• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.112-128
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• 2019

The history of modern Korean 'kimchi' can be traced through the history of the wordforms 'dihi' (디히), 'dimchʌi' (딤?), and 'thimchʌi' (팀?) in ancient Korean texts. As native Korean words, the 'dihi' word line ('dihi', 'dii', 'jihi', and 'ji') constitutes an old substratum. This word line coexisted with the 'dimchʌi' word line (dimchʌi, jimchʌi, and kim∫chi) from the Hanja '沈菜'. 'Ji', which is the last word variation of 'dihi', and is still used today as the unique form in several Korean dialects. In standard Korean, however, it only serves as a suffix to form the derivative names of various kimchi types. 'Dimchʌi' is believed to have appeared around the $6^{th}-7^{th}$ centuries, when Silla began to master Chinese characters. Hence,'dimchʌi' reflects either the Archaic Chinese (上古音) or the Old Chinese (中古音) pronunciation of the Hanja, '沈菜'. With the palatalization of the plosive alveolar [t], 'dimchʌi' changed to 'jimchʌi'. The Yangban intellectuals' rejection of the palatalization of the plosive velar [k] led to the hypercorrection of 'jimchʌi' into 'kimchʌi'. It is precisely the hypercorrect 'kimchʌe' that gave the wordform 'kim∫chi', which has eventually become the standard and predominant form in today's Korean language. Regarding 'thimchʌe', it reflects the Middle Chinese (Yuan Dynasty) pronunciation of the Hanja '沈菜' and was used mainly in writing by Yangban intellectuals.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.418-428
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• 2022

Research on the birth (起源) and names (語源) of foods such as kimchi is important to understand traditional food culture. kimchi, an 'add flavored, fermented, pickled, vegetable food' was initially prepared with the simple purpose of increasing storage capabilities, but later, through a complex process of change, morphological diversification occurred. In addition to the basic name of 'kimchi', each variety has its unique name and history. This study was conducted through qualitative research using various research methods, such as oral records and interviews, as well as investigation of data from literature, including ancient literature, modern cookbooks, newspapers, magazines, papers, and videos. The study sought to investigate the context and the meaning of the name Chonggak kimchi. In addition, it is a compilation of how the name spread through the ages and evolved to its current name. The name Chonggak kimchi did not exist during the Joseon Dynasty and Japanese occupation and first appeared in the records in the late 1950s. Nevertheless, the original name of 'Altarimu kimchi' evolved and finally became a part of the standard Korean language (標準語) in 1988. In the process of the name spreading and becoming popular, the movie "Chonggak kimchi (1964)," starring Shin, S.I., and Eom, A.R. played a significant role. It was also confirmed that this was a meaningful and valuable case of contentization of traditional food culture, regardless of the intention behind the same.