Generally it was transcribed as Kaya (加耶) or Karak (伽落), but the transcription in the oldest sources is Kara (加羅, Middle Chinese kæla).

[2] Beckwith coined the term pre-Kara for a hypothetical Japonic language spoken in southern Korea at the time of the Yayoi migration to Kyushu (4th century BC).

[6] The Records of the Three Kingdoms lists 12 polities within Byeonhan, here given with pronunciations in Eastern Han Chinese:[7][8] The three longer names appear to include suffixes.

The suffix *-mietoŋ (which also occurs in one of the Jinhan names) has been compared with Late Middle Korean mith and Proto-Japonic *mətə, both meaning 'base, bottom' and claimed by Samuel Martin to be cognate.

[13][14] The only word directly attributed to Gaya is found in an explanatory note in the same chapter, which reads: 旃檀梁，城門名。加羅語謂門爲梁云。 Sandalwood 梁: name of the fortress gate.