The Bay of Marifu

Among the Old Korean toponyms recorded in the Samguk sagi section on geography, we can find two words corresponding to “mountain”: 達 (Early Middle Chinese tat) and 岬 (Early Middle Chinese kaep). The latter is sometimes written 押 (Early Middle Chinese ʔaep), which might represent the lenited variant or a scribal error. It has usually… Continue reading On the Old Korean words for mountain

In 2013, it was discovered that a sword previously unearthed from the Kŭmgwan tomb 금관총, Kyŏngju, bears the inscription 尒斯智王 “nyeX sje trje king”. Given that the sword was found in a fifth-century Silla royal tomb, the “nyeX sje trje king” must be a king of Silla from that period. However, Korean historical records such… Continue reading The forgotten name of the merciful king

Japanese 東雲 shinonome “daybreak” is curiously written with Chinese characters for “east” and “cloud”. Since there is a Late Old Korean word 詞腦 *sinɔ that means “east”, it seems plausible that shinonome reflects an ancient borrowing from Old Korean. However, the remaining part looks nothing like Late Middle Korean 구룸 kwulwum /kurum/ or Early Middle… Continue reading Eastern clouds and nutacism

The Records of the Three Kingdoms 三國志 transcriptions of Old Japanese (sensu lato) contain phonograms such as 斯 (Late Old Chinese *se) and 蘇 (Late Old Chinese *sˤa) with initial *s-, thus it seems that Old Japanese had a fricative /s/ in the third century CE. On the other hand, phonograms 足 (ts-), 次 (tsh-),… Continue reading Early Old Japanese /s/: Fricative or affricate?

According to the Samguk sagi, the given name of King Muryŏng of Paekche (r. 501–523) is 斯摩 (Early Middle Chinese sje ma /sie ma/). On the other hand, the buried epitaph found inside his tomb has the transcription 斯麻 sje mae /sie mæ/ instead, which matches the Nihon shoki article on his enthronement (volume 16).… Continue reading The last stratum of Sino-Paekche

It is well known that the characters 支 and 只 (Late Old Chinese *ke > Early Middle Chinese tsye /tɕie/) usually stand for Old Korean *kV (*kɛ in my reconstruction, *ki in the traditional reconstruction) in Old Korean transcriptions, reflecting Chinese pronunciation before the so-called “Chinese first palatalization” (*k-, *g-, *ŋ- > tsy- /tɕ/, dzy-… Continue reading Chinese first palatalization and Old Korean transcriptions

Early Middle Chinese (and Late Old Chinese, depending on variety) did not have the coda /r/, which resulted in a number of interesting strategies to transcribe Old Korean *CVr(V). One is to use Late Old Chinese medial *-r-, which was covered in the previous post. Another is to use the coda -ng, -n, or -t… Continue reading Writing Old Korean *r

It is well known that the Chinese character 買 meaX (< Late Old Chinese *mˤrɛʔ) in Old Korean toponyms stood for the Old Korean word for “water” (Lee & Ramsey 2011: 37ff). Traditionally, Korean scholars have regarded 買, which they read *mʌj or *mi based on the attested Sino-Korean reading of the character, as a… Continue reading Old Chinese medial *-r- and Early Old Korean transcriptions

The character 菟 has two Middle Chinese readings thuH (< Late Old Chinese *tʰˤas) and du (< Late Old Chinese *dˤa); the former is homophonous with 兔 thuH “hare” (< Late Old Chinese *tʰˤas). Consequently, if one is asked how to read 菟 in 玄菟, the name of a commandery that was established in the… Continue reading Hare or dare

The Samguk sagi section on officials (volumes 38–40) lists twelve consecutive government offices that existed in the ancient Korean kingdom of Silla whose names end in 宮典 “palace-office” (volume 39; there are two exceptions 坐山典 and 弘峴宮, but they are clearly corruptions of 坐山宮典 and 弘峴宮典). The purpose of these offices has been unknown, but… Continue reading Silla royal villas and Old Korean scribal abbreviations