AN OVERVIEW OF ISSUES IN THE VOWEL SYSTEM AND VOWEL HARMONY OF KOREAN

To discuss vowel harmony in Korean it is worthwhile to review vowel systems at several stages of the Korean language, beginning with the simple vowel system of Late Middle Korean. However, the establishment of this system has been a controversial topic. Three types of vowel harmony, i.e. horizontal, vertical, and diagonal harmony, will be discussed in relation to this vowel system. As most of the Altaic languages to which Korean seems to belong have vertical (palatal) harmony, it is likely that the ver­ tical system is agreeable to Middle Korean. However, because of the supposed vowel shift in Early Middle Korean a 'quasi-diagonal' but virtually 'vertical' harmony should be suggested. This type of harmony is typologically idiosyncratic and worth further study. Other issues in Korean vowel harmony include problems with neutral vowels and vowel harmony rules. Partial neutrality and preliminary formulation of vowel harmony rules are introduced. In addition, the aspect of vowel disharmony is also investigated. As an appendix, a claim that vowel harmony existed in Hyangga (old Korean song) is investigated in detail. It is concluded that it is not a good preconception to, claim that the old stage of Korean phonology had a more complete system of vowel har­ mony than the later. stage.