Baekje language

Last updated
Baekje
Paekche
Native to Paekche
Region Korea
Era4th–7th centuries
Koreanic
  • Baekje
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Either:
pkc  – Paekche
xpp  – Puyo-Paekche
pkc
  xpp
Glottolog paek1234
Three Kingdoms of Korea Map.png
The Three Kingdoms of Korea, with Baekje in green.

The language of the kingdom of Baekje (4th to 7th centuries), one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, is poorly attested, and scholars differ on whether one or two languages were used. However, at least some of the material appears to be a variety of Old Korean. [1]

Contents

Description in early texts

Baekje was preceded in southwestern Korea by the Mahan confederacy. The Chinese Records of the Three Kingdoms (3rd century) states that the Mahan language differed from that of Goguryeo to the north and the other Samhan ('Three Han') to the east, Byeonhan and Jinhan, whose languages were said to resemble each other. However, the Book of the Later Han (5th century) speaks of differences between the languages of Byeonhan and Jinhan. [2]

Historians believe that Baekje was established by immigrants from Goguryeo who took over Mahan, while Byeonhan and Jinhan were succeeded by Gaya and Silla respectively. According to Book of Liang (635), the language of Baekje was similar to that of Goguryeo. [3] Chapter 49 of the Book of Zhou (636) says of Baekje: [4]

王姓夫餘氏，號於羅瑕，民呼為鞬吉支，夏言竝王也。
The king belongs to the Puyŏ clan; the gentry call him 於羅瑕; commoners call him 鞬吉支. In Chinese it means 'king'.

Based in this passage and some Baekje words cited in the Japanese history Nihon Shoki (720), many scholars, beginning with Kōno Rokurō and later Kim Bang-han, have argued that the kingdom of Baekje was bilingual, with the gentry speaking a Puyŏ language and the common people a Han language. [5] [6] [7] The Linguist List defined two codes for these languages, and these have been taken over into the ISO 639-3 registry. [8]

Linguistic data

There are no extant texts in the Baekje language. [9] The primary contemporary lexical evidence comes from a few glosses in Chinese and Japanese histories, as well as proposed etymologies for old place names. [10]

Nihon Shoki

The Japanese history Nihon Shoki , compiled in the early 8th century from earlier documents, including some from Baekje, records 42 Baekje words. These are transcribed as Old Japanese syllables, which are restricted to the form (C)V, limiting the precision of the transcription. [11]

Family and society words from the Nihon Shoki [12]
GlossTranscriptionComparison
Old Japanese Middle Korean [a] Tungusic
rulerki1siki1si 'envoy' [b]
kingorikoke
queenorukuel-Gǐ-l 'mate with'
consortsiso orikukuel-Gǐ-l 'mate with'
main wifemakari orikukumakar- 'entrust'el-Gǐ-l 'mate with'
second wifekuno orikukuel-Gǐ-l 'mate with'
imperial consortpasikasipěs 'companion' + kas 'wife'
low consortepasitopěs 'companion'
princesesimusonahi 'male'
upper ministermakari daromakar- 'entrust'
masternirimunǐm 'master'
fatherkaso2kaso2 'father'
motheromo2omo2 'mother'eme-ním 'mother' Manchu eme 'mother'
childyomoManchu jui 'son'
heirmakari yomomakar- 'entrust'
Koryokoku
Koryokokusori
walled cityki2ki2 'fortress'
walled citysasicás 'walled city'
districtko2po2riko2po2ri 'district'kwoúl, kwowólh < *kopor 'county seat, district'
villagepure
villagesuki1súkoWol 'country'
village chiefsukuri
Other words from the Nihon Shoki [12]
GlossTranscriptionComparison
Old JapaneseMiddle Korean [a] Tungusic
above, northokosioko2s- 'raise, get up'wuh 'top'*ugi- 'top'
bearkumakuma 'bear'kwǒm 'bear'
belowarusi/arosialáy 'below'
beltsitorostúy 'belt'
burdenno2no2- 'burden'
falconkutikuti 'hawk'
fordnurinolo 'ferry'
goodwirewiya 'polite'
interpretwosawosa 'interpreter'
islandsemasima 'island, territory'syěm 'island'
largeko2nihá- 'many, great'
loweroto2oto2 'younger'
middlesisosús 'between'
mountainmuremworwó 'mountain, ridge'*mulu 'ridge'
outsidepokapoka 'outside, other'pask 'outside'
southaripisialph 'front'
storehousepesuManchu fise 'shed'
streamnare/narinǎyh 'stream'*niaru 'lake, swamp'
uppersoku

Early Japan imported many artifacts from Baekje and the Gaya confederacy, and several of the above matching Old Japanese forms are believed to have been borrowed from Baekje at that time. [16] Such borrowing would also explain the fact that words such as kaso2 'father', ki2 'fortress', ko2po2ri 'district' and kuti 'hawk' are limited to Western Old Japanese, with no cognates in Eastern Old Japanese or Ryukyuan languages. [17] Moreover, for some words, like 'father' and 'mother', there are alternative words in Old Japanese that are attested across the Japonic family (titi and papa respectively). [18] Bentley lists these words, as well as kuma 'bear' and suki2 'village', as loans into Old Japanese from Baekje. [19] Alexander Vovin argues that the only Baekje words from the Nihon Shoki found throughout Japonic, such as sema 'island' and kuma 'bear', are those also common to Koreanic. [17]

Other histories

The Middle Korean text Yongbieocheonga transcribes the name of the old Baekje capital 'Bear Ford' as kwomá nolo, closely matching two of the words from the Nihon Shoki. [20]

Chapter 49 of the Chinese Book of Zhou (636) cites three Baekje words: [4] [c]

These may be the same words as orikoke 'king', ki1si 'ruler' and oruku 'queen' respectively, found in the Nihon Shoki. [21]

Chapter 54 of the Book of Liang (635) gives four Baekje words: [22]

None of these have Koreanic etymologies, but Vovin suggests that the first might be cognate with Old Japanese ko2me2 'enclose', and the second with Old Japanese ya 'house' + maro2 'circle'. [22] [23] He views this as limited evidence for Kōno's two-language hypothesis, and suggests that the language of the commoners may have been the same Peninsular Japonic language reflected by placename glosses in the Samguk sagi from the northern part of Baekje captured by Goguryeo in the 5th century. [24] [25]

The Baekje placenames in chapter 37 of the Samguk sagi are not glossed, but several of them include the form 夫里pju-liX, which has been compared with later Korean pul 'plain'. [26]

Wooden tablets

Wooden tablets dated to the late Baekje era have been discovered by archaeologists, and some of them involve the rearrangement of Classical Chinese words according to native syntax. From this data, the word order of Baekje appears to have been similar to that of Old Korean. Unlike in Silla texts, however, no uncontroversial evidence of non-Chinese grammatical morphemes has been found. [27] Compared to Silla tablets, Baekje tablets are far more likely to employ conventional Classical Chinese syntax and vocabulary without any native influence. [28]

The tablets also give the names of 12 locations and 77 individuals. [29] A total of 147 phonographic characters have been identified from these proper nouns, but this is insufficient to allow a reconstruction of the phonology. [30]

A tablet found in the Baekje-built temple of Mireuksa, originally thought to be a list of personal names, appears to record native numerals, possibly a series of dates. Although the tablet is dated to the early Later Silla period, postdating the 660 fall of Baekje, its orthography differs from conventional Old Korean orthography. In the extant Silla texts, a native numeral is written by a logogram-phonogram sequence, but in this tablet, they are written entirely with phonograms (both phonetically and semantically adapted). Lee Seungjae thus suggests that the tablet is written in Baekje numerals. The numerals appear Koreanic, with a suffix Old Korean Yi variant.svg *-(ə)p that may be cognate to the Early Middle Korean ordinal suffix *-m. [31] [d]

Potential Baekje numerals [32]
NumberWooden tablet wordReconstructionMiddle Korean [a]
one伽第 Old Korean Yi variant.svg *gadəp [e] honáh
two矣毛 Old Korean Yi variant.svg *iterəp [f] twǔlh
three新台 Old Korean Yi variant.svg *saidəpsěyh
five刀士 Old Korean Yi variant.svg *tasəptasós
seven日古 Old Korean Yi variant.svg *nirkopnilkwúp
二[?]口 Old Korean Yi variant.svg [g] *ni[?]kup
eight今毛 Old Korean Yi variant.svg *jeterəpyetúlp
[以?]如 Old Korean Yi variant.svg [h] *[je?]təp

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Forms are transcribed using the Yale romanization of Korean, which is standard in works on the history of Korean. [13] The pitch accent is marked with an acute accent on high-pitched syllables. Rising pitch (ǒ) implies an earlier disyllabic form. [14]
  2. ↑ The Old Japanese word may be a loan from Silla. [15]
  3. ↑ Names represented phonetically with Chinese characters are transcribed using William H. Baxter's transcription for Middle Chinese.
  4. ↑ The character 𢀳 ( Old Korean Yi variant.svg ) is visually similar to and likely based on 邑.
  5. ↑ Compare Old Korean 一等*HAton 'one'. [33]
  6. ↑ Compare Middle Korean ithul 'two days'. [34]
  7. ↑ The second character is illegible.
  8. ↑ The identity of the first character is uncertain because the bottom half is illegible.

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muryeong of Baekje</span> 25th King of Baekje from 501 to 523

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baekje</span> Ancient Korean kingdom (18 BCE – 660 CE)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaya confederacy</span> 42–562 confederacy in southern Korea

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goguryeo language</span> Speculated language of ancient Goguryeo

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jinhan confederacy</span> Confederation of protostates in southeastern Korean peninsula

Jinhan was a loose confederacy of chiefdoms that existed from around the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD in the southern Korean Peninsula, to the east of the Nakdong River valley, Gyeongsang Province. Jinhan was one of the Samhan, along with Byeonhan and Mahan. Apparently descending from the Jin state of southern Korea, Jinhan was absorbed by the later Silla, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samhan</span> Period of Korean history

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Military history of Korea</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buyeo language</span> Language spoken in the Buyeo kingdom

Very little is known of the language of the Buyeo kingdom. Chapter 30 "Description of the Eastern Barbarians" in the Records of the Three Kingdoms records a survey carried out by the Chinese state of Wei after their defeat of Goguryeo in 244. The report states that the languages of Buyeo and those of its southern neighbours Goguryeo and Ye were similar, and that the language of Okjeo was only slightly different from them. Based on this text, Lee Ki-Moon grouped the four languages as the Puyŏ languages, contemporaneous with the Han languages of the Samhan confederacies in southern Korea.

Old Korean is the first historically documented stage of the Korean language, typified by the language of the Unified Silla period (668–935).

The traditional periodization of Korean distinguishes:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaya language</span> Presumed language in ancient Korea

Gaya, also rendered Kaya, Kara or Karak, is the presumed language of the Gaya confederacy in ancient southern Korea. Only one word survives that is directly identified as being from the language of Gaya. Other evidence consists of place names, whose interpretation is uncertain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Koreanic languages</span> Language family

Koreanic is a small language family consisting of the Korean and Jeju languages. The latter is often described as a dialect of Korean but is distinct enough to be considered a separate language. Alexander Vovin suggested that the Yukjin dialect of the far northeast should be similarly distinguished. Korean has been richly documented since the introduction of the Hangul alphabet in the 15th century. Earlier renditions of Korean using Chinese characters are much more difficult to interpret.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puyŏ languages</span> Ancient languages of northeast Asia

The Puyŏ or Puyo-Koguryoic languages are four languages of northern Korea and eastern Manchuria mentioned in ancient Chinese sources. The languages of Buyeo, Goguryeo, Dongye and Okjeo were said to be similar to one another but different from the language of the Yilou to the north . Other sources suggest that the ruling class of Baekje may have spoken a Puyŏ language.

The Government of Baekje, was the court system of Baekje (百濟), one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea which lasted from 18 BCE–660 CE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Han languages</span> Languages of the Samhan confederacies

The Han languages or Samhan languages were the languages of the Samhan of ancient southern Korea, the confederacies of Mahan, Byeonhan and Jinhan. They are mentioned in surveys of the peninsula in the 3rd century found in Chinese histories, which also contain lists of placenames, but are otherwise unattested. There is no consensus about the relationships between these languages and the languages of later kingdoms.

Chapter 37 of the Samguk sagi contains a list of place names and their meanings, from part of central Korea captured by Silla from the former state of Goguryeo (Koguryŏ). Some of the vocabulary extracted from these names provides the principal evidence that Japonic languages were formerly spoken in central and southern parts of the Korean peninsula. Other words resemble Korean or Tungusic words.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mahan language</span> Presumed language of the anciant Mahan confederency

Mahan is the presumed ancient language of the Mahan confederacy in southern Korea. This language is virtually unattested.

References

  1. ↑ Vovin (2010), pp. 240.
  2. ↑ Lee & Ramsey (2011), pp. 35–36.
  3. ↑ Lee & Ramsey (2011), p. 44.
  4. 1 2 Vovin (2005), p. 119.
  5. ↑ Kōno (1987), pp. 84–85.
  6. ↑ Kim (2009), p. 766.
  7. ↑ Beckwith (2004), pp. 20–21.
  8. ↑ Linguist List (2010).
  9. ↑ Nam (2012), p. 49.
  10. ↑ Vovin (2013), p. 223.
  11. ↑ Bentley (2000), pp. 419–420.
  12. 1 2 Bentley (2000), pp. 424–427, 436–438.
  13. ↑ Lee & Ramsey (2011), p. 10.
  14. ↑ Lee & Ramsey (2011), p. 163–164.
  15. ↑ Vovin (2010), pp. 155.
  16. ↑ Bentley (2001), p. 59.
  17. 1 2 Vovin (2013), pp. 226–227.
  18. ↑ Vovin (2010), pp. 92–94.
  19. ↑ Bentley (2001), pp. 59–60.
  20. ↑ Lee & Ramsey (2011), p. 45.
  21. ↑ Vovin (2005), pp. 121–124.
  22. 1 2 Vovin (2013), pp. 232–233.
  23. ↑ Vovin (2017), p. 13.
  24. ↑ Vovin (2013), pp. 224, 233.
  25. ↑ Vovin (2017), p. 12.
  26. ↑ Lee & Ramsey (2011), pp. 44–45.
  27. ↑ Lee (2017), pp. 290–298.
  28. ↑ Lee (2017), pp. 299–301.
  29. ↑ Lee (2017), p. 276.
  30. ↑ Lee (2017), p. 362.
  31. ↑ Lee (2017), pp. 87–99.
  32. ↑ Lee (2017), pp. 89, 96.
  33. ↑ Lee (2017), p. 91.
  34. ↑ Lee (2017), p. 89.

Works cited

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  • Bentley, John R. (2000), "A new look at Paekche and Korean: data from the Nihon shoki", Language Research, 36 (2): 417–443, hdl: 10371/86143 .
  • ——— (2001), A Descriptive Grammar of Early Old Japanese Prose, Leiden: Brill, ISBN   978-90-04-12308-3.
  • Kim, Nam-Kil (2009), "Korean", in Comrie, Bernard (ed.), The World's Major Languages (2nd ed.), London: Routledge, pp. 765–779, ISBN   978-0-415-35339-7.
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  • Lee, Seungjae (2017), Mokgan-e girokdoen Godae Hangugeo木簡에 기록된 古代 韓國語[The Old Korean Language Inscribed on Wooden Tablets] (in Korean), Seoul: Iljogag, ISBN   978-89-337-0736-4.
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  • Nam, Pung-hyun (2012), "Old Korean", in Tranter, Nicolas (ed.), The Languages of Japan and Korea, Routledge, pp. 41–72, ISBN   978-0-415-46287-7.
  • Vovin, Alexander (2005), "Koguryŏ and Paekche: different languages or dialects of Old Korean?", Journal of Inner and East Asian Studies, 2 (2): 107–140.
  • ——— (2010), Korea-Japonica: A Re-Evaluation of a Common Genetic Origin, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, ISBN   978-0-8248-3278-0.
  • ——— (2013), "From Koguryo to Tamna: Slowly riding to the South with speakers of Proto-Korean", Korean Linguistics, 15 (2): 222–240, doi:10.1075/kl.15.2.03vov.
  • ——— (2017), "Origins of the Japanese Language", Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.277, ISBN   978-0-19-938465-5.
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