김치의 제조법과 명칭 변화에 대한 재고찰

A Review of the Change of the Name of Kimchi

Kimchi has been the most popular side dish in Korea for a long time. The word zu(菹) which is the Chinese ancient name of kimchi can be found in the 10th century's document in Korea. The simple method of preparing kimchi is found in the 13th century's poem, and it shows that kimchi was prepared by salting vegetables. The process of preparing kimchi in Sangayorok(山家要錄) written in the 15th century is similar to that of preparing zu in Jiminyaoshu(濟民要術) written in the 6th century in China in the meaning of needed. The name of kimchi originated from chimchae(沈菜). In the 16th century the phonetic value of '沈‘ in Korea was 'tim', but 'dimchae(딤채)’ was widelyused as well as 'timchae(팀채)‘. The books recording 'dimchae' were published for children beginners or commoners, but on the other hand the books recording 'timchae' were published for nobles or official interpreters. It proves that 'dimchae' was used in daily conversation and 'dimchae' was not. The phonetic value of '沈‘ in the 16th century was 'tim', but 'dimchae' was widely used, in stead of 'timchae'. What's the reason? There might be two reasons. The first reason is owing to the old pronunciation of '沈’. The sound of the word '沈’ in the ancient times was more similar to 'dimchae'. Secondly, the possible reason is the influence of Korean word 'dihi(디히). The archan word of ‘ji’(지), which means kimchi was 'dihi'. In the mean while, a word written in Chinese characters '沈菜‘ had been brought to Korea, and it had been read 'dimchae' instead of 'timchae' by the influence of 'di'(ㄷ) from 'dihi'.