Etymology of the Korean word "mul"

koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Kyungbook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

13 April 2010

South Koreans and North Koreans are using the word mul for water. It is not clear what the origin of the word is. It is not from China nor from Japan. There is a coincidental correspondence of the root for water in Korean with the root for water in ancient languages.

Whether the "silkroad" connections with the Han-peoples in Mongolia up to Mesopotamia was the origin of a loanword in Korean that is very close to all these ancient languages, is not for this researchers to decide, but the similarity is remarkable.

India is linked to Africa by trade and Coptic from Africa had the word MOOY for "water" as a continuation of the Egyptian form of it for centuries and millennia before that. Buddhistic movements to the Orient from India indicate the reality of movements between the two countries and the proximity of Coptic language to India could also be indicative of the manner and direction such a word like MOOY could have been carried to Korea, or Korea from India or North Africa. Sanskrit, the religious language of Buddhism is not the origin for the Korean word mul as water. 

One should not imagine that the Koreans were poor in creativity of a word for water in ancient times and were but too happy to find a loanword MOOY for them to modify as mul. This is too simplistic a reason, but the early links of Buddhism to Korea, and the silk road trade through Mongolia all the way to Mesopotamia, make contacts possible and loanword borrowing plausible.

The ceramic connections of Pottery at Ansan in Seoul and Mesopotamia of the Early Bronze IV period (until 2004 BCE), also strengthens a connection with Mesopotamia.

I. Aqua group of languages

Latin (60 BCE - present)

aqua  "water"

All Latin related languages may have the same form: Spanish, French, Portuguese.

II. Hudoor group of languages

Greek (800 BCE - present)

hudoor "water"

Sanskrit (many words for water) (200 CE)

hudaka "water"

III. Water group of languages

English

water

Old English

waeter

Dutch

water "water"

German

wasser "water"

Old High German

wazzar

Russian

voda

Gothic 

wato

Hittite (1650 BCE -1180 BCE)

watar "water"

IV. MU group of languages

Korean

mul "water"

Coptic is a language that is Egyptian in essence but using Greek orthography and loanwords. It was centered mostly in North Africa.

Coptic (250-present)

MOOY "water"

Semitic Languages (Hebrew, Syriac, Armenian, Arabic)

mayim "water"

ma' "water" (Arabic) or miyah

Late Egyptian (flee) 1340-1150 BCE

mw "water"

Middle Egyptian (heaven)  1600-1340 BCE

mw "water"

Akkadian (Old Assyrian, Middle Assyrian, Neo-Assyrian, Old Babylonian, Middle Babylonian, Neo-Babylonian, Ugaritic, Amarna)

mu  "water"

Sumerian 2521 BCE - 300 BCE)

mu "water"