Sino-Xenic pronunciations
Sino-Xenic or Sinoxenic pronunciations are regular systems for reading
The term, from the
Background
There had been borrowings of Chinese vocabulary into Vietnamese and Korean from the Han period, but around the time of the Tang dynasty (618–907) Chinese writing, language and culture were imported wholesale into Vietnam, Korea and Japan. Scholars in those countries wrote in
The plains of northern Vietnam were under Chinese control for most of the period from 111 BC to AD 938 and, after independence, the country adopted Literary Chinese as the language of administration and scholarship. As a result, there are several layers of Chinese loanwords in Vietnamese. The oldest loans, roughly 400 words dating from the
Isolated Chinese words also began to enter Korean from the 1st century BC, but the main influx occurred in the 7th and 8th centuries AD after the unification of the peninsula by Silla. The flow of Chinese words into Korean became overwhelming after the establishment of civil service examinations in 958.[6]
Japanese, in contrast, has two well-preserved layers and a third that is also significant:[7]
- Go-on readings date to the introduction of Buddhism to Japan from Korea in the 6th century. Based on the name, they are widely believed to reflect pronunciations of Jiankang in the lower Yangtze area in the late Northern and Southern dynasties period.[8] However, this cannot be substantiated, and Go-on appears to reflect an amalgam of different Chinese varieties transmitted through Korea.[9]
- Kan-on readings are believed to reflect the standard pronunciation of the Tang period, as used in the cities of Chang'an and Luoyang.[10] It was transmitted directly by Japanese who studied in China.[9]
Character | Middle Chinese[a] |
Modern Chinese | Sino-Vietnamese | Sino-Korean ( RR )
|
Sino-Japanese[13][14] | gloss | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mandarin | Yale)[b]
|
Go-on | Kan-on | Tōsō-on | |||||
一 | ʔjit | yī | yāt | nhất | il | ichi | itsu | one | |
二 | nyijH | èr | yih | nhị | i | ni | ji | two | |
三 | sam | sān | sāam | tam | sam | san | san | three | |
四 | sijH | sì | sei | tứ | sa | shi | shi | four | |
五 | nguX | wǔ | ńgh | ngũ | o | go | go | five | |
六 | ljuwk | liù | luhk | lục | ryuk | roku | riku | ryū | six |
七 | tshit | qī | chāt | thất | chil | shichi | shitsu | seven | |
八 | peat | bā | baat | bát | pal | hachi | hatsu | eight | |
九 | kjuwX | jiǔ | gáu | cửu | gu | ku | kyū | nine | |
十 | dzyip | shí | sahp | thập | sip | jū | shū | ten | |
百 | paek | bǎi | baak | bách | baek | hyaku | haku | hundred | |
千 | tshen | qiān | chīn | thiên | cheon | sen | sen | thousand | |
萬 | mjonH | wàn | maahn | vạn | man | mon | ban | 10 thousand | |
億 | 'ik | yì | yīk | ức | eok | oku | yoku | 100 million | |
明 | mjaeng | míng | mìhng | minh | myeong | myō | mei | min | bright |
農 | nowng | nóng | nùhng | nông | nong | nō | dō | agriculture | |
寧 | neng | níng | nìhng | ninh | nyeong | nyō | nei | peaceful | |
行 | haeng | xíng | hàahng | hành | haeng | gyō | kō | an | walk |
請 | tshjengX | qǐng | chéng | thỉnh | cheong | shō | sei | shin | request |
暖 | nwanX | nuǎn | nyúhn | noãn | nan | nan | dan | non | warm |
頭 | duw | tóu | tàuh | đầu | du | zu | tō | jū | head |
子 | tsiX | zǐ | jí | tử | ja | shi | shi | su | child |
下 | haeX | xià | hah | hạ | ha | ge | ka | down |
In comparison, vocabulary of Chinese origin in Thai, including most of the basic numbers, was borrowed over a range of periods from the Han (or earlier) to the Tang.[16]
Since the pioneering work of Bernhard Karlgren, these bodies of pronunciations have been used together with modern varieties of Chinese in attempts to reconstruct the sounds of Middle Chinese.[2] They provide such broad and systematic coverage that the linguist
Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese scholars also later each adapted the Chinese script to write their languages, using Chinese characters both for borrowed and native vocabulary. Thus, in the Japanese script, Chinese characters may have both Sino-Japanese readings (on'yomi) and native readings (kun'yomi).[8] Similarly, in the chữ Nôm script used for Vietnamese until the early 20th century, some Chinese characters could represent both a Sino-Vietnamese word and a native Vietnamese word with similar meaning or sound to the Chinese word, but in such cases, the native reading would be distinguished by a 口 component.[19] However, the Korean variant of Chinese characters, or hanja, typically have only a Sino-Korean reading, and native Korean words are rarely, if ever, written in hanja.[20] The character-based Vietnamese and Korean scripts have since been replaced by the Vietnamese alphabet and hangul respectively, although Korean does still use Hanja to an extent.[21]
Sound correspondences
Foreign pronunciations of these words inevitably only approximated the original Chinese, and many distinctions were lost. In particular, Korean and Japanese had far fewer consonants and much simpler syllables than Chinese, and they lacked
Middle Chinese is recorded as having eight series of initial consonants, though it is likely that no single dialect distinguished them all. Stops and affricates could also be voiced, voiceless or voiceless aspirated.[22] Early Vietnamese had a similar three-way division, but the voicing contrast would later disappear in the tone split that affected several languages in the Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area, including Vietnamese and most Chinese varieties.[23] Old Japanese had only a two-way contrast based on voicing, while Middle Korean had only one obstruent at each point of articulation.
Middle Chinese | Modern Chinese | Sino-Vietnamese[24][25][c] | Sino-Korean[26][27] | Sino-Japanese[28] | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mandarin[29] | Go-on | Kan-on | Tōsō-on | ||||
Labials | 幫 p | p/f | *p > ɓ[d] ⟨b⟩ | p/pʰ[e] | ɸ > h | ɸ > h | ɸ > h |
滂 pʰ | pʰ/f | *pʰ > f[d] ⟨ph⟩ | |||||
並 b | p/pʰ/f | *b > ɓ[d] ⟨b⟩ | b | ||||
明 m | m/w | m[f] ⟨m⟩, v ⟨v⟩ | m | m | b[g] | m | |
Dentals | 端 t | t | *t > ɗ ⟨đ⟩ | t/tʰ[e][h] | t | t | t |
透 tʰ | tʰ | tʰ ⟨th⟩ | |||||
定 d | t/tʰ | *d > ɗ ⟨đ⟩ | d | ||||
泥 n | n | *n > n ⟨n⟩ | n | n | d[i] | n | |
來 l | l | *l > l ⟨l⟩ | l | r | r | r | |
Retroflex stops | 知 ʈ | ʈʂ | *ʈ > ʈʂ ⟨tr⟩ | t/tʰ[e][h] | t | t | s |
徹 ʈʰ | ʈʂʰ | *ʂ > ʂ ⟨tr⟩ | |||||
澄 ɖ | ʈʂ/ʈʂʰ | *ɖ > ʈʂ ⟨tr⟩ | d | ||||
Dental sibilants | 精 ts | ts[j] | *s > t ⟨t⟩ | tɕ/tɕʰ[e] | s | s | |
清 tsʰ | tsʰ[j] | *ɕ > tʰ ⟨th⟩ | |||||
從 dz | ts/tsʰ[j] | *s > t ⟨t⟩ | z | ||||
心 s | s[j] | s | s | ||||
邪 z | z | ||||||
Retroflex sibilants | 莊 ʈʂ | ʈʂ | *ʈ > ʈʂ ⟨tr⟩ | tɕ/tɕʰ[e] | s | ||
初 ʈʂʰ | ʈʂʰ | *ʂ > ʂ ⟨s⟩ | |||||
崇 ɖʐ | ʈʂ/ʈʂʰ | s/tɕ/tɕʰ[e] | z | ||||
生 ʂ | ʂ | s | s | ||||
Palatals | 章 tɕ | ʈʂ | *c > tɕ ⟨ch⟩ | tɕ/tɕʰ[e] | |||
昌 tɕʰ | ʈʂʰ | *tʃ > s ⟨x⟩ | |||||
禪 dʑ | ʈʂ/ʈʂʰ | *ɕ > tʰ ⟨th⟩ | s | z | |||
書 ɕ | ʂ | s | |||||
船 ʑ | z | ||||||
日 ɲ | ʐ~ɻ or syllable əɻ | ɲ ⟨nh⟩ | z > ∅ | n | z | z | |
以 j | j | z~j ⟨d⟩ | j | j | j | j | |
Velars | 見 k | k[j] | k ⟨k/c/q⟩, *ʝ > z~j ⟨gi⟩ | k/h | k | k | k |
溪 kʰ | kʰ[j] | kʰ ⟨kh⟩ | |||||
群 ɡ | k/kʰ[j] | k ⟨k/c/q⟩ | k | g | |||
疑 ŋ | ∅/n | ŋ ⟨ng⟩ | ŋ > ∅ | g | g | ||
Laryngeals | 影 ʔ | ∅ | *ʔ > ∅ | ʔ > ∅ | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ |
曉 x | x[j] | h ⟨h⟩ | h | k | k | ||
匣 ɣ | h ⟨h⟩, v ⟨v⟩ | ɣ > g/w > g/∅ |
The Middle Chinese final consonants were semivowels (or
In Go-on and Kan-on, the Middle Chinese coda -ng yielded a nasalized vowel, which in combination with the preceding vowel has become a long vowel in modern Japanese.
Middle Chinese | Modern Chinese | Sino-Vietnamese[38] | Sino-Korean[39] | Sino-Japanese[28][40] | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mandarin | Go-on | Kan-on | Tōsō-on | |||
-m | n | m ⟨m⟩ | m | /N/ | /N/ | /N/ |
-n | n ⟨n⟩ | n | ||||
-ng | ŋ | ŋ ⟨ng⟩/ɲ ⟨nh⟩ | ŋ | ũ/ĩ[k] > u/i | ũ/ĩ[k] > u/i | |
-p | ∅ | p ⟨p⟩ | p | ɸu > u | ɸu > u | /Q/ |
-t | t ⟨t⟩ | l | ti > chi | tu > tsu | ||
-k | k ⟨k⟩/ʲk ⟨ch⟩ | k | ku/ki[l] | ku/ki[l] |
Middle Chinese had a three-way tonal contrast in syllables with vocalic or nasal endings. As Japanese lacks tones, Sino-Japanese borrowings preserve no trace of Chinese tones.[41] Most Middle Chinese tones were preserved in the tones of Middle Korean, but they have since been lost in all but a few dialects.[42] Sino-Vietnamese, in contrast, reflects the Chinese tones fairly faithfully, including the Late Middle Chinese split of each tone into two registers conditioned by voicing of the initial. The correspondence to the Chinese rising and departing tones is reversed from the earlier loans, so the Vietnamese hỏi and ngã tones reflect the Chinese upper and lower rising tone while the sắc and nặng tones reflect the upper and lower departing tone. Unlike northern Chinese varieties, Sino-Vietnamese places level-tone words with sonorant and glottal stop initials in the upper level (ngang) category.[43]
Structural effects
Large numbers of Chinese words were borrowed into Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese and still form a large and important part of their lexicons.
In the case of Japanese, the influx has led to changes in the phonological structure of the language. Old Japanese syllables had the form (C)V, with vowel sequences being avoided. To accommodate the Chinese loanwords, syllables were extended with glides as in myō, vowel sequences as in mei,
The influx of Chinese vocabulary contributed to the development of Middle Korean tones, which are still present in some dialects.[20][45] Sino-Korean words have also disrupted the native structure in which l does not occur in word-initial position, and words show vowel harmony.[20]
Chinese morphemes have been used extensively in all these languages to coin compound words for new concepts in a similar way to the use of
Many new compounds, or new meanings for old phrases, were created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to name Western concepts and artifacts. The coinages, written in shared Chinese characters, have then been borrowed freely between languages. They have even been accepted into Chinese, a language usually resistant to loanwords, because their foreign origin was hidden by their written form. Often, different compounds for the same concept were in circulation for some time before a winner emerged, and sometimes, the final choice differed between countries.[47]The proportion of vocabulary of Chinese origin thus tends to be greater in technical, scientific, abstract or formal language or registers. For example, Sino-Japanese words account for about 35% of the words in entertainment magazines (where borrowings from English are common), over half the words in newspapers and 60% of the words in science magazines.[48]
See also
- Chinese family of scripts
- Sinosphere
- East Asian languages
- Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area
- Non-Sinoxenic pronunciations
Other languages
- Church Slavonic § Recensions, for the similar practice in Eastern Orthodox communities when pronouncing the Church Slavonic language.
- Pronunciation of Ancient Greek in teaching, for the similar practice in Europe when pronouncing the Ancient Greek language.
- Latin regional pronunciation, for the similar practice in several European countries when pronouncing the Latin language.
Notes
- ^ Transcribed using Baxter's notation. The initial h- represents a voiced fricative [ɣ] or [ɦ],[11] while the final letters X and H represent the rising and departing tones respectively.[12]
- ^ Unlike Mandarin, Cantonese faithfully preserves all the final consonants of Middle Chinese.[15]
- ^ Graphemes are given in angle brackets.
- ^ a b c In syllables with chongniu grade IV finals (denoted as -ji- in Baxter's notation), labial stops usually shifted to dental stops in Sino-Vietnamese.[30]
- ^ a b c d e f g In early prescriptive dictionaries, Middle Chinese aspirates always yield Sino-Korean aspirates, but in actual pronunciation aspiration is unpredictable.[31]
- ^ In syllables with chongniu grade IV finals, the Middle Chinese initial m yielded the Vietnamese initial spelled d, which was formerly *dʲ and is [z] or [j] in modern dialects.[30][32]
- ^ Yields m- in syllables ending in original -ng.[33]
- ^ a b In Modern Sino-Korean, dentals [t]/[tʰ] preceding a palatal approximant [j] become palatalized as [tɕ]/[tɕʰ], respectively, e.g. 田: ttyen > cen, 定: ttyeng > ceng.
- ^ Yields n- in syllables ending in original -ng.[33]
- ^ a b c d e f g h In Standard Chinese, dental sibilants [ts]/[tsʰ]/[s] and velars [k]/[kʰ]/[x] preceding vocalic and non-vocalic [i]/[y] merge into [tɕ]/[tɕʰ]/[ɕ], respectively, e.g. 青: cīng > qīng, 卻: küè > què.
- ^ a b ĩ after -e- and ũ after other vowels[40]
- ^ a b ki after -i- and ku after other vowels[40]
References
Citations
- ^ a b Miyake (2004), pp. 98–99.
- ^ a b c d Norman (1988), p. 34.
- ^ a b Miyake (2004), p. 98.
- ^ a b Martin (1953), p. 4.
- ^ Alves (2009), pp. 623–628.
- ^ Sohn & Lee (2003), pp. 23–24.
- ^ Miyake (2004), p. 100.
- ^ a b Shibatani (1990), p. 120.
- ^ a b Frellesvig (2010), p. 275.
- ^ a b Shibatani (1990), p. 121.
- ^ Baxter (1992), p. 58.
- ^ Baxter (1992), p. 31.
- ^ Miller (1967), pp. 106, 111, 336.
- ^ a b Loveday (1996), p. 41.
- ^ Norman (1988), p. 217.
- ^ Pittayaporn (2014), pp. 47, 64.
- ^ Baxter (1992), pp. 75–79.
- ^ Pulleyblank (1984), p. 96.
- ^ Hannas (1997), pp. 90–81.
- ^ a b c Sohn (2001), p. 89.
- ^ Hannas (1997), pp. 71–72, 86–92.
- ^ Baxter (1992), pp. 45–46.
- ^ Norman (1988), p. 53.
- ^ Wang (1948), pp. 13–27.
- ^ Miyake (2004), pp. 119–122.
- ^ Miyake (2004), pp. 112–116.
- ^ Qian (2018), pp. 104.
- ^ a b Miller (1967), pp. 105–110.
- ^ Baxter (1992).
- ^ a b Baxter (1992), p. 283.
- ^ Miyake (2004), p. 115.
- ^ Miyake (2004), pp. 119, 122.
- ^ a b Miller (1967), p. 106.
- ^ Lee & Ramsey (2011), p. 69.
- ^ Miyake (2004), p. 113.
- ^ Miller (1967), p. 105.
- ^ Miller (1967), p. 109.
- ^ Miyake (2004), pp. 123–124.
- ^ Miyake (2004), pp. 113, 116.
- ^ a b c Frellesvig (2010), p. 283.
- ^ Miller (1967), pp. 110, 112.
- ^ Lee & Ramsey (2011), pp. 168–169.
- ^ Pulleyblank (1984), pp. 160–161.
- ^ Shibatani (1990), pp. 121–122.
- ^ Lee & Ramsey (2000), pp. 168–169.
- ^ Shibatani (1990), p. 146.
- ^ Wilkinson (2000), p. 43.
- ^ Shibatani (1990), p. 143.
Works cited
- Alves, Mark J. (2009), "Loanwords in Vietnamese", in Haspelmath, Martin; Tadmor, Uri (eds.), Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook, De Gruyter, pp. 617–637, ISBN 978-3-11-021843-5.
- ISBN 978-3-11-012324-1.
- Frellesvig, Bjarke (2010), A History of the Japanese Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-65320-6.
- Hannas, Wm. C. (1997), Asia's Orthographic Dilemma, University of Hawaii Press, ISBN 978-0-8248-1892-0.
- Lee, Iksop; Ramsey, S. Robert (2000), The Korean Language, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-4831-1.
- Lee, Ki-Moon; Ramsey, S. Robert (2011), A History of the Korean Language, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0-521-66189-8.
- Loveday, Leo J. (1996), Language Contact in Japan : A Sociolinguistic History: A Sociolinguistic History, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-158369-8.
- Martin, Samuel Elmo (1953), The phonemes of ancient Chinese, American Oriental Society. (review)
- ISBN 978-0-226-52717-8.
- ISBN 978-0-415-30575-4.
- ISBN 978-0-521-29653-3.
- Pittayaporn, Pittatawat (2014), "Layers of Chinese loanwords in Proto-Southwestern Tai as evidence for the dating of the spread of Southwestern Tai" (PDF), Manyusa: Journal of Humanities, 20 (3): 47–68, .
- ISBN 978-0-7748-0192-8.
- Qian, Youyong (2018), A Study of Sino-Korean Phonology, Routledge, ISBN 978-1-138-241640.
- Shibatani, Masayoshi (1990), The Languages of Japan, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-36918-3.
- Sohn, Ho-Min (2001), The Korean Language, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-36943-5.
- Sohn, Ho-Min; Lee, Peter H. (2003), "Language, forms, prosody, and themes", in Lee, Peter H. (ed.), A History of Korean Literature, Cambridge University Press, pp. 15–51, ISBN 978-0-521-82858-1.
- Wang, Li (1948), "Hànyuèyǔ yánjiū" 漢越語研究 [A study on Sino-Vietnamese], Lingnan Journal, 9 (1): 1–96.
- Wilkinson, Endymion (2000), Chinese history: a manual (2nd ed.), Harvard Univ Asia Center, ISBN 978-0-674-00249-4.
Further reading
- Shih-hong Liu (1969). Chinese characters and their impact on other languages of East Asia. Eurasia Book Co.