阿耶

Old Korean

Alternative forms

• 阿也 (*aya), 阿邪 (*aya), 阿邪也 (*ayaya)

Interjection

阿耶 (*aya)

1. o; oh; ah; alas
   • c. 750, 月明師 (Wolmyeongsa), “祭亡妹歌 (Jemangmae-ga)”, in 三國遺事 (Samguk Yusa) [Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms]:

     阿也彌陁刹良逢乎吾

     alas, we who will meet [again] in the Pure Land

   • c. 760, 希明 (Huimyeong), “禱千手觀音歌 (Docheonsugwaneum-ga)”, in 三國遺事 (Samguk Yusa) [Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms]:

     阿邪也吾良遺知攴賜尸等焉

     oh, it's indeed something you'll pass on to me

   • c. 790, 永才 (Yeongjae), “遇賊歌 (Ujeok-ga)”, in 三國遺事 (Samguk Yusa) [Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms]:

     阿耶唯只伊吾音之叱恨隱㵛陵隱

     alas, this tomb of goodness which is only about as much as us

Usage notes

In a three-stanza Old Korean hyangga poem, this interjection occurred obligatorily between the second and third stanzas (or, from an alternate viewpoint, at the beginning of the third stanza). It was sometimes not spelled out explicitly but simply marked with the Chinese word 後句／后句 (“last stanza”).

Reconstruction notes

Conventionally reconstructed as *aya, after the reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciations. No transparent Middle Korean reflex is known. Probably not directly related to Middle Korean 아으 (au, “oh”), or to Modern Korean 아야 (aya, “ouch”); similar interjections are cross-linguistically extremely common.