우리 사전의 왜곡된 ‘언문’ 뜻풀이에 관한 연구 (Research on the Unraveling of the Distorted Meaning of the Word ‘Eonmun’)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한글학회
· 수록지 정보 : 한글 / 298호 / 51 ~ 105페이지
· 저자명 : 홍현보

초록

‘언문(諺文)’이란 말은 훈민정음 창제 때의 기록에서부터 나타나는 말인데, 그동안 국어학계에서 그 뜻에 대하여 많은 논란을 가져왔음에도 아직까지 명확한 정의를 내리지 못하고 있을 뿐만 아니라, 우리말 사전에서 그 뜻풀이가 점점 왜곡되었음을 파악하였다.
이 글은 우선 언문이란 말의 올바른 뜻풀이를 규명하고자 1차적으로 창제 시기의 <조선왕조실록>과 <훈민정음>의 기록을 살펴보았고, 아울러 15세기부터 19세기 말, 20세기 초까지의 문헌과 자료를 찾아 사용 실태를 살펴봄으로써 글 가운데에서 ‘언’과 ‘언문’의 쓰임새를 검토해 보았다. 이를 통해 왜곡된 풀이 ‘諺: 상말 언’의 발단이 어디였는지를 규명하고, 왜곡된 풀이의 근본 원인이 한자말 ‘언(諺)’의 뜻을 정확히 알지 못한 데 있음을 밝히기 위하여, 중국과 일본의 사전 풀이와 그 출처를 찾아 비교해 보았다. 이를 토대로 그동안 몇 차례에 걸쳐 달라진 ‘언문’의 뜻과 그 시대적 배경을 분석함으로써 오류를 바로잡아 우리 사전의 올바른 뜻풀이가 이루어지는 데 도움이 되고자 하였다.

영어초록

In order to accurately understand the word ‘Eonmun(諺文)’, Hunminjeongeum Haeryebon(with commentaries; Hunminjeongeum annexed with interpretations and examples), records of annals, interpretations of Chinese and Taiwanese dictionaries and the source of the literature were examined. As a result, the Chinese character ‘Eon(諺)’ was found to have originally been signified as a “word that people casually exchanged rather than a recorded word. In order words, unrecorded words of ancient sages, words before the recorded time, or words that were passed down orally”. Especially in China, the word ‘Eonmun’ was never used because the recorded form of ‘Eon’ was considered ‘Mun(文)’. The word ‘Eonmun’ was first introduced as King Sejong created Hunminjeoneum because not only was it the characterthat delivered the significance of the Chinese words, but also it was the most appropriately fitting word to ‘Eon’ as it described the major characteristics of Hunminjeongeum, that materialized the sounds of letters. Therefore, instead of calling it the name, it was mostly understood with the word ‘Eonmun’. People had used the word without even knowing the name Hunminjeongeum. Furthermore, Korean people who used the word ‘Eon’ without accurate understanding of the definition explained in the back of Jajeon [Chinese character etymology book] or at Seodang [Korean village schools] that ‘Chinese characters are excellent letters that enable the learning of Confucius while Eonmun is peasant’s letters that only peasants learn’presumably emphasizing the class discrimination by upper class based on blind authoritarianism and toadyism. Such incorrect interpretation of the word is not found in the annals of Joseon Dynasty.
Meanwhile, as a result of examining Korean dictionaries and Jajeon in the order of published dates, a change was discovered that the Chinese definition was maintained until the word was interpreted as ‘peasant’s language’ in the Korean Etymological Dictionary(1966) further distorting the word as ‘vulgar language, vulgarism, written form of abusive language’. These definitions retained the significance of ‘vulgarism’ as the meaning further continued to be distorted in the 20th century, slowly losing the new meaning of ‘the language that referred to written words of people’s language after the creation of Hunminjeongeum’ and the original meaning of ‘sounding letters that recorded words that were exchanged and passed down among people, in other words, referring to Hunminjeongeum’. Fortunately, it is known that the North Korean dictionary has profoundly interpreted the word ‘Eonmun’.

참고자료

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