'모O다'(모르다)의 어원 분석

Etymological Analysis of 'morʌta'(morɨta)

Middle Korean Word 'morʌta' has been regarded as the compound word of which the components are an adverb 'mot' and an insert vowel or a suffix '-ʌ-', a sentence ending '-ta' by a few Korean linguists. But this analysis has some problems. In respect of morpholoy and phonology we can't understand why an insert vowel or a suffix 'ʌ' should be inserted between 'mot' and 'ta'. Also we can't understand how the meaning of an adverd 'mot' could be reduced from [not] to [don't know] by compounding. So I assert that 'morʌta' is consist of an adverb 'mot' and a verb 'alta'. We can have confidence of it by the phonological change from /t/ to /r/ and from /a/ to /ɐ/ and deletion of /r/ in front of some consonants. And we can prospect why a tone of 'morʌta' should be 'low-high' by the tone change rule in compound word and the tone of r-ϕ type verb.