므슴

Etymology
From.

Determiner

 * 1)  what...?
 * 2)  a certain...

Etymology
This is one of four related Middle Korean interrogatives all beginning with :, , , and. The precise etymological relationship between the four remains unclear.

Pronoun

 * 1)  what

Usage notes

 * is used before the interrogative particle.
 * is used before other consonant-initial particles, and before the verb "to do".
 * is used before vowel-initial particles.
 * In the Early Modern period, the pronouns are ultimately supplanted by the new pronoun, whence modern ,.

Determiner

 * 1)  what

Usage notes

 * is used only for the semantically weak nouns and.
 * is used generally, but typically in rhetorical questions.
 * is used primarily for 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, which loses its rhetorical sense and becomes a general interrogative determiner.
 * , probably a hypercorrection of 므슴 motivated by the adnominal ending, is first attested in 1637 and becomes more widespread than 므슴 around 1850, producing Modern Standard Korean.

Adverb

 * 1)  how is it...