머하노? 와 머하나?

[mə] in Gyeongsang Dialect

This study is designed to explain that, in Gyeongsang dialect, “머”[mə] should be divided into two different heteronyms. Gyeongsang dialect being also Korean, its difference can be explained grammatically. Semantically, [mə] has two readings: One is what or what thing, and the other one is something or anything even in interrogative sentence. Syntactically, co-occurrence constraint with a certain interrogative ending marker should be observed: What or what thing as interrogative pronoun co-occurs with interrogative ending marker /-no/, and something or anything as common noun co-occurs with interrogative ending marker /-na/. And, phonologically, [mə] has two different tones: What or what thing as interrogative pronoun has low tone, and something or anything as common noun has falling tone. Falling tone, being contour tone, is realized as a contour on intonation. Therefore, being spelled in the same way, [mə] in Gyeongsang dialect should be described as two different heteronyms, because it has different usage semantically, syntactically, and phonologically.