• Korean Linguistics
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• v.79
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• pp.63-89
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• 2018

This study explores contrastive relation among voiced bilabial fricative [${\ss}$], voiceless bilabial stop [p] and glide [w] in Middle Korean consonant system based on Probabilistic Model. Preceding researches about voiced bilabial fricative [${\ss}$] proposed two influential arguments. One is voiced bilabial fricative [${\ss}$] was an independent phoneme, the other is it was not an independent phoneme but an allophone of voiceless bilabial stop [p] in Middle Korean. This study applies Probabilistic Phonological Relationship Model (PPRM) for solving the problem of dichotomy about contrastive and allophonic relations. The analysis result of the contrastive entropy by PPRM suggests that voiced bilabial fricative [${\ss}$] was just an allophone of voiceless bilabial stop [p] or glide [w] in Middle Korean. Comparing the entropies between [p] and other consonants with the entropies between [${\ss}$] and other consonants, a continuum defined in terms of entropy reveals that [${\ss}$] in Middle Korean was more allophonic than phonemic.