Wiktionary:About Baekje

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The Baekje language is an extinct language once spoken in the southwestern Korean peninsula. There are no extant texts written in this language.

Sources

There are two main sources for the Baekje language, both very limited in quantity:

• Later glosses to the eighth-century Japanese history Nihon shoki, the majority of which are transcribed in the Japanese katakana syllabary. All relevant words, around forty in total, are discussed by John Bentley in "New Look at Paekche and Korean: Data from Nihon shoki". Alexander Vovin gives a more selective list of only eighteen NS Baekje words in his 2005 paper "Koguryo and Paekche: Different Languages or Dialects of Old Korean?", excluding terms that "represent doubtful phonetic transmission or have no apparent etymology in any of the language families of the region"; some editors may prefer to use this over Bentley's more encompassing list.
• Placename glosses in Chapter 36 of the Samguk sagi, which discuss toponyms from the former territory of Baekje. The main source for these is the work of the Korean scholar Toh Soo-hee (도수희).

In addition, the seventh-century Chinese history Book of Zhou lists two Baekje words for "king" and one word for "queen". Words corresponding to all three are also attested in the Nihon shoki, certifying the latter's validity as a source for Baekje.

The seventh-century Book of Liang gives four more Baekje words, but none are attested in other sources. Liang may have glossed the langue erroneously: a Baekje word transcribed 固麻 (MC kuH mae) is said to mean "ruling fortress", but this must actually be the word for "bear", because the Baekje capital was named "bear ford" (*kuma nari > Middle Korean 고마〮ᄂᆞᄅᆞ (Kwòmánòlò)).

Criteria for inclusion

• Words given in both a placename gloss and the Nihon shoki may be created. They should be lemmatized at the orthography of the placename gloss, as it presumably represents the actual orthography with which the Baekje people wrote their language.
• The three words given in both the Book of Zhou, and the two additional words which can be reconstructed from one of the three words, may be created. They are created at the Chinese transcription to avoid the ahistoricity of transcribing Baekje at katakana.
• Words reconstructed from placename glosses alone should not be included, because of the well-known limitations of this source.
• The Nihon shoki is considered a generally reliable source into the Baekje language and Baekje terms transcribed in katakana therein may be created, provided that there is sufficient secondary source backing for the entry.