ㅅ

See also: 人, 入, and 八

ㅅ U+3145, ㅅ HANGUL LETTER SIOS ← ㅄ [U+3144] Hangul Compatibility Jamo ㅆ → [U+3146]

ᄉ U+1109, ᄉ HANGUL CHOSEONG SIOS ← ᄈ [U+1108] Hangul Jamo ᄊ → [U+110A]

ᆺ U+11BA, ᆺ HANGUL JONGSEONG SIOS ← ᆹ [U+11B9] Hangul Jamo ᆻ → [U+11BB]

㈆ U+3206, ㈆ PARENTHESIZED HANGUL SIOS ← ㈅ [U+3205] Enclosed CJK Letters and Months ㈇ → [U+3207]

㉦ U+3266, ㉦ CIRCLED HANGUL SIOS ← ㉥ [U+3265] Enclosed CJK Letters and Months ㉧ → [U+3267]

ﾵ U+FFB5, ﾵ HALFWIDTH HANGUL LETTER SIOS ← ﾴ [U+FFB4] Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms ﾶ → [U+FFB6]

Stroke order

Jeju

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s/
• Actual realisation:

  IPA^(key): [sʰ]

  IPA^(key): [s͈]

  IPA^(key): [ʃ]

  IPA^(key): [ʃ]

  IPA^(key): [ʃ͈]

  IPA^(key): [ʃ͈]

  IPA^(key): [t̚]

  IPA^(key): [n]

Etymology 1

Letter

ㅅ (s)

1. The Jeju letter, ㅅ.

Etymology 2

Cognate with Korean ㅅ (s).

Interfix

ㅅ (-s-)

1. genitive marker sometimes placed between a vowel-final syllable of the first constituent and a syllable of the second constituent when forming compounds, and also after a locative marker when attributing a noun.

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Korean

Etymology 1

The Hunmin Jeongeum Haerye, the treatise introducing the principles behind the Korean alphabet written by its inventor King Sejong in 1446, explains that this glyph was derived from the "outline of the incisor," reflecting the sibilant nature of the consonant /k/. Compare 人, the iconic representation of teeth in the Chinese character 齒／齿 (chǐ, “tooth”), originally a pictogram of a mouth full of teeth. According to Sejong, the letter ㅈ (j, “j”) was created by adding a stroke to ㅅ, because both are sibilants.

Gari Ledyard proposes that Sejong derived both ㅅ and ㅈ from the 'Phags-pa letter ꡛ (s). Ledyard gives evidence that Sejong was inspired by 'Phags-pa for the basic glyph forms, although he changed the shapes of the letters drastically in order to enhance the simplicity and rationality of his script, and the ultimate shape of the letters may indeed have been influenced by that of the speech organs (Ledyard 1997).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s/
• Actual realisation:

  IPA^(key): [sʰ]

  IPA^(key): [s͈]

  IPA^(key): [ɕʰ]

  IPA^(key): [ʃʰ] or IPA^(key): [ɕʰ]

  IPA^(key): [ɕ͈]

  IPA^(key): [ʃ͈] or IPA^(key): [ɕ͈]

  IPA^(key): [t̚]

  IPA^(key): [n]

Letter

ㅅ • (s)

1. 시옷 (siot, “siot”), the seventh jamo (letter) of Hangul, the Korean alphabet; the sibilant phoneme (/s/)

Derived terms

• ㅈ (j, “j”) (according to Sejong)

Etymology 2

From Middle Korean ㅅ (-s, inanimate or honorific genitive particle), from Old Korean 叱 (-s, inanimate genitive particle). Possibly cognate with the rare and ancient -s- genitive infix in Japanese, as in 春雨 (harusame).

Pronunciation

The actual underlying phoneme in Contemporary Korean remains disputed, although it was historically /s/ and is therefore written as such. The surface realization is as follows:

• After a vowel and before an obstruent: Tensing of the subsequent obstruent (prescriptively preferred), or [t̚]
• After a sonorant consonant and before an obstruent: Tensing of the subsequent obstruent
• Before a nasal consonant: IPA^(key): [n] (prescriptively preferred), or full assimilation with the nasal

Interfix

ㅅ • (-s-)

1. The saitsori or "genitive -s-", a marker used between the components of many (but not all) compound nouns, typically when the components have a genitive relationship or when the first component is attributive.

   칫솔 (chitsol, “toothbrush”) - from 치 (齒, chi, “tooth”) + ㅅ + 솔 (sol, “brush”), etymologically "brush of teeth"

   샛별 (saetbyeol, “morning star”) - from 새 (sae, “east”) + ㅅ + 별 (byeol, “star”), etymologically "star of the east"

   나뭇잎 (namunnip, “tree leaf”) - from 나무 (namu, “tree”) + ㅅ + 잎 (ip, “leaf”), etymologically "leaf of trees"

   바닷물 (badanmul, “seawater”) - from 바다 (bada, “sea”) + ㅅ + 물 (mul, “water”), etymologically "water of the sea"

   돌집 (doljjip, “stone house”) - from 돌 (dol, “stone”) + ㅅ + 집 (jip, “house”), etymologically "house of stone"

   안과 (眼科, ankkwa, “ophthalmology”) - from 안 (眼, an, “eye”) + ㅅ + 과 (科, gwa, “branch of study”), etymologically "study of eyes"

   물가 (物價, mulkka, “prices (of commodities in the economy)”) - from 물 (物, mul, “thing”) + ㅅ + 가 (價, ga, “price”), etymologically "price of things"

   강점 (強點, gangjjeom, “advantage”) - from 강 (強, gang, “strength, strong”) + ㅅ + 점 (點, jeom, “point”), etymologically "point of strength"

Usage notes

This morpheme can surface only in the following environments:

• After a vowel and before a consonant or /i/
• After a sonorant consonant, i.e. a nasal or liquid, and before an obstruent

If it is followed by /i/ or /j/, the interfix /n/ intervenes between the morpheme and the second element: hence 뒷일 (dwinnil, “later things”) is realized as [twinnil] rather than [twisil]. While the morpheme may theoretically also be present between obstruent consonants, its tensing effects are indistinguishable from the regular tensing of an obstruent when preceded by another obstruent. Therefore, its existence cannot be ascertained in those compound nouns.

The existence of the interfix in specific words varies greatly depending on age and location. Two compounds involving the same morpheme and with similar semantics may still differ in their use of the interfix: there is tensing in 비빔밥 (bibimbap, “bibimbap, a rice dish with mixed ingredients”) but not in 비빔국수 (bibimguksu, “bibim-guksu, a noodle dish with mixed ingredients”), despite effectively identical semantics. In Sino-Korean, compare:

• 불법 (佛法, bulbeop, “Buddha's law”) without tensing but 신법 (神法, sinppeop, “god's law”) with tensing
• 소수 (小數, sosu, “decimal number”) without tensing but 소수 (素數, sossu, “prime number”) with tensing

With compound Sino-Korean words, the interfix appears (in the form of tensing) only before certain hanja, sometimes even in non-genitive or non-attributive constructions. A leading hypothesis is that the interfix has a tendency to appear in Sino-Korean compounds which are still transparent compounds in modern Korean. For instance, 병 (病, byeong, “disease”) is tensed in 화병 (火病, hwappyeong, “sickness from frustration”) because Koreans perceive the word as a compound of 화 (火, hwa, “anger, frustration”) and 병 (病, byeong, “disease”). It is not tensed in 나병 (癩病, nabyeong, “leprosy”) because 나 (癩, na) in isolation is not a valid morpheme in Korean, and the word is therefore not perceived as a compound by Korean speakers. Nonetheless, a recent study notes that it appears impossible to posit any satisfactory semantic explanation that explains all cases of Sino-Korean tensing.

The extremely common word 거 (geo, “thing”) is always preceded by the interfix in genitive constructions, and 속 (sok, “inside”) is also very commonly preceded by it:

• 니 꺼 (ni kkeo, “your thing”) - from 니 (ni, “you”) + ㅅ + 거 (geo, “thing”)
• 일본 꺼 (ilbon kkeo, “something from Japan”) - from 일본 (ilbon, “Japan”) + ㅅ + 거 (geo, “thing”)
• 컴퓨터 쏙 (keompyuteo ssok, “inside the computer”) - from 컴퓨터 (keompyuteo, “computer”) + ㅅ + 속 (sok, “inside”)

Contrast with non-genitive forms, with no tensing:

• 차가운 거 (chagaun geo, “cold thing, something which is cold”)
• 속이 안 좋아 (sogi an joa, “I have a stomachache”)

However, these are usually analyzed as special allomorphs of these common words, rather than as the morpheme continuing to function as a true particle.

In North Korea, the morpheme is only pronounced and not written. In the South Korean prescriptive standard, it is only written under the following conditions:

• The first component of the compound word ends in a vowel
• At least one of the components is a native word, with six exceptions in which it occurs in entirely Sino-Korean words.

It is unwritten in other conditions. In practice, it is often omitted even when it should prescriptively be written.

The latter criterion did not exist in South Korea until 1988, and Sino-Korean words were also prescriptively written with the morpheme if the first element ended with a vowel:

• 잇과 (理科, itgwa), 홋수 (戶數, hotsu) instead of current 이과 (理科, igwa), 호수 (戶數, hosu)

This was deprecated in a 1988 spelling reform, except for six words which were excluded from the reform for unclear reasons, but certain officially deprecated spellings such as 갯수 (gaetsu) for 개수 (gaesu, “number”) and 댓가 (daetga) for 대가 (daega, “price”) remain widespread if nonstandard.

See also

For quantitative data on this morpheme in Sino-Korean compounds, including a list of tensing hanja and the percentage of words in which tensing occurs for each, see Appendix:Sino-Korean tensing.

References

• Iksop Lee, S. Roberts Ramsey (2000) The Korean Language, Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, pages 77—79
• 노명희 (2014) “한자어 형성과 기능 단위”, in Hangugeo uimihak, volume 43, pages 159—185
• 유경민 (2019) “어말 일음절 한자의 경음화와 사전 정보”, in Hangugeo uimihak, volume 64, →DOI, pages 85—106

Etymology 3

Sound-symbolic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [t̚]

Particle

ㅅ • (-t)

1. (colloquial) a sentence-final emphatic particle, most common among younger speakers

   가잣!

   Gajat!

   Let's go!

   힘내랏.... ㅜㅜㅜ

   Himnaerat

   Good luck :((

   (chatspeak)

   • 2019, 조광일, “생활 속 작은 실천이 지구를 살린다”, in idomin.com:

     따로 버려야 해욧

     ttaro beoryeoya haeyot

     You need to throw them away separately!

Related terms

• ㅂ (-p, colloquial particle connoting certitude)

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Middle Korean

Alternative forms

These are the prescribed orthographic variants of -ㅅ (-s) in Sejong's original vision of the Hangul script, represented in the very early texts Hunmin jeongeum eonhae (1446) and Yongbi eocheonga (1447) which were supervised by the king himself.

• (between obstruents) -ㅅ (-s)
• (between sonorants) -ㅿ (-z)
• (after -ㆁ (-ng) and before an obstruent) -ㄱ (-k)
• (after -ㄴ (-n) and before an obstruent) -ㄷ (-t)
• (after -ㅁ (-m) and before an obstruent) -ㅂ (-p)
• (after -ㄹ (-l) or any vowel and before an obstruent) -ㆆ (-q)

This reflects the allomorphy taken by the particle, discussed below. This proved to be very cumbersome in practice, not being fully implemented even in the two early texts themselves, and was abandoned almost immediately after Sejong's death. Virtually all subsequent Middle Korean texts uniformly use -ㅅ (-s).

Etymology

From Old Korean 叱 (inanimate genitive particle).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s/
• Actual realisation:

  IPA^(key): [s]

  IPA^(key): [z]

  Tensing of the subsequent obstruent

Particle

ㅅ (-s)

1. genitive marker used for an inanimate noun or for an honored animate noun.
   • 1446, Hunmin jeongeum eonhae:

     나랏〮말〯ᄊᆞ미〮 듀ᇰ귁〮에〮달아〮

     nàlá-s mǎlssòm-í TYÙNGKWÚYK-éy tàlGá

     The language of the country being different from China

   • 1447, Seokbo sangjeol, page 6:41a:

     부텻 모〮미〮 여러〮 가짓〮 相(샤ᇰ)이〮 ᄀᆞᄌᆞ샤〮

     Pwùthyè-s mwóm-í yèlé kàcí-s SYANG-í kòcòsyá

     The body of the Buddha having forms of many kinds

See also

• 의 (Yale: uy) (genitive marker for non-honored animate nouns)

References

• Lee, Ki-Moon, Ramsey, S. Robert (2011) A History of the Korean Language, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN
• 나찬연 (Na Chan-yeon) (2020) 중세 국어의 이해 [Understanding Middle Korean], Gyeongjin Chulpan, →ISBN