-습니까

Korean

Alternative forms
  • ㅂ니까 (-mnikka) — after vowels or ㄹ (l)
  • 습나이까 (-seumnaikka), ㅂ나이까 (-mnaikka) — archaic

Etymology

Formed by a merger of the Middle Korean verbal suffixes ᄉᆞᆸ〯 (Yale: -sǒp-, object honorific) + ᄂᆞ〮 (Yale: -nó-, present tense marker) + ᅌᅵᆺ (Yale: -ngìs-, addressee honorific for questions) + 가〮 (Yale: -ká, interrogative mood marker).

The allomorph ㅂ니까 (-mnikka) after sonorants represents the fact that the Middle Korean object honorific ᄉᆞᆸ〯 (Yale: -sǒp-) had the allomorph ᅀᆞᆸ〯 (-zǒp-) after sonorants, which became simply ㅂ (-b-) after Middle Korean /z/ was (almost) unconditionally deleted in the sixteenth century.

The modern form only emerged in the nineteenth century, in the form 습나이까 (-seumnaikka) (then written ᄉᆞᆸᄂᆞ잇가 (-seumnaikka)).[1]

Pronunciation
Romanizations
Revised Romanization?seumnikka
Revised Romanization (translit.)?seubni'kka
McCune–Reischauer?ssŭmnikka
Yale Romanization?qsupni.kka

Suffix

습니까 • (-seumnikka)

  1. Interrogative suffix for sentence-final verbs in the 하십시오체 (hasipsioche, “formal polite”) speech level.
    서울은 오늘 춥습니까? ― Seour-eun oneul chupseumnikka? ― Is Seoul cold today?

Derived terms

References
  1. 장윤희 [jang'yunhui] (2012) “국어 종결어미의 통시적 변화와 쟁점 [gugeo jonggyeoreomiui tongsijeok byeonhwawa jaengjeom, A general survey of diachronic change of Korean sentence-terminating endings]”, in Gugeosa yeon'gu, volume 14, pages 63—99
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