Middle Chinese

DOWNLOAD: https://icaal.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/AA-Linguistics-in-Honour-of-Michel-Ferlus-2025.pdf

Video lecture: https://youtu.be/q3LsHYUT1kA Abstract: This article presents research on the vowels in early Chinese loanwords (ECLs) in Vietnamese borrowed in the 1st millennium, that is, before the layer of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary associated with Late Middle Chinese. Crucially, the vowels of ECLs are studied with respect to developments in vowels in native Vietic words from Proto-Vietic or Proto-Austroasiatic. It does the following: (a) reviews issues of Vietic, Sinitic, and Vietnamese historical phonological matters and describe the methods of this study; (b) presents data for three categories: ECLs with vowels likely retained from early Chinese, words with possibly retained vowels, and words with diphthongs; and (c) summarizes the key findings. While some patterns of vowels in native vocabulary are shared by those in ECLs, and others show observable patterns that are distinct from those in native etyma, a number of vowels in ECLs exhibit as yet unexplainable distinct historical developments. Accounting for the history of vowels in posited ECLs is challenging due to (a) variations in vowels potentially due to varied borrowing situations, (b) variations in early Chinese reconstructions of different scholars, and (c) assumed variation in the source varieties of Chinese in time of borrowing and dialectal diversity. Despite such complications, the updated observations of the data increase the certainty of the status of ECLs as loanwords. They also give insights into the timing of the borrowing of ECLs and could offer comparative data to consider in reconstructions of vowels in Vietic and potentially early stages of Sinitic.

Stonggnyen, an obscure Tibetic dialect spoken in 'Dabpa County of Sichuan, diverges sharply in phonology, grammar, and vocabulary from other Tibetic varieties spoken in the county. Drawing from extended fieldwork, this study offers an in-depth examination of Stonggnyen phonology and the sound changes that led to its formation. To assess Stonggnyen's genetic affiliations relative to its neighbors, its representative sound laws and selected distinctive lexical items are evaluated against comparative data from selected Tibetic dialects distributed in the environs. A lexicon of 1,200 core vocabulary items with Classical Tibetan etymologies is supplemented to vindicate the phonological analyses offered herein.

Tarihsel dilbilim ve arkeoloji, bir ulusun etnogenezini ve göç yollarını aydınlatmada sıklıkla başvurulan iki temel disiplindir. Ancak son yıllarda paleodiyet ve nöro-biyolojik morfoloji araştırmaları, dillerin fonetik evrimine dair yeni bir pencere açmıştır. Avcı-toplayıcı toplumların sert gıdaya dayalı diyetlerinin zorunlu kıldığı "uç uca" (edge-to-edge) çene kapanışı, tarım ve süt hayvancılığına geçişle birlikte yerini üst dişlerin alt dişleri hafifçe örttüğü "overbite" çene yapısına bırakmıştır. Bu anatomik değişim, /f/ ve /v/ gibi labiodental (dudak-diş) sürtünmeli seslerin üretilmesini kolaylaştırmıştır (Blasi, 2019: 2-6). Bu makale, söz konusu biyodilbilimsel olguyu Ön Türkçe, Slab Grave (Yassı Gömüt) kültürü ve Transavrasya Hipotezi bağlamında ele alarak Türkçenin kökeni ve Moğolistan coğrafyasına giriş kronolojisi üzerine yeni bir tez sunmaktadır.

Baxter & Sagart (2014b) reconstruct *-Vt-s on the basis of Middle Chinese reflexes in -jH (from some OC *-s) coupled with either etymological or graphic connections to words in Middle Chinese -t. This approach, while perfectly sound, can suffer from lack of etymological or graphic data, leading to missed reconstructions. Since Old Chinese *-ts syllables retained an *-s in Late Han Chinese, long after OC *-Vs and *-ks had lost *-s (Baxter 1992: 569), it is possible to use transcriptional (Baley et al. 2023; Baley & Hill, forthcoming) and rhyming evidence (Luó & Zhōu 1958) dated up to the Eastern Hàn 東漢 dynasty to establish an Old Chinese *-ts reconstruction for words, respectively, transcribing a foreign -s or rhyming with other *-ts words. In the present article, using a mix of network graph methods, graphic variants found in received and excavated texts, rhyme book glosses, and cognates in related languages, we demonstrate the validity of using Hàn 漢 rhyming material to reconstruct an OC *-ts final. In the process, we propose new reconstructions for several characters previously reconstructed as *-js by Baxter & Sagart. This proposal, in turn, opens the possibility of revisiting other syllable types and problematic reconstructions.

曇無讖（385—433年）是北涼著名僧人，譯有多種佛教經典，本文對其中的陀羅尼、專有名詞和字母譯音進行對音研究，探討五世紀河西漢語的聲母系統。主要結論如下：（1）全濁聲母讀不送氣音；（2）輕重唇音尚未分化；（3）端組和知組大體已經分化，知組讀舌尖後音；（4）章組聲母讀舌面音，禪母是塞擦音；（5）次濁鼻音聲母是單純的鼻輔音，沒有塞音成分；（6）匣母的對音一分爲三。總的來看，曇無讖譯經對音反映出的漢語聲母系統沒有表現出能與後世西北方音建立起歷史聯繫的特征，而是與當時的共同語比較一致。此外，音譯詞的對應形式表明，雖然曇無讖譯經所據的源語言中存在一些俗語因素，但梵語化的程度已經很高，這也說明以梵語爲中介對早期僧人的譯作開展對音研究具有合理性。 [Dharmakṣema (385-433 CE) was a renowned Buddhist monk of the Northern Liang Dynasty who translated numerous Buddhist scriptures. This paper examines the transcriptions of dhāraṇīs, proper names and akṣara transliterations in his translations to explore the initial system of Hexi Chinese in the 5th century. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) Voiced obstruents were pronounced as unaspirated consonants; (2) Labiodental and bilabial consonants had not yet differentiated; (3) The duān group and zhī group were largely differentiated, with the zhī group pronounced as retroflex consonants; (4) The zhāng group were palatal consonants, and the chán initial was an affricate; (5) Voiced nasal initials were pure nasals without stop components; (6) The correspondances of the xiá initial fell into three categories. Overall, the initial system of Chinese reflected in Dharmakṣema’s translations does not exhibit features that can establish a historical link with later Northwestern Chinese dialects, but rather aligns closely with the common language of his time. Moreover, the corresponding forms of the transliterated terms indicate that, while the underlying language of Dharmakṣema’s translations contained some Prākrit elements, the degree of Sanskritization was already quite high. This also demonstrates the validity of using Sanskrit as an intermediary for phonological studies of early monks’ translations.]

It is shown, notably using minimal pairs, that medial -r-, which present in more than 20% of  archaic Chinese words, was an infix used to form plural or collective nouns, iterative, durative or increased effort verbs and intensive stative verbs and adjectives. E. G. Pulleyblank’s hypothesis treating medial -r- as a causative infix is rejected. A statistical verification on 93 body part names confirms the infixal nature of -r- and its plural or collective value. The infixation of -l- in modern dialects, particularly in central Shanxi, is a survival of the infixation of -r- in archaic Chinese. An infix -r- of similar values is found in several languages of the region, notably in Khmer and in Austronesian languages of Taiwan, the Philippines and Java. As the borrowing of morphological processes is unusual, the existence in Chinese and in several Austronesian languages of the same morphological process is one of the arguments in favor of a genetic relationship between these two groups of languages.

Nathan W. Hill said in https://www.academia.edu/165514461 : > Neither Tibet nor Japan belong to the native habitat of the tiger. As such, we expect the words these two languages offer for this animal, namely Tibetan ག stag and Japanese tora, owe their origin to some language whose speakers knew the tiger at first hand... As Kiyose and Beckwith point out, the overall resemblance of the Tibetan and Japanese words, the locations where these two languages are spoken, and the overall cultural history of their civilizations point to China as the likely place of origin for these terms. Although in China today one finds tigers only at the zoo, in the earliest historical Shang dynasty tigers roamed wild. The modern Mandarin Chinese word 虎 hǔ 'tiger' does not look at first like a promising word to compare with the Tibetan and Japanese words, but I shall argue herein that the three do share an origin...

Background Beijing retroflex suffixation (BRS): a prominent feature in Beijing Mandarin speech, non-syllabic retroflex suffix 儿, transcribed [ɚ] or [ɻ ]; originally diminutive, now often semantically bleached. The suffix is attached directly to non-front vowels. [ə] is inserted between front vowels ([i, y, e]) and the suffix. Front and alveolar post-nuclear segments, i.e. [i, n], are deleted. Back (rounded) and velar post-nuclear segments ([u, ŋ]) leave a trace of lip-rounding or nasality. The rime groups [a-ai-an] (± pre-nuclear glides) and [ei-ən-z̩ -ʐ ̩ ] have previously been reported to merge. However, earlier work is inconclusive whether [i-ie] and [y-ye] merge, or whether [ɤ] merges with [ei-ən-z̩ -ʐ ̩ ] [1, 2]. Perceptual data point to potential incomplete neutralisation [3].

Beijing Mandarin allows all possible rimes (excluding syllabic [ɚ]) to be applied with the retroflex suffix, and reveals an intricate pattern of rime change and merger. While retroflex suffixation and resultant rime mergers have been approached from phonological and impressionistic phonetic angles, empirical studies remain scarce and inconclusive. This investigation is a step towards filling that gap. 10 Beijing Mandarin speakers were recorded. MANOVAs were performed for the effects of suffixation and rime identity on F1 and F2 frequencies of nuclear vowels: Pillai’s trace (PT) was used as a metric of overall spectral difference. Symmetric differences between the probability density functions (PDF) of each formant frequency in suffixed vs unsuffixed rimes were computed. Results are reported for rimes that were previously claimed to merge: those with high, mid-unrounded, and low nuclei. With an overall shrinkage of the vowel space, suffixed nuclei are globally retracted, while high v...

Tocharian A *mkowā-, Tocharian B *mokwom-'monkey' might be Chinese loanwords. From (Adams, Douglas Q. (1999) A Dictionary of Tocharian B http://ieed.ullet.net/tochB.html) : > mokoṃśka, mokoṃśke (nf.), (nm.) 'monkey' [f: mokoṃśka,-, mokoṃśkai//mokoṃśkañ,- ,-] [m: mokoṃśke,- ,-//] ///ñ mokośwañ [lege: mokośkañ?] kercapañ [w]at [n]o (118b3), mokoṃśk[e] = BHS makkara (549a5), mokośkai pikulne 'in the year of the monkey' (PK-Cp.25.1 [Pinault, 1987:160]). Etymology uncertain. VW suggests (299) that we have here a diminutive of moko, i.e. 'little old man,' but which leaves unaccounted for the shape of the TchA equivalent (pl.) mkowāñ. Lüders (1933:1018) takes it to be a borrowing somehow from Chinese muhou or mihou. > Old Chinese reconstruction is not perfect (see some theories in https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%B2%90%E7%8C%B4). These loanwords from Chinese help to show which reconstructions fit better, or at least put limits on them. They also provide outside evidence of internal Tocharian changes, like *k \ *x (Chinese (pinyin) huàzhǐ 'finger (seal)', MCh. *hwa-či >> *xwači > T. *kpači > TB kapci 'thumbprint [as mark of authentication]' https://www.academia.edu/121982938). Though no reconstruction is perfect, I think it went something like : Old Chinese *mroɡ ɡoː > *mowk how > Middle Chinese *muwk huw 'macaque' *mroɡ ɡoː > *moɡ ɡoː >> Japanese mokkō 'monkey *mowk how >> Proto-Tocharian *mowkow > *mokwow > TA *mokwāw > *mkowā-, mkowā-ñ, TB *mokwom-> *mokwom-śka > *mokomśkwa > mokoṃśka, mokośwa-ñ In TB, some clusters of *Cw simplify, thus *śkw > śk \ św. Tocharian A had a change *o-o > o-a, as in TA mokats 'strong, thick?', TB mokoce '*big finger > thumb, big toe'. Since this is the only case of *owow, I think a subset of this change is *o-wow > *o-wāw. The cause could be *o-o > *o-ɔ > o-a, but *wɔw > *wāw by dissimilation (unrounding surrounded by round C's). TA ā probably came from plain *a (PIE *a, *H, *aH2), TA a from Proto-Tocharian *ë (PIE *o or *e:), but their exact pronunciations at this stage aren't certain. TA mk-resulted from metathesis, and is not the only case of mk-. Since a shift from m-k-> mk-0 might be odd if no other mk-existed, I also mention (with *k \ *x > k \ h \ 0, as above) : *ml̥ H3dhro-> *mlǝH3dhro-> Greek blōthrós \ βλωθρός '(grown) high' *melH3ǝdhro-> *Hmelǝdhro-> G. mélathron \ kmélethron 'beam / roof' *mlH3dh-'top / point / end' > *H3mǝldh-> TA malto 'in the first place', mkälto 'young' These also show various cases of assimilation & dissimilation of m-w-w \ m-w-(m), w-w > w-0. Other examples of the alternation of w \ m (https://www.academia.edu/129426005) : Khotanese mrāha-'pearl' >> TA wrok, TB wrāko 'pearl / (oyster) shell' PIE *sol(H2)wo-'all / whole' > TA salu 'entirely', TB solme *men-mn > S. mánman-'thought / mind', PT *mäñmän > *mäñwä > *mäñäw > TA mnu 'spirit / appreciation / desire', TB mañu 'desire', also with *n-n > *ñ-n (Witczak 2000, Whalen 2023a) *gWrH2ur-> Go. kaurus, G. barús, S. gurú-'heavy' *gWrH2ur > *gWraH2wǝr > *gwraxwär > *kwra:mär > TB krāmär 'weight', kramartse 'heavy'

From a Trubetzkoyean perspective, synchronically, Mandarin alveolo-palatals present a typical case of neutralization: there is a phonological opposition among the dental, retroflex, and velar series, which is lost in the context before i- and y-rimes, resolving into alveolo-palatals. Troubetzkoy (1976: Ch.V) meticulously categorizes various instances of neutralization. Neutralization can favor one of the opposing terms (e.g., final devoicing in German in favor of the voiceless consonants), but it can also occur without favoring either term (as seen in vowel reduction in Slavic). Mandarin alveolo-palatals exemplify the latter case.

Quantitative linguistics and reconstructions of Old Chinese phonology are both relatively less well developed disciplines in China, and either of them have only recently come up with more substantial results, though each for its own reasons. Quantitative linguistics of Chinese, which has been flourishing only in recent years, has, quite understandably, focused practically exclusively on contemporary Chinese (cf. Liú and Huáng 2012, Chén et al. 2012, Liú 2017). historical phonology of Old Chinese, on the other hand, did not achieve the level of sophistication and reliability that would allow further research based on the reconstructed forms until the last decade of 20th century, when new post-Karlgrenian, mostly six-vowel systems of reconstruction started to appear (Starostin 1989, Baxter 1992, Pān 2000, Zhèng-Zhāng 2013, Baxter and Sagart 2014). I consider this time to be ripe for an attempt at combining the both approaches and observing what the results may tell us if not about the language itself, then about the hypothetical system of the latest reconstruction by Baxter and Sagart (2014), including its typological properties. At the same time, I will try to explore several essential features of Warring States formal poetics, since the linguistic material I depend on for this occasion primarily comprises two rhymed chapters of the Xúnzǐ compilation, namely “Chéngxiàng” (成相, CX henceforth) and “Fù” (賦, F henceforth). The feasibility of relying on a corpus of this size for phonostatistical analyses is tested by an approximate comparison with the data obtained from the Hánfēizǐ, or, more precisely, its most frequent characters making up 90 % of the text.

Drawing on the biography of Zhu Fahu in Chu san zang ji ji 出三藏記集, it is well known that Zhu Fahu竺法護, who was a famous translator in the early Chinese Buddhist period, lived during the Western Jin西晉 (265–314 CE). He translated a great number of sutras included the Zheng fa hua jing正法華經. It is commonly stated that Zhu Fahu’s translation is difficult to understand in comparison to the translations of Kumārajīva鳩摩羅什or Xuanzang玄奘etc. According to Kawano 2006: 75 and Bai 2017: 127, there is a symbolic characteristic called “the usage of synonymy compounds” of Zhu Fahu’s translation that are found in the Zheng fa hua jing. Bai 2019: 126–127 gives a lot of examples, such as “yangxin殃釁 (disasters and faults)” and “jiaomanzi憍慢恣 (arrogant, willful and haughty),” corresponding to “pāpa (sin)” and “adhimānika (self-conceited)” in Sanskrit respectively, which are totally neologism that is newly created and only used by Zhu Fahu and of which each parts have its origin in six classics of the Confusion tradition六經. However, it can be found that synonymy compounds, such as “guanshi觀視 (observe and look attentively),” “zhouyuan咒願 (chant syllable words and pray)” and “fule福樂 (fortune and happiness)” and so on in Yu lan pen jing, which is considered that this sutra was translated by Zhu Fahu, have these three different characteristics from those of Zheng fa hua jing. These characteristics are as follows:
1. The synonymy compounds are all consisted of two words and not more than three words unlike those in Zheng fa hua jing;
2. Some synonymy compounds are created by Zhi Qian支謙 (ca. the end of 2–3 CE) and An Shigao安世高 (ca. 2 CE) who lived before Zhu Fahu’s life period, whereas most of those are used by the others who lived after Zhu Fahu’s life period such as Bodhiruci菩提流支 (ca. 6 CE) and Dharmakṣema曇無讖 (385–433).
3. Each part of these synonymy compounds are not quoted from sophisticated books.
This paper aims comparing with the characteristics of synonymy compounds in Zheng fa hua jing to analyze the equivalent Sanskrit or Prakrit words of those words in Yu lan pen jing, criticizing the preceded studies on suspicious or apocryphal sutras 疑偽経 to demonstrate that this sutra is a so-called Zhu Fahu’s translation and finding the purpose of the usages of these compounds.

Ranging from machine translation (MT) to cross-lingual information retrieval, many NLP applications require parallel corpora as critical resources. Given the phenomenal growth in patents and in the need to mediate between different languages, we explore a new but important area involving patents by investigating how a Chinese-English-Japanese trilingual parallel corpora can be cultivated from comparable patents, and introduce our mined trilingual corpus, which demonstrates the considerable potential of cultivating large-scale parallel corpora from comparable patents.

After the destruction of the Xiongnu Empire, some groups of the Xiongnu migrated to the west of Eurasia and became those who were known as the Huns. The signs that were used to record the ethnonym Xiongnu 匈奴 were pronounced as *hoŋ-nâ in Late Old Chinese and as *hɨoŋnɑ in Eastern Han Chinese. Word-forms *hoŋ-nâ / *hɨoŋ-nɑ correlate well to the ethnonym Hun. All known examples of the Xiongnu language from Chinese sources have been perfectly interpreted through Yeniseian languages, so it is logical to suppose a Yeniseian etymology of the ethnonym *Hoŋ-nâ / Hun: these forms can be compared to the form hɔʔ 2 "people" existing in Northern dialects of Ket. The name Attila can be a compound of two components: at and til; at correlates to Proto-Yeniseian *ʔat "hunting spear" and til to Proto-Yeniseian *tVr "to shake". And thus, Attila means "[the one who] shakes [a] spear".

This essay proposes the following revised tone values for Tangut monosyllables: Tone 1 (𗗔 nye¹ = píng) as a falling tone (HL) and Tone 2 (𗨁 phu² = shàng) as a mid-level tone (M). While largely consistent with the established "1 = H, 2 = L" theory (Nishida 1964; Arakawa 1999), these contour values better account for the available evidence. (1) Regular tonal correspondences are identified between Tangut monosyllables and Northern Horpa (= Shàngzhài, West Rgyalrongic). The HL:M contrast in the latter aligns with the broader areal typology of "polysyllabic-type" Rgyalrong languages. (2) The use of Chinese tone labels by native Tangut scholars could plausibly refl ect the tone values of a spoken variety of Late Northwestern Middle Chinese, analogous to Sino-Japanese kan'on readings and the Middle Japanese shōten notation. (3) This revision addresses the "Tangut tone paradox," wherein tonal correspondences between Tangut and the Rma and Prinmi languages (Sims 2020) appear inverted. The proposed falling contour for Tone 1 allows for a plausible scenario of tone reversal in Tangut and Northern Horpa, potentially representing a shared innovation.

The International Journal of Catholic Studies invites contributions for a special issue dedicated to the critical edition and translation of ancient texts. This thematic volume aims to foster scholarly dialogue between Western and Chinese academics, bringing together diverse methodological approaches to textual criticism and translation studies. Papers submitted must be in English or in Chinese.

Many Classical Chinese words were derived through tonal/voicing alternations. New characters were specifically created for some derived words, while other derived words kept using the original characters, making the original characters multifunctional. In the evolution of the Chinese language, those derivations represented by specifically created characters have mostly been preserved, while multifunctional characters were not likely to stay multifunctional: it is common to eliminate some form-meaning pairs, leaving each character with only one pronunciation. Meanwhile, the form-meaning pairs represented by characters began to compound with each other, reducing syntactic freedom. Ideographic characters thereby stabilized the basic units, that is, root morphemes, for the Chinese language, while those phonological alternations that were not clearly represented in writing mostly disappeared, making the language increasingly analytic. This finding sheds light on the stabilizing effect of writing on (the spoken) language and thus challenges the traditional view that writing is secondary to language.

As Yunnanese people immigrated in Thailand many years ago, nobody knows their language and where they are. This research aims to study Yunnanese dialect phonology and distribution in Thailand. The phonology of Yunnanese dialect data have been analyzed by phonemic approach and tones have been analyzed by computer software program PRAAT. Yunnanese language areas are presented on the map. This research found that Yunnanese in Thailand has five subdialects: Yunnanese phonology from Muang Hai of Xishuagbanna Autonomous Region of Tai Ethnic Group, Yunnanese phonology from Kunming, Yunnanese phonology from Longling, Yunnanese phonology from Simao, and the cities in the northern part of Yunnan, which are classified into two groups. The consonants, vowels and tones are difference both their number and characteristic depending on their origin places. At the present time, Yunnanese people settle down in four provinces: Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Mae Hong Son and Bangkok in Thailand.

Gong Hwang-cherng proposed that the Tangut language has a distinction between short and long vowels. To date, however, no reliable correlates have been found regarding the actual phonological nature of the distinction. A careful examination of Chinese loanwords in Tangut and Sino-Tangut pronunciation reveals that the "vowel length" distinction should be revised to that of the presence vs. absence of a nasal preinitial. The pair 𗻍₃₈₀₆ "weed" vs. 𗽰₂₁₃₈ "tomb," borrowed respectively from Chinese 蒲 bu and 墓 muH (the latter from a Northwest-type reflex with *mb-), hitherto reconstructed as buʶ¹ {bu¹} vs. buuʶ² {buu²}, should be revised to buʶ¹ vs. mbuʶ². The reconstructed nasal preinitial not only has a close typological parallel in Modern West Rgyalrongic, but is equally reflected in other sources of evidence, most strikingly Sanskrit transcription and fǎnqiè. The revision solves a large number of problems in the historical phonology of Tangut, though not without raising some new ones, especially in connection with the treatment of Proto-Rgyalrongic preinitials before nasals.

* 本文係根據作者於2024年3月16日至17日參加中國鄭州大學漢字文明研究中心與文學院共同主辦“漢字文化圈的近代新詞語：材料、概念與翻譯”國際學術研討會時所發表之口頭報告內容整理撰寫而成。
Abstract: The circulation of modern Chinese-character neologisms in East Asia has attracted considerable scholarly attention, yet research on the Vietnamese context remains insufficient. This article reviews existing academic work on the topic and examines both the sources of Sino-Vietnamese neologisms and the routes through which they were transmitted. Primary source materials include Sino-Nôm “new books,” textbooks, dictionaries, newspapers, writings by Vietnamese students returning from Japan, and texts authored by communist revolutionaries. There are two main transmission routes for these neologisms into Vietnam: one from China, primarily through publications from Shanghai and revolutionary circles in Guangzhou; the other from Japan, via Vietnamese students involved in the Đông Du (Go East) movement. The study argues that Vietnam’s reception of these Chinese-character neologisms reflects its efforts toward linguistic modernization and highlights the complex network of cultural interactions within East Asia.
Keywords: Chinese-character neologisms; Sinographic cosmopolis; Vietnam; China; Japan

We are very happy to announce the publication of a new issue of the “Newsletter of the Database of Medieval Chinese texts  (DMCT)” (ISSN: 2952-8534), a collaborative project of the Department of Languages and Cultures / GCBS, Ghent University, and the Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts (DILA)!

THE NEWSLETTER CAN BE DOWNLOADED FROM THE FRONTPAGE OF DMCT:
https://www.database-of-medieval-chinese-texts.be

The current issue includes research papers and reports. Here is an overview of the contents:

1: Message from the editor-in-chief (p. 1-4)
2: Featured research paper “The Interpretation and Lexicographical Compilation of Idioms in Chán Buddhist Literature”, by Zeng Chen (p. 4-10)
3: Report by project Co-director Lin Ching-hui 林靜慧 (DILA) (p. 11)
4: Introduction to DMCT in Chinese by 林靜慧 and 洪振洲  (DILA) (p. 11-23)
5: Introduction to newly marked-up manuscript texts 寫卷說明2022&2023 by 林靜慧 (p. 23-31)
6: News from our members: contributions by Laurent Van Cutsem and Liang Litian 梁枥天 (p. 32-34)
7: Poster session (p. 34-37)
8: Newly funded projects (p. 38-40)
9: Internship report by Wu Taoyu 吴韬玉, featuring an edition of the earliest dated Dunhuang manuscript, a rendering of the Ten Recitations Prātimokṣa sūtra based on Ms. Or.8210/S.797r (p. 39-52)
10: News from our partners, with contributions by Manuel Sassmann concerning our new collaboration with Buddhist Stone Sutras in China project (Heidelberg Academy of Science), a paper by Marcus Bingenheimer on encoding Buddhist texts using DNA, and a thorough introduction to the Thesaurus Linguae Sericae (TLS) database by Christian Wittern (p. 52-59)
11: M.A thesis reports, introducing a selection of recent MA theses, “Words with Alternative Pronunciations in Modern Chinese and the Reading Traditions of Pre-modern Chinese Poetry” by Wu Taoyu 吴韬玉, “A Study of Popular Character Forms (súzì 俗字) in the Dūnhuáng Manuscripts of Sōushén jì 搜神记” by Yang Yuting 杨钰婷, and “A Study of Proper Names in the Chinese translations of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya Saṃghabheda-vastu” by Zhang Longyu 张龙宇 (p. 59-65)
12: Publications and lectures (selection) (p. 66-67)

Aynı dil ailesinden gelen Çince ve Türkçe dilleri arasında zaman içerisinde , sınır komşusu olmanın ve ticaretinde getirmiş olduğu ilişki neticesinde iki millet arasında kullanılan ortak kelimeler görülmektedir.
Binlerce yıl öncesine dayanan bu ilişkide Çinliler ve Türkler uzun süre boyunca  kültürel ve siyasi bir paylaşım içinde bulunmuşlardır. İdari olarak da geçmişte Türk Hakanları tarafından yönetilen bölgelerle beraber ortak yaşam fırsatını yakalamış bu iki milletin geçmişi 3000 yıl öncesine kadar uzanır. Komşuluktan günümüze Türk-Çin ilişkisi içerisinde aynı anlam veya aynı ses de kullanılan bir çok kelime bulunmaktadır. Türkçeye Çinceden geçen kelimeler için iki farklı kültür arasındaki etkileşimden doğan bir sonuç olduğunu söyleyebiliriz.
Kelime hazinesi bakımından oldukça zengin olan Çince, dönemsel olarak çeşitli nedenlerle ilişki kurduğu diğer milletlerden dolaylı olarak veya doğrudan aldığı kelimeler doğrultusunda bu zenginliğe ulaşmıştır.

Çinceden Türkçeye geçen kelimelerin yanı sıra Türkçeden de Çinceye kazandırılmış olanlara rastlayabiliriz, bu bildiri de tespit ettiğimiz bazı kelimeler üzerinden  bu ilişkileri değerlendireceğiz.

This paper aims to predict mutual intelligibility (defined here as cross-dialectal word recognition) between 15 Chinese dialects from lexical and phonological distance measures. Distances were measured on the stimulus materials used in the experiment. Their predictive power was compared with earlier similar distance measures based on large word lists. Predictors based on just the stimulus materials used afford the better prediction. Segmental Levenshtein distance was the strongest predictor, outperforming both lexical and tonal similarity measures.

The present study questions whether the Old Turkic verb us- 'to be thirsty' is derived from the nominal base *u 'water', which is attested as such in Kitan and as *usun in Common Mongolic. Since there is no denominal verbal formative +s- in Turkic, us- must be regarded as a simplex. Since both *u 'water' and +(A)s- are present in Mongolic, the Turkic verb is considered to be a loanword from Pre-Proto-Mongolic *us-, which was replaced in Proto-Mongolic by *umdaas- 'to be thirsty'.

Persians' Paideia in the Late Antiquity
Abstract: Since the Achaemenid era, Persians' education in the "Six Arts" which has been noted by Greek historians like Herodotus and Xenophon was highly valued in Eurasia. Down to the Sassanid dynasty, this tradition was inherited and continued. During this period, one practice that dispatching junior aristocrat to the court to accompany princes and lords became an access of cultivating and selecting the candidate for the future ruling group. In a class society where Zoroastrianism was the dominant ideology, religious education permeated the entire learning process and was the only content of education for the commoners. The multi-disciplinary training of aristocrats including physical exercise, literature, philosophy, and aesthetics, guaranteed that the Sasanian empire rulers stayed well-educated and skilled. By translating and analyzing the texts in middle Persian like various “Andarz”, this essay examines the modes and concepts of Persians' Paideia in late antiquity by reviewing diverse materials from both the pre-and post-Islamic period.

Legato is essential to Western classical singing, in as much as this singing is
centered on the sonority and rhythm of words and the demonstration of a
cultivated, sustained vocalism. Some Chinese regional dialects retain phonation characteristics from ancient Chinese dialects, which can significantly improve legato and sound quality in singing.

The musical appreciation of ancient Chinese poetry – commonly used in modern Chinese art song – is made difficult by the seemingly stark contrast between ancient and modern Chinese spoken language. The present study takes advantage of a wide range of disciplines, including Chinese literature, linguistics, musicology, voice science, and physiology, to explore the value of ancient dialect as an integral aspect of performance practice in modern Chinese art song, and as a tool to assist with the physical demands of singing including the particular difficulties of legato.

A comparative analysis will delve into the phonology of ancient Chinese poetry, exploring the character of Mandarin, ancient, and regional dialects, and examining the differences between modern and ancient Chinese words, with a focus on pronunciation. The study of ancient language helps to address the challenge of non-legato singing in Mandarin by identifying new possibilities in both composition and interpretation of art song, as will be discussed in relation to two songs: “Song of the Yue Boatman” and “Night Mooring at Maple Bridge.” In so doing, this comparison aims to uncover potential folk and regional influences for future development of Chinese art songs.

El presente artículo intenta aclarar la génesis y evolución de las
palabras japonesas de origen chino que aparecen en la edición vigente del Diccionario de la Lengua Española. En una primera parte del artículo se pone al tanto al lector de la información básica y necesaria con respecto a los estudios de las lenguas japonesa y china a fin de que le sea posible comprender ese origen y evolución, que se detallan en la segunda parte del trabajo.

В статье рассматривается система вопросительных местоимений категории предмета и лица на материале всех ветвей диалектов группы Минь сино-тибетской семьи. Главная задача исследования — выявить различные инновации в этой системе, возникающие в миньском регионе, вскрыть ле- жащие в их основе механизмы и (методом исключения) определить, какие из на- блюдаемых лексем можно вывести на праминьский уровень. Помимо обычного сравнительно-исторического метода, анализ учитывает также ареальный фак- тор, отмечая возможное влияние на формирование современных систем вопросительных местоимений со стороны как соседних диалектных групп, так и общенационального литературного языка.

Türk, Moğol, Mançu, Tunguz, Kore ve Japon dillerinin ortak bir kökten geldiğini ve bu dillerin akraba olduğunu ortaya koyan teoriye Altay Dilleri Teorisi adı verilmektedir. Bu teorinin temeli, Türkçe, Moğolca, Mançuca, Tunguzca, Korece ve Japonca arasındaki ses denkliklerine dayanmaktadır. Altay Dilleri Teorisi, r~z ve l~ş ses denkliklerinin keşfedilmesiyle birlikte disipline girmiştir. Bu ses denkliklerin keşfedilmesindeki en önemli nokta, şüphesiz eldeki yazılı belgelerdir. Yazılı belgelerin kaynak olarak gösterilmesiyle birlikte teori ile ilgili pek çok çalışma yapılmıştır. Bunlardan birisi de Orçun Ünal'ın doktora tez çalışmasıdır. Araştırmacı bu çalışmasında Moğol yazı dilinde bulunan Türkçe kökenli kelimelerin tamamını bulmayı hedeflemiştir. Ancak her dilin ve dönemin yazılı bir kaynağa sahip olmadığı da bilinmektedir. Yazılı kaynağa sahip olmayan dillerin lehçe ve ağız özelliklerini belirlemek oldukça zordur. Türk dili tarihi içerisinde varlığını alıntı sözcükler ile belli eden tarihi bir Türk lehçesinin varlığını düşünen Orçun Ünal, bu düşüncesini doktora tez çalışmasından da hareketle Kayıp Bir Dilin İzinde: Tarihi Bir Türk Lehçesinin Avrasya Dillerdeki Örtük İzleri adlı kitap ile ortaya koymayı gaye edinmiştir. Tarihî Türk lehçeleri ile ilgili olarak yapılan sınırlı sayıdaki söz varlığı çalışmalarına önemli katkılar sağlayacağı düşünülen Doç. Dr. Orçun Ünal tarafından Kayıp Bir Dilin İzinde: Tarihi Bir Türk Lehçesinin Avrasya Dillerdeki Örtük İzleri ismiyle ilim âlemine sunulan eldeki eser, bu çalışmayla tanıtılmaya çalışılacaktır.

Dans le dialecte de Shanghai, les obstruantes sonores en position initiale/accentuée de mot sont phonétiquement non-voisées et se distinguent des autres (i.e., sourdes nonaspirées et aspirées) principalement par leur registre tonal bas. Selon la littérature, elles sont aussi associées à une qualité de voix légèrement soufflée dans cette position. Dans cette étude, nous utilisons des mots monosyllabiques et dissyllabiques pour réexaminer la question de la voix soufflée comme caractérisant les obstruantes sonores du dialecte de Shanghai non seulement en position accentuée mais aussi dans les autres positions, où le sandhi tonal peut modifier le registre tonal. Nos résultats confirment la présence de voix soufflée pour les obstruantes sonores dont le registre tonal reste bas. Nous trouvons aussi que des patterns de durée systématiques caractérisent les obstruantes sonores de façon robuste dans toutes les positions.

This paper examines the absolutive case in Modern Mandarin Chinese sentences with reversible argument structures. In these sentences, the two arguments adjacent to the verb can be interchangeable in syntactic position. Although previous research has provided partial descriptions and analyses of this grammatical phenomenon, there is still no comprehensive and systematic exploration of these reversible sentences. Employing a reductionist methodology, the study meticulously examines the interaction modes between the verb and its arguments in eight types of reversible sentence structures involving the addition or omission of argument roles. This analysis reveals a distinct pattern that highlights the centrality of an 'absolute argument' within these sentences. Building on these observations, the paper articulates the fundamental structural patterns of reversible sentences and concludes a unified explanatory framework. This research enriches our understanding of Mandarin Chinese syntax and offers valuable perspectives on the linguistic dynamics underlying reversible sentence construction.

This article presents relevant data on the usage of the sinograph jīng 椋 and revisits its origin and lexical form on the basis of textual examination, using primary sources from China, Korea and Japan. The authors conclude that jīng 椋, and its variants jīng , jīng 稤 and the miscopied form lǜe 掠, originated from its radical character jīng 京, meaning "warehouse, granary", and that jīng 椋 was widely used in Koguryŏ, Paekche, Silla and Japan. Historical documents during the Koryŏ period also attest to the use of jīng 椋. The authors have reconstructed the lexical form of jīng 椋 as the disyllabic pre-Old Korean **ku L .ra H in Paekche and **ko L .ra H in Silla, and the monosyllabic Old Korean *kol R as a Sillaic substratum that underwent the syllabic contraction and liquid change **-r-> *-l, that is **ko L .ra H > *kol R. The Western Old Japanese kun'yomi of jīng 椋, kura, is a loan from pre-Old Korean **ku L /ko L .ra H that took place before the eighth century.

The aim of this article is to discuss different kinds of settlement units on the
ancient Korean Peninsula before the Chinese RitsuryōSei (律令制) was eventually adopted. The author focuses on trangulating and re-evaluating the first-hand texts including Sinitic phonograms (PG) and semantograms (SG), Katakana and Hankŭl occurring in chronicles, literatures, epigraphs and mokkan from China, Korea, and Japan, then attempts to reconstruct their lexical forms in ancient Korean including pre-OK and OK (Old Korean, from Unified Silla State period) from a historical linguistic perspective. The author concludes that semantically three groups of settlement units could have existed in ancient Korean: Group fa (伐) ‘city’, Group moulu (牟盧) ‘crowd, throng, group’, Group hu (忽), ji (己), and chengchi (城叱) ‘city, fortified city’.
First, Group fa (伐) includes PGs beili (卑離)~ba (拔)~fa (伐)~fu (弗), fuli (夫
里)~fuli (富里), jufa (居伐)~juba (居拔)~jifuli (己富里)~jifuli (己富利), bo (波~彼), bo? (㶱), and SG huo (火), SGs ping (評)~ping (坪)~ping (平). This word is reconstructed as pre-OK **pu.ri > pre-OK **pɨl~**pʌl > pre-OK **pʌ which is a loan word from Sanskrit ‘puri’ meaning ‘city’. Second, Group moulu (牟盧) which most speculatively means ‘crowd, throng, group’ in pre-OK is attested, it includes PGs moulu (牟盧)~molu (模盧)~mouluo (牟羅)~maoluo (毛羅)~maoliang (毛良). The author reconstructed it as pre-OK **mu/o.ra > OK *mu/ol. Third, Group hu (忽), ji (己), and chengchi (城叱) includes three subgroups of PGs meaning ‘city, fortified city’ from Koguryŏ, Paekche, Silla are attested separately. Group hu (忽) has its origin from Koguryŏ which includes PGs goulou (溝漊)~gu (骨)~hu (忽), and SG dong (洞)~gu (谷). Group ji (己) includes PGs zhi (支)~zhi (只)~ji (基)~ji (己), which occurred frequently in Paekche and Japanese toponyms. Group chengchi (城叱) appeared in Silla hyangchal (鄉札) and PG zasi (雜思) in the Chaoxianguan-yiyu (朝鮮館譯語). The author reconstructed them as pre-OK **k/hu.ru > OK *k/hu/olLH in Koguryŏ as a pure Korean, pre-OK **kɨi in Paekche as a Sino-Korean of ji (基), pre-OK **tsa(i) > tsas in Silla as a Sino-Korean of zai (在).

This presentation was to be announced at The 13th Symposium on Middle Ancient Chinese [第十三届中古汉语学术研讨会] (2023). Nevertheless, due to the blatantly snubbing attitude I had suffered from the organizational committee, I did not attend the conference.