압록강 명칭 考

초록

Amnokgang River is one of Top 3 Rivers of Korea and the longest river on the Korean peninsula. It also has very significant historic meaning. Nevertheless, the information on Amnokgang River we have is very rough and inaccurate. The most basic and representative case is its name. While about 10 names of Amnokgang River are mentioned in the encyclopedia in Korea, those names are merely the collection of diverse opinions insisted by people for a long time. The names of Amnokgang River were not basically investigated up to now and diverse names of Amnokgang River interrupted the effective discussion on the river itself. Thus, this study examined the stems, history and meaning of the names of Amnokgang River. In accordance with the literature review, ① the names of Amnokgang River can be classified into three categories; Majasu(馬訾水); Amnokgang(鴨綠江); Daechonggang(大摠江). ② Other names including Cheongha(淸河) and Arisu(阿利水) do not indicate Amnokgang River. ③ “Apdunokseol(鴨頭綠說)” meaning that the Amnokgang River was named because the whole river was green like a duck’s hair, which was accepted as the common view for a long time, and the insistence that the name of Amnokgang River was originated from Manchu were wrong. ④ It was commonly said that the Amnokgang River was one of World Top 3 Rivers along with the Yangtze River(長江) and the Yellow River(黃河). This study also demonstrated that it was not true. While this study failed to identify the meaning of ‘Amnok(鴨綠)’, it could narrow the scope of study by suggesting that the origin and meaning of the name “Amnokgang River” need to be investigated from the languages ‘Ari’, ‘Aru’ and ‘Yari’ called by people living around the Amnokgang River since the 7th century.

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