Etymology 1
From Middle Korean 나 (Yale: nà, “I; me”). Presumably existed in Old Korean, but cannot be ascertained because Old Korean pronouns were written with Chinese logograms that obscure the pronunciation.
It has been suggested since the 1950s that the basic Korean pronouns 나 (na, “I; me”), 너 (neo, “you”), and 누 (nu, “who”) (> modern 누구 (nugu)) were all formed from the same etymon via ablaut, which appears to have once been an extremely productive process in Korean, at some very ancient stage.[1][2] Given the very limited data on prehistoric Korean, this hypothesis cannot be proven for sure either way.
Possibly cognate with Old Japanese 己 (na, “I”, first-person singular plain (non-polite) pronoun); if so, generally assumed to be a Korean loan into Japanese given the scarcity of Ryukyuan cognates (Vovin 2010).
Pronunciation
More information Romanizations, Revised Romanization? ...
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Pronoun
나 • (na)
- I, me; the first-person singular plain (non-polite) pronoun
- Synonym: (humble) 저 (jeo, “I, me”)
- Antonym: 너 (neo, “you”)
- 나는 하늘을 나는 자동차가 빨리 발명되기를 바란다. ― Na-neun haneur-eul naneun jadongcha-ga ppalli balmyeong-doegi-reul baranda. ― I hope that flying cars will be invented soon.
- 내 (nae) — allomorph before the nominative marker 가 (-ga)
Etymology 2
From Middle Korean 낳〮 (náh); see the main entry for more.
Pronunciation
- (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA(key): [na̠(ː)]
- Phonetic hangul: [나(ː)]
- Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.
More information Romanizations, Revised Romanization? ...
Romanizations |
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Revised Romanization? | na |
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Revised Romanization (translit.)? | na |
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McCune–Reischauer? | na |
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Yale Romanization? | nā |
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Noun
나 • (na)
- (especially Gyeongsang) Alternative form of 나이 (nai, “age”)
Etymology 3
Modern Korean reading of various Chinese characters.
Etymology 4
Modern Korean reading of various Chinese characters, when in isolation or as the first character of a word. Word-internally, they are pronounced as 라 (ra).
Following a language reform in the mid-twentieth century, North Koreans pronounce these characters as 라 (ra) in all environments.
References
이근수 [igeunsu] (1971) “母音의 意味交替의 範疇中期國語를 中心으로 [Categories of semantic vowel alternation: Focusing on Middle Korean]”, in Gugeo gungmunhak, volume 54, pages 93—132
이근수 [igeunsu] (1975) “Ablaut 硏究 [A study of ablaut]”, in Eomunnonjip, volume 10, pages 85—100