Buyeo language

Last updated
Buyeo
Puyŏ
Native to Buyeo Kingdom
Region Manchuria
Extinct 7th century[ citation needed ]
Koreanic  ?
Language codes
ISO 639-3 xpy
xpy
Glottolog None
Buyeo.svg
Buyeo in the 3rd century

Very little is known of the language of the Buyeo kingdom. [1] 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. [2] 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. [3]

The most widely cited evidence for this group is a body of placename glosses in the Samguk sagi (1154), which some authors take to represent the language of Goguryeo, but others believe reflect a mix of languages spoken by peoples conquered by Goguryeo. [4] [5] Scholars who take these words as representing the language of Goguryeo have come to a range of conclusions about the language, some holding that it was Koreanic, others that it was Japonic, and others that it was somehow intermediate between these families. [6] [7] [8]

The same chapter of the Records of the Three Kingdoms transcribes a Buyeo word for noblemen subordinate only to the king as . [9] This character was pronounced kai in Eastern Han Chinese. [10] Beckwith identified this word with a Samguk sagi gloss / (pronounced kɛj/kɛjtshijH in Middle Chinese, kay/kaycha in Sino-Korean) for 'king', and the Baekje language word for 'ruler' transcribed in the Nihon Shoki as Old Japanese ki1si. [11]

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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.

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<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.

References

  1. Lee & Ramsey (2011), p. 37.
  2. Lee & Ramsey (2011), p. 34.
  3. Lee & Ramsey (2011), pp. 34–36.
  4. Lee & Ramsey (2011), pp. 40–41.
  5. Whitman (2013), pp. 251–252.
  6. Whitman (2011), p. 154.
  7. Beckwith (2004), pp. 27–28.
  8. Lee & Ramsey (2011), pp. 43–44.
  9. Byington (2016), pp. 188–189.
  10. Schuessler (2007), p. 300.
  11. Beckwith (2004), pp. 42, 124–125.

Works cited