Mahan is the presumed ancient language of the

Mahan confederacy Mahan () was a tribal grouping in southwestern Korea described in Chinese sources from the 3rd century. It was the largest of the 'three Hans' (the Samhan), along with Byeonhan and Jinhan. During the 4th century, the kingdom of Baekje rose in ...

southern Korea South Korea is located in East Asia, on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula located out from the far east of the Asian landmass. The only country that shares a land border with South Korea is North Korea, lying to the north with of ...

. It is virtually unattested.

Denomination

This language can be referred to as Mahan,Lee and Ramsey (2011), p. 35 Han-Paekche, Old Paekche, Japanese Paekche or Aristocratic Paekche. 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 Baekje or Paekche (; ) was a Korean kingdom located in southwestern Korea from 18 BCE to 660 CE. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla. While the three kingdoms were in separate existence, Baekje had the h ...

with a substrate of

Buyeo language Very little is known of the language of the Buyeo kingdom. Chapter 30 "Description of the Eastern Barbarians" in the ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'' records a survey carried out by the Chinese state of Wei after their defeat of Goguryeo in 24 ...

.Lee and Ramsey (2011), p. 44. This is different to

Martine Robbeets Martine Irma Robbeets (24 October 1972) is a Belgian comparative linguist and japanologist. She is known for the Transeurasian languages hypothesis, which groups the Japonic, Koreanic, Tungusic, Mongolic, and Turkic languages together int ...

, 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: * The Suksin languages (or Suksinic): Suksin, Umnu, Mulgil and Malgal. They perhaps could have been Tungusic * The Puyŏ languages:

Buyeo Buyeo (; ; ), also rendered as Puyŏ or Fuyu, was an ancient kingdom that was centered in northern Manchuria in modern-day northeast China. It had ties to the Yemaek people, who are considered to be the ancestors of modern Koreans. Buyeo is ...

Goguryeo Goguryeo (37 BC – 668 AD) (; ; Old Korean: Guryeo) also later known as Goryeo (; ; Middle Korean: 고ᇢ롕〮, ''kwòwlyéy''), was a Korean kingdom which was located on the northern and central parts of the Korea, Korean Peninsula an ...

, Okjeo and Ye-Maek; * The

Han languages The Han languages () or Samhan languages () were the languages of the Samhan ('three Han') of ancient southern Korea, the confederacies of Mahan, Byeonhan and Jinhan. They are mentioned in surveys of the peninsula in the 3rd century found in C ...

: Chinhan (became

Silla Silla (; Old Korean: wikt:徐羅伐#Old Korean, 徐羅伐, Yale romanization of Korean, Yale: Syerapel, Revised Romanization of Korean, RR: ''Seorabeol''; International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ) was a Korean kingdom that existed between ...

), Byeonhan (became Gaya), Mahan (became

). They consider the Puyŏ languages and Han languages as a part of the same family. However, this language connection is not accepted by everyone. Furthermore, some consider it a

Koreanic languages Koreanic is a small language family consisting of the Korean and Jeju languages. The latter is often described as a dialect of Korean but is mutually unintelligible with mainland Korean varieties. Alexander Vovin suggested that the Yukjin dial ...

, while others believe it is a

Peninsular Japonic The Peninsular Japonic languages are now-extinct Japonic languages reflected in ancient placenames and glosses from central and southern parts of the Korean Peninsula. Most linguists believe that Japonic arrived in the Japanese archipelago from t ...

language.

Alexander Vovin Alexander Vladimirovich Vovin (; 27 January 1961 – 8 April 2022) was a Soviet-born Russian-American linguist and philologist, and director of studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris, France. He wa ...

notes that the Japonic-origin toponyms of

Samguk Sagi ''Samguk sagi'' () is a historical record of the Three Kingdoms of Korea: Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla. Completed in 1145, it is well-known in Korea as the oldest surviving chronicle of Korean history. The ''Samguk sagi'' is written in Classical ...

are mainly concentrated in the Han River basin's region, formerly part of

and later annexed by

. Furthermore, he finds that Mahan is very similar to pseudo-Goguryeo, so he concludes that such a differentiation may be artificial. Soo-Hee Toh, while taking toponyms into account, hypothesizes that Mahan, Ye-Maek and Gaya were the same language.

Lexical comparison

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

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * {{Korean language Han languages History of the Korean language Languages of Korea Koreanic languages Languages extinct in the 7th century Languages of South Korea Extinct languages of Asia

Denomination

Classification

Lexical comparison

See also

References

Bibliography