| Mahan | |
|---|---|
| Han-Paekche, Old Paekche, Japanese Paekche, Aristocratic Paekche, Mahan Paekche | |
| Native to | Mahan confederacy |
| Region | Korea |
| Era | 1st century BC to 7th century AD [1] [2] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
 | |
Mahan is the presumed ancient language of the Mahan confederacy in southern Korea. It is virtually unattested.
This language can be referred to as Mahan, [3] Han-Paekche, [4] Old Paekche, [5] Japanese Paekche [6] or Aristocratic Paekche. [7]
Some believe that the Mahan can be subdivided into two periods: [2]
Ki-Moon Lee assumes that this is just Baekje with a substrate of Buyeo language. [8] [1] This is different to Martine Robbeets, who believes that Mahan Paekche is separate from the Baekje and Buyeo language. [2]
From Chinese texts, Lee and Ramsey separate the languages of the Dong Yi into three groups: [9]
They consider the Puyŏ languages and Han languages as a part of the same family. [11]
However, this language connection is not accepted by everyone. Furthermore, some consider it a Koreanic languages, [12] while others believe it is a Peninsular Japonic language. [13]
Alexander Vovin notes that the Japonic-origin toponyms of Samguk Sagi are mainly concentrated in the Han River basin's region, formerly part of Baekje and later annexed by Goguryeo. Furthermore, he finds that Mahan is very similar to pseudo-Goguryeo, so he concludes that such a differentiation may be artificial. [14]
Soo-Hee Toh, while taking toponyms into account, hypothesizes that Mahan, Ye-Maek and Gaya were the same language. [15]
Vovin, who supports a Japonic origin for Mahan, compares words from this language to words from islander Japonic. [16]
| English | French | Old Japanese | Proto-Ryūkyū | Insular Proto-Japonic | Mahan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| fortress | forteresse | kömë- 'to lock up' | *kume- | *kɘmay- 'lock up' | *kuma |
| establishment | établissement | *ya-marö 'subdivision' | -- | *ya-maro | *yamru |
The Altaic languages consist of the Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic language families, with some linguists including the Koreanic and Japonic families. These languages share agglutinative morphology, head-final word order and some vocabulary. The once-popular theory attributing these similarities to a common ancestry has long been rejected by most comparative linguists in favor of language contact, although it continues to be supported by a small but stable scholarly minority. Like the Uralic language family, which is named after the Ural Mountains, the group is named after the Altai mountain range in the center of Asia. The core grouping of Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic is sometimes called "Micro-Altaic", with the expanded group including Koreanic and Japonic labelled as "Macro-Altaic" or "Transeurasian".
Goguryeo also later known as Goryeo, was a Korean kingdom which was located on the northern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula and the southern and central parts of modern-day Northeast China (Manchuria). At its peak of power, Goguryeo encompassed most of the Korean Peninsula and large parts of Manchuria, along with parts of eastern Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and modern-day Russia.
Baekje or Paekche was a Korean kingdom located in southwestern Korea from 18 BCE to 660 CE. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla. While the three kingdoms were in separate existence, Baekje had the highest population of approximately 3,800,000 people, which was much larger than that of Silla and similar to that of Goguryeo.
The Three Kingdoms of Korea or Samhan competed for hegemony over the Korean Peninsula during the ancient period of Korean history. During the Three Kingdoms period (Korean: 삼국시대), many states and statelets consolidated until, after Buyeo was annexed in 494 and Gaya was annexed in 562, only three remained on the Korean Peninsula: Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla. The "Korean Three Kingdoms" contributed to what would become Korea; and the Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla peoples became the Korean people.
Buyeo, also rendered as Puyŏ or Fuyu, was an ancient kingdom that was centered in northern Manchuria in modern-day northeast China. It had ties to the Yemaek people, who are considered to be the ancestors of modern Koreans. Buyeo is considered a major predecessor of the Korean kingdoms of Goguryeo and Baekje.
Japonic or Japanese–Ryukyuan, sometimes also Japanic, is a language family comprising Japanese, spoken in the main islands of Japan, and the Ryukyuan languages, spoken in the Ryukyu Islands. The family is universally accepted by linguists, and significant progress has been made in reconstructing the proto-language, Proto-Japonic. The reconstruction implies a split between all dialects of Japanese and all Ryukyuan varieties, probably before the 7th century. The Hachijō language, spoken on the Izu Islands, is also included, but its position within the family is unclear.
The Peninsular Japonic languages are now-extinct Japonic languages reflected in ancient placenames and glosses from central and southern parts of the Korean Peninsula. Most linguists believe that Japonic arrived in the Japanese archipelago from the Korean peninsula during the first millennium BCE. The placename evidence suggests that Japonic languages were still spoken in parts of the peninsula for several centuries before being replaced by the spread of Korean.
The Goguryeo language, or Koguryoan, was the language of the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. Early Chinese histories state that the language was similar to those of Buyeo, Okjeo and Ye. Lee Ki-Moon grouped these four as the Puyŏ languages. The histories also stated that these languages were different from those of the Yilou and Mohe. All of these languages are unattested except for Goguryeo, for which evidence is limited and controversial.
The state of Jin was a confederacy of statelets which occupied some portion of the southern Korean peninsula from the 4th to 2nd centuries BCE, bordering the Korean Kingdom of Gojoseon to the north. Its capital was somewhere south of the Han River. It preceded the Samhan confederacies, each of which claimed to be the successor of the Jin state.
Samhan, or Three Han, is the collective name of the Byeonhan, Jinhan, and Mahan confederacies that emerged in the first century BC during the Proto–Three Kingdoms of Korea, or Samhan, period. Located in the central and southern regions of the Korean Peninsula, the Samhan confederacies eventually merged and developed into the Baekje, Gaya, and Silla kingdoms. The name "Samhan" also refers to the Three Kingdoms of Korea.
Korea's military history spans thousands of years, beginning with the ancient nation of Gojoseon and continuing into the present day with the countries of North Korea and South Korea, and is notable for its many successful triumphs over invaders.
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.
The classification of the Japonic languages and their external relations is unclear. Linguists traditionally consider the Japonic languages to belong to an independent family; indeed, until the classification of Ryukyuan and eventually Hachijō as separate languages within a Japonic family rather than as dialects of Japanese, Japanese was considered a language isolate.
The language of the kingdom of Baekje, 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.
The Yemaek or Yamaek are an ancient tribal group native to the northern Korean Peninsula and Manchuria and are commonly regarded as the ancestors of modern Koreans. The Yemaek have ancestral ties to multiple kingdoms in Northeast Asia including Gojoseon, Buyeo, Goguryeo, and multiple tribes including Okjeo, Dongye, Yangmaek and the Sosumaek.
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.
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 mutually unintelligible with mainland Korean varieties. Alexander Vovin suggested that the Yukjin dialect of the far northeast should be similarly distinguished. Yukjin also makes up a large component of Koryo-mar, the forms of Korean spoken by the descendents of people deported from the Russian Far East to Central Asia by Stalin.
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 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.
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