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Peninsula</title></head><body>
<div>Dang, in typing fast I left out a critical NOT. My
apologies -- JWB</div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Just as a brief follow-up to Charles
Mueller very helpful response to Rupert Atkinson's query regarding
multiple languages in Korea, it is my recollection that the late
third-century<i> Sanguo zhi</i> indicates that the Mahan and Chinhan
populations spoke different languages, i.e., that they could NOT
communicate with one another orally.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Rupert Atkinson brought up an interesting
question about multiple<br>
languages on the Korean peninsula. Some people have speculated that
the<br>
apparent lack of difficulty in communication between Korean
kindgdoms<br>
suggest a common language. I find this highly unlikely. A common<br>
language requires signficant contact between people to prevent
dialects<br>
from drifting apart and such contact is unlikely to have occurred
in<br>
ancient times. I suspect the opposite is the case: people were so<br>
accustomed to having difficulties with communication whenever they<br>
traveled anywhere that it was not even considered an issue worthy
of<br>
note.<br>
<br>
As for the multiplicity of languages, I'd be very suprised if
there<br>
weren't a large number of languages--quite possibly from different
or<br>
distant language families--on the Korean peninsula. Even two<br>
communities sharing a language will drift apart to the point that
the<br>
languages are not longer identifiable as belonging to the same
family<br>
after about 10,000 years. Since multiple migrations (of people not<br>
necessarily speaking the same language) came into Korea over a
much<br>
longer period of time, and since their was no unification of the<br>
peninsula by a strong bureaucratic state (capable of imposing a
common<br>
educational system) prior to the Shilla unification, there's no
reason<br>
for the languages to be similar.<br>
<br>
My guess (purely speculative) is that Jeju Islanders spoke a
completely<br>
different language unrelated to their current dialect and of a<br>
different language family than modern Korean. (This supposition is<br>
supported by early Chinese accounts.) Shilla undoubtedy spoke
something<br>
pretty close to modern Korean, although in its early years, there
were<br>
probably areas speaking different languages. Goguryeo,
representing<br>
people more recently coming in from the north, probably spoke a<br>
different language of a different language family (or one that was
at<br>
least beyond the 10,000 year horizon) and areas of Goguryeo, being<br>
populated by tribal groups that had been incorporated into
Goguryeo,<br>
undoubtedly spoke their own languages--perhaps in the same
language<br>
family as Goguryeo (or Manchurian?) but mutually unintelligible.<br>
Baekje, if historical records are to be believed, was probably
settled<br>
by an offshoot of Goguryeo and would speak a related dialect or<br>
language. Areas such as Gaya, which were said to have links to
Japan,<br>
may have spoken yet another language. And there may very well have
been<br>
some pidgins used in such areas--simple trade languages which
could<br>
have developed into full-fledged languages. I'm wary of saying
that<br>
some Gaya people spoke "Japanese" since Japan itself would
have had a<br>
large number of languages.<br>
<br>
The number six cited by Atkinson is as good a guess as any. My guess
is<br>
that the current Korean peninsula, around the advent of the C.E.,
was<br>
probably home to more than six languages (==> languages
mutually<br>
unintelligible) and that at least 3 or 4 of these, even if they
were<br>
available, could not be reconstructed as part of the same family.<br>
<br>
<br>
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</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><tt>--</tt></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Jonathan W. Best<br>
Art History Program, CFA<br>
Wesleyan University<br>
Middletown, CT 06459-0442<br>
<br>
Telephone: (860) 685-3025<br>
FAX: (860) 685-2061<br>
E-mail: jbest@wesleyan.edu</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div>Jonathan W. Best<br>
Art History Program, CFA<br>
Wesleyan University<br>
Middletown, CT 06459-0442<br>
<br>
Telephone: (860) 685-3025<br>
FAX: (860) 685-2061<br>
E-mail: jbest@wesleyan.edu</div>
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