The Search For The Language of Yamatai (2008)

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“The Search for the Language of Yamatai” Japanese Language and Literature
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Article in Japanese Language and Literature · January 2008
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The Search for the Language of Yamatai
John R. Bentley
1. Introduction
One of the most controversial topics in the study of Japanese history con-
cerns the location of Yamatai, an ancient polity that is described in sev-
eral Chinese records.¹ The 3rd-century Chinese chronicle Wei zhi (魏志
‘Wei Chronicles’) contains the most detailed account and description of
these so-called ‘eastern barbarians’ (東夷). The Wei zhi account describes
a group of people called Wa (倭 ‘dwarf’) ruled by a queen the Chinese
condescendingly call ‘vulgar-increasingly-summon’ (卑彌呼 , modern
Japanese Himiko). These spellings are worthy of note not simply because
of the derogatory graphs the Chinese historians have used, but because
the graphs are attempts to transcribe Wa names, titles, and toponyms.
The record also provides detailed notes on the directions and distances a
Chinese envoy would travel from Daifang ( 帶方 , near modern-day
Pyongyang) to a ferry point near modern Pusan on the tip of the penin-
sula, across the straits to the islands of Tsushima and Iki, then through a
number of small territories on the road to the queen’s capital in Yamatai.
Almost all scholars agree that the queen’s capital existed somewhere on
the Japanese islands. Kidder (2007:233) has tabulated the results of
serious research into the location of Yamatai conducted since the end of
World War II, and notes that 20 scholars have argued for Yamatai being
located in or around the Nara area, while 52 argue for some location in
Kyūshū. Kidder (2007:239 –282) ends his latest work by arguing for a
location in Makimuku, Nara Prefecture. He even contends, “Arguments
for the location of Yamatai in either Kyushu or Yamato are the only ones
worth considering” (2007:273).
It is not my intent to revisit this argument. Rather, the purpose of this
paper is to investigate the phonogrammatic data contained in the text to
see if evidence regarding the language of Yamatai can be gleaned, and
what such evidence can tell us. Kidder (2007:111) declares, “Himiko
Japanese Language and Literature 42 (2008) 1– 43

© 2008 John R. Bentley
2 Japanese Language and Literature
spoke proto-Japanese, but how widely was she understood at the time?”
There is no evidence provided to support this claim—an assertion that
most scholars would claim as very reasonable, but which has not been
conclusively proven to date.
While the evidence in Wei zhi is very slim, it is the only window avail-
able to help unravel the mystery regarding the language of Yamatai. As
the Wei zhi narrator takes the reader along the journey, we find that the
visiting group stops at various local ‘areas’ (國, Japanese kuni) in the
federation, upon which the narrator records the names of the locale as
well as the titles of the governmental officials in each area.² These non-
Chinese words (toponyms and titles) are recorded in phonetic script in
the chronicle.
There have been numerous attempts to interpret the phonetic tran-
scriptions of these titles and toponyms in Wei zhi, but as yet no scholarly
consensus has been reached. Mori Hiromichi (1982:158), a linguist, has
noted, “But other than a consensus on reading [the graph] 倭 as wa, these
many [scholarly] theories have little else in common.” ³
The conclusions of scholars and dilettantes alike regarding the location
and nature of Yamatai in Japan are hotly contested, and the number of
proposed arguments and solutions has reached such magnitude that the
topic now seems to have become self-propagating. What has received
little serious attention, however, is the actual linguistic data in the record
which has the potential to shed some important light on the language
spoken by the people of Wa/Yamatai. What few attempts there have
been in analyzing the language of Yamatai generally suffer from the
same methodological weaknesses: using the inadequate reconstruction of
Karlgrenian Old or Middle Chinese, and then stuffing these results into
the mold of 8th-century Japanese.⁴
The most salient question regarding this phonetic transcription has
been addressed by Kotani Hiroyasu, a scholar who has done much re-
search on mokkan, wooden or bamboo tablets used to record messages
and tallies in 7th- and 8th-century Japan. He argues as follows about the
phonograms in Wei zhi.
I hesitate to convey what may sound like a practical idea, but it does seem
that the person who (originally) recorded the phonology of Japanese in the
[Wei zhi] era, transliterating names like 卑狗・卑奴母離・伊都國・狗奴國・卑
彌呼・臺與, was a scribe who could distinguish the phonemes of Japanese,
meaning he could aurally comprehend the language. If the person could not
understand any Japanese at all —for example, if the person was an official
John R. Bentley 3
sent from the Wei court for the very first time and heard Japanese (names and
place names) and wrote these down in phonetic script — then perhaps the
transliterations would be even further removed from the actual phonology
[than these in Wei zhi already are].
Because the spellings [in Wei zhi] closely resemble Japanese, I surmise that
most of the proper nouns were first recorded by a Wa official who could speak
Chinese —perhaps an immigrant from the Korean peninsula. Also, it is not
impossible that the person who wrote down these proper nouns was an official
sent by the Wei court that had spent an extended amount of time in Japan
(Kotani 1999:43 – 44).
This is a very perceptive view, and it introduces the crucial possibility

that some of the phonetic spellings in Wei zhi may have been based on
something else before being recorded in the chronicle. This is an insight
of great importance, but one that needs to be tempered somewhat. The
possibility that the Wa had a literate person who transcribed these topo-
nyms and titles for the Chinese envoys needs to be seriously entertained.⁵
However, there are two sticky variables here: (1) it seems clear that some
semantically neutral sinographs were exchanged for ones with pejorative
connotations, and (2) there is no way to know if the transcription was
completely loyal to the toponym or title being transcribed. We know
from Chinese transcriptions of Buddhist terminology that the Chinese
transliterators did not always transliterate everything perfectly. Consider
the data in (1) from Coblin 1983.⁶
(1) Coblin’s Sanskrit

Transcription
Reconstruction Original
阿含 *ʔa gǝm āgama ‘a collection of doctrine’
袈裟 *kra sra kasāya ‘a monk’s robe’
菩薩 *bo sat bodhisattva ‘Bodhisattva’
般若波羅蜜 *pan nja: pa la mjiǝt prajñāpāramitā ‘wisdom for salvation’
Thus, while the transcription of Buddhist terms is quite accurate, there is

a trend to simplify terms by eliminating a final vowel or consonant clus-
ter. Unlike the Buddhist transcriptions, scholars do not have access to a
separate recorded language to compare with the Wei zhi transcription.
Another difficulty is that Kotani (and almost all other scholars) have as-
sumed that the Wa Federation spoke a single language. It is possible that
our literate Wa transliterator recorded the various toponyms and titles
according to his language.⁷
While some important research has been conducted, the fundamental
problem remains unchanged: a shaky methodological foundation upon

which rather far-reaching conclusions are constructed. Scholars should
strive for consistency in their methodology. When problems are encoun-
tered, there is a tendency to alter the parameters of the methodology
rather than to analyze the problem and attempt a solution within the set
parameters. Several problems in the interpretation of these spellings orig-
inate from the failure of the investigator to rely on new, innovative re-
constructions of Chinese.⁸
This paper analyzes the phonograms through the lens of an innovative
reconstruction of Later Han Chinese (25 – 220 C.E.) by Axel Schuessler
(2007). Schuessler’s reconstruction is important because it reconstructs
the language of Chinese spoken at the time of Himiko. Schuessler (2007:
120) has based his work on four types of material: modern Chinese dia-
lects, Old Northwest Chinese, Buddhist transcriptional data from the Han
period, and Wei-Jin rimes.
The results from an analysis of the phonograms will first be compared
to a study conducted by Mabuchi Kazuo (1999:644 –750) of peninsular
names and toponyms as recorded in Nihon shoki.⁹ Finally, I propose a
number of possible etymologies for the names and toponyms, based upon
what we currently know about earlier states of Japanese and Ryūkyūan
(or Japonic). Not only is an innovative reconstruction of Chinese import-
ant to this work; so is a proper understanding of the earlier history of
Japonic.¹⁰ The basic assumption is that if a significant number of etymol-
ogies fit what we know about the phonological history of the Japanese
archipelago, then the likelihood that the Wa spoke a form of Japonic is
very high.
2. Assumptions
Before I present these data, a few assumptions need to be spelled out,
and several caveats are in order. First, it is never explicitly stated in Wei
zhi that the people of Wa speak a specific language; there is no mention
about whether the thirty states even speak the same language. That they
speak “Wa” is simply an assumption scholars make, and it is one I will
use as a working hypothesis.¹¹ Second, other than a simple note that X is
a toponym or Y is a title, there is no evidence to suggest what the seman-
tics are regarding the transcriptions. And finally, there is the distinct pos-
sibility that the toponyms reflect a mixture of Wa and pre-Wa names,
much like toponyms in the United States where we often find a pre-
John R. Bentley 5
European, Amerind toponym in one location not far from an English (or
German, French, or Dutch) toponym.¹² My analysis of these data divides
the list of words into two groups: names/titles and toponyms. When
analyzing the toponyms, I have attempted to align the Wa toponym with
one of three reconstructions: Proto-Japonic, Proto-Korean, and Proto-
Ainu.¹³ In order to do this, I have relied on a number of characteristics of
each protolanguage, and these are listed in (2)– (4).¹⁴
(2) Proto-Japonic
(a) Voiced stops were not allowed word-initially.
(b) The canonical shape of syllables was *(V)CV, with open
syllables.¹⁵
(c) Word-initial *r- was not allowed.
(d) There were no consonant clusters.
(e) The language had seven vowels: *a, *e, *i, *o, *u, *ɨ, and *ǝ
(Frellesvig and Whitman 2004, Miyake 2003b).
(3) Proto-Korean
(a) The canonical shapes were *CV, *CVCV, or *CVC.
(b) There were no voiced initial oral stops or affricates.
(c) The language had seven vowels: *a, *e, *i, *o, *u, *ɨ, and *ǝ
(Martin 1996).
(4) Proto-Ainu
(a) The language did not have *b, *z, or any affricates.
(b) The language did have laryngeals: *h, *ɦ, and *ʔ.
(c) Consonant clusters were allowed, specifically: *hd-, *pr-, *hr-,
*tr-, *-nr-, *-rn-, *-rt-, *ty (both initially and medially), *-tk-,
*-hk-, *-pn-, and *-ns-.
(d) The language had at least eight vowels: *a, *ɛ, *e, *i, *ɑ, *ɔ,
*o, and *u (Vovin 1993).¹⁶
As mentioned above, I have relied on the innovative research of

Schuessler (2007) to transcribe the relevant Chinese phonograms. It
needs to be pointed out, however, that related to the ‘fish’ rhyme cate-
gory Schuessler reconstructs an earlier *Cɑ, but by the time of Himiko,
Chinese transcriptions were using this rhyme to transcribe *Cɔ.¹⁷ Coblin
(1983:105) explains, “These [Ge 歌] finals have the MC vowels â and a

. . . In BTD they correspond to Indic a and ā syllables in literally hun-
dreds of examples.” ¹⁸ Thus, by the time of Wei this Ge rhyme group had
filled the gap created when the ‘fish’ rhyme shifted (from *Cɑ to *Cɔ).
Schuessler’s earlier work (2006) made this point clear, and I reconstruct
‘fish’ rhyme sinographs as *Cɔ.
In relation to the above, it is important to briefly address the limitations
of Later Han Chinese, because the phonology of this variety of Chinese,
in all likelihood, will not match the phonology of the language of Wa
perfectly. In order to avoid the problem of circularity, however, I will put
full weight on the LHC reconstruction, as it is the only known variable
here, and reconstruct the language of Wa accordingly. As Later Han had
a rich consonantal system, a match with Wa consonants may not have
been difficult. Most issues of matching a reconstruction of the Wei zhi
transcription with a variety of Japanese revolve around the vocalism. The
language of Later Han had a rich vocalism, and Schuessler (2006:84) re-
constructs eleven vowels and a number of diphthongs. I list the vowels in
(5):
(5) i y ɨ u
e o
ǝ
ɛ ɔ
a ɑ
This rich phonology provided a scribe with ample choices to map sino-
graphs on to the sounds of Wa, but there were certain CV combinations
that did not exist in LHC that likely existed in Wa. These possibly in-
clude the following: [sa], [tu], and [du].¹⁹ Also, as Schuessler’s (2006:
87) earlier work makes clear, the *Cie combination has /e/ as the under-
lying vowel. This is important when we reconstruct certain vowel heights
below.²⁰ Schuessler also reconstructs 利 as LHC *lis, but has earlier
noted that this final *-s soon became aspiration (*liʰ), and I have inter-
preted it thus.
The OJ vowel traditionally labeled otsu o (variously written in the lit-
erature as ö, o₂, or o) is here written with a schwa [ǝ], following Miyake
(2003b:216), while the OJ high mid vowel traditionally written in Yale
as iy is written with a barred i [ɨ]. I also believe the Wei zhi orthography
is making a distinction between two different heights of back rounded
vowels (*Co and *Cɔ). As noted above, I follow Schuessler (2006:90) in
John R. Bentley 7
interpreting LHC *Cɑ as *Cɔ because, “In open syllables, the vowel ɑ
has become more back and rounded already in the 2nd century AD as
Buddhist transcriptions show, thus -ɑ>-ɔ . . .”
Also I believe that in a number of instances the Chinese editors of Wei
zhi have exchanged some graphs for derogatory ones.²¹ A comparison of
the orthography of the Chinese historiographers with records produced
by peninsular or Japanese historiographers shows that when recording
foreign words related to tributary states, the Chinese appear to have se-
lected phonograms according to the following criteria: (1) derogatory se-
mantics, (2) phonological fit, (3) low stroke count.²² On the other hand,
peninsular and Japanese orthographies generally follow these criteria: (1)
phonological fit, (2) semantics, (3) low stroke count. As examples, Table
1 lists toponyms of the Three Han as recorded in Wei zhi, compared with
the same transcriptions found in the following sources: Kwangkaytho
Stele Inscription (KS), Samkwuk saki (SS), or Nihon shoki (NS). I have
used Schuessler’s LHC reconstruction to show the phonological fit.
Table 1. Toponyms in Wei zhi and Peninsular/Japanese Sources

Wei zhi LHC Semantics KS /SS /NS LHC Semantics
古離 kɔ-liɑi old – differ from KS 古利 kɔ-liʰ ²³ old – profit
卑離 pie-liɑi base – differ from NS 比利 biʰ-liʰ compare – profit
支侵 kie-tsʰim branch – invade SS 支潯 kie-zim branch – shore
兒侵 ńe-lim child – woods NS 爾林 ńe-lim you – woods
駟盧 siʰ-lɑ 4 horses – black NS 新羅 sin-lɑ new – bird net
古臘 kɔ-lɑp old – year end sacrifice SS 古龍 kɔ-lioŋ old – dragon
狗奚 ko-ge dog – how NS 古奚 kɔ-ge old – how
I posit that toponyms like 鬼 ‘ghost’ LHC *kui, PJ *kǝ-i, OJ kiy, perhaps
for Ki Province, were in reality originally transcribed with a sinograph
such as 幾 ‘how many’ LHC *kɨi, OJ kiy. The Wei zhi editors thus
replaced some sinographs with derogatory ones that were nearly homo-
phonic.
Finally, this paper adheres to the proposal from Bjarke Frellesvig and
John Whitman (2004:287) that Proto-Japonic underwent systematic
vowel raising, where *e>[i], and *o>[u] if in initial or medial position
in a word of at least two syllables.²⁴ When in final position vowel raising
was blocked. I have modified this theory slightly to include raising of
*ɔ>[o].
Before the various spellings in Wei zhi are analyzed, a word should be
said about some issues of phonotactics and phonology. Because the syl-
labic structure (C)V generally holds true for this language, the fact that
our data contain a number of consonant-final syllables means we must
entertain the possibility that this distinction may represent one of two
phenomena: (1) a vowel has devoiced, and the transcription treats it as
zero; or (2) the morpheme in question actually is a closed syllable. As we
cannot be sure about either one, I leave both possibilities open, especially
since PA allows closed syllables.
An example is the toponym 對馬 LHC *tuǝs-ma, which I reconstruct
as either *tǝsVma or *tusVma, as it appears fairly certain that the name
of this island is something like ‘Tǝ Island’ or ‘Tu Island’. Mabuchi
(1999:733) has approached this problem in a similar manner, putting in a
cover vowel [ɿ], and positing that this cover vowel may be /i ̯ǝ/ or /ǝ/
(1999:726). Conversely, consider that the transcription 末盧 LHC *mɑt-
lɔ is reconstructed as *mat-rɔ, because the PA etymology with *mat ‘fe-
male’ is a better fit phonologically than the traditional folk-etymology of
‘pine-bay’ *matu-ura, due to the disparity in the height of the final vowel.
There are also many cases where the transcription appears to show an
underlying geminate. It has been suggested to me that, analogous to Thai
and Khmer borrowings from Indic, these geminates reflect consonants
following short vowels (Miyake, p.c.). The examples in (6) illustrate.
(6) Sinographs LHC Wa

彌馬獲支 *mie-ma-ɣuak-kie *mema-wake
己百支 *kɨǝ-pak-kie *kɨpa-ke
對蘇 *tuǝs-sɔ *tǝsɔ or *tusɔ
On this admittedly weak evidence, I reconstruct only one consonant

here.²⁵ There is also the issue of velar-nasal initials. Man’yōgana often
uses velar-nasal-initial sinographs to transcribe voiced velars in OJ (吾
LHC *ŋɔ represents OJ ŋgo, while 我 LHC *ŋɑ spells OJ ŋga), so I have
reconstructed *ŋg- based on the Chinese *ŋ- and evidence presented by
Miyake (2003b:193 –194).
A final issue is how to deal with the few examples of initial voiced
consonants found in these spellings. As noted earlier, OJ does not allow
voiced obstruents in word-initial position. If the language under scrutiny
actually is related to some branch of Japonic, then one could expect the
same rule to apply, though this is simply an assumption. Consider that of
the 53 words listed in Tables 2 and 3 in §3 below, only three have a
voiced initial consonant. Notice, also, that two are *d- and the other be-
John R. Bentley 9
gins with *z-. It is proposed that this *d- actually reflects a voiceless *t-,
while *z- reflects *s- (*zi> si). The graph 邪 ‘wickedness’ has two pos-
sible LHC readings: *zia or *ja. It is highly probable, however, that 邪 is
a pejorative alternate for 耶 ‘question particle’, reconstructed as *ja,
which does not have the *z- alternate.²⁶ I have thus used the reconstruc-
tion of *ja for 邪.
3. Analysis of Wa Vocabulary
An analysis of the phonograms in Wei zhi is presented below, and I re-
construct what is believed to be the Wa word. Table 2 (on p. 10) lists
these data as preserved in Wei zhi, starting with the most useful data:
titles and personal names. The final column is the Wa reconstruction.²⁷
Table 3 (on p. 11) is a listing of the various toponyms found in Wei zhi,
which have been the fodder for locating Yamatai in numerous places
throughout Japan.
Table 2. Titles and Personal Names

Graphs Meaning LHC Wa
倭 ethnic designation? *ʔuɑi<*ʔwɑi *wa-i
卑彌呼 title *pie-mie-hɔ *pe-mehɔ
卑彌弓呼 title *pie-mie-kuŋ-hɔ *pe-mekuŋhɔ
難升米 personal name *nɑn-śɨŋ-mei *nanǝ-sɨŋgume-i
都市牛利 personal name *tɔ-dʑɨǝ-ŋu-liʰ *tɔsɨ-ŋguri
伊聲耆 personal name *ʔi-śeŋ-gɨ *ise-ŋgɨ
掖邪狗 personal name *jak-ja-ko *yak-yako
載斯烏越 personal name *tsǝʰ-sie-ʔɔ-wɑt *sǝse-ɔwat
臺與 personal name *dǝ-jɑ *tǝyɑ
卑狗 chief official *pie-ko *peko
卑奴母離 auxiliary official *pie-nɔ-mǝ-liɑi *penɔ-mǝra-i
爾支 chief official *ńe-kie *neke
泄謨觚 auxiliary official *siat-mɔ-kuɔ *sat-mɔ-kuɔ
*jas-mɔ-kuɔ *yas-mɔ-kuɔ
柄渠觚 auxiliary official *pɨaŋʰ-gɨɑ-kuɔ *paŋgɑ-kuɔ
馬觚 chief official *zi-ma-kuɔ *sima-kuɔ
多模 auxiliary official *tɑ-mɔ *tɑ-mɔ
彌彌 chief official *mie-mie *meme
彌彌那利 auxiliary official *mie-mie-na-liʰ *meme-nari
伊支馬 chief official *ʔi-kie-ma *ike-ma
彌馬升 auxiliary official *mie-ma-śɨŋ *mema-sɨŋgV
彌馬獲支 auxiliary official *mie-ma-ɣuak-kie *mema-wake
奴佳 auxiliary official *nɔ-kɛ-de *nɔ-kede
狗古智卑狗 chief official *ko-kɔ-ʈeʰ-pie-ko *ko-kɔte-peko
噫 response *ʔɨ *ɨ
John R. Bentley 11
Table 3. Toponyms
Graphs Meaning LHC Wa
狗邪韓 place name *ko-ja-gɑn (*-n<OC *-r) *koya-kar(a)
對馬 place name *tuǝs-ma *tǝsVma or *tusVma
一支 place name *ʔit-kie *ike
末盧 place name *mɑt-lɔ *mat-rɔ
伊都 place name *ʔi-tɔ *itɔ
奴 place name *nɑ *nɑ
不彌 place name *pu-mie *pume
投馬 place name *do-ma *toma
邪馬臺 place name *ja-ma-dǝ>*-dǝɨ *yama-tǝ(ɨ)
狗奴 place name *ko-nɔ *konɔ
斯馬 place name *sie-ma *sema
己百支 place name *kɨǝ-pɑk-kie *kɨpa-ke
伊邪 place name *ʔi-ja *iya
都支 place name *tɔ-kie *tɔke
彌奴 place name *mie-nɔ *menɔ
好古都 place name *hou-kɔ-tɔ *hokɔ-tɔ
不呼 place name *pu-hɔ *puhɔ
姐奴 place name *tsiɑ-nɔ *sanɔ
對蘇 place name *tuǝs-sɔ *tǝsɔ or *tusɔ
蘇奴 place name *sɔ-nɔ *sɔnɔ
呼邑 place name *hɔ-ʔip *hɔ-ipV
華奴蘇奴 place name *ɣua-nɔ-sɔ-nɔ *wanɔ-sɔnɔ
鬼 place name *kui *kui
爲吾 place name *wɑi-ŋɔ *wai-ŋgɔ
鬼奴 place name *kui-nɔ *kui-nɔ
邪麻 place name *ja-ma *yama
躬臣 place name *kuŋ-gin *kuŋginV
巴利 place name *pa-liʰ *pari
支惟 place name *kie-wi *kewi
烏奴 place name *ʔɔ-nɔ *ɔnɔ
The first question that needs to be addressed is whether these data can
be juxtaposed against other, independent information allowing the reader
to gauge whether this analysis is accurate or not. As an example, com-
pare the six place names in (7) with the LHC reconstruction and with the
transcription of the same names in Old Japanese.
(7) Graphs LHC Wa OJ

對馬 *tuǝs-ma *tǝsVma or *tusVma tusima
一支 *ʔit-kie *ike ikyi
伊都 *ʔi-tɔ *itɔ itwo
奴 *nɑ *nɑ na
邪馬臺 *ja-ma-dǝ *yama-tǝ(ɨ) yamato
斯馬 *sie-ma *sema sima
These six place names show that this analysis is very accurate, but it also
implies that there have been some phonological changes in the language
between the 3rd and 7th centuries, which data we can use to our advan-
tage in identifying the language.
Next I compare the phonological system of the above language with
that of the three peninsular languages (Paekche, Mimana, Silla) recon-
structed by Mabuchi (1999). (8) shows the results of these comparisons.
(8) a. Paekche and Mimana

i u p t c k
e ɿ o s
ǝ m n
a l
b. Silla
i u p t c k
e ɿ o s
ǝ ɔ m n
a l
c. Wa
i ɨ u p t k /g
e ǝ o s h
ɔ m n ŋ
a l
j w
John R. Bentley 13
Mabuchi’s conclusions about the phonological system of Paekche are

very similar to a survey of Paekche words conducted independently by
Bentley (2000:434 – 435), which is presented below in (9).
(9) i ɨ u p t c k
e ǝ o s (h?)
a m n
l
w
Both languages have seven vowels, and Mabuchi (1999:726) and Bent-
ley (2000:434– 435) independently note that the central vowels (*ǝ/ɿ or
*ǝ/ɨ) may actually be allophones. Mabuchi posits eight consonant pho-
nemes to my nine (ten if we include the tentative *h). On the basis of a
comparison of these admittedly unmarked systems, we could conclude
that the peoples of the peninsula spoke languages that were closely re-
lated. We could also conclude that the Wa spoke a similar language. It
needs to be stressed, however, that these phonemic inventories are un-
marked, and a counterargument can be made that by their very unmark-
edness these tell us very little.
Before we try to reach a conclusion on the relation of the Wa language
to surrounding territories, a careful analysis of these data at hand will
hopefully yield more evidence. As a working hypothesis, this paper
posits that the language of the Wa is indirectly related to a stage of the
language that later yields what is often called Old Japanese. The lan-
guage under examination could be labeled “very early Old Japanese,” but
that is somewhat presumptuous with such tenuous data, so I propose cal-
ling this language Wa. The remainder of this paper analyzes the tidbits
preserved in the record of Wei zhi from this language and demonstrates
how much of this information supports this thesis.
4. The Language of Wa
In this section I provide provisional etymologies for all the words listed
in Tables 2 and 3. Rather than expend energy attempting to locate each
and every toponym, as most research into Yamatai has done, it is felt that
it will be more productive to simply provide an etymology with either
OJ, PR, or PA.
#1 斯馬 LHC *sie-ma (place name) Wa *sema

While there is no overt information in the Wei zhi text, it seems fairly
safe to conclude that this word is ‘island’. The word for ‘island’ has been
subjected to several linguistic analyses over the past few decades. Miller
(1979:17–31) devotes almost 15 pages to this one lexical item in a long,
thorough article, and notes that it is a Paekche word in origin. In spite of
all this work, Miller still reconstructs *sima. Related to the form sema re-
corded in Nihon shoki, Miller (1979:26) believes this to be a Japanese
development, not a peninsular one.
I have dealt with this lexical item in an article, where the Paekche form
is reconstructed as *syema (Bentley 2000:425– 426). It is interesting that
Nihon shoki preserves the spelling of this Paekche word as 斯麻, the
same as that in Paekche. This suggests that after the Wa era vowel rais-
ing occurred: *sema>sima.
#2 邪麻 LHC *ja-ma (place name) Wa *yama

The most obvious connection is with the word ‘mountain’, as noted in #3
below. Wamyōshō (ca. 935) notes there is one place called Yama, and
then 30 or so place names with yama as the first element. However,
notice that in the languages of the Ryūkyūs, from Amami to Yonaguni,
yama means ‘forest, woods’ (<PR *yama). Perhaps this is the original
meaning. If true, then the derivative meaning of ‘mountain’ may have
originated from forests in the archipelago being primarily found on the
sides of mountains.
#3 邪馬臺 LHC *ja-ma-dǝ>*ja-ma-dǝɨ (place name) Wa *yamatǝ or

*yamatǝɨ
This is the name of the ancient state of Wa. It should not surprise us that
this is the capital of the Queen. The traditional interpretation, dating back
at least to the 9th century, is yama ‘mountain’+ato ‘footsteps’>yamato.
However, because of the religious significance of forests to the ancient
people of Japan, perhaps a better etymology is yama ‘forest’+tә ‘spirit’
(ti ‘spirit’<*to-i [my tә is the bound form, following Martin 1987:545]).
An example of ti ‘spirit’ is seen in names of deities that reside in plants,
such as Kukunoti ‘deity of the stalk’ and Kagututi ‘the fire deity’. It is
also seen in the curse the sea deity puts upon the fishing hook before
giving it back to Hiko Hohodemi to gain control over his older brother.
This curse is actually a play on words because ti ‘spirit’ is homophonous
John R. Bentley 15
with ti ‘fish hook’. If Yamato was the religious center of the federation
first, that would explain why it became the political center later, when the
people elevated a shaman to the status of queen.
#4 伊都 LHC *ʔi-tɔ (place name) Wa *itɔ

This place name is commonly read ito in modern Japanese, and com-
pared with the Itoshima ‘thread-island’ area in Fukuoka Prefecture. This
place is recorded in Nihon shoki as 伊覩 itwo with a rounded back vowel.
It is also preserved in Wamyōshō as 伊度 ito, though by the 10th century
the distinction between two and to had already been lost. I strongly sus-
pect that this word is the same as that in OJ itwo ‘thread’. The PR word
is *ito (Tokunoshima itu, Tarama itu, Ishigaki itu, Hateruma itu, where
*to>tu but *tu>ci or cï ).²⁸
#5 奴 LHC *nɑ (place name) Wa *na

This is one of two place names that I have not reconstructed according to
the Later Han period posited by Schuessler, where *Cɑ in early LHC but
*Cɔ in later LHC. The reason is that this spelling is preserved in earlier
Han records (in one instance dated 57 C.E.), meaning it is a fossilized
spelling, selected before the shift of *Cɑ to *Cɔ. I therefore posit *na
instead of *nɔ. Monosyllabic words are problematic, however, because
we cannot deny the possibility of phonological proximity to other mono-
syllables. Needless to say, there are a number of possible etymologies for
*na. One may be ‘name’ (OJ na, PR *na), though that seems somewhat
difficult to accept, as the purpose of naming a place is to set it apart, not
make it generic.
Another possibility is na ‘fish’. Nihon shoki preserves an example
where the graph 魚 ‘fish’ is glossed phonetically as 儺 na. A stanza in
Man’yōshū poem 869 also contains the phrase 奈都良須 na turasu ‘(she)
tries catching fish’. This may suggest that the place Na was close to the
ocean.
A third possible etymology is ‘land, earth’, preserved in OJ nawi
‘earthquake’.²⁹ Notice that nawi is also preserved in Ryūkyūan: PR
*nawe, na’i (Amami), nee (Shuri), nai (Hirara), nai (Ishigaki), nayi (Ha-
toma), ni: (Hateruma). There are a few other examples of na ‘land, earth’
preserved in Old Japanese: the name of the deity Ōkuninushi (大国主神)
‘great-land-lord’ has a variant name, Ōnamochi (大名持神) ‘great-land-
possessor’. It is possible that by the Asuka era when this last name was
transcribed logographically, the primitive meaning of na had already
been lost. This na is possibly related to Manchu na ‘land, earth’. This

etymology might be a good candidate, if the immigrants from the
peninsula wanted to make this new territory their new land.
#6 鬼 LHC *kui (place name) Wa *kui

This is likely a derogatory graph, due to the semantics, ‘ghost’. While it
should be acknowledged that this lexical item might be related to the
Paekche word *kɨ (OJ kiy) ‘fortress, walled city’, this is highly unlikely,
as the Chinese probably would have mentioned the existence of walled
cities in Wa, if they had existed.³⁰ It is perhaps better to compare this
with the old place name Kiy (variously spelled in the old records as 木, 木
伊, 城, 紀, or 紀伊). As these spellings show, the word was homophonous
with ‘tree’ as well as ‘walled city’. The oldest extant spelling of this
place name is 木 ‘tree’, meaning this may be the original semantics. Frel-
lesvig and Whitman (2004:292) reconstruct ‘tree’ as *kɨy. The Wa re-
construction of *kui has a vowel of the same height.
#7 倭 LHC *ʔuɑi (place name) Wa *wa-i

This is the other toponym that predates the Wei zhi account, so the earlier
LHC reading (*ʔuɑi) is more appropriate. It should be remembered that
the gold seal a farmer accidentally discovered on Shika-no-shima in 1784
contains the inscription 漢委奴國王, literally ‘Han-Wa-i Na King’. The
inscription on this gold seal is dated 57 C.E., attesting to the age of both
toponyms: 倭 and 奴. It is well known in Japanese historical linguistics
that there was some kind of suffix -i that attached to many nouns.³¹
Examples are numerous, such as amafari ‘clearing up after the rain’ and
amey ‘rain’ (<*ama-i), kagaywopyi ‘twinkle’ and kagey ‘light’ (<
*kaga-i), sakadukyi ‘wine goblet’ and sakey ‘wine’ (<*saka-i). There is
further proof of the antiquity of this reading from SK. Marc Miyake
(p.c.) notes that “the reading for the graph 倭 is way (in SK) and that the
OC reading was something like *a/way. It is assumed that the SK
reading is an archaism that predates the SK mainstream, likely borrowed
in the 700s. As the final *-y did not even make it into Go-on from the
400s or so, the reading way may date from Han times. It is probably of
the same age as another odd SK reading, kay (<OC *a/kayh) for 箇
‘counter’.” I submit that the ancient people of Japan originally called
themselves Wa-i.
John R. Bentley 17
#8 馬觚 LHC *zi-ma-kuɔ (chief official) Wa *sima-kuɔ

It is possible that there are two competing transcriptions for the word for
‘island’: sema and sima. If Kotani (1999:43 – 44), quoted in the intro-
duction, is correct in his belief that these transcriptions originated from
the Wa and then were somewhat altered by the Wei historiographers, I
would submit that the word in this transcription is a different etymon,
one with a higher vowel than the one for ‘island’. In Ryūkyūan, the word
for ‘village’ is sima (Shuri), sïma (Ishigaki), and cima (Yonaguni).³²
Most dialects of Ryūkyūan have undergone an almost complete merger
of *si and *se. However, in Yonaguni *se develops into si, while *si
changes to ci (Thorpe 1983:73, Bentley 2008:172). Also, a reconstruc-
tion of Proto-Yaeyama shows that Ishigaki sïma<*sima. These data sug-
gest that the PR form is *sima and not *sema.
The second syllable of this title, *kuɔ, is also problematic. The popular
view is that this is ko, OJ kwo ‘child’. On the varied evidence of Ryū-
kyūan, the proto-form for ‘child’ must be *kura: Shuri Qkwa, Ishigaki
ha:, Iriomote fua:, and Hatoma huha. It should be noted that in Saki-
shima *ku lenites to hu. Serafim (2003:4) suggests that the likely evo-
lution of these forms is *kura>*hura>*huwa (all Sakishima forms
noted above diverge from this point). With r-loss, *kura results in kwo
(<*kua< *kura).³³
This etymology is indirectly supported by evidence from the Koguryo
onomastic data: ‘child peak’ is preserved as 仇斯波衣, where 仇 *gu is
‘child’. Thus, the peninsular word is likely *ku, and a plural suffix -ra
was later attached. This may have been reinterpreted later as singular
‘child’, much as modern Japanese ko-domo ‘child-plural’ is used as a
singular with ko-domo-tati ‘child-plural-plural’ as the plural.³⁴ It appears
that the phonogram selected still preserves the monophthongization pro-
cess before it is completed, again supporting the supposition that the
original transcriber was familiar with the language of the Wa: *kura>
*kuʳa>*kuɑ>kuɔ. It is thus suggested that the tentative etymology of
this Wa word is ‘village-child’.
#9 卑狗 LHC *pie-ko (chief official) Wa *peko

This word is traditionally related to OJ pyikwo ‘prince, child of the sun’.
Most scholars believe pyi of this title to be ‘sun’ (日). If this is correct,
then we have another case of vowel raising: *pe>pi. All Ryūkyūan
evidence, however, points to PR *pi and not *pe for ‘sun’, so the
etymology with ‘sun’ must be rejected. The *pe here may be related to
OJ pye ‘close, this side (of the ocean)’, but I am more disposed to see the
etymology as a loan from the prestigious language of Paekche: *pye
‘west’.³⁵ The Japanese have an ancient tradition of referring to the Ko-
rean peninsula as ‘(across) the western sea’ or ‘western direction’, which
is important, because innovative technology and culture was imported
from the peninsula. Consider the following from Nihon shoki:
Spelling Meaning Citation³⁶
西海 the western sea lane 1:337
海西諸韓 the various Han states west of the ocean 1:357
海西諸國 the various states west of the ocean 2:81
西方 the western direction 2:119
新羅西羌小醜 Silla is an ugly little place west (of Japan). 2:121
This ‘western sea lane’ later comes to mean Paekche. The expression
‘western direction’ points to Silla. Whatever the usage, ‘west’ in these
examples indicates the peninsula. It appears that by the compilation of
Nihon shoki the idea of ‘west’ had come to be viewed with contempt, but
in the era of Himiko it likely pointed to the path to technology and cul-
ture.
I suspect that the original two graphs have been changed to derogatory
ones. The final syllable likely was originally written as 觚 *kuɔ (see #8
above). On this evidence I submit that Wa *peko means ‘west-child’,
which may originally point to an educated immigrant from the peninsula
west of Yamatai.³⁷ When vowel raising later occurred (*pye>pyi), this
word became homophonic with pyi ‘sun’ and the meaning of pyikwo was
then reanalyzed (‘west-child’>‘sun-child’).
#10 卑奴母離 LHC *pie-nɔ-mə-liɑi (auxiliary official) Wa *penɔ-məra-i

This word is often compared with pyinamori ‘border guards’ mentioned
in the poetry of Man’yōshū, Japan’s earliest extant poetic anthology.
Scholars postulate that this is pyina ‘remote place’ and mori ‘defend’.³⁸ It
seems better, perhaps, to interpret *məra-i as ‘grove, thicket.’ Martin
(1987:485) has proposed an earlier shape of *mor[a-C]i for ‘grove’. He
posits an intervocalic consonant here, but this is a cautious approach, and
the proto-form is just as plausible without the consonant.
The major obstacle to understanding this title, however, is the diffi-
culty in explaining the relation of *penɔ to pyina. Vowel raising of *pe to
pyi explains the first part, but the disparity of *nɔ with na is problematic.
Perhaps this title actually means ‘the grove west of the field’ (*pe-nɔ-
John R. Bentley 19
məra-i), where ‘grove’, like ‘forest’, pointed to a place where the gods
conversed with shamans.
#11 彌彌 LHC *mie-mie (chief official) Wa *meme

This word is often compared with OJ myimyi ‘ear’. The PR form for ‘ear’
is *memV: Shuri mimi, Hirara mim, Hatoma miŋ, and Yonaguni miŋ.
Thorpe (1983:95) has shown that in many dialects in the Ryūkyūs a
nasal plus a high vowel results in a velar nasal. Notice that in Shuri ‘dog’
*enu is ʔ iŋ, but ‘ear of rice’ *ine is ʔ ŋni. This strongly suggests that the
PR form for ‘ear’ is *memV.³⁹ This may point to a judge, one who hears
complaints. A legend surrounding Prince Shōtoku claims that he could
listen to ten plaintiffs at the same time and discern each without error.
#12 泄謨觚 LHC *siat-mɔ-kuɔ or *jas-mɔ-kuɔ (auxiliary official) Wa

*sat-mɔ-kuɔ or *yas-mɔ-kuɔ
The first sinograph of this title can be reconstructed as either LHC *siat
or *jas, necessitating the postulation of two different etymologies. Again,
the suffix *-kuɔ is attached to the title. The title may be related to the
place name Satsuma (in modern Kagoshima Prefecture), which is first at-
tested in the tenth book of Sendai kuji hongi (ca. 710 C.E.).
It is just as plausible that the reading is *jas instead of *siat. Miyake
(2003a:110) notes that this may be a transcription for *ya-sVma-kwɔɔ
‘eight-island-child’, which would give us a very old attestation for
yasima, a designation that was very popular in early song. The weakness
in both theories is that we still need to explain why we have *mɔ and not
*ma.
#13 卑彌呼 LHC *pie-mie-hɔ (queen’s title) Wa *pe-mehɔ

This name is usually parsed in two segments: OJ pyimye ‘daughter of the
sun, princess’ and an as yet unidentifiable ko. This interpretation faces
several almost insurmountable hurdles. If the first two syllables in this
name mean ‘daughter of the sun’, then how do we analyze the nearly
identical Kuna king’s title listed in #14, *pemekughɔ? Is he also the
‘daughter of the sun’, plus or minus something? ⁴⁰
Analogous to the title *peko, *pe may mean ‘west’. The syllable *me
is likely the honorific prefix, explained in #38. For those who may argue
that the honorific prefix should come at the beginning, I counter that the
prefix does occur word initially (hence a prefix), but that does not pre-
clude another word from being prefixed as a modifier. A later OJ exam-
ple is sumye myima ‘imperial grandchild’ (sumye ‘ruler’ myi ‘prefix’+

ma ‘grandchild’).
The more critical issue is how to interpret *hɔ. Many earlier scholars
assigned the reading -ko, based on the modern Sino-Japanese reading コ
for the graph 呼. Miller (1967:22) has already noted that this graph 呼
cannot reflect Japanese ko because other velar-initial syllables in these
names have Chinese k-. There are several possible interpretations of the
final *hɔ that should be mentioned. First, *h- could be viewed as *k
which has lenited in medial position, but explaining the retention of other
Wa words with medial *-k- becomes problematic, and we still have two
place names, #43 好古都 Wa *hokɔ-tɔ and #44 呼邑 Wa *hɔ-ɨp, that can-
not be explained thusly, as both have *h in initial position. Miyake has
proposed (p.c.) that this *h is original, and analogous to the laryngeals in
Hittite; this phoneme only survived in the (now extinct) language of Wa.
I believe that *hɔ originally meant ‘heir’, but later lenited to *wo and
at some later date was then analyzed as a male heir, and then finally only
as a male. It has been suggested to me that perhaps *hɔ represents a for-
eign *who, and like wh- in English, the *-h- later drops.⁴¹ This interpre-
tation of *hɔ is based on the fact that Himiko’s successor, 臺與, is labeled
宗女 ‘female heir (to the throne)’. To make this easier to understand, the
following chart illustrates the proposed development of three important
words found in the Wei zhi transcriptions:
Pre-Wa > Wa > pre-OJ > OJ
*hɔ ‘heir’ *wo ‘male child’ wo ‘male’
*wo ‘prince’? *wo ‘male child’ wo ‘male’
*ku-ra ‘child-plural’⁴² *kuɔ ‘child’ *kɔ ‘child’ kwo ‘child’
The title 卑彌呼 thus means ‘the honorific heir of the west’. The record
says that 70 or 80 years prior, Yamatai had a king, but he was deposed
when the federation fell into war, and a queen was put on the throne.
This suggests that she came to the throne as a young girl, much like her
protégé, #26 臺與 *təyɑ.
#14 卑彌弓呼 LHC *pie-mie-kuŋ-hɔ (king’s title) Wa *pe-mekuŋhɔ

I believe the final syllable here is the same as in the queen’s title. There
is a possibility that the velar nasal is actually from *kuni ‘land’
(*kuni>*kuŋ). Analogous to the title of the queen in #13, this title may
mean ‘west august-land-heir’<*pe ‘west’ *me ‘honorific prefix’ *kuni
(>*kuŋ) ‘land’ *hɔ ‘heir’.
Almost nothing is known about the rival kingdom traditionally known
John R. Bentley 21
as Kuna (狗奴 ‘dog-slave’ *ko-nɔ, see #40) today. Because of the simi-
larity of the titles of both the queen of Yamatai, and the king of Kuna, it
is possible that the people of these two polities spoke related dialects of
the same language. Thus, both titles have the same basic structure.
#15 伊支馬 LHC *ʔi-kie-ma (chief official) Wa *ikema

This word has been compared to the name of the ancient ruler Suinin,
Ikumey Irihiko Isati, but there are too many phonological hurdles to jump
over to make the first part of this name agree with *ikema. It is also
tempting to compare this word to ‘breath’ OJ ikyi, as there is a mystic
quality to breath in Japanese mythology; however, the evidence from PR
strongly suggests *iki (Yonaguni iti where *-ki->-ti-, but *-ke->-gi->
-ŋ-). The vowels of the second syllable do not match, and this proposal
must be rejected.
Perhaps this title is related to the nominal stem *ik- ‘few, a little’:
Shuri ikira, Ishigaki ikirasa:ŋ. The suffix -ma may be ‘grandchild’, pre-
served in OJ as myima ‘honorific grandson’. Thorpe (1983:291) recon-
structs ‘grandchild’ as PR *Uma(ga), with *-ga being a diminutive. Mar-
tin (1987:470) also believes the proto-form to be *(u)ma-gwo. If these
two constructions are accurate, then perhaps the OJ form myima is a spe-
cial bound form. If this -ma is ‘grandson’, then perhaps this title means
‘rare grandson’<‘few grandson’.
#16 爾支 LHC *ńe-kie (chief official) Wa *neke

This word has been compared with inakyi 稲置 ‘hereditary title’ or even
nusi ‘lord, master’. The major obstacle to the first comparison is explain-
ing the loss of the initial vowel (or the addition of a vowel in the later
form). Also, the vocalic change from -ye- to -a- requires clarification.
Yasumoto (2003:99 –100) compares this with OJ nigyi ‘soft’, a prefix
that appears in a number of divine names. Again, this must be rejected
because the vowels do not match.
I postulate that this title is formed from *ne ‘root’ and *ke ‘king,
ruler’. This is based on the following considerations. Wei zhi records,
“Traveling south-east 500 li, you arrive at the state of Itɔ. The chief is
called *neke . . . It [Itɔ] has a thousand households, and there are hered-
itary kings, but these all are allied with the queen’s state.” Consider,
further, that in the Koguryo onomastic data ‘king’ is spelled phonetically
as 皆 LHC *kɛi, close to the LHC transcription of *kie (支).
This may also be the same *ke as found in the gloss in Nihon shoki:
“Paekche ponki says, ‘On the third day of the first month, Koryo set up a
son of the second consort (ku no orikuku) as king (orikoke)’” (Ienaga et al.
1987.2:95). Here the king of Koguryo is called orikoke. Into this mix
should be added a line from the Chinese record, Zhou shu, which says
that the people of Paekche call their king 於羅瑕 *əlaka (<LHC *ʔɨɑ-lɑ-
gɑ) and their queen 於陸 *əluk (<LHC *ʔɨɑ-liuk). It seems plausible that
orikoke ‘king of Koguryo’ is really an amalgamation of a Paekche and
Koguryo word: orik- ‘(Paekche) king’ plus ke ‘(Koguryo) king’, perhaps
reminiscent of the Chinese practice such as 神皇 ‘god-emperor’.
#17 彌馬升 LHC *mie-ma-śɨŋ (auxiliary official) Wa *memasəŋgV

It is tempting to compare this with various names in Nihon shoki: 彌麻佐
Myimasa, a peninsular official with a Japanese surname (紀臣奈率), or
Prince Myima (御馬皇子). The problem with these comparisons is that
we are comparing a title (or office) with a personal name. It is possible
that this office had charge over horses, but this theory goes against the
line in Wei zhi which says the Wa have no such animals.
Miyake (2003a:113) quotes Serafim regarding the possibility that
myima (<*mema), as in the old peninsular state of Mimana, is an old
word for iron, based on the fact that anciently iron was discovered in
Okayama at a place called Mimasaka ‘Mima Hill’ (<Iron Hill?). His-
torically the southern part of the (Korean) peninsula provided iron to the
surrounding regions, which may suggest the etymology for Mimana
(<*mema ‘iron’+*na ‘land’?). This is an attractive proposal, given the
proximity of Kyūshū to the ancient iron mines on the southern area of the
peninsula. I do not know what *səŋgV is, unless it is related to PR
*sogo- ‘exceed, surpass’ as a verbal stem. If accurate, then this office
might mean ‘excellent iron’, which by extension might refer to high tech-
nological prowess.
#18 彌馬獲支 LHC *mie-ma-ɣuak-kie (auxiliary official) Wa *mema

wake
For an explanation of *mema, see #17. The final two syllables of this
title remind one of the later title wakey, derived from *waka-i. The prob-
lem with this comparison is the disparity in the vowels. The inscription
on the Inariyama tumulus sword contains the spelling 獲居 (LHC *ɣuak-
kɨɑʰ, EMC *ɣwɛ:jk-kɨə), transcribing waka. The graphs 居 and 支 were
never homophonous, nor near homophones. The only solution is to view
these two titles as unrelated.
John R. Bentley 23
Miyake (2003a:112) transcribes this 獲 as *ɣuɛk, and makes the very

attractive connection with PR *weke ‘male’ (cf. Thorpe 1983:304). The
problem in this reconstruction is that LHC *-uak does not result in *-uɛk
during this period (cf. Schuessler 2007:291). Thus we have *wake,
which hypothetically is composed of *wa ‘the land of Wa’ and *ke
‘king’ (cf. #16). Since this auxiliary official is recorded as being in the
capital Yamato, it is possible that this *ke was interpreted much like
English ‘lord’, a person with authority over a specific group of people.
#19 狗古智卑狗 LHC *ko-kɔ-ʈieʰ-pie-ko (chief official) Wa *ko-kɔte

peko
Yasumoto (2003:139 – 40) adheres to the consensus among scholars that
this is Kikuchi Hiko ‘the prince of Kikuchi’. He even quotes from Wa-
myōshō, where the district name Kikuchi is spelled 久久知 kukuti, but all
this phonological juggling does not result in a tighter fit. A better ety-
mology revolves around *kote ‘mouth’. Notice that in the Koguryo ono-
mastic data ‘mouth’ is preserved as 古次 (LHC *kɔ-tsʰiʰ, EMC kɔ-tsʰi)
>*koti. Miyake (p.c.) has suggested that perhaps the following has hap-
pened:
There is a divergence here in the etymon. Wa line one (the Yamatai line,
which is now extinct) has *koto-i>*kotwe (analogous to MK woy which re-
sults in Modern Korean we)>*kote. Wa line two (the OJ descendant) has
*koto-i, and undergoes vowel raising *kutu-i>kuti ‘mouth’.
Assuming this line of reasoning is correct, we have *kɔte-pekɔ ‘mouth-
west-child’, or what I would term ‘spokesman’. The next problem is the
initial *ko (some manuscripts have this initial sinograph and some do
not). I submit that if this graph is original, it is related to OJ kwo ‘small’.
In Ishigaki this is ku: as well as in Yonaguni: kuNgatana ‘small sword’
and kudikai ‘a small messenger, a child sent on an errand’. Unfortu-
nately, this word is poorly attested in our Ryūkyūan data. Notice that OJ
kwo ‘flour’ has the same reflexes in Ryūkyūan as kwo ‘small’ (Shuri ku:,
Hirara ku:, Hateruma ku:, Ishigaki ku:, and Yonaguni kuN). Another is-
sue is why *ko does not undergo vowel raising in OJ. Perhaps a mor-
pheme boundary blocks the raising. It has also been suggested to me that
perhaps the vowel was raised (*kwo>ku) but was analogically lowered
again at a later date.⁴³ If this analysis is correct, and the actual form had
*ko- in initial position, then the title means ‘minor spokesman’.
#20 狗邪韓 LHC *ko-ja-gɑn (place name) Wa *koya-kar(a)

This is the only place name in the list that is located on the Korean Pen-
insula, but there is still the possibility that it is a Wa word.⁴⁴ It is highly
likely that this is an older spelling, as the name 狗邪韓國 appears in the
earlier record, Hou Han shu. Mabuchi (1999:414 – 415) theorizes that
this spelling is a fossilized relic xala, signifying an Altaic Xala tribe.⁴⁵
This is an attractive proposal, as Starostin (2005) independently recon-
structs 韓 as OC *g(h)ar. Thus, this spelling is actually kara as seen in
other records and inscriptions. It is possible the final vowel was ignored,
resulting in a one-graph spelling. I place the name in this list because this
word kara is loaned into later Old Japanese.
#21 多模 LHC *tɑ-mɔ (auxiliary official) Wa *ta-mɔ

A number of scholars have assigned various readings to these graphs,
such as tama or tomo. Yasumoto (2003:99) argues that by reading this
title according to the man’yōgana system, we arrive at tama. His reading
is not only anachronistic, but fudges the data. The sinograph 模 only ap-
pears in Nihon shoki in man’yōgana, where it is read mo, so Yasumoto
should read this as tamo. Miller (1967:20) says this title “is most cer-
tainly to be identified with Old Japanese tömö, the ‘corporations’ of per-
sons with the same hereditary occupation or office.” This suggestion is
unlikely, however, because of the rounding of the final vowel in *mɔ. It
may be that this title is PJ *ta ‘rice paddy and Wa *mɔ ‘group’ (<
*mura), an official over agriculture in the area.
#22 奴佳 LHC *nɔ-kɛ-tei (auxiliary official) Wa *nɔkete-i

Many scholars compare this title with the Nakatomi, who were in charge
of religious ceremony at the early Japanese court. Miller (1967:21) has
already dismissed this association, and I agree with his argument. Vowel
raising here would yield OJ nukyi ‘warp’ or the infinitive of nuk- ‘re-
move; thread’. Notice that in some dialects of Ryūkyūan *nu>N (where
N represents a mora nasal), but *no>nu: Ōshima, Usani nuki ‘remove,
thread’, Shuri nuʒ un, and Yonaguni nuguŋ, suggesting *nok-. Does this
title mean ‘the father that removes’ (titi ‘father’<*to-i reduplicated)? ⁴⁶
#23 彌彌那利 LHC *mie-mie-nɑ-liʰ (auxiliary official) Wa *meme nari

If we interpret the first part of this title as ‘ears’, then this has already
been explained in #11. The last part may be the later copular nari ‘to be’.
John R. Bentley 25
If this verb is in the infinitive, one would expect *nare, but this verb has
an irregular conjugation, suggesting that perhaps originally this was a
vowel-stem verb. The meaning may be ‘(he) who is the ears’. It has been
suggested to me, however, that perhaps this title should be segmented
differently: *me ‘honorific suffix’+*menari (<*mena ‘waters’+*ari
‘exists’).⁴⁷ My interpretation of this new segmentation is ‘august (person
for whom) the waters exist’. Perhaps this refers to someone who con-
trolled irrigation.⁴⁸
#24 柄渠觚 LHC *pɨaŋʰ-gɨɑ-kuɑ (auxiliary official) Wa *paŋgɑ-kɔ

This may be pa-ga-kwo ‘blade-genitive-child’, or child of the blade
(sword). This ‘blade’ is pa: in Ishigaki, paN in Hateruma, and pa: in Hi-
rara. Another possibility, though less flattering, is ‘bald-child’. The noun
for ‘bald’ in Ishigaki is paga.
#25 噫 LHC *ʔɨ (response) Wa *ɨ

Miller (1967:19 –20) interpreted this graph (噫) as representing OJ *yi
‘good’. He goes so far as to say that this single entry in Wei zhi “would
probably stamp the society described as essentially Japanese.” He even
says that the “word transcribed is clearly Japanese . . .” The lack of cau-
tion in this statement, declaring the culture of Wa to be “essentially Japa-
nese” on the evidence of a single monosyllabic word, should raise a few
eyebrows, considering it comes from a scholar who has castigated others
for doing similar things.
Mori (1994:121) offers an interesting interpretation for this word. He
says that the graph 噫 is *ə, and that this was really something like ‘oh’,
meaning ‘yes’. To support this supposition, he quotes poem #3769 from
Man’yōshū: ⁴⁹
否藻諾藻 ina mo wo mo though she says ‘no’ or ‘yes’ . . .
There are several problems with this very ingenious idea. The first is that
*ə (or my *ɨ, both unrounded) and wo are very different vowels, almost
too different to compare, analogous to comparing the vowels in English
the /ðə/ and though /ðou/. The second problem is that there are no pho-
netic examples of this wo in Old Japanese. The 11th-century dictionary,
Myōgishō, notes that 吁 ‘affirmative’ is wou (ヲウ), and represents a fem-
inine response. It is quite possible that the Chinese either did not hear
this correctly, or it was simply a noise, like modern Japanese ha or Ainu
ho, which the Chinese interpreted as an actual word.⁵⁰
#26 臺與 LHC *də-yɑ (name of queen’s heir) Wa *təyɑ

It is likely the first graph was actually *də-ɨ, but I have not posited it, as
the following glide (*-y-) would likely have masked the final vowel of
the first syllable.
This is the name of the young girl who was placed on the throne after
the death of the queen. Wei zhi records that she was only 13 years old at
the time. The Wei zhi texts write her name as 壱與 ‘one-give’, but other
Chinese annals that quote the text of Wei zhi all have either 臺與
‘platform-give’ or 臺挙 ‘platform-lift’. It seems clear that the first graph
was 臺. Most scholars read the name 臺與 as toyo ‘eternal’, which fits
fairly cleanly with our reconstruction: *təyɑ, and as both vowels are non-
front and unrounded, it is possible to have the output OJ toyo [təyə]
‘eternal’. However, another very attractive etymology is PR *taya
‘strength, vigor’, found in Sakishima: taja (Hirara, Ikema, Yonaguni).
#27 都市牛利 LHC *tɔ-dʑɨə-ŋu-liʰ (personal name) Wa *tɔsɨ-ŋguri

This may actually be a personal name plus a kind of kabane: OJ twosi
‘sharp’ and kuri ‘copper’. Kuri is not attested in OJ, but it is attested in
MK (kwuli), and may be related to the Paekche word for gold or metal 仇
知 (LHC *gu-te). An anonymous reviewer points out, “It is possible MK
kwuli originated from *kuti and that Paekche preserved the unlenited
medial.”
#28 載斯烏越 LHC *tsəʰ-sie-ɔ-wɑt (personal name) Wa *səse-ɔwat

While the initial is an affricate, as is the case with #47 姐奴 Wa *sanɔ, I
have reconstructed a simple fricative *s-, because as Miyake (2003b:178)
has pointed out, it is more probable that native scribes who had no af-
fricate in their language would have used both affricate and fricative
sinographs to transcribe fricative-initial words. The same is true for
American English speakers. Notice how American speakers say sunami
for Japanese tsunami ‘tidal wave’, unable to articulate the affricate ini-
tial.
Regarding the identification of this individual, some have proposed
linking this almost foreign sounding name to Susanoo, the mythical
younger brother of the Sun Goddess, or even Takeshi Uchi Sukune, an-
other legendary figure. Yasumoto (2003:150–151) divides this name into
two equal disyllabic parts. The first is 載斯, read sosi and related to sasi
as found in various names preserved in Kojiki and Nihon shoki. He has
John R. Bentley 27
trouble transcribing 烏越 and proposes no fewer than eight possible read-

ings for 烏 (a, o, u, wo) combined with 越 (u, wo). He leans toward awo
‘blue’.
What is unclear is why Yasumoto ignores the final *-t of 越, in spite of
the fact that he provides two reconstructions that both end with *-t:
*ɦɪuăt and *ɦɪuʌt. While highly speculative, it is possible that this name
is comprised of sosi, which may be the same place name found on the
peninsula (and seen in Nihon shoki) in the age of the gods (see Ienaga et
al. 1986.1:126), and Wowatu, a name of unknown derivation.
#29 難升米 LHC *nɑn-śɨŋ-mei (personal name) Wa *nanVsəŋgVmei

I am inclined to see this as Na nә Sәgәmei, or OJ ‘Sogomey of Na’.
#30 伊聲耆掖邪狗 LHC *ʔi-ɕieŋ-gɨ-jak-ja-ko (personal name[s]) Wa

*iseŋgә yakVyako
Some scholars divide this into two names, 伊聲耆 *iseŋgə and 掖邪狗
*yakVyako, but there is no proof either way regarding where to cut the
name, or even if it should be cut. Yasumoto (2003:149 –150) believes the
phonology of 伊聲耆 to be close to that of Izanagi, one of the creator dei-
ties in Japanese mythology. He also speculates that the second half, 掖邪
狗 Wa *yakVyako, is phonologically very close to the name Sasanako
found in the Jingū record in Nihon shoki.
The text in Wei zhi reads, 倭王復遣使大夫伊聲耆掖邪狗等八人 ‘The
Wa king again dispatched envoy(s) *ʔi-ɕieŋ-gɨ-jak-ja-ko and eight oth-
ers’. Looking at other names preserved in Wei zhi, they tend to be either
three or four graphs in length. If we analyze these two names as each
three-graph units, then the following very tentative etymologies are pos-
sible: (1) 伊聲耆 *iseŋgə<Wa *ise-nV-kə, meaning ‘Ko of Ise’; (2) 掖邪
狗 Wa *yakVya-ko ‘Yakuya-child’ or ‘Yakiya- child’.
#31 伊邪 LHC *ʔi-ja (place name) Wa *ija

I submit that this is the word ‘arrow’, found in two Ryūkyūan dialects:
Shuri ʔ ija, and Ishigaki ʔ ija. Also in Haytong cyekwukki (海東諸国紀), a
Korean record from 1471 that includes a small list of Ryūkyūan words
transcribed into hankul, the word for ‘arrow’ is spelled i-ya. The more
common word for arrow in OJ, ya, may simply be a truncation of this
older iya, though it is also possible that there were two variations of the
word: iya~ya.
#32 巴利 LHC *pa-liʰ (place name) Wa *pari

The most obvious etymology is OJ pari ‘needle’, perhaps suggesting a
place where sewing was done. The PR word is *pari (>Amami pari,
Shuri ha:i, Ishigaki parï, Yonaguni hai).
#33 對蘇 LHC *tuəs-sɔ (place name) Wa *təsɔ or *tusɔ

Yasumoto (2003:271) believes that if this place name is in Kyūshū, then
it might be Tosu in Saga Prefecture, but if the place name is outside of
Kyūshū, then Tosa on the island of Shikoku is the best candidate. The
association with Tosu is not too bad, other than requiring an explanation
for the raising of the final vowel. There are more issues surrounding the
association with Tosa. First, why did the vowel in the first syllable not
raise? Second, the change of *-sɔ to -sa requires explanation. An at-
tractive etymology is found in Ainu: PA *tus ‘rope’ and *sɔ ‘waterfall’.
Compare this with a modern Ainu place name, Tus-pet ‘rope-river’.
#34 對馬 LHC *tuəs-ma (place name) Wa *təsVma or *tusVma

This is one of the oldest preserved place names in Japan, preserved in
Chinese, Korean, and Japanese records. Karlgren (1957:140) recon-
structed 對 as *twəd (Archaic Chinese) and *tuɑ̘̂i (Ancient Chinese),
again showing that his reconstruction is inadequate for the period of the
Wei zhi transcriptions. It also points up why an innovative reconstruction
of the proper period of Chinese is important. The name likely is Tә-sema
‘island of Tə’, as later vowel raising results in the current name of Tsu-
shima, but we cannot deny the possibility that is may be Tu-sema ‘island
of Tu’.
#35 烏奴 LHC *ʔɔ-nɔ (place name) Wa *ɔnɔ>*(w)onɔ

The obvious choice here is wonwo ‘small field’ 小野, a very common
place name in Japan (there are 10 Wonos listed in Wamyōshō), with ex-
pected vowel raising *ɔnɔ>(w)onwo. It has also been suggested to me
that this may be ‘male-field’, akin to English Mansfield (OJ wo-nwo;
Miyake, p.c.).
#36 投馬 LHC *dou-ma (place name) Wa *toma

This may be OJ tuma ‘spouse’, which underwent vowel raising (*to>
tu). On the other hand, a plausible PA etymology is *tɔma ‘sweet po-
tato’. There is a Tsuma in Miyazaki Prefecture (in the modern city of
John R. Bentley 29
Saito), and while satsuma imo ‘sweet potatoes’ are well-known, being
grown in Satsuma, Miyazaki also produces a large amount of sweet po-
tatoes.
#37 都支 LHC *tɔ-kie (place name) Wa *tɔke

Wamyōshō notes that there is a place name 罵城 pronounced 度岐 toki. If
the original spelling is at least a century older than the manuscript of Wa-
myōshō, then the final syllable would be -kiy, instead of kyi, which would
disqualify this candidate. Perhaps this is the OJ word tukyi ‘ibis’. Martin
(1987:554) independently reconstructs the proto-form as *twokyi. The
difficulty here is explaining why the final syllable did not remain *ke. It
is also possible that this is an Ainu place name, perhaps PA *tɔ-ke ‘lake-
place’, or the place of the lake. Similar toponyms with -ke are found in
northern Japan: Kim-ke ‘mountain-place’ and Pan-ke ‘downstream-
place’ (cf. Chiri 1956b:45).
#38 彌奴 LHC *mie-nɔ (place name) Wa *menɔ

This is likely an earlier form of the place name myinwo. It is not sur-
prising that the place name mino is found through out Japan. The name is
usually interpreted to mean ‘honorable-field’ 御野 (and later re-
interpreted as ‘three fields’ 三野), but there is no evidence for either
etymology. Kusuhara (1981:298) believes this is really ‘water-bog’ myi-
nu>myinwo, but the above transcription clearly has *-nɔ, with a mid,
and not a high, back vowel. What is very encouraging here is the honor-
ific prefix *me, because in many Ryūkyūan dialects (especially Yaeyama
and Yonaguni) *mi>N, but *me>mi. Ishigaki preserves an example of
miyu ‘honorific world’ (compare Old Japanese myiyo).⁵¹ Miyara (1937:
136) records examples of miya ‘palace’ in Ishigaki as me:, and Hateruma
and Yonaguni as miya:. These forms go back to *meya (>miya>miʸa>
mia>me:). Finally, Yaeyama preserves examples of misï ‘rice wine’
(Ishigaki, Hateruma), misi (Kohama), miki (Hatoma), and miti (Yona-
guni), all forms that must go back to *meki (compare with OJ myikyi
‘august rice wine’).
#39 不彌 LHC *pu-mie (place name) Wa *pume

Perhaps this is ‘spot, design’. Ishigaki preserves fumi ‘spot, design’<PR
*pume.
#40 狗奴 LHC *ko-nɔ (place name) Wa *konɔ

There is a scholarly tradition that this is the prehistoric name of the re-
bellious tribe mentioned in Kojiki and Nihon shoki, known as the Ku-
maso (熊襲). This name is often analyzed as a contraction of 球磨 kuma
and 阿蘇 aswo, both place names in Kumamoto Prefecture. There are
several crucial problems with this theory. On the surface, this contraction
theory naturally should result in kumaswo, but Kojiki and Nihon shoki
spell the name as kumaso; the final vowels do not match.
There is a deeper problem here, however. If scholars use a reconstruc-
tion of late Later Han Chinese, which reflects the raising of the vowel
(*-ɑ to *-ɔ), we find that the graphs 狗奴 do not spell kuna but spell
*konɔ>OJ kunwo. Needless to say, Kuno is a rather prevalent place
name in Japan. It has been suggested to me that the etymology may actu-
ally be ‘field of children’.⁵²
#41 末盧 LHC *mɑt-lɔ (place name) Wa *mat-rɔ

This place name is said to be Matsura in Kyūshū (in modern Saga Pre-
fecture), which the modern spelling of 松浦 suggests is a contraction of
matu 松 ‘pine’ and ura 浦 ‘bay’ (matu-ura>matura). My reconstructed
form, however, suggests the name was *mat-rɔ. If the Chinese tran-
scription ignored a vowel, *matVrɔ, then perhaps this has an Ainu ety-
mology: PA *mat ‘female’ and *oro ‘inside’ or ‘inside the woman’, or
pregnant area.⁵³ Modern examples of Ainu place names include Mat-
oma-i ‘woman-exist-place’ the place where women are, and Mat-ne-sir
‘woman-like-mountain’ (Yamada et al. 1988:329,381). Chiri (1956a:
40 –55) notes that the Ainu personified many things in their natural
world.
#42 一支 LHC *ʔit-kie (place name) Wa *ike

This is the island now known as Iki. The final syllable may have had *-i
suffixed to it (*-ke>*-ke-i>-ki), though no other cases of this are
known. It is also possible that the final vowel simply assimilated to the
first: *ike>iki. The etymology of this place name is unknown.
#43 好古都 LHC *hou-kɔ-tɔ (place name) Wa *hokɔ-tɔ

Yasumoto (2003:87– 91) debates whether the language of the Wa (what
he already concludes is a form of Old Japanese) had *h- or not in its con-
sonantal inventory. In the end he says no. He believes 好 *hou is tran-
John R. Bentley 31
scribing wo, and he concludes that this toponym is wokada ‘hill-paddy’.

He claims to be reading these graphs as if these were man’yōgana, so it is
not clear to me why this toponym is not read wokotu, as man’yōgana
would dictate. This place has an attractive Ainu etymology: PA *hɔk-ɔ-to
‘purchase-there-lake’, the lake that was purchased there.
#44 呼邑 *hɔ-ʔip (place name) Wa *hɔ-ipV

There likely is a morpheme boundary here, which helps explain why two
vowels occur together. No such place name is presently known. Perhaps
this word has an Ainu etymology: PA *hɔ-i-p ‘back-place-thing’, or
someone in the back. Examples from presently known Ainu place names
include Uturu-chi-kus-i ‘The place where we go through’ and Oro-
kunne-p ‘someone that is black inside’, where a river is personified as
someone who has black water (Chiri 1956a:199,201).
#45 支惟 LHC *kie-wi (place name) Wa *kewi

A possible Ainu etymology is PA *kew-i ‘shave-place’ or the place
where people whittle or shave wood. Notice that in modern Ainu ‘shave’
is kee with a long vowel, or kewre. While modern Ainu has an approxi-
mant -w, Vovin (1993:31) does not reconstruct PA *w but sees the mod-
ern approximant as coming from an original glottal stop. Chiri (1956a:
189) cautions people that what is often transcribed as a vowel u should
be -w.
#46 不呼 LHC *pu-hɔ (place name) Wa *puhɔ

The etymology of this place is unclear. A possible Ainu etymology is PA
*pu-hɔ ‘storehouse-entrance’. PA *hɔ is ho or o in modern Ainu dialects
and refers to the pubic area or vagina, but as Chiri (1956a:45) notes, this
word was also used to personify the mouth of a river. I have thus inter-
preted it to refer to an entrance.
#47 姐奴 LHC *tsia-nɔ (place name) Wa *sanɔ

One of the names of the legendary ruler Jinmu when he was a child is
Sanwo 狭野 ‘narrow field’. There also is a sanwo recorded in Nihon
shoki, spelled 狭野, as well as one recorded in Wamyōshō.
#48 蘇奴 LHC *sɔ-nɔ (place name) Wa *sɔnɔ

It is tempting to relate this word to ‘pine tree’ in MK, swo namwo RLL,
literally ‘swo-tree’, where *sɔnɔ may have contracted on the peninsula to
swo. Notice that the first syllable rises in accent, and following Martin
(1996), this may indicate a diphthong that had contracted to a monoph-
thong. It has also been suggested to me that perhaps this is simply *sɔ
‘pine’ and *nɔ ‘field’, i.e., ‘pine-field’.⁵⁴
#49 躬臣 LHC *kuŋ-gin (place name) Wa *kuŋginV

I wonder if this is somehow related to Kukyi no umyi ‘sea of Kuki’ in
Tsukushi, as recorded in Nihon shoki. It is also possible that this is *kugi
‘nail’ (>OJ kugyi) and *nə ‘burden’, with the final vowel devoiced.
#50 鬼奴 LHC *kui-nɔ (place name) Wa *kuinɔ

Again, the first graph is derogatory. The most obvious etymology for this
name is ‘tree-field’ (木野 OJ kiy-nwo).
#51 為吾 LHC *wɑi-ŋɔ (place name) Wa *wai-ŋgɔ

This would be OJ wegwo, but no toponym can be presently identified. It
is tempting to relate this to the place name in Higo Province, Amakusa
District (in modern Kumamoto), recorded in Wamyōshō as 恵家 Wega.
This possibility is further strengthened by the use of the graph 恵 which
is LHC *ɣwes. It is clear in OJ that *-ai- coalesces to -e-. The discrep-
ancy with the final vowel *-ɔ is still an issue, however.
#52 己百支 LHC *kɨə-pak-kie (place name) Wa *kɨpa-ke

Some manuscripts have this name transmitted as 巳百支 LHC *ziə-pak-
kie. It should be noted that in the 6th-century record, Han yuan, this
place name is preserved as 巴百支 *pa-pak-kie. For the time being I fol-
low the scholarly consensus and treat this as 己百支. There is a remote
possibility that this is related to OJ kopa ‘strong, hard’ and kye ‘strange’;
however, an Ainu etymology is much more plausible: PA *kapar-ke
‘flat-place’. If the vowel in the first syllable was devoiced, it may have
sounded like [kə], which phonetically is close to [kɨ]. There are many
Ainu place names with this construction: Itaratara-ke ‘place that moves
much’, Ma-usi-ke ‘the place where the bay is inside’, and Toto-ot-ke ‘the
place of the trees (where we can rest)’ (Yamada et al. 1988:197–237).
#53 華奴蘇奴 LHC *ɣua-nɔ-sɔ-nɔ (place name) Wa *wanɔ-sɔnɔ

This is a very odd place name, and no parallels come to mind. The final
two syllables are surely related to #48. With vowel raising, *wanɔ be-
comes *wano and then wanu ‘first person’ found in Ryūkyūan: Amami
John R. Bentley 33
Ōshima waŋ, Shuri waŋ, Kume Island wanu, Hirara baŋ, Ishigaki and
Hateruma banu<PR *wanu. An anonymous reader suggests that perhaps
the transcription here is actually the product of confusion:
Chinese interviewer: “What is this place called?”
Wa: “It is my pine-field.”
And the transcriber mistakenly recorded this as a place name: my-pine-field.
5. Conclusion
On this admittedly sparse evidence, I conclude that the language of Wa
represents an early stage of Japonic, perhaps related to what Serafim
(1994:189) calls Late Proto-Japonic, the latest stage before Ryūkyūan
and Japanese split. What is also of importance is the fact that a number
of Ainu etymologies seem to fit here as well, suggesting that the Wa had
settled in territory and forced Ainu out. Consider Table 4, which illus-
trates the possible etymological origins of the 31 toponyms I have con-
sidered.
Table 4. Possible Etymologies by Language

Japonic Ainu Either J or A Other Unclear
17 6 3 2 3
This evidence suggests that the people of Yamatai spoke a variety of

Japonic, though we cannot deny the possibility that the polity spoke more
than one dialect. These data also suggest that there were at least two lan-
guages spoken within the Wa polity. I would also argue that the language
of Wa is related to a language on the peninsula, and that the immigrants
from the peninsula brought it with them. It is tempting to connect the
dots and conclude that Wa is related to the ancient languages of either
Koguryo or Paekche, but it is better to be cautious and simply conclude
by saying that it is probable that the language of Wa also existed on the
peninsula. The next step in our research is an attempt to identify, where
possible, the ancestor of this peninsular language.
Finally, it is important to note that these data suggest the sound corre-
spondences in (10), which are important for a better understanding of the
history of Japonic.
(10) Wa PR OJ
*ɔ (<*ua?) *o wo
*o *o u
*ǝ *ǝ o
*e *e yi
*h Ø Ø
It is also important to note that the analysis above fits squarely into what
is currently known about both Japanese and Ryūkyūan linguistics. These
data as presented support the new claim by Frellesvig and Whitman that
Japonic underwent vowel raising. While the analysis of these data does
not suggest a location for Yamatai, aside from somewhere in Japan, it
does suggest a strong connection with the peninsula, from where the peo-
ple and their language likely immigrated.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author wishes to thank Marc Miyake for several years of stimulating con-
versation regarding this topic. Thanks are also due to two anonymous readers
who provided a generous amount of very helpful feedback and suggestions. Any
errors that remain, however, are my own.
TRANSCRIPTIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS

Old Japanese and Middle Korean forms are transcribed in Yale romanization.
The following abbreviations have been used:
EMC: Early Middle Chinese LHC: Later Han Chinese MK Middle Korean
OC: Old Chinese OJ: Old Japanese PA: Proto-Ainu
PJ: Proto-Japonic PR: Proto-Ryūkyūan SK: Sino-Korean
NOTES
1. The reading yamatai is based on a scholarly tradition that anachronistically

uses the on-yomi of the graphs 邪馬臺國. There is also a newer tradition
which argues that the actual toponym was 邪馬壹 yamaichi. Shaku Nihongi
(ca. 1300 C.E.) provides important evidence to determine which was the ac-
tual name: “Question: Do each of the names Yamatai (耶馬臺), Yamatai (耶
John R. Bentley 35
靡堆), and Yamatai (耶摩堆) have special significance?” (Kuroita 1936:185–

196). This quote is important because it provides data from at least the 10th
century that the reading was yamatV(V), and that the spelling 邪馬壹 is a
later product of scribal error. In other words, here are two examples ( 臺~堆)
with *yamatV(V), and by Occam’s Razor we should pick *yamatV(V).
2. Mabuchi Kazuo (1999:395), quoting Morohashi Tetsuji, notes that in Chi-
nese bang 邦 referred to large territories (countries), but guo 國 referred to
smaller domains, often within the larger territories. Kidder (2007:287 n. 6)
opts for the vague designation domain.
3. As a simple example, consider how the single graph 噫 ‘sigh, moan’ is
treated by a number of scholars (cf. Yasumoto 2003:7– 8,15): Tōdō reads it
ai, Xie reads it i, Mori Hiromichi reads it o:, and Yasumoto reads it wo.
4. The following attempts are worthy of note: Miller 1967; Mori 1982, 1994;
Osada 1979; and Yasumoto 1991, 1992, 2003.
For Karlgren’s reconstruction, see Karlgren 1957. In Karlgren’s terminol-
ogy, Old Chinese is his “Archaic Chinese,” while he calls Middle Chinese
“Ancient Chinese.” As Pulleyblank noted in a seminal article in 1963, one
of the greatest weaknesses of Karlgren’s reconstructions is a preponderance
of unaccounted for yod *-j- in medial position.
Yasumoto (2003) takes a more eclectic approach. He uses two different
reconstructions of Ancient Chinese and Middle Chinese, and then essen-
tially picks and chooses his reconstruction as he analyzes the text (2003:
44 – 45). His method is not only unscientific, but also circular, as he takes a
Japanese toponym and then selects the nearest phonological fit from his four
Chinese reconstructions.
5. An anonymous reviewer notes that a natural interpretation of Kotani’s re-
marks is that perhaps we cannot assume that the Japanese language was
never spoken on the Korean peninsula.
6. It should also be pointed out that the Buddhist transcriptional data used by
Coblin (1983:32) dates from 150 C .E. to 220 C.E., which matches the era of
the Wei zhi transcriptions very nicely.
7. Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing this out to me.
8. Yasumoto Biten’s (2003:359) latest contribution has relied on Tōdō 1976, a
Chinese character dictionary with reconstructed readings, but it unfortu-
nately only contains two periods of relevant Chinese: Ancient Chinese
(Zhou-Qin) and Middle Chinese (Sui-Tang). Either reconstruction, how-
ever, is still a number of centuries removed from Later Han Chinese, or the
era of the Wei zhi transcription. Yasumoto (2003:23) quotes from Tōdō,
who says, “Unfortunately the Chinese language of the Wei era between
Ancient Chinese and Middle Chinese . . . is a blank.” Fortunately for us,
Schuessler’s latest work (2007) has filled that gap.
9. Mabuchi (1999:748) notes that the Sino-Korean used on the peninsula dur-
ing the 4th and 5th centuries was likely a variety of Chinese between Ar-
chaic Chinese and Ancient Chinese, but as he has no better tool he uses
both. This is why I have used Schuessler’s work, because Later Han fits
nicely between these two other reconstructions, matching our time frame
perfectly.
10. Miyake (2003a:107) notes, “It is also possible that flawed PJ and /or Chi-
nese reconstructions have obscured the proper identification of 3rd century
Japonic morphemes (or, on the other hand, made non-Japonic morphemes
resemble Japonic morphemes).”
11. The assumption is that the people spoke Wa, which is an ancestor of later
Japonic (Japanese or Ryūkyūan). There have been some scholars, however,
such as Unger (1990) and Vovin (1998), who believe the language of the
Wa section of Wei zhi is non-Japanese.
12. Miyake (2003a:107) has suggested that perhaps the Japanese archipelago
was a multilingual sphere, where the “ethnonym Wa could have been an
umbrella term for any inhabitant of Japan, regardless of language.” I have
adhered to this suggestion when looking at the toponyms.
13. The reason for selecting PA is the supposition that the Jōmon people, those
who lived in the archipelago before the Wa, spoke a variety of what is now
called Ainu. Kidder (2007:111) states, “Proto-Ainu was one Jōmon lan-
guage.” I fully acknowledge that this supposition may be refuted in the fu-
ture if concrete data about the language of the Jōmon people is ever dis-
covered. Until that time it remains a working hypothesis.
14. I do not pretend to be able to present an exhaustive picture of any of the
protolanguages. What I have tried to provide, however, are the major non-
controversial points that will assist in mapping Wa morphemes onto mor-
phemes from known (proto)languages. The least secure of these three re-
constructed protolanguages is Proto-Korean.
15. C represents any consonant. The possibility that proto-Japonic had some
closed syllables is an issue this paper attempts to address. My conclusion is
that PJ had no closed syllables, as all examples of closed syllables in our
data can be explained as devoiced vowels or PA.
16. Vovin (1993:42) reconstructs four more mid vowels, *ö, *ü, *ë, and *ï, but
notes that these are only reconstructed for verbal stems, so I have ignored
them. For information regarding syntax and the formation of noun phrases, I
have relied on Tamura 2000.
17. In a privately distributed manuscript titled Later Han Chinese (LHan): a
preliminary draft (2001) Schuessler shows that early Later Han had *Cɑ,
but by late Later Han these had backed to *Cɔ. It is unclear to me why this
does not appear in Schuessler 2007.
18. I am grateful to an anonymous reader for providing the citation and infor-
mation here.
John R. Bentley 37
19. LHC lacked [tu,du] because of affrication of the dental before the high,
back vowel, the same phonological phenomenon seen in Modern Chinese
and Japanese. As Miyake has informed me, the case for [sa] is more compli-
cated. LHC had two *a vowels, æ (front) and ɑ (back). A phonotactic con-
straint prevented the vowel æ from occurring after an alveolar (*t, *d, *n,
*s, *th). The syllable [sɑ] occurred in early LHC, but had fronted to sa by
Middle Chinese times, and this resulted in Mandarin suo. Interestingly, the
majority of sa graphs in modern Chinese go back to a closed syllable: sat or
sap (Miyake, p.c.).
20. It should be noted here that Schuessler (2007:121) transcribes two types of
segmental features with an algebraic notation: a glottal with superscript B,
and aspiration with superscript C. I have opted to leave these as follows: ka
instead of kaB, and kaʰ instead of kaC.
21. Yasumoto (2003:29 – 31) provides a robust argument against the idea of
derogatory graphs, noting that graphs such as 邪 ‘wicked’, 卑 ‘vulgar’, and
鬼 ‘ghost’ also appear in Kojiki and Nihon shoki. Be that as it may, Kojiki
only uses 邪 for the rare syllable za and uses 卑 only once for the name Ame
no Hohi (天之菩卑能命), but never uses 鬼. This statistical rarity should not
be ignored. What Yasumoto fails to address is the reason why a translit-
erator used 卑 for *pe, when he could have selected 碑 ‘stele’ without the
derogatory semantics. Buzo (1996:126) has also argued very persuasively
that Chinese historiographers in Wei zhi use far less derogatory graphs to
transcribe Koguryo words than in the Wa section, even “embellishing the
phonetic transcription character (of Koguryo words) with a semantic signifi-
cance.” By this he is referring to examples of phonograms with the ‘human’
radical (人), such as 伯優伊位依, being used as the first graph of a Koguryo
name or toponym. Buzo adds, “Interestingly, this practice is not followed in
the case of Wa names.”
22. “Semantics” can be problematic. I have viewed this from the angle of a
reader who would process all possible “meanings” of a character. As an
example, 離 lí generally means ‘remove’ or ‘separate’, but often has the
sense of ‘discriminate’, ‘separate for disposal’.
23. This is the single instance where I do not follow Schuessler. Schuessler
(2007:351) reconstructs 利 as *lis for both early and later LHC. I agree with
Schuessler’s earlier work that by the Wei era this had already lenited to
*lih. Consider the following Buddhist transcriptional evidence, which is
parallel with the era of Yamatai (Coblin 1983:241– 256): 舎利 for Skt. śārī,
文殊師利 for Skt. mañjuśrī, 波利陀 for Skt. parittābaha, 梵波利産 for Skt.
Brahmapāriṣadya, and 阿凡和利 for Skt. āmbapālī. None of these is used to
transcribe a final -s. Even 梵波利産 for Skt. Brahmapāriṣadya, which ap-
pears to transcribe -s certainly does not, as 産 LHC *ṣɛn transcribes -s- here.
I conclude that by the Wei era 利 was used to transcribe foreign ri or rī.
24. In this paper I prefer the term Japonic to Japanese. This term was coined by
Leon Serafim as a cover term for both Japanese and Ryūkyūan.
25. Mabuchi (1999:733) has reached the same conclusion, when he says that
莫古 *mak ko>*mako.
26. Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing this out.
27. In this paper I represent the Chinese in the traditional, or old style 舊漢字.
28. All Ishigaki forms are from Miyagi et al. 2002.
29. It seems fairly certain that nawi is ‘earth-tremble’, where -wi may be related
to Shuri ʔ wiicuN ‘tremble, shake’. Some may counter that ʔ wii developed
from *ui, which is true, but also consider that due to the various mergers in
Ryūkyūan *we, *wi, *wo will become either i or u. Perhaps the infinitive of
this verb was Wa *wu-i, which became wi in OJ, but *ui in Ryūkyūan.
30. Miller (1979:16) reconstructs the Old Paekche (Miller’s term) form *kŭy.
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out this fact about walled cities.
31. See Martin 1987:66 – 67. It needs to be noted that while Martin posits *-Ci
as a suffix, there is no need to assume that a consonant was always lost.
There were likely many cases where the original form was simply *-i, sans
any consonant.
32. I submit that the meaning ‘island’ is a later semantic shift in Ryūkyūan.
33. This theory necessitates that Proto-Ryūkyūan had not yet undergone the
change of -r- loss which results in the monophthongization described above.
34. It is well-known that some words preserved in the Koguryo onomastic data
closely resemble Japanese. However, I am not persuaded that Koguryo is
genetically related to Japanese, as Beckwith (2004) argues. It seems more
probable that these Koguryo toponyms originate from aboriginal Japanese
toponyms that the Koguryo took over when they invaded territory south of
their original homeland.
Beckwith (2000:11) identifies this 仇斯 as 仇 *ku ‘child’ and 斯 *sie ‘a
genitive attributive marker’. Beckwith came out with a monograph on the
language of Koguryo in 2004, but it should be noted that a great many as-
sumptions underlie Beckwith’s work, making it a problematic source. The
most troublesome is his own admission that he cites man’yōgana “according
to the author’s Middle Chinese ‘attested reading’” (2004:xviii). Thus, he has
fallen into the trap of circularity, pairing up his own reading of man’yōgana
with his own reconstructed forms for Koguryo. Pellard (2006) also points
out a number of serious problems with Beckwith’s analysis: circularity with
his reconstructions, arbitrary parsing of words to make etymologies fit, and
poor semantic comparisons. I have used LHC reconstructions of the Kogu-
ryo onomastic data instead.
Beckwith (2004:127) relates *ku to OJ ( 古) ‘child’, which he transcribes
as ☆kʋ, which is his own reconstruction of 古. It is not clear why he does not
agree with people like Pulleyblank (1991:111, *kɔ), Coblin (1994:151, *ko),
or Schuessler (2006:90; cf. 2007:259 *kɑ>*kɔ), who all agree the vowel
was back and rounded. The problem with Beckwith’s correlation of the
John R. Bentley 39
Koguryo etymon with OJ is the height of the back vowel. By reconstructing

古 as ☆kʋ he appears to be trying to change the height of the vowel to make
it fit his Koguryo reconstruction.
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out the relevance of modern
Japanese ko-domo.
35. This reconstruction is from Bentley 2000:429.
36. All references are to Ienaga et al. 1986, volumes 1 and 2.
37. Chinese has a number of names and titles containing 子 ‘child’: 孔子 ‘Con-
fucius’, 太子 ‘crown prince’ (literally ‘great-child’), and 世子 ‘heir’.
38. Martin (1987:407) believes pyina is actually a Chinese word pyen ‘region’.
Starostin (2005) reconstructs LOC *pen, and Pulleyblank has EMC *pɛn. If
this etymology is accurate, it still shows that there was vowel raising later.
39. Leon Serafim (p.c.) has confirmed this: “PR ?*meme B ~ ?*memi B ‘ears’—
Shuri mimi B ‘ear(s)’ is fishy because it is not xmin or xmmi —cf. minčabaa
B ‘your ears’ (?<*memi-taba-wa B), minčasan B ‘noisy (and bother-
some)’.” See also Serafim 2003a. I have erred on the side of caution by leav-
ing the final vowel unknown (*-mV).
40. Granted, there is the slim possibility that the king of Kuna is somehow
viewed as a relative of the queen of Yamatai. Miyake (2003a:116) argues
that the king’s name “is matrilineal and refers to a relative of the ‘sun-
woman’ . . .”
41. Thanks to an anonymous reviewer for this suggestion.
42. Consider modern Japanese kodomo ‘child’, which is formed from ko ‘child’
and domo, a plural marker.
43. Thanks to Marc Miyake for the following data. There is a Greek example of
this analogical change (α>β>α) from Beekes (1995:76): There was an
aorist formed with the suffix -s-. This -s- disappeared intervocalically in
Greek, but was later restored in that position.
44. Some Chinese records suggest that there were settlements of Wa people on
the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, possibly living near modern Pusan.
45. Mabuchi names Ōno Susumu as the first to make this identification, but he
does not identify which Altaic tribe he believes these are from.
46. The interpretation of ‘father’ was suggested to me by Miyake (p.c.). The
bound form to is preserved in words like o-too-san ‘father’, which may pre-
serve compensatory lengthening of monosyllables.
47. The word myina<*mena is found in OJ in compounds: myinatwo ‘port’<
‘door to the waters’ sometimes written 水門 ‘water-gate’, myinasoko ‘bot-
tom of the waters’, and myinawa ‘bubbles of the waters’.
48. I gratefully acknowledge an anonymous reviewer for suggesting the possi-
bility of a different segmentation of this title; however, aside from the *me
‘honorific suffix’, the interpretation of the new segmentation is strictly my

own.
49. This poem is actually #3798 in the NKBT edition. I am at a loss to explain
why Mori’s number is off by almost 30 poems.
50. This final conclusion is from an anonymous reader, who also concludes that
perhaps this one transcription is not the work of a native speaker. This is an
important point, as context makes it clear the Chinese visitors saw the Wa
interact this way, and recorded what was apparently said.
51. Recently Serafim (2004:315 –316,318) has argued that this prefix should be
reconstructed as *myi, but he leaves open the possibility that this may be
*mye which later raised to myi.
52. Thanks to an anonymous reader for this suggestion.
53. It seems probable that the ancient myths which had a pregnant Jingū give
birth to Ōjin on the shores of Kyūshū had some knowledge of the meaning
of this place name.
54. Thanks to an anonymous reader for this suggestion. This same reader also
wonders if this *sɔ is a loan from Chinese *zioŋ ‘pine’, which idea Schuess-
ler (2007:479) notes originated with Marc Miyake: *so no kiy ‘tree of so’>
sugiy ‘crypotermia’.
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Article in Japanese Language and Literature · January 2008

Tamakatsuma: a Window into the Scholarship of Motoori Norinaga View project

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Japanese Language and Literature 42 (2008) 1– 43

This is a very perceptive view, and it introduces the crucial possibility

(1) Coblin’s Sanskrit

Thus, while the transcription of Buddhist terms is quite accurate, there is

problem remains unchanged: a shaky methodological foundation upon

As mentioned above, I have relied on the innovative research of

(1983:105) explains, “These [Ge 歌] finals have the MC vowels â and a

Table 1. Toponyms in Wei zhi and Peninsular/Japanese Sources

(6) Sinographs LHC Wa

On this admittedly weak evidence, I reconstruct only one consonant

Table 2. Titles and Personal Names

(7) Graphs LHC Wa OJ

(8) a. Paekche and Mimana

Mabuchi’s conclusions about the phonological system of Paekche are

#1 斯馬 LHC *sie-ma (place name) Wa *sema

#2 邪麻 LHC *ja-ma (place name) Wa *yama

#3 邪馬臺 LHC *ja-ma-dǝ>*ja-ma-dǝɨ (place name) Wa *yamatǝ or

#4 伊都 LHC *ʔi-tɔ (place name) Wa *itɔ

#5 奴 LHC *nɑ (place name) Wa *na

been lost. This na is possibly related to Manchu na ‘land, earth’. This

#6 鬼 LHC *kui (place name) Wa *kui

#7 倭 LHC *ʔuɑi (place name) Wa *wa-i

#8 馬觚 LHC *zi-ma-kuɔ (chief official) Wa *sima-kuɔ

#9 卑狗 LHC *pie-ko (chief official) Wa *peko

#10 卑奴母離 LHC *pie-nɔ-mə-liɑi (auxiliary official) Wa *penɔ-məra-i

#11 彌彌 LHC *mie-mie (chief official) Wa *meme

#12 泄謨觚 LHC *siat-mɔ-kuɔ or *jas-mɔ-kuɔ (auxiliary official) Wa

#13 卑彌呼 LHC *pie-mie-hɔ (queen’s title) Wa *pe-mehɔ

ple is sumye myima ‘imperial grandchild’ (sumye ‘ruler’ myi ‘prefix’+

#14 卑彌弓呼 LHC *pie-mie-kuŋ-hɔ (king’s title) Wa *pe-mekuŋhɔ

#15 伊支馬 LHC *ʔi-kie-ma (chief official) Wa *ikema

#16 爾支 LHC *ńe-kie (chief official) Wa *neke

#17 彌馬升 LHC *mie-ma-śɨŋ (auxiliary official) Wa *memasəŋgV

#18 彌馬獲支 LHC *mie-ma-ɣuak-kie (auxiliary official) Wa *mema

Miyake (2003a:112) transcribes this 獲 as *ɣuɛk, and makes the very

#19 狗古智卑狗 LHC *ko-kɔ-ʈieʰ-pie-ko (chief official) Wa *ko-kɔte

#20 狗邪韓 LHC *ko-ja-gɑn (place name) Wa *koya-kar(a)

#21 多模 LHC *tɑ-mɔ (auxiliary official) Wa *ta-mɔ

#22 奴佳 LHC *nɔ-kɛ-tei (auxiliary official) Wa *nɔkete-i

#23 彌彌那利 LHC *mie-mie-nɑ-liʰ (auxiliary official) Wa *meme nari

#24 柄渠觚 LHC *pɨaŋʰ-gɨɑ-kuɑ (auxiliary official) Wa *paŋgɑ-kɔ

#25 噫 LHC *ʔɨ (response) Wa *ɨ

#26 臺與 LHC *də-yɑ (name of queen’s heir) Wa *təyɑ

#27 都市牛利 LHC *tɔ-dʑɨə-ŋu-liʰ (personal name) Wa *tɔsɨ-ŋguri

#28 載斯烏越 LHC *tsəʰ-sie-ɔ-wɑt (personal name) Wa *səse-ɔwat

trouble transcribing 烏越 and proposes no fewer than eight possible read-

#29 難升米 LHC *nɑn-śɨŋ-mei (personal name) Wa *nanVsəŋgVmei

#30 伊聲耆掖邪狗 LHC *ʔi-ɕieŋ-gɨ-jak-ja-ko (personal name[s]) Wa

#31 伊邪 LHC *ʔi-ja (place name) Wa *ija

#32 巴利 LHC *pa-liʰ (place name) Wa *pari

#33 對蘇 LHC *tuəs-sɔ (place name) Wa *təsɔ or *tusɔ

#34 對馬 LHC *tuəs-ma (place name) Wa *təsVma or *tusVma

#35 烏奴 LHC *ʔɔ-nɔ (place name) Wa *ɔnɔ>*(w)onɔ

#1 斯馬 LHC sie-ma (place name) Wa sema

#2 邪麻 LHC ja-ma (place name) Wa yama

#3 邪馬臺 LHC ja-ma-dǝ>ja-ma-dǝɨ (place name) Wa *yamatǝ or

#4 伊都 LHC ʔi-tɔ (place name) Wa itɔ

#5 奴 LHC nɑ (place name) Wa na

#6 鬼 LHC kui (place name) Wa kui

#7 倭 LHC ʔuɑi (place name) Wa wa-i

#8 馬觚 LHC zi-ma-kuɔ (chief official) Wa sima-kuɔ

#9 卑狗 LHC pie-ko (chief official) Wa peko

#10 卑奴母離 LHC pie-nɔ-mə-liɑi (auxiliary official) Wa penɔ-məra-i

#11 彌彌 LHC mie-mie (chief official) Wa meme

#12 泄謨觚 LHC siat-mɔ-kuɔ or jas-mɔ-kuɔ (auxiliary official) Wa

#13 卑彌呼 LHC pie-mie-hɔ (queen’s title) Wa pe-mehɔ

#14 卑彌弓呼 LHC pie-mie-kuŋ-hɔ (king’s title) Wa pe-mekuŋhɔ

#15 伊支馬 LHC ʔi-kie-ma (chief official) Wa ikema

#16 爾支 LHC ńe-kie (chief official) Wa neke

#17 彌馬升 LHC mie-ma-śɨŋ (auxiliary official) Wa memasəŋgV

#18 彌馬獲支 LHC mie-ma-ɣuak-kie (auxiliary official) Wa mema

#19 狗古智卑狗 LHC ko-kɔ-ʈieʰ-pie-ko (chief official) Wa ko-kɔte

#20 狗邪韓 LHC ko-ja-gɑn (place name) Wa koya-kar(a)

#21 多模 LHC tɑ-mɔ (auxiliary official) Wa ta-mɔ

#22 奴佳 LHC nɔ-kɛ-tei (auxiliary official) Wa nɔkete-i

#23 彌彌那利 LHC mie-mie-nɑ-liʰ (auxiliary official) Wa meme nari

#24 柄渠觚 LHC pɨaŋʰ-gɨɑ-kuɑ (auxiliary official) Wa paŋgɑ-kɔ

#25 噫 LHC ʔɨ (response) Wa ɨ

#26 臺與 LHC də-yɑ (name of queen’s heir) Wa təyɑ

#27 都市牛利 LHC tɔ-dʑɨə-ŋu-liʰ (personal name) Wa tɔsɨ-ŋguri

#28 載斯烏越 LHC tsəʰ-sie-ɔ-wɑt (personal name) Wa səse-ɔwat

#29 難升米 LHC nɑn-śɨŋ-mei (personal name) Wa nanVsəŋgVmei

#31 伊邪 LHC ʔi-ja (place name) Wa ija

#32 巴利 LHC pa-liʰ (place name) Wa pari

#33 對蘇 LHC tuəs-sɔ (place name) Wa təsɔ or *tusɔ

#34 對馬 LHC tuəs-ma (place name) Wa təsVma or *tusVma

#35 烏奴 LHC ʔɔ-nɔ (place name) Wa ɔnɔ>*(w)onɔ

#36 投馬 LHC dou-ma (place name) Wa toma

#37 都支 LHC tɔ-kie (place name) Wa tɔke

#38 彌奴 LHC mie-nɔ (place name) Wa menɔ

#39 不彌 LHC pu-mie (place name) Wa pume

#40 狗奴 LHC ko-nɔ (place name) Wa konɔ

#41 末盧 LHC mɑt-lɔ (place name) Wa mat-rɔ

#42 一支 LHC ʔit-kie (place name) Wa ike

#43 好古都 LHC hou-kɔ-tɔ (place name) Wa hokɔ-tɔ

#44 呼邑 hɔ-ʔip (place name) Wa hɔ-ipV

#45 支惟 LHC kie-wi (place name) Wa kewi

#46 不呼 LHC pu-hɔ (place name) Wa puhɔ

#47 姐奴 LHC tsia-nɔ (place name) Wa sanɔ

#48 蘇奴 LHC sɔ-nɔ (place name) Wa sɔnɔ

#49 躬臣 LHC kuŋ-gin (place name) Wa kuŋginV

#50 鬼奴 LHC kui-nɔ (place name) Wa kuinɔ

#51 為吾 LHC wɑi-ŋɔ (place name) Wa wai-ŋgɔ

#52 己百支 LHC kɨə-pak-kie (place name) Wa kɨpa-ke

#53 華奴蘇奴 LHC ɣua-nɔ-sɔ-nɔ (place name) Wa wanɔ-sɔnɔ