[KS] Multiple Languages on the Korean Peninsula

[Jonathan Best]

Dang, in typing fast I left out a critical NOT.  My apologies -- JWB

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


-- 
Jonathan W. Best
Art History Program, CFA
Wesleyan University
Middletown, CT 06459-0442

Telephone: (860) 685-3025
FAX: (860) 685-2061
E-mail: jbest at wesleyan.edu
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