무슨

Korean

Etymology

First attested in the Gwonyyeom yorok (勸念要錄 / 권념요록), 1637, as Early Modern Korean 므슨 (Yale: musun), probably a hypercorrection of Middle Korean 므슴〮 (Yale: mùsúm) that was motivated by the adnominal suffix 은 (-eun) common in determiners.

Variants of 므슴〮 (Yale: mùsúm) with final ㅁ (m), e.g. 무슴 (museum) and 무삼 (musam), remained more common than 므슨 or 무슨 until the mid-nineteenth century and are still used by some older speakers of Gyeongsang dialect.

Pronunciation

(SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [musʰɯn]
- (file)
Phonetic hangul: [무슨]

Romanizations
Revised Romanization^?	museun
Revised Romanization (translit.)^?	museun
McCune–Reischauer^?	musŭn
Yale Romanization^?	musun

Determiner

무슨 • (museun)

(in questions) what, what kind of
무슨 일을 하세요?
museun ir-eul haseyo?
What kind of work do you do?
(in statements) a certain, some; some kind of
무슨 일이 있어서 못 왔어.
museun ir-i iss-eoseo mot wasseo.
He couldn't come because he had some sort of work [to do].
what kind of; used for emphasis in a rhetorical question.
내가 그 짓을 하면 무슨 사람이 되는 거겠어?
nae-ga geu jis-eul ha-myeon museun saram-i doeneun geo-gess-eo?
If I did that, what kind of person would I be?

Usage notes

뭔 (mwon) and 무슨 (museun) are both common in speech. In written form, only the latter is accepted.

Alternative forms

뭔 (mwon) – contraction
무신 (musin), 므슨 (meuseun), 무순 (musun) – southern dialectal
므슴 (meuseum), 무슴 (museum), 무삼 (musam) – Early Modern, sometimes in contemporary Gyeongsang

Related terms

무엇 (mueot)

References

이광호 (Yi Gwang-ho) (2009), “'므스'와 '므슥/므슴/므슷'의 의미특성 및 형태변화”, in Gugeo gungmunhak, volume 151, pages 35—57
장요한 (Jang Yo-han) (2013), “중세국어 의문사 '므스'류의 교체 양상과 단일화”, in Eoneowa jeongbo sahoe, volume 20, pages 235—259