Peninsular Japonic in the context of "Japonic languages"

Play Trivia Questions online!

or

Skip to study material about Peninsular Japonic in the context of "Japonic languages"

Ad spacer

⭐ Core Definition: Peninsular Japonic

The Peninsular Japonic languages are postulated 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 the Korean peninsula during the first millennium BCE.The placename evidence suggests that Japonic languages were still spoken in parts of the peninsula for several centuries before being replaced by the spread of Korean.

The most-cited evidence comes from chapter 37 of the Samguk sagi (compiled in 1145), which contains a list of pronunciations and meanings of placenames in the former kingdom of Goguryeo. As the pronunciations are given using Chinese characters, they are difficult to interpret, but several of those from central Korea, in the area south of the Han River captured from Baekje in the 5th century, seem to correspond to Japonic words. Scholars differ on whether they represent the language of Goguryeo or the people that it conquered.

↓ Menu

>>>PUT SHARE BUTTONS HERE<<<

👉 Peninsular Japonic in the context of Japonic languages

Japonic or Japanese–Ryukyuan (Japanese: 日琉語族, romanizedNichiryū gozoku) is a language family comprising Japanese, spoken in the main islands of Japan, and the Ryukyuan languages, spoken in the Ryukyu Islands. The family is universally accepted by linguists, and significant progress has been made in reconstructing the proto-language, Proto-Japonic. The reconstruction implies a split between all dialects of Japanese and all Ryukyuan varieties, probably before the 7th century. The Hachijō language, spoken on the Izu Islands, is also included, but its position within the family is unclear.

Most scholars believe that Japonic was brought to the Japanese archipelago from the Korean peninsula with the Yayoi culture during the 1st millennium BC. There is some fragmentary evidence suggesting that Japonic languages may still have been spoken in central and southern parts of the Korean peninsula (see Peninsular Japonic) in the early centuries AD.

↓ Explore More Topics
In this Dossier

Peninsular Japonic in the context of Jeju language

Jeju (Jeju: 제줏말; Jeju RR: Jejunmal, or Korean제주어; RRJejueo, or 제주말; Jejumal), often called Jejueo or Jejuan in English-language scholarship, is a Koreanic language originally from Jeju Island, South Korea. It is not mutually intelligible with mainland Korean dialects. While it was historically considered a divergent Jeju dialect of the Korean language, it is increasingly referred to as a separate language in its own right. It is declining in usage and was classified by UNESCO in 2010 as critically endangered, the highest level of language endangerment possible. Revitalization efforts are ongoing.

The consonants of Jeju are similar to those of the Seoul dialect of Korean, but Jeju has a larger and more conservative vowel inventory. Jeju is a head-final, agglutinative, suffixing language, like Korean. Nouns are followed by particles that may function as case markers. Verbs inflect for tense, aspect, mood, evidentiality, relative social status, formality, and other grammatical information. Korean and Jeju differ significantly in their verbal paradigms. For instance, the continuative aspect marker of Jeju and the mood or aspect distinction of many Jeju connective suffixes are absent in Korean. Most of the Jeju lexicon is Koreanic, and the language preserves many Middle Korean features and words now lost in Standard Korean. Jeju may also have a Peninsular Japonic substratum, but this argument has been disputed.

↑ Return to Menu