Talk:이리

What does "the biggest of the kind" and "the most said of the kind" mean? Kappa 18:23, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Semantic difference between ili and neugdae

It seems things aren't as simple as this Wiktionary entry suggests. Neugdae (늑대), ili (이리) and malseungnyang-i (말승냥이) are three Korean words for wolves. The authoritative and normative South Korean dictionary (Pyojun gug-eo daesajeon) claims that:

• ili (picture) are “Canis lupus”, occur “in Korea, Japan, China, India, Tibet, Siberia, Europe, North America, Central America and elsewhere” and often have black fur mixed into a brown and dark grey background;
• neugdae (picture) are “Canis lupus coreanus”, which I assumed to be an obsolete subspecies now covered by Canis lupus chanco (or a wider Canis lupus laniger) until I noticed that the Pyojun gives their range as “the Old World and North America”, are said to be mostly yellowish brown with a black tail, with their status given as endangered and protected;
• malseungnyang-i is the same as ili but may also mean neugdae, comparing the latter's size to the smaller dhole (seungnyang-i; picture).

Entries in the Pyojun usually mention similar words to alert the reader of any nuances or differences, but the entries for ili and neugdae do not mention each other, as if the two were completely unrelated and easy to distinguish. So we do not know whether neugdae are a kind of ili or both are mutually exclusive. At any rate, I don't think the Pyojun supports the unsourced assertions made at 이리#Noun. If the words were to be understood as two different subspecies, then why would normal speakers of Korean distinguish two similar animals, one of whom having a range that, according to maps,[1][2] probably since long ago or until fairly recently did not overlap with areas inhabited by speakers of Korean? Such a distinction would probably not reflect current popular usage, let alone historical usage. I wonder whether zoologists distinguish between neugdae and ili, and whether the Korean peninsula had two different kinds of wolf when the words came into being.

If you can read Korean and are not confused enough, there's more here which does not help much. – Dustsucker 2008-08-23