Expressing Ancient Korean Pronunciations with Han Dynasty Characters

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• When considering the etymology of the word 'Goguryeo', it is important to note that on two Gokturk steles erected in the mid-8th century on the banks of the Orkhon River in the Mongolian Republic to honor Bilgegahan and his younger brother Kültekin, the founders of the Second Gokturk Empire, Goguryeo is described as 'Baekri'. Since the B and M sounds in Old Turkic are interchangeable, Baekri (Bokli) can be written as Maekri (MoKli), which is how the Gokturks described Maekguryeo (貊句麗). The ethnic groups of Northeast Asia or the Korean people are called Yemaek (濊貊族), and Goguryeo is a Maek (貊族) ethnic group. In the records written by the Eastern Roman historian Theophylact Simocatta, it is said that the remnants of the Avars fled east to 'Mukli' after their defeat by the Northern Qi. After that, we can see examples of Goguryeo and Balhae being described as 'Mug-lig' in the Dunhuang document 'pelliot-tibetan 1283'. In the 'Sanskrit Miscellaneous Names (梵語雜名), a book explaining all the various characters' compiled in the late 8th to early 9th century, Muguri (畝句理) was called Goryeo (高麗). This shows that the Turkic people of Inland Asia called Goguryeo 'Mukri', or 'Maekguryeo (貊句麗).

• This means that the stem (語幹) of the word Goguryeo is 'Guryeo', and 'Go (高 High)' is an added adjective. In Goguryeo, a castle was called 'Guru (溝漊)' or 'Hol (忽, Khol).' This meant 'gol or village' or 'goeul or village', and was written as eup (邑 city), dong (洞 neighborhood), ju (州 Province), gun (郡 district), hyeon (縣 town). The word 'pyeong (評),' which referred to administrative districts in Goguryeo and Silla, was adopted by the Japanese and called it 'gohori (ゴホリ),' which also meant 'goeul or village'.

• In other words, 'Goguryeo' was a word that added 'big' or 'high' to 'Guryeo', meaning 'big town' or 'high castle'. The national name 'Goguryeo' was shortened to 'Goryeo' after the mid-5th century. The meaning of Goguryeo's name was 'big town' or 'big village', and the Han dynasty character that sounds similar to 'big town' pronounced by Goryeo people is 'Goguryeo'. In particular, Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla borrowed Han dynasty characters, but the order of sentences was written as subject, object, verb, just like Hangul, and the order of Han dynasty characters (Han characters) was written as subject, object, verb.

• ​A video explaining how to write native words when there are no letters: The meaning of the Han dynasty characters is ignored and only the pronunciation of the Han dynasty characters is used.