아사달

Korean

Etymology

Modern Korean reading of Hanja 阿斯達; further origin is unknown.

One hypothesis is that 아사달 (Asadal) is a compound word composed of asa + dal, motivated by an assumption of equivalence between the Chinese phonetic transcription 阿斯達／阿斯达 (Asīdá) and the word 조선 (Joseon) (朝鮮／朝鲜 (Cháoxiǎn) in Chinese). However, the etymology of 조선 (Joseon) is ultimately unknown, with opinions differing as to whether the word was created as a phonetic transcription or as a semantic calque (presumably of a foreign word). Furthermore, the reading of the Mandarin Chinese character 朝 (cháo) is identical to the reading when used to mean "dynasty," not with the reading when used to mean "morning" (which would instead be 朝 (zhāo)). However, the name of 朝陽／朝阳 (Cháoyáng) is read in the former manner despite 朝 (cháo) also meaning "morning" here.

However, the character 斯 (sī), which is used in modern Chinese languages mainly to represent the phoneme /s/ or /θ/ in word-final and preconsonantal positions when transcribing foreign words, has always had a sibilant (/s/) rather than an affricate like Korean (/ch/), as there are plenty of other characters better suited to transcribing the Korean sound. Dal might be the result of reading Chinese characters in the Korean way; if so, the original Chinese pronunciation at the time Asadal was originally recorded in historical texts could have been Asada, with the final syllable (-da) as a transcription of the Middle Korean word ᄯᅡᇂ〮 (stáh), Early Modern Korean ᄯᅡ (sta), Modern Korean 따 (tta) or 땅 (ttang), meaning "land." In this case, Asadal would mean "Morning Land." If, however, the final syllable is related to Goguryeo 達 (*tara, “mountain”), then Asadal would mean "Morning Mountain."

鮮／鲜 (xiǎn) also meant "mountain" or "hill" in ancient usage.

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [a̠sʰa̠da̠ɭ]
• Phonetic hangul: [아사달]

Romanizations
Revised Romanization?	Asadal
Revised Romanization (translit.)?	Asadal
McCune–Reischauer?	Asadal
Yale Romanization?	asatal

Proper noun

아사달 • (Asadal) (hanja 阿斯達)

1. (historical) Asadal (the capital city of the kingdom of Gojoseon)