Implementation means and general tendencies in traditional-historical principle development in ukrainian and korean orthography in xv–xxi cent.

Abstract

The article discusses the functioning of the traditional-historical writing principle in Ukrainian and Korean orthographic systems during the period from XV to XXI century. The main objective of this study is to analyze the means of implementing the principle into the spelling systems compared, to reveal the general tendencies, which appear in the formation processes of traditional-historical principle in Ukrainian and Korean languages in the XV–XXI cent. and to compare the results in order to determine isomorphic and allomorphic features in development tendencies of this writing principle in both languages..

Being the farthest from what the real sounding of the words is, the traditional-historical principle creates the asymmetry between the phonetic and graphic inventory and that’s why       attracts        special        interest        among        the        known        principles    of writing. It is gradually formed in the process of language and writing development and is based not on the sounding of the word, but rather on the external factors, which influenced this word in the process of development. Therefore, this principle appears where tradition prevails over linguistic reality.

The  traditional-historical  principle  is   implemented   into   the   Ukrainian   system   of writing while using the following means:

– Middle Ukrainian period (XV–XVIII cent.): 1) monographs ѧ, ɪ˫а, ю, и , Ѿ, ѥ, щ,

reflecting not the single sounds but the sound combinations historically formed;

2) monographs ѣ and ѫ, the phonetic values of which have already changed, but the graphemes continue to be used in the spelling by tradition; 3) stylized monograph ȣ as the variant of the digraph oy; 4) monograph и in cases it conveyed the sounds [ɪ] and [j]; 5) monograph ч when it reflected the sound [dʒ']; 6) the formation of the digraphs ы, оу, дж, дз, дч, чж, кг, which conveyed the single sounds; 7) functional graphemes, which do not represent any sounds, but are used traditionally to clarify other graphemes meanings (monograms ь і ъ); 8) original letters used in the loanwords when the sounding of the word is changed in the process of phonetic adaptation, but the spelling system continues to follow the source language spelling (monographs ѣ, ѧ, ы, ω, ɪ˫а, ѥ, ѫ in the borrowings from the Old Slavonic, monograph , ѵ, θ, s, ѯ, ψ in borrowings from Greek or Latin).

– Contemporary Ukrainian period (XIX–XXI cent.): 1) digraphs іо, ы, which represented the single sounds (only in ХІХ cent.); 2) monograph и, while conveying the sounds [ɪ] and [ji] (only in ХІХ cent.); 3) monograph е, while reflecting the sound combination [jɛ] (only in ХІХ cent.); 4) monographs ë, ї, є, ю, я, representing the sound combinations; 5) digraph ьо conveying a single sound; 6) functional graphemes ъ і ь; 7) digraph     цц     (in      XIX      cent.)      and      digraphs      дд,      тт,      шш      (XX-XXI cent.) depicting long consonant sounds;

In  the  Korean writing system traditional-historical principle  is implemented as follows:

1)  outdated monographᅀ in the XVII century reprints; 2) outdated monograph • [ᴧ] and digramᆡ [ᴧi] in the XIX century reprints; 3) monograph ㅅin patchim position to display the sound [t] during the Early Modern period (XVII-XIX cent.); 4) usage of digraphs (И?, ㅚ, ㅝ, ㅟ, ㅢ etc.), trigraphs (와, 외, 워, 위, И? etc.)  and  tetragraphs  (왜,  웨 etc.)  to  represent

simple                          or                           complex                           vowel                           sounds;

) usage of digraphs (ㄲ, ㄸ, ㄺ, ㄻ, ㄼ, ㄽ, ㄿ, ㄾ, ㅃ, ㅄ, ㅆ, ㅉ etc.), trigraphs (ㅴ, ㅩ, ㅵ

etc.) to convey simple or complex consonant sounds;

The results make it possible to come to the conclusion that the traditional-historical principle developed in both languages in waves. The frequency of usage varies in different centuries both downwards and upwards, but the general tendency is to reduce the amount of traditional-historical component in word spelling. These trends suggest a tendency towards simplification and phonetization of the writing, although the coefficient of the traditional-historical principle in Korean is twice as high as in Ukrainian. The prospect for further research is the study of the effect of this orthographic principle on the formation of the graphic level of writing system.