| With the spread of enlightened thought in Korean Peninsula and the popularity and universalization of Korean language, it became the primary and critical issue in the enlightenment linguistic research area that organizing the standardizing of Korean spelling. The invention of Hunminjeongeum made the Korean spelling had rules to follow; however, it didn’t formulate any rigorous rules for the standard usage of the spelling. Therefore, according to people’s different language habits, the spelling method were not the same, and a variety of methods appeared especially in the enlightened period. Thus, some scholars, represented by Seok-yeong Ji and Si-gyeong Ju, attempted to standardize and organize the unsystematic spelling systems in the age of civilization, both of whom actively advocated using national language and were acutely aware of the necessity of standardizing and organizing the chaotic spelling. A series of efforts of these two scholars laid the foundation for the establishment of the spelling around 1910 and later the distribution of "The Unification of Hangeul Orthography"(1933); therefore, their academic achievements were broadly recognized and highly appraised by others. So far, there are a lot of works have been emerged which discuss about Ju’s spelling system, whereas we can rarely find researches that have been done for Ji’s. Ji was the first medical scientist who introduced the vaccination method to South Korea. He found that it’s difficult to grasp the meaning of the Korean articles because of the confusion of the spelling systems at that time. To solve this, by the end of the 19th century, he started his research in the field of linguistics for organizing the norms of the language. Unlike him, Ju was a pure linguist that concentrated on the studies the entire time and had done relatively more academic works. This is the reason why Korean academics have paid more attention to Ju’s academic output.In the context of the transition from traditional society to modern society, the spelling system showed the coexisting characteristics of conservatism and progressiveness; that is to say, the opposition between two groups—conservative spelling led by Seok-yeong Ji and progressive spelling led by Si-gyeong Ju. The former claimed that maintain traditional spelling system, but the latter supported to create new spelling system. Ji held his own view of language, for example, educational doctrine that ’considering text as an educational tool’, pragmatism that’spelling should be simple and easy understand’, and populism that ’designed to serve the people’. His basic spirit was that’spelling should be fore convenience of the people and the country’, and his spelling possessed reality and practicability which was different from Ju’s theoretical spelling.By far, there are only few studies that is based on a specific scholar, along with his linguistic achievements and the characteristic and the usage of spelling. From this perspective, it is feasible and innovative in conducting this research. In order to solve the problem in using national language during the civilized time, he first proposed "Gungmunnon" and "Sinjeonggungmun" as solutions, the latter of which was the first Hangeul spelling bill published in the form of decree. Ji made an outstanding contribution in popularization and research of the Korean language, but his language achievements were not given enough attention.For this reason, this paper aimed at Seok-yeong Ji’s view of language and his research results, investigated and analyzed his spelling method, and further discussed its forming process, as well as its characteristics and significance.The study assessed Ji’s language achievement and focused on the analysis of his research in spelling. Via analyzing the linguistic facts of his articles, it explored the linguistic theory and spelling principles suggested by him. Literature is the important information that helps understanding the language being used in a certain period, as the spelling rules of the writing is closely linked to the language system of the time. Through taking a close look at these spelling rules appeared in the articles, we can definitely find some clues Therefore, with the study of Ji’s articles, we can not only explore his language theory and spelling method, but also provide some references in the study of spelling in the time of civilization.This paper examined in detail about the usage of spelling from some of his articles, such as "Sinhaksinseol", "Gungmunnon", "Hunmongjaryak", "Ahakpyeon", "Gungmunyeonguan", "Jajeonseogyo", and "Eonmun". First of all, the author set up a database in the computer after inputing all of the above articles, and then classified the spelling into four different types, such as the spelling inside the morpheme, the spelling of declension·conjugation, the spelling of foreign words, and other spellings, and finally, analyzed the characteristic and variation of the spelling. This paper also compared Seok-yeong Ji’s spelling rules to Si-gyeong Ju’s for comprehensively studying the characteristic of Ji’s spelling method and further explored the realistic significances.The main content of this paper can be summarized as follows:Chapter one is the introduction of this paper, which presented the purpose, meaning, object, and method of the study, and also introduced the achievements and the status quo in related studies.Chapter two mainly observed Ji’s language view and language achievements. it began with simple introduction of his life, and switched the gear to elaborate his view of language, which included educational doctrine, pragmatism, and populism. At last, it followed with a concrete analysis of his language researches and achievements, which can be divided into three parts. The first part was the works in spelling rules, such like "Gungmunnon", "Sinjeonggungmun", "Gungmunyeonguan", "Ahakpyeon". Besides, the second part was the works in reorganizing Sino-Korean characters, as which were shown in "Hunmongjaryak", "Jajeonseogyo", "Eonmun", and "Ahakpyeon". Also, the third part was the works of language research activities, such as establishing National Language Research Institute and being involved in activities of National Language Research Center.Chapter three discussed the spelling usage in Ji’s articles which contained four parts:the spelling inside the morpheme, the spelling of declension· conjugation, the spelling of foreign words, and the spelling of others. Firstly, the author classified the spelling inside the morpheme into eight different categories: the spelling of" · ", "(?)", diphthongs followed alveolar ((?)),tensed consonants, aspiration in morpheme, palatalization, initial law, and over-syllabication. Secondly, the spelling of declension · conjugation was mainly divided into five kinds:the spelling ending with vowels, the spelling of the stem ending with lax consonants, the spelling of the stem ending with tensed consonants, the spelling of the stem ending with aspiration, and the spelling of irregular inflected words. Thirdly, the study investigated the spelling of foreign words from two aspects:one is the form of spelling, and the other is the phonetic corresponding form of it. Finally, the author mainly discussed the adding of "(?)"(saisiot) and the spelling of "(?)" between two vowels as other spellings.Chapter four started with comparison of Seok-yeong Ji’s and Si-gyeong Ju’s spelling rules, and later focused on Ji’s spelling features, and interpreted the value and significance of his research.The similarities and differences of these two scholar’s spelling rules were briefly summarized as follows:1. They both considered "·" as syneresis of "(?)", and neither of them supported initial law.2. They held different opinions in the invention of "=", tensed consonants, final consonants, adding "(?)", and the spelling of syllables. Ji came up with the new character "=", but Ju opposed this idea. For tensed consonants, Ji supported "Habyongbyeongseo", and Ju advocated "Gakjabyeongseo". In addition, for final consonants, Ji insisted traditional theory, whereas, Ju stood for adding and using new final consonants. Also, Ji claimed to use "(?)" between two nouns; however, Ju proposed to add "(?)" at the end of the first noun. Refers to the spelling of syllables, Ji suggested syllabic writing system, and Ju advised phonemic writing system.The characteristics of Ji’s spelling were as below:1. He abolished the use of character " ·", and formulates new character "=".2. He came up with a twenty-five-character system, which was "to use seven characters as both initial and final consonants, to use seven characters exclusively as initial consonants, and to use eleven characters exclusively as medial vowels".3. He called for "Hapjabeop".4. He insisted the common use of alveolar system of "(?)", and marking the spelling, even though he agreed that alveolar is the repetition of the single sound.5. He suggested to mark four tones in spelling.6. He claims that to mark the spelling of diphthongs followed by alveolar ((?) (?)) as monophthongs.7. He advocated to use continual spelling for five single final consonants "(?), (?)" and three double final consonants "(?)", and to use syllable spelling for the rest of the final consonants as the way it pronounced.8. He protested to apply initial law when using Chinese characters.9. For the spelling of "(?)", he proposed to use "(?)" between two nouns.This paper analyzed the adoption of Ji’s spelling to the Hangeul Orthography by examining from several aspects and illustrated the realistic significance of his spelling rules. For instance, the formation of Hangeul alphabet, the abolition of "·", the spelling of palatalization, the spelling of monophthongs followed by alveolar, falling off of the vowels, irregular change of the sounds, the spelling of adding "(?)", and combination of syllables. Hangeul Orthography inherited and developed Ji’s "Four Tone" spelling and final consonant spelling, which implemented some parts but not all of his views. Nonetheless, his spelling rescued the condition from disorder in the enlightenment period, and laid the foundation for Hangeul Orthography. It is no doubt that parts of his claims have already been accepted by Hangeul Orthography. Therefore, Seok-yeong Ji’s academic achievement should be highly valued and spoken in today’s research field of language regulation. He not merely provided a theoretical foundation for formulating Hangeul standard, but also pointed out the direction for the future standards. Consequently, we should hold a more positive mind in devoting to exploration of Ji’s language achievement.Chapter five, which is the conclusion of this paper, generalized and summarized each chapter, indicated the shortage of this paper, and revealed the future research topics.This paper studied Seok-yeong Ji’s spelling and his language achievements, but failed to approach the research for Sino-Korean characters. Given the limited capacity of the individual, this study lacks depth in the discussion of spelling in the articles. The author hopes to continue the research of the above aspects, with more systematic and comprehensive methods, and to make it even more forceful and perfect in the near future.
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