"며칠"
Translation:a few days
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며칠 is not attested to be from 몇 일, in case anyone was wondering. The temptation to write out 몇 일, though, is pretty strong given 몇 초, 몇 분, and 몇 시, but it is officially considered incorrect. Perhaps someone bright will figure out the true etymology of the term one day and show us the morphemes that make up the word. Maybe it’s an older Chinese borrowing that became part of a fixed expression?
Wiktionary suggests it's actually from 몇+흘, the latter being an old word for 날 (day).
ㅡ → ㅣ is actually an attested sound change. Thats how 김 came from 금.
If 몇흘 is the earlier form, the modern word should be written as 몇힐 to keep with morphological principles.
It's not actually derived from 몇흘 because, while '흘' is part of 열흘 'ten days', we don't know the Old Korean reflex of Proto-Koreanic *\hoL; we only know of its Middle Korean reflexes. And the M.Korean ancestor of 며칠 is 며츨.
며칠 <-> 며칟날 : The two correct interchangeable ways Koreans use to ask the same thing. I’m not entirely sure which came first.
And here’s a wonderful video for explaining the origins of the word and why 몇일 is always wrong & doesn’t exist: It’s a YouTube link: /watch?v=oQW3oaQf9bM
Also found this on Twitter: '며칠'은 ‘며칟날’의 준말이며, 통시적으로 '며츨(몇[幾]+ -을[접사])'이 '며칠'로 변화를 겪은 것입니다. 여기에서 ‘-을’은 한자어 ‘일(日)’과는 전혀 관계가 없는 말입니다. #맞춤법 RT '며칠/*몇일'
며칠 <-> 며칟날 : The two correct interchangeable ways Koreans use to ask the same thing. I’m not entirely sure which came first.
Also found this on Twitter: '며칠'은 ‘며칟날’의 준말이며, 통시적으로 '며츨(몇[幾]+ -을[접사])'이 '며칠'로 변화를 겪은 것입니다. 여기에서 ‘-을’은 한자어 ‘일(日)’과는 전혀 관계가 없는 말입니다. #맞춤법 RT '며칠/*몇일'
I looked it up myself. The dictionary says “‘며칠’의 본말” and that the given etymology is ⟨며ᄎᆞᆺ날⟩ (⟨며ᄎᆞᆯ⟩+⟨ㅅ⟩+⟨날⟩). Given that the ⟨ㄷ⟩ is pronounced /ㄴ/ anyway, I’m surprised by the choice to use that spelling over either ⟨며칤날⟩ or ⟨며칫날⟩ or even just ⟨며친날⟩. It’s not like there’s a ⟨며칟⟩ as a separate entry in the dictionary.
Well, there goes the hypothesis that connects it to the 이틀-사흘-나흘-열흘 series… unless those words also somehow got the same abbreviation treatment.
Ooh, this version of Naver’s dictionary gives much more info than the Korean-Eng. I looked up 나흘 in that^ and it says it used to be 나을 whilst 며칠 was 며츨 which should be from (몇+을) - therefore giving us the same etymology for 나흘 & 며칠.
As for the 읈/읏/츬/츳 spellings - that were actually used before- I guess they just transformed naturally into 읻/칟 and then the overall pronunciation of the words changed.
I’m little unclear on whether there was an archaic character in the old spellings since Naver dictionary shows it differently.
