이 글에서는 몽골어와 한국어의 움라우트 현상을 비교 대조하여 양 언어에서 나타나는 이 음운 현상에 대해서 더 깊은 이해를 도모하고자 한다. 몽골어가 비교언어학적 관점에서 국어와 비교되기 시작한 이래에 두 언어간에 보이는 유사성에 관해서 적지 않은 연구가 이루어졌다. 그러나 이러한 연구는 주로 어휘와 문법 형태소를 대상으로 하여 이루어졌으며 이러한 연구를 통하여 국어와 몽골어의 친근성이 증명되었다고 할 수 있을 만큼 질적, 양적인 면에서 풍부한 예는 발견되지 않았다. 이러한 결과는 국어와 몽골어가 친근 관계가 없이 우연히 유사한 형태가 발견되었기 때문일 수도 있고, 친근 관계가 있다고 하더라도 그 관계가 매우 먼 관계이기 때문일 수도 있다. 이 글에서는 종래의 연구 방법과는 달리 이들 양 언어에서 동일하게 일어난 음운 현상의 하나인 움라우트를 고찰하여 유사성과 차이점을 밝히는 연구를 하려고 한다. 이와 같이 하는 것은 첫째 지역언어학의 관점에서 동북아시아 지역에서 쓰이는 언어들에 대한 연구이기도 하고 둘째 이러한 유사한 음운 현상이 `동일 계통의 언어는 유사하게 변화 발달한다`라는 전통적인 역사언어학의 관점에서 고찰해 봄으로써 국어의 계통 연구에 직접 간접적으로 기여할 수 있다고 보기 때문이다.

In this article I will provide a contrastive study of umlaut patterns observed in Mongolian and Korean whose genetic relatedness is still under study. It will be shown that the two languages have a phonological rule which display a lot of similarities. 1. Umlaut in Mongolian In most dialects of Mongolian, umlaut is observed. But the type and extent of umlaut differ from one dialect to another. In this article I will deal with the dialect of Inner Mongolian, mainly Bagarin dialect (Qinggeltei 1959). Umlaut is a rule in which a non-initial i changes a preceding back vowel to its front counterpart. Its examples are shown below: 부호 These examples may lead us to establish a following somewhat simplified version of Mongolian Umlaut rule (diachronic rule): [+syllabic] →[-back] / _ [-syllabic, -palatal] i As a result of the Umlaut, three front vowels have been phonologized. The Mongolian vowel system is composed of eleven short vowels and their long counterparts, thus, twenty two vowels in total. The short vowel phonemes are shown below: 부호 2. Umlaut(Regressive assimilation of i) in Korean In most dialects of Korean, umlaut is observed. But the type and extent of umlaut differ from one dialect to another. The data of umlaut from southern dialect of Korean are shown below: 부호 The data show that every back vowel, a ○ o u i, could be assimilated by the following i. There is intervening consonant restriction; if palatal consonant is posed, umlaut is blocked (See cf. 1). There are apparent exceptions to this rule (See cf. 2), but these can be explained properly. First ○ has been undergone umlaut and after that the form was restructured. In the case of ○ the intervening consonant is not palatal. 3. Similarities and differences between the two languages There are similarities between the two languages: a. Umlaut is blocked if a palatal consonant occur between vowels involved in umlaut. This restriction seems relatively common. But it is not observed in some dialects. b. Umlaut is closely related to the monophthongization of a diphthong. Differences are as follows: a. In Mongolian assimilated vowels are only RTR (Retracted Tongue Root) vowels, that is, a ○. But in Korean not only Yang vowels but also Yin vowels are affected: a o ○ u. b. In Mongolian a vowel triggering assimilation, i, is deleted due to weakening of a non-initial vowel. In contrast, the trigger vowel survives in Korean. c. In Mongolian back vowels, which are targeted in assimilation, may be located in a syllable right before the trigger vowel i or an extra syllable may intervene between the syllable for the target vowel and that for the trigger vowel. In Korean, syllables for target and trigger vowels in assimilation must be strictly adjacent; no extra syllable is allowed in-between. 4. Proposals I will raise the following questions about Mongolian umlaut from the perspective of Korean historical phonology. a. In Korean, as Hangul, the Korean script system, reflects phonetic reality, we can often observe processes of some rule applications. It is generally acknowledged that due to the diachronic umlaut rule, some back vowels first became diphthongs ending with j. The diphthongs then got monophthongiaed. In Mongolian did non-initial i change back vowels to their corresponding front vowels Y ○? b. Korean Umlaut, which some scholar considers as regressive assimilation of i, has been observed since the 15th century. From when Mongolian umlaut has been observed? c. Generally speaking, Umlaut occurs in languages the vowel system of which contains a front-back distinction. In Korean, it seems that RTR distinctions in its vowel system were replaced by front-back in the 18th century. But most Mongolian scholars establish a RTR-based vowel system a la Qinggeltei (1959). How do we translate Umlaut in the system with distinct RTR vowels? More specifically, how do we relate the RTR distinction and the Backness distinction?