까치

First attested in the Jīlín lèishì (鷄林類事 / 계림유사), 1103, as Late Old Korean 渴則寄 (Yale: *kacoki). Also attested in the Yongbi eocheon'ga (龍飛御天歌 / 용비어천가), 1447, as Middle Korean 가〯치〮 (Yale: kǎchí). The spontaneous gemination of the initial consonant occurred in the late nineteenth century. Spontaneous gemination is a recurrent phenomenon in Modern Korean, motivated by sound-symbolic effects.

Probably cognate to Japanese 鵲 (kasasagi, “the Eurasian magpie”). No known connection to 어치 (eochi, “Eurasian jay”).

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic hangul:
  • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

까치 • (kkachi)

1. magpie
2. In particular, the Eurasian magpie (Pica pica) or the Oriental magpie (Pica serica).

• (Eurasian magpie): 유라시아까치 (yurasiakkachi)
• (Oriental magpie): 한국까치 (韓國—, han'gukkkachi)

• 까치 두루마기 (kkachi durumagi, “kkachi durumagi”)
• 때까치 (ttaekkachi, “shrike”)
• 한국까치 (韓國—, han'gukkkachi)