The Influence of the Buddhism Expansion on the Creation of Languages

In the third century B.C.E., Buddhism appeared in ancient China. But it was not until later in the first century A.D. that there was more of a regularity in the religion being practiced. Buddhism was greatly and strongly opposed by the Taoists, another religion occupying China at the time. However, over the course of many centuries, the two religions began to coexist without to much aggression towards each other. Over time, both religions also began to borrow ideas from one another. According to the philosopher Chu Hsi, “Buddhism stole the best features of Taoism; Taoism stole the worst features of Buddhism. It is as though one took a jewel from the other, and the loser recouped the loss with a stone.” Nevertheless, both religions and later Christianity expanded throughout China, and eventually made their way along with explorers and warriors into modern day North Korea, South Korea, and then into Japan. The languages throughout these four countries developed along with the religions, proving that the spread of Buddhism, Taoism, and Christianity throughout China and the surrounding countries was a great influence on the creation of the modern day Korean and Japanese languages and writing systems.

The Japanese language had no writing system prior to the introduction of the Chinese writing system, originally used by Chinese people who lived in Japan during the early Christian era. Educated Japanese scholars wrote in Chinese, the earliest evidence of this being from the 5th and 6th centuries A.D., where proper names are inscribed with Chinese characters on two artifacts, an old mirror and a sword. But by the 8th and 9th centuries A.D., Chinese characters began to be used to represent the Japanese spoken language. But since the two languages are so different in syntax, the transferred Chinese characters started to be “Japanified” for more convenient use. This however, is what is known as “old Japanese,” where the vowel and consonant system was larger than that of modern day Japanese. Nowadays, Japanese has a five-vowel system, in contrast of that with the eight-vowel system of old Japanese. The early middle Japanese and late middle Japanese eras of the language can be summed up in that there was a significant amount of Chinese influence on the language’s phonology, and more modern devices begin to appear in the languages writing system. Now, Modern Japanese is used, which first started being used in 1600. Since old Japanese versions of Japanese, the standard dialect was the Kansa dialect, especially in Kyoto. Later, the Edo dialect (Edo being modern day Tokyo) developed into the normal spoken dialect. Even though there is a normal dialect, there are still dozens of others spoken all throughout Japan, some examples being the Keihan-shiki, Kagoshima, and Okinawa dialects.

In the Koreas, the Chinese language was completely adopted and was taught as Hanja, until the modern day writing system of Hangeul was established during the 20th century under the influence of Sejong the Great. Before Hangeul, however, the normal dialect of Chinese slowly transformed and changed into the modern spoken Korean dialects, while the Chinese character system was still in use. But once Sejong the Great came into power, he crafted the modern day Korean alphabet, consisting of nineteen consonants and 21 vowels. The Korean alphabet was actually one of scientific origin, with the shape of the letter directly relating to the shape of the mouth, throat, and tongue when pronouncing the letter. After the Korean war in the 1950’s, there was a noticeable change in the pronunciation and spelling of certain words in North and South Korea. The dialects in Korean differ greatly as well. there are the the Seoul, Incheon, and Munhwao dialects, which are the most well known, and also the Hamgyong, Pyongyang, Jeju, and Busan dialects (all used throughout specific different regions in both North and South Korea). Also in the Korean language, a notable aspect is that since Korean women are often viewed as subservient to men, the change in genders can be easily observed in day to day speech patterns. Nowadays, Hanja (Chinese written language) is taught throughout schools in South Korea, as Spanish is a predominantly taught language here in the US.

Overall, the research proves that because of the spread of religion, all of these changes have influenced the creation of both the Korean and Japanese languages. All of the afore mentioned religions are still present in both Japan and the Koreas, proving even more that the religion came first, before the language. This shows that no matter what a person might believe in, religion is a very powerful tool that has helped create and destroy many things in the world.Bibliography:

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