Baekje language

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 related to the Old Korean of the neighbouring Silla kingdom while some of the material is linked to Peninsular Japonic.

Baekje
Paekche
Native toPaekche
RegionKorea
Era4th–7th centuries
Koreanic ?
  • Baekje
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
pkc – Paekche (Paekchean)
xpp – Puyo-Paekche
pkc
 xpp
Glottologpaek1234
The Three Kingdoms of Korea, with Baekje in green.

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 language of Mahan 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.[1]

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.[2] Chapter 49 of the Book of Zhou (636) says of Baekje:[3]

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.[4][5][6]

Placename evidence, particularly placename glosses in the Samguk sagi, suggests that Japonic languages were spoken in central and southern parts of the Korean peninsula in the early centuries of the current era. Juha Janhunen suggests that Baekje used a Peninsular Japonic language that was subsequently displaced by Korean.[7] Alexander Vovin is more critical about such a possibility but found two likely cognates between Japonic and the Baekje language, which may suggest the presence of an Japonic substrate in Baekje.[8][lower-alpha 1]

Linguistic data

There are no extant texts in the Baekje language.[10] The primary contemporary lexical evidence comes from a few glosses in Chinese and Japanese histories, as well as proposed etymologies for old place names.[11]

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.[12]

Family and society words from the Nihon Shoki
Gloss Transcription Comparison
Old Japanese Middle Korean[lower-alpha 2] Tungusic
rulerki1siki1si 'envoy'[lower-alpha 3]
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
Gloss Transcription Comparison
Old JapaneseMiddle Korean[lower-alpha 2]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] Vovin argues that the only Baekje words found throughout Japonic are those also common to Koreanic, such as sema island and kuma 'bear'.[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:[3][lower-alpha 4]

  • ʔyo-la-hae (於羅瑕) 'king' (used by the gentry)
  • kjon-kjit-tsye (鞬吉支) 'king' (used by commoners)
  • ʔyo-ljuwk (於陸) 'queen'

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]

  • kuH-mae (固麻) 'ruling fortress'
  • yem-luX (檐魯) 'settlement'
  • pjuwk-syaem (複衫) 'short jacket'
  • kwon (褌) 'pants'

None of these have Koreanic etymologies, but Vovin suggests that the first two could be analysed as otherwise-unattested compounds of Japonic words.[22]

Several of the Baekje placenames in chapter 37 of the Samguk sagi (compiled in 1145 from earlier records) include the form 夫里 pju-liX, which has been compared with later Korean pul 'plain'.[23]

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.[24] Compared to Silla tablets, Baekje tablets are far more likely to employ conventional Classical Chinese syntax and vocabulary without any native influence.[25]

The tablets also give the names of 12 locations and 77 individuals.[26] A total of 147 phonographic characters have been identified from these proper nouns, but this is insufficient to allow a reconstruction of the phonology.[27]

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 邑 *-(ə)p that may be cognate to the Early Middle Korean ordinal suffix *-m.[28][lower-alpha 5]

Potential Baekje numerals[29]
NumberWooden tablet wordReconstructionMiddle Korean[lower-alpha 2]
one伽第邑*gadəp[lower-alpha 6]honáh
two矣毛邑*iterəp[lower-alpha 7]twǔlh
three新台邑*saidəpsěyh
five刀士邑*tasəptasós
seven日古邑*nirkopnilkwúp
二[?]口邑[lower-alpha 8]*ni[?]kup
eight今毛邑*jeterəpyetúlp
[以?]如邑[lower-alpha 9]*[je?]təp

See also

Notes
  1. "Although the evidence is confined to just two of the words above and is thus far from conclusive, it is possible that Paekche, like Silla, had a Japonic substratum. The lack of clear-cut evidence may be attributed to the fact that Paekche was conquered by invading Korean speakers at a much earlier date than Silla."[9]
  2. 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]
  3. The Old Japanese word may be a loan from Silla.[15]
  4. Names represented phonetically with Chinese characters are transcribed using William H. Baxter's transcription for Middle Chinese.
  5. The character 邑 is used as a placeholder for a recurrent character in the tablet which has no assigned Unicode codepoint, but is visually similar to and likely based on 邑.
  6. Compare Old Korean 一等 *HAton "one".[30]
  7. Compare Middle Korean ithul "two days".[31]
  8. The second character is illegible.
  9. The identity of the first character is uncertain because the bottom half is illegible.

References
  1. Lee & Ramsey (2011), pp. 35–36.
  2. Lee & Ramsey (2011), p. 44.
  3. Vovin (2005), p. 119.
  4. Kōno (1987), pp. 84–85.
  5. Kim (2009), p. 766.
  6. Beckwith (2004), pp. 20–21.
  7. Janhunen (2010), p. 294.
  8. Vovin (2013), pp. 224, 237–238.
  9. Vovin (2013), p. 233.
  10. Nam (2012), p. 49.
  11. Vovin (2013), p. 223.
  12. 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. 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. Vovin (2013), pp. 232–233.
  23. Lee & Ramsey (2011), pp. 44–45.
  24. Lee (2017), pp. 290–298.
  25. Lee (2017), pp. 299–301.
  26. Lee (2017), p. 276.
  27. Lee (2017), p. 362.
  28. Lee (2017), pp. 87–99.
  29. Lee (2017), pp. 89, 96.
  30. Lee (2017), p. 91.
  31. Lee (2017), p. 89.

Works cited
  • Beckwith, Christopher (2004), Koguryo, the Language of Japan's Continental Relatives, BRILL, ISBN 978-90-04-13949-7.
  • 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.
  • Janhunen, Juha (2010), "Reconstructing the Language Map of Prehistorical Northeast Asia", Studia Orientalia, 108: 281–303.
  • 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.
  • Kōno, Rokurō (1987), "The bilingualism of the Paekche language", Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko, 45: 75–86.
  • Lee, Ki-Moon; Ramsey, S. Robert (2011), A History of the Korean Language, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1-139-49448-9.
  • 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.
  • 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.
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