[8][9] Other researchers hold a range of views on the affiliation of the Goguryeo language: that the evidence is insufficient to classify it,[7] that it was Japonic,[10] that it was Tungusic,[6][11] or that was the ancestor of Korean that subsequently spread to the south of the peninsula.

[12][13] Chinese histories provide the only contemporaneous descriptions of peoples of the Korean peninsula and eastern Manchuria in the early centuries of the common era.

[19] The "Description of the Eastern Barbarians" also describes the Samhan ('three Han') in the southern part of the Korean peninsula as culturally significantly different from the northern peoples.

[19] Based on this text, Lee Ki-Moon divided the languages spoken on the Korean peninsula at that time into Puyŏ and Han groups.

[10] Beckwith's work has been criticized on both linguistic and historical grounds, though the former presence of Japonic languages on the Korean peninsula is widely accepted.

[28][29] There is no evidence of the languages of Buyeo, Okjeo or Ye, but Goguryeo became a powerful kingdom, conquering much of central Korea before it was destroyed by the armies of Silla and the Chinese Tang dynasty in the late 7th century.

Both are recorded in Chinese characters, making their pronunciations difficult to interpret, but different names appear to resemble Korean, Japonic and Tungusic words.

[36] It is generally agreed that these glosses demonstrate that Japonic languages were once spoken in part of the Korean peninsula, but there is no consensus on the identity of the speakers.