Day: July 11, 2022

I found this aphorism in my book of Korean aphorisms.

아니    땐              굴뚝에 연기   날가
a.ni   ttaen          gul.ttuk.e  yeon.gi nal.ga
if-not make-fire-PART chimney-IN  smoke   go-out-SUPPOS
Do you suppose smoke comes out of a chimney if one doesn't make a fire?

This is the same as, and similar to, “There’s no smoke without fire.” The last word gave me some difficulty. The verb is clearly 나다 [na.da = go out, exit], but there is no ending -ㄹ가 [-lga] in my grammar. Then I remembered that there was a spelling reform sometime in the 70’s or 80’s, when the combination -ㄹ까 [-lkka] was a “fixed” spelling, introduced to match pronunciation. The archaic spelling would have been -ㄹ가 [-lka], which is the spelling still used in North Korea, though in both South and North the pronunciation reflects the faucalized version of the consonant [k vs kk]. -ㄹ까 [-lkka] is what might be called a “suppositional” ending. Korean philology is so exciting!