The people living in North and South Korea, Japan and the Ryukuu Islands are members of a megatribe which moved to the area sometime during the late Pleistocene epoch (ca 30,000 BC 10,000 BC).  The Korean peninsula was connected to Japan and these people interacted with one another sharing ideas and information.  They were essentially the same culture at this time.  Then, around 10,000 BC a catachlysmic event ended the ice age and caused the sea levels to rise 100 to 135 meters above their previous levels.  The rising waters washed over the land bridge and seperated the tribe into three groups for roughly 7000 years. 

  The Japonic branch of the language family is phonetically different from the Korean branch.  While the two languages sound the same to the untrained ear their is virtually no lexical correspondence.  That is to say, there are very few words with the same meaning and sound between both languages.  What is interesting is that the grammatical patterns in both tongues are exactly the same.  In addition, many cultural traditions have remained intact.  For example, both cultures use a complex system of honorifics that vary according to the nuances of a social situation.  In addition, the Koreans have a wrestling sport very similar to Sumo wrestling known as Silum.  This is not to mention the similarity between Korean Tae Kwon Do and Okinawan Karate. 

   What could have happened to these societies which left the substratum of the language virtually unchanged yet the various levels of the superstructure so variously different?  Is there any relationship between the Koreo-Japonic languages and the so-called Altaic languages (Mongolian, Turkish, Finno-Ugric to name a few)?  Could there be a connection between Japan/Korea and Austronesian cultures and languages?  Is there a link to Africa, perhaps to the Yoruba people of Nigeria or the Bantu?  These and many more questions will be addressed at this website.