音韻層次與韻部分合──以之脂支分合及相關音韻現象為例
Resource
臺大中文學報, 31, 047-102
Journal
臺大中文學報
Journal Issue
31
Pages
047-102
Date Issued
2009-12
Date
2009-12
Author(s)
Abstract
In this work, I reconsider the hypothesis of a unitary sound system in Old Chinese, and argue that the Old Chinese sound system could well be a mixture of several dialectal accents. Scholars have been assuming a unitary sound system for Old Chinese, and different classifications of rimes have been proposed. However, questions on riming across different classes have been relegated to the periphery, and simply described as ”rhyme merger” 合韻 phenomena. However, this phenomena may in fact reflect dialectal variations in Old Chinese. Were this indeed the case, at the time of Old Chinese, there should have been multiple (dialectal) sound systems rather than a unitary one, just as with the modern Chinese dialects. Evidence from several sources supports this claim. In this work 1 focus on three groups of rhyme classes: [zhī, xí, zhēng] 之職蒸; [zhī, zhí/zhì, zhēn]脂質真; and [zhī, xí, gēng] 支錫耕. A scrutiny of data from rhyming in literature, homonymous characters, annotations, and excavated inscriptions shows that these three groups of rhyme classes were closely related in the eastern area of Northern China in ancient times and could freely rhyme with one another. As the close relationship among these three groups of rhyme classes is specific to a geographic area, it is unlikely accidental; the interrelation should reflect a common dialectal basis in the sound system of this particular geographic area. This claim also receives strong support from the Southern Min dialects; remarkably, the close relationship among these three groups of rime classes are phonetically transparent in Southern Min. That is, in the vernacular layer of the Southern Min dialects, the three rime classes, [zhēng]蒸, [zhēn]真, and [gēng]耕, all share the rhyme [-an]/[-in]; [Zhí]職, [Zhí/zhì]質, and [xí]錫 share [-at]/[-it]; [zhí]之, [zhī]脂, and [zhī]支 share [-ai]/[-i]. It has been proposed that one of the layers that composed the Min dialects originated from the eastern area of Northern China in ancient times. These thus suggest that the ”rhyme merger”, in the case of the three groups of rhyme classes alluded above, has a dialectal basis. If this analysis is correct, it is a strong piece of evidence for dialectal influence in the old Chinese, and the hypothesis of a unitary sound system should be reevaluated. This new position sheds light on some long-standing puzzles in the studies of historical phonology of Chinese, including the division among the rhymes [zhī]之, [zhī]脂, and [zhī]支, as well as the extraordinarily large number of rhyme classes for velar sounds (and the relatively few rhyme classes for bilabial sounds) in Old Chinese: they may have resulted from dialectal variations as well, as shown by the comparable phenomenon in Min dialects. All these questions will receive intensive discussion in this work.
Subjects
歷史音韻
擬音
層次分析
音韻層次
韻部
合韻
聲訓
方音
Chinese historical phonology
Reconstruction
Rhyme merger
Phonological glosses
Dialectal variations
Stratum analysis
Phonological stratum
Rhyme classes
Southern Min
Type
journal article
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
0031_200912_2.pdf
Size
30.19 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):c6e8c69abc2b35e52e77e61b72302b1f