Buyeo languages
| Buyeo | |
|---|---|
| Puyo, Fuyu | |
| Geographic distribution: | Korea, Japan, Southern Manchuria |
| Linguistic classification: |
|
| Glottolog: | (not evaluated) |
|
| |
Buyeo or Fuyu languages (부여 in Korean, Fúyú (扶餘) in Chinese) are a hypothetical language family that consists of ancient languages of the northern Korean Peninsula, southern Manchuria and possibly Japan. According to Chinese records, the languages of Buyeo, Goguryeo, Dongye, Okjeo, Baekje—and possibly Gojoseon—were similar. Ye-Maek may have been ancestral.
Classification of the Buyeo languages
The relationships of the poorly attested Buyeo dialects are disputed.
Japanese–Koguryoic hypothesis
The Korean state of Baekje (18 BCE — 660 CE) was founded by Goguryeo (37 BCE – 668 CE) princes, and considered itself descended from Buyeo (2nd century BC — 494 AD). Baekje subsequently had close relations with Yamato period Japan; Christopher Beckwith suggests that at that point the Japanese may have still recognized a relationship to Buyeo. Beckwith reconstructs about 140 Goguryeo words, mostly from ancient place names, including Gaya.[1] Many include grammatical morphemes which appear to be cognate with morphemes of similar function in Japanese, such as genitive -no and attributive -si.
Buyeo–Silla hypothesis
A number of linguists such as Kim Banghan, Vovin, and Unger classify Goguryeo as Old Korean. They note that the toponyms which resemble Japanese are mostly found in the central part of the Korean peninsula, and theorize that they do not reflect the Goguryeo language but rather the pre-Goguryeo population of the central and southern parts of the Korean peninsula. Since a number of Japanese-like toponyms found in the historical homeland of Silla[2] were also distributed in the southern part of the Korean peninsula, these linguists propose that there was once a Japonic language spoken on the Korean peninsula, perhaps Gaya, which forms a substratum of the Silla language; Unger suggests that the ancestors of the Yayoi people would have settled in Japan from the central or southern part of Korea. None of the Japanese cognates have been found in the historical homeland of Buyeo and Goguryeo in the northern part of the Korean peninsula or south-western Manchuria. Koreanic toponyms, on the other hand, are distributed across the entire territory of the Three Kingdoms, from Manchuria to the southern Korean peninsula.
Additionally, Shoku Nihongi implies that the Balhae language (a Goguryeo language) and Silla language share a close relationship: a student sent from Silla to Japan for an interpreter training in Japanese language assisted a diplomatic envoy from Balhae in communicating during the Japanese court audience.
Distinction from Tungusic
According to Chinese records, the Buyeo languages appear to have been different from ancient Tungusic languages like Mohe.
See also
References
- ↑ Christopher Beckwith, 2004. Koguryo, the language of Japan's continental relatives
- ↑ Blažek 2006, p. 6.
Other references
- 2006. "Methodological Observations on Some Recent Studies of the Early Ethnolinguistic History of Korea and Vicinity." Altai Hakpo 2006, 16: 199-234.
- Alexander Vovin, 2005. "Koguryǒ and Paekche: Different Languages or Dialects of Old Korean?" Journal of Inner and East Asian Studies, 2005, Vol. 2-2: 108-140.
- Blažek, Václav. 2006. "Current progress in Altaic etymology." Linguistica Online, 30 January 2006
- Hong, Wontack (2005). "Tripolar Interaction: Mongolian Steppe, Manchuria and Mainland China The Tripolar Framework of Analysis" (PDF). East Asian History: A Korean Perspective. 1 (4).