Does 즉슨 have any literal meaning on its own? What should I understand by the (이)ㄴ즉(슨) construction?

Question

Here are three example sentences I have read with this construction, with possible translations:

사실인즉 : to tell the truth

말인즉 옳소 : what he says is true.

기회인즉 좋은 기회다 : about the opportunity – it’s a good opportunity.

In the first and second example, if the translations are correct, 즉 seems to mean 'speech'. In the third example, 인즉 seems to be mean something like (ㄴ)은.

Is there a single translation that makes sense in all these usages?

Also (as I'm not sure what to tag this question!) is this a noun, or a particle?

Answer 1

• -ㄴ즉/인즉 is an old-fashioned expression that has two meanings, according to the dictionary:

  1. A particle which expresses the same meaning as ‘…로 말하면’, ‘…를 보자면’, ‘…를 듣자면’.

     I'd consider this definition of -ㄴ즉 same as 은/는(the topic marker), only old-fashioned.

     사실인즉 therefore is same as 사실은.

  2. A verb ending indicating that the following clause is the reason or evidence of the preceding clause.

     An example for this is 비가 내린즉 곧 강물이 불을 것이다. (the river will flood right after the rain has come.)

• -ㄴ즉슨 is to emphasize the first meaning of -ㄴ즉.

Answer 2

There are multiple meanings for the word '즉', but for the cases given by your examples 즉 is an 접미사(接尾辭 - Suffix). It functions as a noun that is never used alone, but attached after 어근(語根 - root) or a word to create a new word. The word 즉 is attached to other words (usually adjectives, it appears) to create 부사(副詞 - Adverb). It is rather archaic.

Now, as to what it exactly does, I have little idea. I do not think there is an universal translation for that word - it appears to me to be a form of saturi.