This paper has the purpose of looking into the characteristics of the Chinese character sounds found in the “Saseongtonghae(四聲通解)” by comparing them with related rhyme texts. Up until now, the researches regarding Saseongtonghae have been executed mainly focusing on the comparison with Chinese middle ancient tones(漢語 中古音) and Chinese rhyme texts. However, the focus was shifted to look further into the relative influence with the Korean Chinese characters’ sounds by comparing the two groups within the scope of this paper.
As such, the initial phonemes(聲母) of the Chinese middle ancient tones were arranged in the order of ‘ya y?n(牙音), she y?n(舌音), chun y?n(脣音), ch? y?n(齒音), and hou y?n(喉音) sounds’ for this study. On the other hand, the vowels were arranged into the 16 she(攝) of the hou y?n(喉音) and Saseongdeungja(四聲等子) to carry out the comparative research with the related rhyme texts. In the study of the initial phonemes(聲母), it was possible to study how the cheongeum(淸音) and the takeum(濁音) were reflected in the Korean sounds applied to the Chinese characters and also how the palatalization occurred through which conditions and process. As for the vowels, it was possible to speculate as to how the phonetic value of such sounds as ‘ㅸ’ and ‘ㆆ’ which were used in the final consonant came to be focusing on how the loss of the ru sh?ng(入聲) sound appears in the respective rhyme texts.
For the research of Chinese characters in the Saseongtonghae, the comparison subjects included the Chinese middle ancient tones, Donggukjeongun(東國正韻), Zh?ngyuany?nyun(中原音韻), Hunmongjahwae(訓蒙字會) and Jeonun Okpyeon(全韻玉篇). The Chinese middle ancient tones were able to be set up as a standard for the Chinese character tones/sounds because its traditional Chinese phonology structure was already established during the ancient Chinese period called the sish?ngq?y?n(四聲七音/four sounds seven tones) system. As for the Zh?ngyuany?nyun, since it is already reflecting the modern Chinese character sounds, it was a good reference in analyzing the 3 structures of ‘jeong-eum’, ‘sok-eum’ and ‘keumsokeum’ of the Saseongtonghae. The Donggukjeongun, Hunmongjahwae and the Jeonun Okpyeon all reflect the Korean sounds for the Chinese characters which enabled the in-depth investigative process of seeing how the Saseongtonghae influenced the Korean Chinese character sounds as well as the sound changes it evoked. It should especially be noted that the Hunmongjahwae is a record where the Korean Chinese character sounds were written down by the same lexicographer so it is expected that there will be even more cognizability in confirming the special characteristics of the Chinese character sounds and the Korean Chinese character sounds.