• Lingua Humanitatis
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• v.8
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• pp.291-313
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• 2006

Previously, studies concerning the Russian dialects have been mainly focused on northern, central, and southern dialects limited to western Russia of Ural Mountains. On the contrary, the Siberian and Far-eastern dialects have been completely disregarded to the main stream of the Russian dialectology. As a result of a poll concerning this idea, the majority has answered that there is no dialect in Siberian and Far-east regions. Though the reasons for the outcome of the poll could vary, it could not be simply accepted that there is no dialect in such vast regions. Thus, a survey has took place to examine the existence of dialects in the regions of Siberia and Far-east. The first phase of the survey inquired the residents of the regions including Siberia and Far-east to respond to questions regarding 83 vocabularies on wedding in contrast to the regions covering western Ural and Moscow. The 23 informants were residents of the concerned regions who have come to visit Pushkin National Institute of Russian Language and, others, Korea. The questionnaires used in this survey were partly obtained from the questionnaires originated by the Language Institute of St. Petersburg National University. Although the limited range of regions and a small number of respondents who partook in this survey could raise some issues on the table, it is relevant to understand that this study would open up the path for the development of studies concerning regional dialects in the future.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Language and Information Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.498-507
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• 2007

In this paper, I use Taiwan Southern Min, a dialect of Mandarin Chinese, as the data to argue that pseudo-cleft construction is derived from cleft construction.

• Lingua Humanitatis
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• v.8
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• pp.223-239
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• 2006

This paper centers around the etymological meanings of place names of the Kumkang region, restricting the discussion to a selected group of place names which make it possible to infer their cultural characteristics in the light of the latitudinal or longitudinal isoglosses. The legends of Komnaru and Choryongdae, for instance, derive directly from place names. Dialectal distribution is examined on the basis of the phonological features that are not very different between upper and lower reaches of the Kumkang river. The dialects get much more similar as they go further down to the lower region of the river. The original "Komanara(熊津)", also called "Northern Headland(北津)", underwent the sound change of Komannaru > Komkang > Kumkang(錦江), the last being alternatively abbreviated as Kum(錦). During the last half of the 14th century-around the close of the Koryo dynasty, that is-a literary work gave the beautified name "Nakhwa-am"(落花巖), meaning 'rock-bluff of falling flowers', to what was originally called Tasa-am(墮死岩), so-called because, in the year of 660 when the Paekje dynasty was being ravaged by the invading enemy, a number of court-ladies ended their lives by plunging into the river from there. It was 'a number of court-ladies'(諸後宮) who died; but by tradition of popular songs, the number has become "three thousand" - a case of hyperbole of course.

• MALSORI
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• no.38
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• pp.71-97
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• 1999

In this paper I have surveyed vowel phonemes in a variety of English accents and have proposed the vowel systems of English. The English accents covered in this paper include General American English, Northeastern American English, Western American English, Southern British English, Northern British English, Scottish English, Southern Irish English, Northern Irish English, Australian English, and New Zealand English. The vowel systems proposed here reflect the acoustic information of vowels and phonological aspects of English. This paper offers an Optimality Theory-based analysis of the English vowel systems by appealing to independently motivated constraints. This paper, following Flemming(1995), makes an assumption that the vowel system in question is selected in output as an optimal candidate by a given constraint ranking, the assumption which is different from the view that the vowel system is fixed in input. The analysis proposed here gives an answer to why a specific vowel system is selected and why dialectal variations come about. It is shown in this paper that the vowel system selected in a specific dialect comes from an optimal satisfaction of a given constraint ranking and that dialectal differences result from dynamic permutations of the same constraints. The constraint-based analysis proffered here accounts well for the similarities and differences among dialects in regard to the vowel system.

• Lingua Humanitatis
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• v.6
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• pp.169-183
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• 2004

So far I have reviewed the two controversial opinions of the North Korean and the South Korean linguists concerning the position of the Koguryeo language in the formation of Korean. Many South Korean scholars in favor of the Altaic Language Family Hypothesis argue that the ancient Korean language consisted of two different languages, one of which was the northern dialect including four languages such as the Koguryeo language (the largest one within the area), the Puyo language, the Okche language, the Yemaek language, and the other was the southern dialect, the largest language of which is the Shinla language. On the other hand, the linguists of North Korea claim that in Koguryeo and Shinla the same language was spoken and that modern Korean is formed based on the Koguryeo language. Before evaluating which of these claims is correct I would like to turn to the scarcity of the linguistic data of the Koguryeo language. Compared with the pragmatic methodology of the South Korean linguists in the studies on the Altaic affinity of Korean, the North Korean scholars need to present still more evidences in order to support their argument. In Chung (1993) I argued that studies on the genealogy of the Korean language or history had to be performed regardless of tile political purpose or for the purposes. We should admit the historical fact that there had been many tribal states in the Korean peninsula before the ancient Korean stage, those of which had been emerged to become three kingdoms. Those kingdoms were unified by Shinla, which was connected to Koryeo Dynasty. We cannot disregard the fact that the Korean language has been developed hand in hand with these historical process with those steps related with each age. The first thing we should do right now is to collect the remaining data of the Koguryeo language recorded in the old written materials, which have been found in North Korea as many as possible. Also, 1 hope that the linguists of South Korea achieve more academic success in the comparative studies of the Paekjae language, the Shinla language, and other adjacent Altaic languages.

• Lingua Humanitatis
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• v.6
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• pp.265-291
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• 2004

The main purpose of this paper Is to analyze the characteristics of the Korean language used as a major communication means within the Korean community in Chenguoz District of Harbin, Heirungjiang Province, China, in terms of its phonology, morphology and syntax. The study focuses on how a variety of languages and dialects including Chinese, the Standard Chinese Korean adopted as a means of teaching in Korean schools, and Kyongsang Dialect of Korean have influenced the language of the community. It also deals as background information with the history of the community, the attitude of the community members toward Korean and Chinese, and their proficiencies of Korean and Chinese, to obtain the general picture of the bilingualism of this community. This specific region was studied since this region and most of the Korean communities in the Heirungjiang province were formed by descendents of the immigrants from the southern provinces of the Korean Peninsula, which allows the comparison between the language used today and the language their ancestors used before moving to this area. Due to the industrialization and innovation brought about by the opening of the Chinese society, the fast outward flow of youths to urban areas, and greater assimilation threats from the embedding Chinese culture, we are not too sure if the Korean language will continue to be used in the future. Given these circumstances, we consider this research most opportune in that it provides a look into the Korean community that developed its distinctive culture and language within an isolated cultural environment.

• Lingua Humanitatis
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• v.6
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• pp.241-263
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• 2004

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the characteristics of the Korean language used as a major communication means within the Korean community in Chenguoz District of Harbin, Heirungjiang Province, China, in terms of its phonology, morphology and syntax. The study focuses on how a variety of languages and dialects including Chinese, the Standard Chinese Korean adopted as a means of teaching in Korean schools, and Kyongsang Dialect of Korean have influenced the language of the community It also deals as background information with the history of the community, the attitude of the community members toward Korean and Chinese, and their proficiencies of Korean and Chinese, to obtain the general picture of the bilingualism of this community This specific region was studied since this region and most of the Korean communities in the Heirungjiang province were formed by descendents of the immigrants from the southern provinces of the Korean Peninsula, which allows the comparison between the language used today and the language their ancestors used before moving to this area. Due to the industrialization and innovation brought about by the opening of the Chinese society, the fast outward flow of youths to urban areas, and greater assimilation threats from the embedding Chinese culture, we are not too sure if the Korean language will continue to be used in the future. Given these circumstances, we consider this research most opportune in that it provides a look into the Korean community that developed its distinctive culture and tanguage within an isolated cultural environment.