自衣

Old Korean

Alternative forms

己衣 (alternative logogram)

Pronoun

自衣 (*SUSuy)

oneself
- c. 1170, Interpretive gugyeol glosses to the Avatamsaka Sutra, vol. 35, page 10:08:
  菩薩^隱自^衣以念^爲在尸丁
  *PWO.SAL-un SUSuy-lwo NYEM-ho-kye-l t-ye
  The bodhisattvas reflecting by themselves [said]
  (N.B. Gugyeol glyphs are given in non-abbreviated forms.)
- c. 1200, Interpretive gugyeol glosses to the Avatamsaka Sutra, vol. 14, page 06:02:
  法^乙以^良旀自^衣乙娛^是乎尸矣
  *PEP-ur PSE-kwom SUSuy-r CULK-i-wo-l to-y
  In using the Dharma to cause them to enjoy themselves
  (N.B. Gugyeol glyphs are given in non-abbreviated forms.)
- c. 1200, Interpretive gugyeol glosses to the Avatamsaka Sutra, vol. 14, pages 15:20—16:01:
  己^衣[有]^斗賜乎隱所^乙
  *SUSuy twu-si-wo-n PA-r
  What he himself possesses
  (N.B. Gugyeol glyphs are given in non-abbreviated forms. Characters in square brackets were ignored when read.)

Reconstruction notes

In Old Korean orthography, native terms with clear Chinese equivalents are usually written with an initial Chinese character (logogram) glossing the meaning of the word, followed by one or more Chinese characters (phonograms) that transcribe the final syllable or coda consonant of the term. In the case of 自衣, the first character shows that this is the native Old Korean word for “oneself”, and the subsequent character(s) show(s) that the final syllable of this word is *-uy. Because the semantics and the final phoneme(s) match, the word is conventionally reconstructed as *SUSuy, the ancestor of Middle Korean 스싀〮 (Yale: sùsúy). Note that the reconstruction was not necessarily the actual pronunciation. Rather, it should simply be considered as a method of representing an Old Korean form phonetically by using its Middle Korean reflex.

According to scholarly convention, the elements of the reconstruction which are not directly represented by phonograms are given in capital letters. This allows readers to identify what part of the reconstruction is attested and what part is applied retroactively from the Middle Korean reflex.

Descendants

Middle Korean: 스싀〮 (sùsúy)
- ⇒ Korean: 스스로 (seuseuro)

References

황선엽 (Hwang Seon-yeop), 이전경 (Yi Jeon-gyeong), 하귀녀 (Ha Gwi-nyeo), 이용 (Yi Yong), 박진호 (Park Jin-ho), 김성주 (Kim Seong-ju), 장경준 (Jang Gyeong-jun), 서민욱 (Seo Min-uk), 이지영 (Yi Ji-yeong), 서형국 (Seo Hyeong-guk). (2009) 석독구결사전/釋讀口訣辭典 [Dictionary of interpretive gugyeol], Bakmunsa, →ISBN, pages 259, 265