Amuric Hydronyms in Manchuria and the Puyŏ Connection of Ghilyak

Abstract

This paper examines the possibility that the earlier homeland of the Ghilyak language(s), collectively identified as the Amuric language family and today spoken in the Lower Amur basin and on the island of Sakhalin, was located further south in Central Manchuria. It may be assumed that the Amuric linguistic lineage moved northwards along the Sungari-Amur basin under the pressure of the Tungusic languages spreading from the south along the same route. It is possible that traces of the former presence of Amuric in Central Manchuria are preserved in the names of the large rivers of the region, notably the Sungari and Ussuri. It is also possible to postulate a political context for the linguistic expansions of both Amuric and Tungusic in the framework of protohistorical Manchuria. In this framework, the origins of the Amuric language family may with some likelihood be linked to Puyŏ, the first historically known political state in the region.