I broke the Soseono code!
As noted at the end of the notes on ancient names post, our modern pronunciation of ancient names probably doesn't match the way the ancient Koreans themselves pronounced these names. Either Chinese characters were used for their meaning instead of their sound, or the letters fulfilled phonetic functions that didn't involve sounding out the full letter.
For this reason the name of my heroine was a mystery for the longest time, and not just to me. Literally, in Chinese, it means call-west-slave (召西奴), but it's pretty obvious the letters were used to transcribe the sound of a Korean name and weren't used for their meaning.
Lots of people have theorized about her name: There was one theory that said it was a transcription of soseunnyeon, meaning "high-born woman." Another said that it was a reference to iron, akin to soi which was ancient Korean for iron, and related to the Japanese god Susanoo.
Though I never subscribed to either theory, I was influenced by them to the extent that I believed "Soseono" was probably her title or sobriquet rather than birth name. It would have been positively rude to refer to such an exalted lady by her birth name anyway, and Korea has a very long history of people being known for the names they grow into or make for themselves, e.g. "Chumo" for "Archer."
So today I started noodling around on Google, trying to find other instances of the letters in Soseono's name to see what they might have represented. I hit the jackpot with the last letter, no. It turns out that the modern Siheung-dong in Seoul was called Ingbeolno (仍伐奴) in Goguryeo times, but the actual sound was Neumnae, or "stretched ground" meaning plain. The letter no, in other words, was used in Goguryeo convention as a transcription of nae meaning "soil" or "ground."
I started thinking about the first two letters, then, so and seo, and then I remembered that this second letter, seo, is sometimes used to transcribe the consonant S, such as Bulanseo (佛蘭西) for France.
That gave me so-s-nae, for soseunnae. High ground. The Lady of High Hill.
I have no idea if it was what she was actually called 2,000 years ago, of course. But it is plausible, and it fits. People in Korea have been called by geographical locations for a long time. For instance, until quite recently young married women were called by the place they had lived before their marriage, e.g. a bride from Pyeongyang might be called Pyeongyang-daek, meaning "house in Pyeongyang."
In Soseono's case the High Hill might be a reference to her first husband's home, since that's the place she most recently comes from. I can fill in the significance later, but I can finally explain the name in a way I can live with and that's a big step.
Dreamwidth entry URL: http://ljlee.dreamwidth.org/52118.html
For this reason the name of my heroine was a mystery for the longest time, and not just to me. Literally, in Chinese, it means call-west-slave (召西奴), but it's pretty obvious the letters were used to transcribe the sound of a Korean name and weren't used for their meaning.
Lots of people have theorized about her name: There was one theory that said it was a transcription of soseunnyeon, meaning "high-born woman." Another said that it was a reference to iron, akin to soi which was ancient Korean for iron, and related to the Japanese god Susanoo.
Though I never subscribed to either theory, I was influenced by them to the extent that I believed "Soseono" was probably her title or sobriquet rather than birth name. It would have been positively rude to refer to such an exalted lady by her birth name anyway, and Korea has a very long history of people being known for the names they grow into or make for themselves, e.g. "Chumo" for "Archer."
So today I started noodling around on Google, trying to find other instances of the letters in Soseono's name to see what they might have represented. I hit the jackpot with the last letter, no. It turns out that the modern Siheung-dong in Seoul was called Ingbeolno (仍伐奴) in Goguryeo times, but the actual sound was Neumnae, or "stretched ground" meaning plain. The letter no, in other words, was used in Goguryeo convention as a transcription of nae meaning "soil" or "ground."
I started thinking about the first two letters, then, so and seo, and then I remembered that this second letter, seo, is sometimes used to transcribe the consonant S, such as Bulanseo (佛蘭西) for France.
That gave me so-s-nae, for soseunnae. High ground. The Lady of High Hill.
I have no idea if it was what she was actually called 2,000 years ago, of course. But it is plausible, and it fits. People in Korea have been called by geographical locations for a long time. For instance, until quite recently young married women were called by the place they had lived before their marriage, e.g. a bride from Pyeongyang might be called Pyeongyang-daek, meaning "house in Pyeongyang."
In Soseono's case the High Hill might be a reference to her first husband's home, since that's the place she most recently comes from. I can fill in the significance later, but I can finally explain the name in a way I can live with and that's a big step.
Dreamwidth entry URL: http://ljlee.dreamwidth.org/52118.html