鞬吉支

Baekje

Etymology

鞬 (*k(j)ə-n, “great”) + 吉支 (*kici, “ruler”).

Noun

鞬吉支 (*k(j)ə-n kici) (Nihon shoki コニキシ or コキシ)

1. king (as used by commoners?)

   Synonym: 於羅瑕 (*eraγa?)

Reconstruction notes

Given as 鞬吉支 (MC kjon kjit tsye) in the Book of Zhou, which states that this is the commoners' word for the king of Baekje as opposed to the aristocratic word 於羅瑕.

Given as コニキシ (*konikisi) and コキシ (*kokisi) in katakana glosses to the Nihon shoki, which also occasionally uses it to refer to non-Baekje kings from the Korean peninsula, including those of Goguryeo and Gaya.

Descendants

• → Old Japanese: 王 (*ko_?niki_?si, “king from the Korean peninsula”)
  • Japanese: 王(こにきし) (konikishi, “king from the Korean peninsula”)

References

• John Bentley (2000) “New Look at Paekche and Korean: Data from Nihon shoki”, in Language Research‎^[1], volume 36, number 2, Seoul National University, pages 417—443
• Alexander Vovin (2005) “Koguryo and Paekche: Different Languages or Dialects of Old Korean?”, in Journal of Inner and East Asian Studies, volume 2, number 2, Koguryo Research Foundation, pages 108—140
• Alexander Vovin (2013) “From Koguryo to T'amna”, in Korean Linguistics‎^[2], volume 15, number 2, John Benjamins Publishing Company, pages 222—240