focusing on the ‘Nirɨda/Nirɨlda’

Abstract

This paper aims to study ‘rʌ(러)’ irregular of Modern Korean, which has gotten less attention than other irregular classes. The ‘rʌ’ irregular is a conjugation in which ‘irɨda(이르다), purɨda(푸르다), nurɨda(누르다)’ are combined with the vowel ending, which ‘r(ㄹ)’ is added, resulting in the conjugated forms that ‘irɨrʌ(이르러), purɨrʌ(푸르러), nurɨrʌ(누르러)’. The ‘rʌ’ irregular of Modern Korean is the irregular with different characteristics from ‘p(ㅂ)’ irregular and ‘s(ㅅ)’ irregular. Because the ‘rʌ’ irregular isn’t the irregular conjugation formed by phonological motivations such as the changes of phonetic value and phonological phenomena. However, there is a limit that cannot be specifically discussed the motivations of forming the ‘rʌ’ irregular in previous studies. Thus, this study discussed how the ‘rʌ’ irregular of Modern Korean was formed by which motivations and gone through which processes of diachronic changes. According to the data of Middle Korean, it can be seen that the ‘rʌ’ irregular was composed of only color-adjectives such as ‘pɨrɨda(프르다), nurɨda(누 르다)’ in the 15th century, and was added ‘nirɨda(니르다)’ the 16th century, finally formed. In addition, it could analyze that the ‘rʌ’ irregular was formed by the non-phonological motivation of the convergence between paradigms. As a result, it comes to have the possibilities to solve various problems related to the formation of ‘rʌ’ irregular.