Kim, young ok. 2018. A study on o-row long vowels in Japanese language
textbooks during the Chosun Dynasty. Language Information. Volume 26. 33-50.
This study examines how students in the past learned and studied long vowel
that has been relatively ignored in contemporary Japanese studies by focusing
on o-row long vowels in Japanese textbooks between the 15th and the 18th
century. The result compared with those of Chinese and Christian data. In the
15th century, open-mid vowel is written as ‘ou, au, oo', and 'o’, and close-mid
vowel is written as ‘ou’. However, since the 17th century, open-mid vowel is
written as only ‘ou’, which is the same as close-mid vowel is written. Since
close-mid vowel is written as [oo]type, both ‘ou’ and ‘oo’ are used at the end
of 18th century. Since Japanese textbook is aimed at teaching Japanese to
interpreters at that time and helping them speak Japanese in trade and hospitality,
I expect that o-row long vowels were supposed to be used strictly but there
were no distinction between open-mid vowel and close-mid vowel of o-row long
vowel throughout the data. This seems to reflect the actual phonology of that
time, as seen in Chinese and Christian data. It seems to become a good example
of contemporary Japanese language education. It is important to teach students
to pronounce long vowel correctly. However, I think that it is the right way
to pronounce naturally long vowel which changes according to the phonological
environment.
Key Words : o-row long vowel, open-mid vowel, close-mid vowel, Japanese
textbooks, Chinese data, Christian data, Japanese language education