Mahan language

{{Short description|Presumed language of the anciant Mahan confederency}}

{{About|a ancient language in Korea|other uses of Mahan|Mahan (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Mahan

| states = Mahan confederacy

| region = Korea

| era = 1st century BC to 7th century ADLee and Ramsey (2011), p. 44.Robbeets (2020), p. 6

| fam1 = Koreanic?/Japonic?

| fam2 = Han

| familycolor = altaic

| map = Langues Han.png

| mapcaption = Map of the Han languages, including Mahan.

| altname = Han-Paekche, Old Paekche, Japanese Paekche, Aristocratic Paekche, Mahan Paekche

| iso3 = none

| glotto = none

}}

Mahan is the presumed ancient language of the Mahan confederacy in southern Korea. It is virtually unattested.

Denomination

This language can be referred to as Mahan,Lee and Ramsey (2011), p. 35 Han-Paekche,Robbeets (2007), p. 19 Old Paekche,Toh (2005), p. 12 Japanese PaekcheVovin (2017), p. 6; 12 or Aristocratic Paekche.Vovin (2014), p. 10

Some believe that the Mahan can be subdivided into two periods:

Mahan (literal): From the 1st to 4th centuries AD;
Mahan Paekche: From the 4th to 7th centuries AD

Ki-Moon Lee assumes that this is just Baekje with a substrate of Buyeo language.{{cite journal|author=Soo-Hee Toh|title=The Paekche Language: Its Formation and Features|journal=Korean Linguistics |editor=Chungham National University|date=1986|volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=33–46 |doi=10.1075/kl.4.04sht |url=https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/kl.4.04sht|access-date=10 September 2024|url-access=subscription}}Lee and Ramsey (2011), p. 44. This is different to Martine Robbeets, who believes that Mahan Paekche is separate from the Baekje and Buyeo language.

Classification

From Chinese texts, Lee and Ramsey separate the languages of the Dong Yi into three groups:Lee and Ramsey (2011), p. 34-35

The Suksin languages (or SuksinicLogie (2012)): Suksin, Umnu, Mulgil and Malgal. They perhaps could have been Tungusic
The Puyŏ languages: Buyeo, Goguryeo, Okjeo and Ye-Maek;
The Han languages: Chinhan (became Silla), Byeonhan (became Gaya), Mahan (became Baekje).

They consider the Puyŏ languages and Han languages as a part of the same family.Lee and Ramsey (2011), p. 49-50

However, this language connection is not accepted by everyone. Furthermore, some consider it a Koreanic languages,Robbets (2007), p. 19-20; Robbeets (2020), p.3-5 while others believe it is a Peninsular Japonic language.Vovin (2013), p. 224; Vovin (2017), p. 5-6

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.Vovin (2017), p. 32

Soo-Hee Toh, while taking toponyms into account, hypothesizes that Mahan, Ye-Maek and Gaya were the same language.Toh (2005), p. 19

Lexical comparison

Vovin, who supports a Japonic origin for Mahan, compares words from this language to words from islander Japonic.Vovin (2017), p. 12

class="wikitable"

|+Comparaison of Insular Japonic with Mahan

!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

References

= Bibliography =

{{citation|first=Alexander|last=Vovin|title=From Koguryo to Tamna: Slowly riding to the South with speakers of Proto-Korean|editor=Korean Linguistics|date=2013|url=https://www.academia.edu/6360018|access-date=10 September 2024}}
{{citation|first=Alexander|last=Vovin|title=Origins of the Japanese Language|editor=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics|date=2017|url=https://www.academia.edu/35280086|access-date=10 September 2024}}
{{citation|author=Alexander Vovin|title=Out of Southern China?|editor=EHESS/CRLAO|date=2014|url=https://www.academia.edu/7869241|access-date=10 September 2024}}
{{citation|author=Andrew Logie|title=Notes on the languages of the Three Kingdoms|editor=Koreanology|date=13 October 2012|url=https://koreanology.wordpress.com/2012/10/13/some-notes-on-the-languages-of-the-three-kingdoms-song-gi-jung/|access-date=10 September 2024}}
{{citation|first1=Ki-Moon|last1=Lee|first2=S. Robert|last2=Ramsey|title=A History of the Korean Language|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=2011|isbn=978-1-139-49448-9|url=https://altaica.ru/LIBRARY/KOREAN/Lee%20Ramsey_A%20history%20of%20the%20korean%20language.pdf|access-date=10 September 2024}}
{{citation|author=Martine Robbeets|title=Archaeolinguistic evidence for the farming/language dispersal of Koreanic|editor=Oxford University Press|date=2020|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345843382|access-date=10 September 2024}}
{{citation|author=Martine Robbeets|title=Koguryo as a Missing Link|editor=Korea in the Middle|date=2007|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309763369|access-date=10 September 2024}}
{{citation|author=Soo-Hee Toh|title=About Early Paekche Language Mistaken as Being Koguryŏ Language|editor=Journal of Inner and East Asian Studies|date=2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226195328/http://www.historyfoundation.or.kr/Data/DataGarden/Journal%2802-2%29%282%29.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=26 February 2009|url=http://www.historyfoundation.or.kr/Data/DataGarden/Journal%2802-2%29%282%29.pdf|access-date=10 September 2024}}

Category:Han languages

Category:History of the Korean language

Category:Languages of Korea

Category:Koreanic languages

Category:Languages extinct in the 7th century

Category:Languages of South Korea

Category:Extinct languages of Asia