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This is one of four related Middle Korean interrogatives all beginning with /mɨsɨ-/: 므스(musu), 므슥(musuk), 므슴(musum), and 므슷(musus). The precise etymological relationship between the four remains unclear.
므스(musu) is used only for the semantically weak nouns 것(kes, “thing”) and 일(il, “work, event”).
므슴(musum) is used generally, but typically in rhetorical questions.
므슷(musus) is used primarily for 일(il, “event”) but is rarely attested elsewhere.
므슷 fails to survive into Early Modern Korean, while 므스 vanishes near the end of the eighteenth century. The default Early Modern interrogative determiner is 므슴 (meuseum, “what”), which loses its rhetorical sense and becomes a general interrogative determiner.
므슨 (meuseun), probably a hypercorrection of 므슴 (meuseum) motivated by the adnominal ending 은 (eun), is first attested in 1637 and becomes more widespread than 므슴 around 1850, producing Modern Standard Korean 무슨 (museun).
Descendants
⇒ Early Modern Korean: 므섯(muses, “what”), 므엇(meueot, “what”)(contraction from 므스것(musu kes, “what thing”))