The Etymon of p?ua3 p?7 “ To Get Ill” in Southern Min Dialect: The “皮” Word Family
Resource
臺大中文學報, 40, 367-424
Journal
臺大中文學報
Journal Issue
40
Pages
367-424
Date Issued
2013-03
Date
2013-03
Author(s)
Yang, S.M.
Abstract
This paper aims to explore the etymon of p?ua3 p?7, a verb which means “to get ill,” in southern Min. Most of the dialect dictionaries use “破病” or “發病” as the Chinese etymon of p?ua3 p?7. “破病” is a verb-object phrase. The radical “皮” in “破” means to remove, to separate in Old Chinese, so “破病” actually means “to recover from ill”, rather than “to get ill.” In contrast, “發病” does not correspond to the phonological rules of the eastern Min dialects. Another possible form “被病” can be found in Old Chinese literature. “被” is derived from the phonetic element of the “pi”(皮）, and gets its basic meaning “to cover, to add”. Thus, “被病” literally means that “the body is covered by the illness” -- a metaphorical expression of getting ill.
As for the aspect of pronunciation, it is difficult to explain irregular sound correspondences between medieval phonology and the Min dialects. It is because that some records of pronunciation and meaning of “被” were omitted in traditional Chinese phonetic dictionaries. According to the interchangeability of those cognates in “皮” word family and in classics, “被” is a derived word of labial sound, and the Group Ge of the Ancient Phonology(上古歌部）. Thus p?ua3 can be seen as one of the sound of “被” in the southern Min dialect.
Furthermore, the reconstruction of “被” as *s-bjiars is based upon the Sino-Tibetan comparative studies. The *s- prefix converts nouns into verbs, while the *-s suffix marks the “departing” tone. After discussing the shift in the Min dialects, this paper seeks to differentiate the diachronic strata of “被” in the southern Min dialect. I contend that (1) p?ua3 is only preserved in “被病”, and could be traced back to the archaic stratum; (2) p?e7 means quilt, and belongs to the Jin northern stratum; (3) pi7 is a marker of passive sentence, and belongs to the Tang-Song stratum. To sum up, the Chinese etymon of p?ua3 p?7 is “被病.”
Subjects
詞族、詞源、歷史語言學、閩南語、生病(word family, etymon, historical linguistics, southern Min, to get ill）
Type
journal article
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
0040_201303_9.pdf
Size
35.04 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):b6868d5ad1f110c80de3e71170caf05a