Talk:Ye-Maek language

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Issues[edit]

This article conflates

the languages of various peoples located northeast of China called Maek (貊/貉) in ancient Chinese histories, about whose languages nothing at all is recorded, and
the language of the Eastern Ye of the Chinese Three Kingdoms period, whose language is also unattested, but is said in Chinese histories to be similar to the Goguryeo language.

This identification is common in Korean historiography, but is problematic, as discussed in Byington's review of Beckwith's book, and in Pai Hyung Il "Korean" Origins. Basically, Chinese historians had a habit of applying earlier ethnonyms from the same area to contemporary peoples without knowing whether they were historically connected.

The toponyms mentioned, the Placename glosses in the Samguk sagi, are proposed as relating to the Goguryeo language (though this is also disputed), and thus only indirectly relate to any Ye-Maek language. The one reference is the article is thus not directly relevant to the topic. The true source of this article seems to be chapter 2 of Beckwith Koguryo, the language of Japan’s continental relatives. It seems the Linguist List code "hmk" adopted by ISO 639-3 was also assigned based on this book. Beckwith's account of the Maek is criticised in the above-mentioned review by Byington. Kanguole 14:09, 12 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]