Jurchen language
Jurchen | |
---|---|
Region | Southwest Manchuria (Northeastern China) |
Ethnicity | Jurchen |
Era | developed into Manchu c. 17th century |
Jurchen script | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | juc |
juc.html | |
Glottolog | jurc1239 |
Jurchen language (
Writing
A writing system for Jurchen language was developed in 1119 by Wanyan Xiyin. A number of books were translated into Jurchen, but none have survived, even in fragments. Surviving samples of Jurchen writing are quite scarce.
One of the most important extant texts in Jurchen is the inscription on the back of "the Jin Victory Memorial Stele" (大金得勝陀頌碑; Dà jīn déshèngtuó sòngbēi), which was erected in 1185, during the reign of Emperor Shizong. It is apparently an abbreviated translation of the Chinese text on the front of the stele.[1]
A number of other Jurchen inscriptions exist as well. For example, in the 1950s a tablet was found in
Ming Dynasty Jurchen dictionaries
The two most extensive resources on the Jurchen language available to today's linguists are two dictionaries created during the
Although the Bureau of Translators' multilingual dictionary (華夷譯語; Huá-
The vocabulary lists compiled by the Bureau of Interpreters became first known to the Western scholars in 1910, and in 1912 L. Aurousseau reported the existence of a manuscript of it with a Jurchen section, supplied to him by Yang Shoujing.[7] This dictionary is similar in its structure to the one from the Bureau of Translators, but it only gives the "phonetic" transcription of Jurchen words (by means of Chinese characters) and not their writing in Jurchen script.[8] The time of its creation is not certain; various scholars thought that it could have been created as late as c. 1601 (by Mao Ruicheng) or as early as 1450–1500;[9] Daniel Kane's analysis of the dictionary, published in 1989, surmises that it may have been written in the first half of the 16th century, based on the way the Jurchen words are transcribed into Chinese.[10]
Both dictionaries record very similar forms of the language, which can be considered a late form of Jurchen, or an early form of Manchu.[9]
According to modern researchers, both dictionaries were compiled by the two Bureaus' staff, who were not very competent in Jurchen. The compilers of the two dictionaries were apparently not very familiar with Jurchen grammar. The language, in Daniel Kane's words, was geared to basic communications "with 'barbarians', when this was absolutely inevitable, or when they brought tribute to the Court".[9]
Jurchen words in Chinese texts
Besides the inscriptions and one or two surviving manuscripts in Jurchen script, some important information on the Jurchen language is provided by the Jurchen words, transcribed using Chinese characters in Chinese documents. These include:[11]
- The list of 125 Jurchen words in Jin Guoyu Jie ("Explanation of the national language of the Jin" 金國語解), an appendix to the History of Jin.[12] Alexander Wylie translated the list into English and Manchu.[13][14]
- Jurchen names and words throughout the History of Jin.
- An appendix with Jurchen words in Da Jin guozhi ("The veritable annals of the Jin Dynasty"), the text prepared in 1234 by Yuwen Mouzhao.
Researches on Manchu Origins contained a list of corrections of transcribed Jurchen language words found in the History of Jin in Chapter 135 – 金史/卷135, using the Manchu language to correct them, in Chapter 18 – 滿洲源流考/卷18.
The Jin dynasty referred to the Jurchen language with the term Guoyu ("National language"), which was also used by other non-Han dynasties in China to refer to their languages, like the
Writing Jurchen names in English
Due to the scarcity of surviving Jurchen-language inscriptions, the overwhelming majority of primary documentary sources on the Jurchen people available to modern scholars are in Chinese.[15] Therefore, when names of Jurchens, or Jurchen terms, are written in English, the same writing convention is usually followed as for Chinese words, that is, the English spelling is simply the Romanization (
References
- ^ ISBN 0-7914-2274-7. Partial texton Google Books. Pp. 228–229
- ^ Shou-p'ing Wu Ko (1855). Translation (by A. Wylie) of the Ts'ing wan k'e mung, a Chinese grammar of the Manchu Tartar language (by Woo Kĭh Show-ping, revised and ed. by Ching Ming-yuen Pei-ho) with intr. notes on Manchu literature. pp. xix–.
- ^ Translation of the Ts'ing wan k'e mung, a Chinese Grammar of the Manchu Tartar Language; with introductory notes on Manchu Literature: (translated by A. Wylie.). Mission Press. 1855. pp. xix–.
- ^ Alexander Wylie; Henri Cordier (1897). Chinese Researches. pp. 255–.
ancient character may have answered the purposes state time being spirit nation sufficient preserve it many generations without national character literature.
- ^ Kane (1989); pp. 90–98, as well as most of the rest of the book
- ^ Kane (1989); pp. 90–95.
- ^ Kane (1989); p. 96.
- ^ Franke (1994), p. 688
- ^ a b c Kane (1989); p. 99–100.
- ^ Kane (1989); p. 129.
- ^ Kane (1989), p. 38–41
- ISBN 978-0-19-156167-2.
- ^ Shou-p'ing Wu Ko (1855). Translation (by A. Wylie) of the Ts'ing wan k'e mung, a Chinese grammar of the Manchu Tartar language (by Woo Kĭh Show-ping, revised and ed. by Ching Ming-yuen Pei-ho) with intr. notes on Manchu literature. pp. lxxvi–.
- ^ Translation of the Ts'ing wan k'e mung, a Chinese Grammar of the Manchu Tartar Language; with introductory notes on Manchu Literature: (translated by A. Wylie.). Mission Press. 1855. pp. lxxvi–.
- ISBN 0-521-24304-1. Partial texton Google Books]. Page 422.
- ^ Database query to Chinese characters. StarLing database server. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
- ^ See e.g. Kane (1989).
Bibliography
- ISBN 0-521-24331-9. Partial texton Google Books
- Wilhelm Grube, Die Sprache und Schrift der Jučen. Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz, 1896. [1]
- ISBN 0-933070-23-3.
- ISBN 4-589-00794-0.