阿おもね耶

Old Korean

Alternative forms

阿おもね也 (*aya), 阿おもね邪よこしま (*aya), 阿おもね邪よこしま也 (*ayaya)

Interjection

阿おもね耶 (*aya)

o; oh; ah; alas
- c. 750, 月明げつめい師し (Wolmyeongsa), “祭まつり亡ほろび妹いもうと歌か (Jemangmae-ga)”, in 三さん國こく遺のこ事こと (Samguk Yusa) [Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms]:
  阿おもね也彌わたる陁刹良りょう逢乎吾われ
  alas, we who will meet [again] in the Pure Land
- c. 760, 希まれ明あきら (Huimyeong), “禱千手觀音せんじゅかんのん歌か (Docheonsugwaneum-ga)”, in 三さん國こく遺のこ事こと (Samguk Yusa) [Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms]:
  阿おもね邪よこしま也吾われ良よ遺のこ知ち攴賜尸しかばね等とう焉
  oh, it's indeed something you'll pass on to me
- c. 790, 永才ながさい (Yeongjae), “遇ぐう賊ぞく歌か (Ujeok-ga)”, in 三さん國こく遺のこ事こと (Samguk Yusa) [Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms]:
  阿おもね耶唯ただ只ただ伊い吾われ音おん之の叱しか恨隱㵛陵隱かくれ
  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 後こう句く／后きさき句く (“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.