Editing Goguryeo language (section)

== Descriptions in Chinese sources ==

[[File:Map of Dongyi in Sanguozhi.svg|thumb|right|Chinese commanderies (in purple) and their eastern neighbours mentioned in the ''Records of the Three Kingdoms''{{sfnp|Shin|2014|pp=16, 19}}]]
Chinese histories provide the only contemporaneous descriptions of peoples of the [[Korean peninsula]] and eastern [[Manchuria]] in the early centuries of the common era.{{sfnp|Lee|Ramsey|2011|p=31}}
They contain impressionistic remarks about the languages of the area based on second-hand reports, and sometimes contradict one another.{{sfnp|Lee|Ramsey|2011|p=36}}
Later Korean histories, such as the ''[[Samguk sagi]]'', do not describe the languages of the three kingdoms.{{sfnp|Lee|Ramsey|2011|p=36}}

The state of [[Buyeo]], in the upper [[Songhua River|Songhua]] basin, was known to the Chinese from the 3rd century BCE.{{sfnp|Seth|2020|p=20}}
Chapter 30 "Description of the Eastern Barbarians" of the ''[[Records of the Three Kingdoms]]'' records a survey carried out by the Chinese state of [[Cao Wei|Wei]] after their defeat of [[Goguryeo]] in 244.{{sfnp|Lee|Ramsey|2011|p=34}}
Another version of this report, likely from a common source, is found in chapter 85 of the ''[[Book of the Later Han]]'' (5th century).{{sfnp|Lee|Ramsey|2011|p=34}}{{sfnp|Gardiner|2012a|p=24}}
The report states that the languages of Buyeo, Goguryeo and Ye were similar, and that the language of Okjeo was only slightly different from them.{{sfnp|Lee|Ramsey|2011|p=34}}{{sfnp|Gardiner|2012b|pp=98, 108}}
Goguryeo, originally inhabiting the valley of the [[Hun River (Yalu River tributary)|Hun River]], believed themselves to be a southern offshoot of Buyeo.
Over the next few centuries they would expand to rule much of eastern Manchuria and northern Korea.{{sfnp|Seth|2020|p=20}}

To the south of the Chinese [[Lelang Commandery]] lay the [[Samhan]] ('three Han'), [[Mahan confederacy|Mahan]], [[Byeonhan confederacy|Byeonhan]] and [[Jinhan confederacy|Jinhan]], who the ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'' described in quite different terms from Buyeo and Goguryeo.{{sfnp|Lee|Ramsey|2011|p=35}}
Based on this text, Lee Ki-Moon divided the languages spoken on the Korean peninsula at that time into Puyŏ and Han groups.{{sfnp|Lee|Ramsey|2011|pp=34–36}}

The same text states that the language of the [[Yilou]] to the northeast differed from that of Buyeo and Goguryeo.
Chapter 94 of the ''[[History of the Northern Dynasties]]'' (compiled in 659) states that the language of the [[Mohe people|Mohe]] in the same area was different from that of Goguryeo.
These languages are completely unattested, but are believed, on the basis of their location and the description of the people, to have been [[Tungusic languages|Tungusic]].{{sfnp|Lee|Ramsey|2011|p=35}}

The ''[[Book of Liang]]'' (635) states that the language of [[Baekje]] was the same as that of Goguryeo.{{sfnp|Lee|Ramsey|2011|p=44}}
According to Korean traditional history, the kingdom of Baekje was founded by immigrants from Goguryeo who took over Mahan.{{sfnp|Sohn|1999|p=38}}