Collected Precedents of the S.C.A.: Korean

Name Precedents: Korean

Laurel:	Date: (year.month.date)	Precedent:
François la Flamme	2002.06	[Turtle Ship Herald] This is a resubmission with additional documentation of an identical heraldic title that was returned in the August 2001 LoAR, which stated: The LoI stated that "The 'Turtle ship' is a period iron-clad warship used by the Korean Admiral Yi Sun Shin to defeat various Japanese Armadas in a series of naval battles between 1592-1598". However, no accompanying documentation was submitted with this title, and the College did not find any evidence that Turtle Ship was the period name for this type of ship. Presumably, the name would have been in Japanese or Korean. Metron Arison found the following references to 'Turtle Ship': "Turtle Ship Dock at Seoul in Korea (a replica turtle ship) and [in] a couple of arcade or role-playing game books". However, none of these sources give dated evidence of the name turtle ship in period. Without such documentation, this submission must be returned. Black Pillar concisely summarized the issues with the additional documentation provided with this appeal: The submitter has proven that there were iron-clad warships in period, that they were called k�buks�n, and that they are now called "turtle ships." None of the documentation presented in this appeal actually dates the term "turtle ship" to period, which is what Laurel asked for in the return. Several points came up during commentary that need to be addressed. The largest issue is whether names from Korean are registerable. No documentation was presented and none was found (either in the current submission or in the previous submission) that Korea had significant contact with pre-17th C Western culture. Such documentation is necessary in order to be able to register a Korean name. Lack of such documentation has been cause for return in the past: More important, significant interaction between Tibet and pre-seventeenth century Western culture has not been demonstrated. The Encyclopædia Britannica dates the first visits to Tibet by Western missionaries to the 17th century, and the fact that the 8th century Tibetan kingdom had some contact with the Arab conquerors of Iran still leaves Tibetans at least two removes from Western Europe. (Talan Gwynek, LoAR November 1995, p. 16) If evidence is found of significant contact between Korea and Western Europe and a Korean personal name is deemed to be registerable, Korean may not be registerable for a non-personal name. Japanese placenames have been disallowed as group names, even though Japanese personal names are registerable: [Returning Ryuugatani, Shire of.] There was a fair amount of commentary with the belief that a Japanese place-name does not appear to fall within the defined scope of the Society, which is pre-17th Century Western culture (RfS I.1. See also "Scope of the Society: Period and Culture" in the Organizational Handbook, pp. 74-75). "Its domain includes Europe and areas that had contact with Europe during this period." (RfS I.1.) It was noted that while there was clearly some contact in very late period between Europe and Japan, and evidence that some few Japanese actually visited Europe, the contact between Europe and Japan was not great enough to justify a Japanese place-name in pre-17th C. Europe. [6/94, p.17] Part of this issue is the question of whether heraldic titles in Oriental languages are registerable in general. There have been only three registrations of heraldic titles from Oriental languages. Both Monsho Herald and Nihonyama Pursuivant were registered long enough ago that the O&A is unsure of the date. Monsho Herald was released in June 1986 and Nihonyama Pursuivant was released in December 1990. Chagama Herald Extraordinary was registered in December 1987. In this case, the LoAR noted that chagama was Japanese for 'tea pot'. Of specific relevence is the fact that the return of the name for the Shire of Ryuugatani is more recent than any of these three heraldic title registrations. As noted by Brachet: There is still no evidence that the artifact or the name were known in period IN EUROPE. No evidence is presented that Europeans even knew of these ships. The only way this makes sense as a title is as a translation from the Korean/Japanese, and the fact that the famous battles are in 1597-1598 argues (in our minds convincingly) that this is simply not a probable English heraldic title in period. The current submission provided documentation that the type of ship called a k�buks�n dates to the mid-fifteenth century, though the famous battles in which they were used occured in 1597-1598. However, none of the documentation indicated that this type of warship was known to Western Europeans or that the term turtle ship is anything but modern. In addition to the issues discussed so far, there is the fact that limitations have been placed on the use of the Lingua Anglica Allowance: The use of lingua franca translation is extended only to single, simple descriptives. Given names, for instance, may not normally be translated into their putative meaning: e.g. Bear may not be used as a given name, even though it's the lingua franca translation of the given name Bj�rn. Placenames, hereditary surnames, and bynames from different languages (e.g. French and German) likewise don't fall under the lingua franca allowance. (28 March, 1993 Cover Letter (January, 1993 LoAR), pp. 2-3) The Lingua Anglica Allowance has been used in conjunction with only one household name, one branch name, and one order name. Of these, only the household name is more recent than the Lingua Anglica ruling quoted above. The household name was for the Brotherhood of the Seven Holy Sleepers of Ephesus (registered May 1996). While the household name was submitted as a Lingua Anglica form of the same household name in Finnish that was also registered at that time, the legend of these saints was likely known in England, making this a plausible household name in English, regardless of the Lingua Anglica Allowance. To summarize the issues with this submission: No documentation has been provided to demonstrate that Korea had significant contact with Western Europe in period to make even Korean personal names registerable. Registerability of personal names and non-personal names from non-Western European cultures require different levels of contact. Sufficient contact for a personal name to be registerable is not necessarily sufficient contact to allow registration of non-personal names such as branch names, order names, and heraldic titles. The scope of the Lingua Anglica Allowance has been extended to descriptive bynames used in personal names. In that ruling, it was specifically stated that the Lingua Anglica Allowance did not apply to placenames and surnames. As the normal pattern of heraldic titles is to preserve the title in its original language, it is not appropriate to extend the Lingua Anglica Allowance to heraldic titles. (For example, in period English documents, French heraldic titles are routinely rendered in French or in phonetic English equivalents rather than being translated into English.) No evidence has been provided that Turtle Ship Herald, or even K�buks�n Herald, follows the pattern of period heraldic titles as required by RfS III.2.b.iii. It would seem that the theory is that the ship in question might be registerable as a heraldic charge. And that if it were, it would then be a plausible source for a heraldic title. However, there is no ruling allowing a k�buks�n as a heraldic charge and no evidence of one has been found in period armory. Lacking either evidence of an item used in period heraldry or a ruling that an item may be used as a charge in SCA armory, that item (in this case, a k�buks�n) is not a candidate for a heraldic title based on the name of a heraldic charge. [Trimaris, Kingdom of, 06/2002, R-Trimaris]
François la Flamme	2002.04	There are two issues with this name submission that are cause for return. The documentation submitted for the name elements was written in Korean. On that page, handwritten on the photocopy were the words "Yang" and "Mun" and arrows pointing to the characters in question. Previous precedent requires that translations for non-English documentation be included with the documentation: The first element of the "name" the submitter cites appears to be volni, "free, independent", not a given name. This situation helps to dramatize one of the major reasons we require that all documentation in another language be translated into English. [12a/93, p.20] In this case, the translation provided was inadequate to know what the documentation said about "Yang" and "Mun". Many factors come into play when determining if a name element is registerable. This documentation may well state that both elements of this name were used by humans in period. However, without a translation of the context in which "Yang" and "Mun" are discussed, we are unable to even know if these words are used as name elements. Lacking a translation, this documentation is not sufficient to support the submission. However, there is a bigger issue. No documentation was presented and none was found that Korea had significant contact with pre-17th C Western culture. Such documentation is necessary in order to be able to register a Korean name. Lack of such documentation has been cause for return in the past: More important, significant interaction between Tibet and pre-seventeenth century Western culture has not been demonstrated. The Encyclopædia Britannica dates the first visits to Tibet by Western missionaries to the 17th century, and the fact that the 8th century Tibetan kingdom had some contact with the Arab conquerors of Iran still leaves Tibetans at least two removes from Western Europe. (Talan Gwynek, LoAR November 1995, p. 16) [Yang Mun, 04/2002, R-Trimaris]