The Linguistic Evidence for the Korean Influence on the Formation of the Ancient Japanese State

The Linguistic Evidence for the Korean Influence
on the Formation of the Ancient Japanese State

Alexander Vovin
EHESS, France

(59th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, 2016)

In this communication I intend to demonstrate that the names of the two deities from the ‘Heavenly group’ of the Japanese pantheon, namely Izanagi (Old Japanese Inzanaŋgî and Izanami (Old Japanese Inzanamî), as well as the given name Homuda (Old Japanese Pômunda) of the semi-legendary emperor Ōjin that are meanigless in Japanese actually have quite transparent Korean etymologies.

In conclusion, I will demonstrate the Soga (Old Japanese Sôŋga) clan, largely responsible for the introduction of Buddhism to Japan, is also of the Korean origin, and is probably connected to Silla kingdom’s Kim (Old Korean Swo[l]i) dynasty. I will also provide evidence that the Inner Asian title qan ‘ruler’ has found its way not only to Korea, which was noticed long ago, but also to Japan.

Keywords: Ancient Japan, Ancient Korea, Yamato, Silla, etymology, Buddhism, Izanagi, Izanami, Ōjin, Soga, title qan.