Terminal Suffixes of Spoken Korean in Soviet Korean Novels of Central Asia (1937-1991) = Terminal Suffixes of Spoken Korean in Soviet Korean Novels of Central Asia (1937-1991)

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This article investigates the terminal suffixes of spoken Korean used in dialogues in a collection of works of Soviet Korean writers entitled Today`s Light (1990), in order to define the changing aspects and characteristics of terminal suffixes of Korean spoken in Soviet Central Asia by comparing these conclusions with characteristics described in previous researches. Among the grammatical characteristics of Korean spoken in Soviet Central Asia, the terminal suffixes of the declarative sentence such as ``-bde`` of ``hao``(neutral speech level) style and ``-seukkuma`` of ``habsio``(high speech level) style; the terminal suffix of the interrogative sentence such as ``-seumdu/dung`` of ``habsio`` style; the terminal suffixes of the hortative sentence such as ``-ge/gio`` of ``hao`` style and ``-geb/gibso`` of ``habsio`` style are most remarkable. The following are the periodic characteristics of the terminal suffixes of spoken Korean used to express sentence used in Soviet Korean novels of Central Asia, based on our analysis. 1) According to the previous analysis of dialogues in the novel, Incident of a Hundred and Fifty Thousands Won (1964), terminal suffixes such as ``-bde`` of ``hao`` style and ``-seukkuma`` of ``habsyo`` style in the declarative sentence; ``-seumdung`` of ``habsyo`` style in the interrogative sentence; and ``-geo`` of ``hao`` style in the hortative sentence were common in the 1960s. In other words, terminal suffixes of Korean spoken in daily life were faithfully reflected in Soviet Central Asian Korean fictional dialogues. 2) Previous analysis of dialogues in the short stories by Soviet Koran writers collected in Sunlight of October (1971) confirms that terminal suffixes such as ``-seukkuma`` of ``habsyo`` style in the declarative sentence and ``-seumdung`` of ``habsyo`` style in the interrogative sentence fell out of use in the 1970s, while the terminal suffix ``-bde`` of ``hao`` style in the declarative sentence was used. That is, the terminal suffixes of Korean spoken in daily life by Soviet Koreans were not mirrored in novel dialogues in the 1970s. The situation of the Soviet Korean literary world at that time may be the cause. Kang Taesu, a writer who emigrated from the Korean peninsula to the Soviet Union in 1928, severely criticized the disorderly use of spoken Korean dialects throughout the novel in his review entitled After reading the Incident of a Hundred and Fifty Thousands Won in the Lenin kichi. Hence, Soviet Korean writers refrained from depicting spoken Korean for some time. 3) In comparison, analysis of dialogues in the short stories in Native Village of Happiness (1988) shows that the terminal suffixes such as ``-seukkuma`` of ``habsyo`` style in the declarative sentence and ``-seumdung`` of ``habsyo`` style in the interrogative sentence were again used in the 1980s. However, terminal suffixes such as ``-bde`` of ``hao`` style in the declarative sentence and ``-ge/gio`` of ``hao`` style and ``-geb/gibso`` of ``habsyo`` style in the hortative sentence fell from use. Usage of the terminal suffix ``-seumdung`` of ``habsyo`` style in the interrogative sentence in the 1980s can be interpreted as a reflection of the desire by Soviet Koreans` to recover their national identity, motivated by rising nationalism, affected by the Glasnost and Perestroika movements of the Soviet Union after 1985. 4) Analysis of dialogues in the collection Today`s Light (1990) reveals terminal suffixe ``-seukkuka`` of ``habsyo`` style in the declarative sentence still in use. However, most dialogues were based on the standard modern Korean of the Korean peninsula. The most important reason for the disappearance of terminal suffixes of spoken Korean in dialogues of these novels in the 1990s is that most of writers were political refugees who fled North Korea in the 1950s, and some works included in the collection were originally written in Russian and translated into Korean by these political refugees. In other words, most Soviet Korean writers deported from the Soviet Far East in the late 1930s had ended their literary creative output due to old age or having passed away.