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utton, Christopher - A Palaeographical & Phonologic
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A PALAEOGRAPHICAL & PHONOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF PHONETICALLY
AMBIGUOUS CHINESE CHARACTERS
by
Christopher Thomas James Button
B.A., Trinity College, University of Cambridge, 2002
A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILM ENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS
in
THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES
Department of Asian Studies
We accept this thesis as conforming
to the required standard
_________________________ _________________________ _________________________
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
AUGUST 2004
© Christopher Thomas James Button, 2004
ii
Abstract
Phonetically ambiguous Chinese characters are thoroughly analyzed in the context of
both their graphic and phonetic development. A clear definition of the traditional
terms huiyi in character composition, and zhuanzhu in character usage, is identified in
order to refute claims that polyphony was a fundamental aspect in the evolution of the
Chinese script.
ii i
Table of Contents
Preface….………………………………………………………………….……….. vi
1. Introduction
1.1 Chinese Writing in a Comparative Perspective…………………………………. 1
1.2 a) The Six Principles of Graphic Composition………………………………….. 3
b) The Concept of Huiyi………………………………………………………… 4
c) The Concept of Zhuanzhu……………………………………………………. 5
1.3 The Nature of Polyphony……………………………………………………….. 6
2. A Polyphonic�
‘Mouth’?
2.1 The Xiesheng Series of � ……………………………………………………… 9 � *a� kwa�j�, � *kwa
�j, � * � wra
�j-� , *a� kw�� j-� , � kw�� j-� �
2.2 a) The Xiesheng Series of ………………………………………………….. 13 *ma�j� -t, � *ma
�j� -t
�, � *ma
�j�
b) The Xiesheng Series of � ………………………………………………….. 14 � *k�a� � � , � *m-� a� �
2.3 a) The Xiesheng Series of � ………………………………………………….. 16 � *a�� xja�� �
k, � *� ja�� �
k�, � *ka
�� �k
b) The Xiesheng Series of � …………………………………………………... 18 � *� ja� �
-t�, *
� ja�� � �
-k, ! *� jja
� �-k
3. A Polyphonic " ‘Ear’?
3.1 The Xiesheng Series of # …………………………………………………….. 21 # *a� xj$� � , % *a� xja� � -
�, & *xwr'( ) *
3.2 The Xiesheng Series of + …………………………………………………….. 22 + *xjra,j- , . *kkja
/j- , 0 *xja
,j- , 1 *xj(r)a
,j-
iv
3.3 The Xiesheng Series of � …………………………………………………….. 24 � *a� xja/ - , � *xja
, - � , � *xja/ - , � *m-
)a, - � , � *a� k�a�
4. A Polyphonic � /� ‘Eye’?
4.1 The Xiesheng Series of …………………………………………………….. 30
*a� kwj�� m, � *kwra�m, � *kwja
�m�, � kkwa
�m�, � *a� xwa
�m�, � *a� xwja
�m�
4.2 The Xiesheng Series of � …………………………………………………….. 35 � *m�� � k, � *m�� � k(�), � � � *x-ma
� �k
5. A Polyphonic � ‘Fire’?
5.1 The Xiesheng Series of …………………………………………………….. 38 *xja�w, ! *xa
�w, " *kja
�w-k
5.2 The Xiesheng Series of # …………………………………………………….. 40 # *kwj$% w& , ' *(-ka�w
5.3 The Xiesheng Series of ) /* …………………………………………………. 42 ) *�a� �
-k, * *k-�a% � -k, + *
�a% � -k, , * a- p-
�a% �
6. A Polyphonic . ‘Child’?
6.1 The Xiesheng Series of / …………………………………………………….. 44 / *a- kj$%% 0 , 1 *a- kj$%% 0 -k( / *a- kj$%% 0 & , 2 kj344 5 , 6 *a7 kj34 5 -n,
6.2 The Xiesheng Series of 8 …………………………………………………….. 45 8 /9 *xj3: 5 , ; *kj3: 5 , < *xj344 5 -n, = *> j3: 5 -n?
6.3 The Xiesheng Series of @ /A …………………………………………………. 47 B/C *D 3: w-k, E *pp-x3: w, F *p-x34 wG , H x34wG , I *J KL w, M *J KL w
7. A Polyphonic N ‘Woman’?
7.1 The Xiesheng Series of O …………………………………………………….. 51 O *naL P Q
, R *nraS P
-n, T *QaS U P
-n, V *QaS P
-n, W *QaS P
-t, X *kraS P
-n
7.2 The Xiesheng Series of Y …………………………………………………….. 54 Y *J KS J , Z *[ \ ]^ _ `
v
8. Other Suggestions of Polyphony
8.1 The Xiesheng Series of � …………………………………………………….. 60 � *kra� �
-l` , � *kra�
, � *kra�
8.2 The Xiesheng Series of � …………………………………………………….. 61 � *kk]^ _ -n�, � *xj]� _ ` , � *xj]^ _ � , *kwr]� _ ` , *p-� a
� _ �
8.3 The Xiesheng Series of � …………………………………………………….. 63 � *-rajk, *-]^^ j� ` , � *-r]� j� , � *-r]^ j� , � *-]� j�
8.4 The Xiesheng Series of � …………………………………………………….. 65 � *kwj]^ _ � ` , � *�-k]^ _ k, � *
�-a� k]^ _ k, � *a� kwa
� _ k�, � *
�-kw]^ _ k
8.5 The Xiesheng Series of � …...………………………………………………... 69 � *a� kwa_ , � *a� k]^ _ -�
8.6 The Xiesheng Series of � …………………………………………………….. 71 � *kwja
� �, � *kwa
�-n, ! *kwja
� � ", # *a$ ka
� %, & a$ ka
� � %
Concluding Remarks…………………………………………….………………… 75
Appendix 1. The Reconstruction of Chinese……………………………………... 76
Appendix 2. Comparative Table of Old and M iddle Chinese Rhyme Groups… 86
Primary Sources……………………………………………………….……..……. 95
Secondary Works Cited…………………..……………………………………….. 97
vi
Preface
Middle Chinese reconstructions used here are those of Early Middle Chinese as
outlined in Pulleyblank 1984 and 1991a.i They are usually written in italics directly
after their respective characters and are not preceded by an asterisk. Late Middle
Chinese reconstructions, although fundamental when looking at the evolution of
Modern Chinese, are not listed in this paper which deals primarily with the earliest
reconstructable stages of the language. Old Chinese reconstructions are preceded by
an asterisk and usually appear directly after the Early Middle Chinese reconstruction.
The system adopted here follows Pulleyblank’s proposal (1991b, 1995b), albeit with a
few supplementary observations fully explained as required in the text, that the
Tiangan Dizhi (twenty-two calendrical signs) originated as phonograms for the
original consonants of the Chinese language. While other academics have been slow
to concur, the theory does provide some illuminating observations that seem to
elucidate hitherto inexplicable xieshengii correspondences between initials. Wherever
relevant, comparisons are made between Old Chinese and Proto-Tibeto-Burman, as
reconstructed by Matisoff (2003). For readers not versed in Pulleyblank’s system of
historical Chinese reconstruction, a brief summary is provided in the appendix.
The following abbreviations are used throughout the paper:
EMC Early Middle Chinese
OC Old Chinese
PTB Proto-Tibeto-Burman
OB Oracle Bone
i The only modification being that Pulleyblank’s final -a
� and -�� glides are written uniformally as -a� .
ii See fn.2 for a definition of this term as used in this paper.
1
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Chinese Writing in a Comparative Perspective
To the uninitiated, the Chinese script appears unnecessarily complex when compared
to alphabetic and syllabic writing systems. The concerns of advocators of script
reform have been neatly summarized by DeFrancis, who comments that “If they [the
Chinese] maintain the quintessentially Chinese system of characters as the exclusive
means of writing, it seems that many if not most of the people will be doomed to
perpetual ill iteracy and that China’s modernization will be seriously impeded” (1984:
287). While the extremely high literacy rates in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan may
seriously cast doubt on DeFrancis analysis, perhaps of even greater significance is an
underlying similarity between Chinese and English writing. Sampson has pointed out
that “We must not assume, because European writing usually could be read
phonographically that it commonly is… Anyone who succeeds in becoming a skilled
user of written English must eventually learn to use both ‘ look-and-say’ (or
logographic) and ‘phonic’ strategies in both processing-modes, reading and writing.
The phonic strategy must be used in reading when one encounters a new word. An
unfamiliar surname, for instance, obviously cannot be recognized as a unit, so a reader
who arrives at a pronunciation for it must do so by some method of
grapheme/phoneme conversion. On the other hand, a familiar word with a thoroughly
irregular spell ing must be handled logographically even by the writer: no-one could
spell knight correctly by ‘sounding out’ the word and converting phonemes to
graphemes” (1985: 208-209). The comparison with Chinese writing, which is also
fundamentally logographic (i.e. a morpheme can only be accurately pronounced as a
unit-whole rather than being solely deduced from its constituent parts), is striking. As
with English, one may often guess at the pronunciation of an unfamiliar Chinese word
on the basis of its phonetic component, but this usually wil l only give a sound similar
to the correct pronunciation which must be learned. In the same way that English
writing has preserved many etymological roots by not changing in accordance with
the diachronic development of the spoken word (the initial k- in knight originally
having been pronounced), Chinese writing has also preserved such roots that have
long ago disappeared in the spoken word.1
1 In reality, of course, the comparison is not so simple. As regards English writing, Sampson observes that “Many sound-changes did occur in later centuries, but they could have been accommodated by only minor changes in the spelling system, such as were already occurring in the 11c. Rather, the unphonemic nature of modern English spell ing was caused by external influences, particularly politi cal developments stemming from the [Norman] Conquest, which introduced rival spelling conventions that
2
The diff iculty with Chinese writing that spurs reform-minded intellectuals to criticize
it far more than English writing, is consequently not necessarily the
rote-memorization involved, as this is comparable to that of English writing, but
rather the seeming illogicality of many pronunciations of characters. One could hardly
call English writing logical, but the reader is at least given a very rough
approximation of the pronunciation of a word from its spell ing. The connection
between �
and � , pronounced as ér and ní in modern Mandarin, is far harder to
appreciate until one goes back to their Old Chinese pronunciations that may be
reconstructed as * � a�j and * � a
�j respectively, differing only in a prosodic alternation
based on an accentual distinction. Nevertheless, such sound correspondences between
different words in the same xiesheng series (phonetically related words sharing the
same phonetic component in their graphic form2) are on the whole regular and one
must memorize these alternations on a case by case basis as one must remember that
the rhyming part of bough is pronounced like bow and not through, which in turn is
pronounced differently from cough and rough, which similarly are both distinct. The
real difficulty is where current Old Chinese reconstructions fail to provide any
explanation for a character’s pronunciation whose spelling seems totally arbitrary. Of
course, the pronunciations of the original pictographic characters that developed into
the original root words of xiesheng series must be learned as the basic building blocks
of the script, but there are many cases of graphs, some of which are not attested in the
earliest forms of the script, which either appear to have no xiesheng relationships at
all, or alternatively graphically look as if they should belong to a xiesheng series but
seem to share no phonetic connection with it. A few scholars, led primarily by the late
Peter Boodberg and his former student Wil liam Boltz, have written some highly
informative and innovative works that successfully identify groups of such characters
whose origins have been obscured over thousands of years of development, and have
put forward valuable proposals towards providing an etymological explanation for
them. Although this paper often adopts a rather critical approach to many of their
analyses, this by no means represents a rejection of the immense value of the
competed with the native conventions and with one another. If the Normans had not prevailed in 1066 it seems likely that 20c English spelling would have been at least as phonemic as that of German or Scandinavian languages” (ibid: 198). The origin of this hybrid English system is very different from that of the Chinese system used today which can be directly traced back to the earliest attested stages of the script found in the oracle-bone inscriptions of Late Shang China (1200-1045 BC). 2 In the reconstruction system adopted in this paper, the rhyme of xiesheng graphs must be the same, differing only in a � /a vowel ablaut, and occasionally in nasality for velar codas. As regards initials, they must be homorganic, and in the case of velar initials, differing only between plain velars and one of the features of labialization, palatalization or palato-labialization. These features may also occur without the velar initial in the same series. Hence * -k, * -k� - and * -� may occur in the same series, while *kw-, *k� - and *kj- may not.
3
scholarship involved. On the contrary, it is in fact these pioneering pieces of work that
have opened the very doors through which further scholarship may proceed. It is my
sincere hope that this thesis will stimulate such excellent scholars as the
aforementioned to continue their work in this area so as to provoke more intellectual
debate in this area of linguistics which has been neglected for far too long.
1.2a The Six Principles of Graphic Composition
Traditionally, Chinese characters are analyzed according to the six principles (liu shu � �). The first attested occurrence of this is in the Diguan chapter of the Zhouli
(presumed to have been compiled during the Western Han period 206 B.C. - 8 A.D.)
where it is simply mentioned as one of the six arts (liu yi � �
) with no further
elucidation. It is in the Eastern Han period (25 - 220 A.D.) where one first finds a
description of these principles, although the manner of presentation differs somewhat
between them. In the Yiwenzhi chapter of the Hanshu, they are listed accordingly:
Xiangxing � � , Xiangshi � � , Xiangyi � � , Xiangsheng � � , Zhuanzhu � ,
Jiajie � . In the postface to Xu Shen’s Shuowen Jiezi they are listed in a variant
order with a slightly different nomenclature (Yiwenzhi correspondences are included
in brackets): Zhishi � � (Xiangshi � � ), Xiangxing � � , Xingsheng � �
(Xiangsheng � � ), Hui Yi � (Xiangyi � � ), Zhuanzhu � , Jiajie � . The
use of the word Xiang � in the first four names of the Yiwenzhi version exemplifies
the distinction between the first four categories, as principles of graphic composition,
from the last two categories, as principles of graphic usage. Such a distinction may
also be assumed in the Shuowen definitions where the same two categories are listed
in an identical fashion at the end. As regards the differences in nomenclature and
order between the two, unfortunately the Yiwenzhi provides no definitions with which
to compare the Shuowen definitions. The Shuowen defines them accordingly:
� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � The first is called zhishi. Zhishi are those that upon observation can be recognized and upon inspection the meaning is apparent. � and � are such. � � � � � � � � � � � ! " # $ % & ' The second is called xiangxing. Xiangxing are those that depict the objects and follow the sinews of its form. $ and % are such. ( ) * + * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 & ' The third is called xingsheng. Xingsheng are those that use things as names and take an analogous one to mutually combine them,
5and
6 are such.
7 ) 8 9 8 9 , : ; < =[=> ]
- ? @ A B C & '
4
The fourth is called huiyi. Huiyi are those that compare types and combine meanings
and in doing so reveal the signification indicated, B
and C
are such. � ) � � � � , � ; � � � 9 3 � � & ' The fifth is called zhuanzhu. Zhuanzhu are those that establish a category under one head whereby the same meanings are mutually connected.
� and
are such.
) � � � � , � � � � + � . � � & ' .
The sixth is called jiajie. Jiajie are those that originally have no graph and rely on
sound to be entrusted to the thing [to which reference is made]. �
and �
are such.
The interpretation of categories one (zhishi: abstract pictographs), two (xiangxing:
concrete pictographs), three (xingsheng: compound graphs with phonetic and
semantic components) and six (jiajie: phonographic loans with no semantic
relationship) is relatively uncontroversial. Unfortunately categories four (huiyi) and
five (zhuanzhu) are less straightforward and have been subject to many competing
interpretations.
1.2b The Concept of Huiyi
An actual definition of what is meant by the term huiyi is not that controversial. It
clearly refers to compound graphs with purely semantic components; the difficulty
however, is how these may be applied to an effective analysis of the script. The issues
have been neatly summarized by Qiu Xigui: “In the ancient script, semantographs
which are composed of two or more semantic symbols in most cases utilize
pictographic symbols in their construction, and thus are usually reminiscent of
drawings… While most of those who have discussed the six principles in the past
have regarded such characters as huiyi graphs, they are by nature distinctly different
from huiyi graphs of the ‘� ’ wa�i type… In short, the dividing line separating the
huiyi from the xiangxing is also obscure” (2000: 155-6). In other words, a graph like
chu� � ‘go out’ which is treated as a pictograph (xiangxing), in its oldest form �
consists of a foot leaving a cave, and should more aptly be treated as a compound
pictograph (huiyi). Other scholars, such as Boltz, have even gone so far as to reject the
concept of huiyi entirely, stating that “ In origin actual characters are never formed this
way; this is an artificial, retrospective category” (1996: 197), and suggesting that
graphs traditionally assigned to the huiyi category all i n fact have a phonetic
component that means they should be treated as xingsheng graphs: “There are no
characters that are invented on the basis of a combination of meanings of their
constituents alone, without regard to pronunciation, in Chinese nor, I am tempted to
5
suggest, are there such characters in any of the other writing systems of the ancient
world either” (2000: 9). As regards the oldest forms of the script, Boltz’s analysis can
be questioned along the lines of Qiu’s comment above. However, in later stages of the
script, when these original huiyi graphs have become firmly entrenched as xiangxing
graphs, it does seem unlikely that new graphs would be created irrespective of their
pronunciation. Even the earliest attested stage of the Chinese script, attested in the
oracle-bone inscriptions, consists of many xingsheng graphs and clearly represents a
relatively advanced stage of writing. Boltz tries to explain characters traditionally
assigned to the huiyi category through a theory of polyphony whereby he assigns
graphs a second (and occasionally even third), now obsolete, reading which he then
assumes allowed it to be used as the phonetic component in graphs, traditionally
assigned to the huiyi category with hitherto unidentifiable phonetic components. The
difficulty with such an analysis wil l be discussed further below.
1.2c The Concept of Zhuanzhu
The debate over the nature of category five (zhuanzhu) is even more hotly contested3
but it seems that Serruys’ definition is most in accordance with the Shuowen definition:
“CC [Zhuanzhu] then expresses a relation of a pair or sometimes a chain of words
represented by distinct graphs, not a relation between the graphs or a process of graphic
structure itself. This relation of the words of the CC pair or chain is phonetic and
semantic at the same time or in one word etymological” (1957: 150). In short, category
five may be summarized as ‘phonographic loans with a semantic relationship’ that
compares with the definition of category six as ‘phonographic loans with no semantic
relationship’ . The Shuowen’s example of k� o � khaw’ and l� o � law’ has been
slightly misleading due to the graphic similarity between the graphs as well as their
similar pronunciations. However, their respective Shuowen analyses show that Xu
Shen did not recognize a xiesheng connection between the two: � is analyzed as “�� � � � ” (derived from � abbreviated with � as phonetic); � is analyzed as
“� � ” (derived from �
and and � ).4 Nevertheless, the semantic and
phonetic relationship between the two graphs must have suggested to him that they
were a perfect example of another kind of relationship, namely zhuanzhu. Zhuanzhu
as a generic term may be used to describe this specific kind of relationship between
any two types of characters from the first four categories. However, the relationship
3 See Serruys (1957: 135-160) and Qiu (2000: 156-161) for a summary of the major works. 4 Serruys (1957: 152-153) has suggested that máo � maw may have been an “endomorphic phonetic” in these graphs. This is certainly possible, especiall y in light of its xiesheng derivatives li ke hào � xawh and háo � � aw which suggest that its original initial was not bilabial but rather a labialized velar of some kind. See the discussion in 2.1
6
between any two graphs from categories one, two or four is usually obvious as their
pronunciations are clearly defined either through the arbitrary relationship of the
signifier and the signified in the case of categories one and two, or paranomastically
in the case of category four. In the case of huiyi graphs, to Xu Shen at least, these
appeared to have no obvious phonetic, and the importance of zhuanzhu as a term to
describe the phonetic relationships of huiyi graphs within their word families, perhaps
explains why Xu Shen altered the positions of the original categories three and four,
to have huiyi directly preceding zhuanzhu. In fact many of these huiyi graphs do
belong to the xingsheng category, however, as discussed above, this does not
represent a full-scale rejection of the huiyi category, especially in the formative stages
of the script, nor does it have anything to do with theories of polyphonic graphs in
Old Chinese, as will be discussed below.
1.3 The Nature of Polyphony
In the first of his two papers (1937; 1940a) representing his now famous altercation
with Creel5, Boodberg stated that “one of the blind-spots of Sinological epigraphy
which gave rise to the most disastrous misinterpretations of Chinese characters was
caused by the evasion of the problem of polyphony in archaic Chinese. While the
presence of polyphony in a limited way could not but be recognized by every student
of Chinese, its import was always minimized and the average investigator proceeded
lightly on his way on the premise that the fundamental principle underlying Chinese
writing was ‘one graph – one phoneme’” (1937: 336). In principle, there is nothing
controversial about Boodberg’s remark. Qiu comments on many such cases, for
example: “The character � is interchangeably read as � wéi… ‘� ’ was originally
read like ‘� ’ yú but since it was synonymous with “ � ” wéi, its pronunciation was
later often interchanged with that of ‘ � ’ . In the Xi�nhuá zìdi� n and the Xiàndài Hànyu
�
cídi� n, in the sense of ‘dike’ , ‘ � ’ is only given the reading wéi, its original
pronunciation yú seems to have been eliminated” (2000: 317). The actual process of
the principle has been further expounded by Boodberg’s former student, Boltz: “The
rebus usage of a character takes advantage of the fact that words with different and
often unrelated meanings may sound the same, and thus can be written with the same
graph. Polyphony takes advantage of the fact that two or more words may be
semantically akin, sharing a common semantic denominator, as if it were, even if
differently pronounced, and therefore can be written with the same character on the
5 Boodberg rightly criticized Creel’s two papers (On the Nature of Chinese Ideography, T’oung Pao 32: 85-161, 1936; On the Ideographic Element in Ancient Chinese, T ’oung Pao 34: 265-294, 1938) which he viewed as tantamount to “divorcing writing from the living language” (1937: 330) due to “Professor Creel’s inabil ity to understand the important distinction between a graph and a picture” (1940a: 419).
7
basis of their semantic congruency. The rebus and polyphonic uses of pre-existing
characters are just two sides of the same coin. In effect both of them allow the user to
get the most mileage, so to speak, out of graphs already established as part of the
writing system by extending the applicability of an existing graph to write words
other than the one for which it was originally invented. Together these two uses of
characters constitute what we may call graphic multivalency” (2000: 7).
Recently Takashima (2003c, 2003d) has proposed that in the Shang and Zhou
inscriptions, the graph rì � � it ‘sun, day’ was used polyphonically for the word shí � d� � ‘ time’. He cites examples such as the following: � � � � � � � � �� � � (YZJWJC6 1.357), which he translates as “May sons’ sons and grandson’s
grandsons toll this bell and play music for eternity. May (they) forever treasure and
use (it)” with the comment “ ‘� � ’ meaning ‘all day long’ would be extremely
strange… It must mean � � ‘ for eternity’ (2003d: 8); � � � � � � � �
(Tunnan7 624) which he translates as “(From) the meal time to noon, it will not rain.
Auspicious” , with the comment that while “the expression � � could be construed
as referring to the position of the sun in the middle of its traverse in the sky, as well as
to any mid day in the interval of two given dates… The tradition points to the greater
possibility that the use of � in the expression � � also referred to time, rather
than sun or day” (2003c: 3-4). Takashima’s analysis seems correct and may be treated
as a clear example of polyphony in the earliest attested examples of Chinese writing.
Such an observation provides much support to the Boodberg/Boltz hypothesis that
polyphony played a role in Chinese writing from very early on.
However, it is here where one must draw a clear distinction between the polyphonic
examples cited by Takashima and Qiu above, and those of Boodberg and Boltz.
Takashima’s and Qiu’s examples are based on solid evidence derived from the
syntactic structure and semantic content of an inscription, or from examples of
modern day usage respectively, and conclusively demonstrate that certain individual
characters may be used to represent two phonetically different, semantically related
words. Boodberg and Boltz, however, take their otherwise uncontroversial statements
on polyphony, quoted above, to extrapolate them to try and explain the graphic
composition of certain characters in the formative stages of the Chinese script. In
short, Boodberg and Boltz believe that polyphony played a fundamental role not just
in giving individual characters more than one reading, but in creating whole xiesheng
6 � � � � � � � �
Yin Zhou Jinwen Jicheng Shiwen. Hong Kong: Institute of Chinese Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong (6 volumes), 2001. 7 The abbreviations used for oracle-bone sources are full y referenced in Appendix 2.
8
series of graphically and phonetically related words, that, to them at least, seem to
have no otherwise obvious phonetic component. As will be shown below, thorough
palaeographical analyses and more sophisticated reconstructions of Old Chinese,
combined with a better understanding of the nature of huiyi graphs and their zhuanzhu
relationships with other graphs, remove the necessity for such an assumption.
9
Chapter 2
A Polyphonic � ‘Mouth’?
2.1 The Xiesheng Series of � � *a� kwa�j�, � *kwa
�j, � * � wra
�j-� , *a kw��� j-� , kw��� j-� �
Boodberg’s (1937: 342) suggestion that � was actually a phonetic in the graphs � , � and � has been reiterated by Boltz accordingly: “The set � ming < *mjing
‘name, call ’ , � ming < *mjing ‘bird-call’ , � ming < *mrjings ‘ fate’ looks
formally like a hsieh sheng series… All of the words share a common graphic element � , and all belong to the � keng < * -ing Shih Ching rime group… The failure to see
any connection between the graphic constituent � and the similar pronunciation of
the three characters � , � and � generally precludes the identification of these
three as a hsieh sheng series in the first place. But when we allow that � could have
been polyphonic, with a reading *mjing standing for the word ‘name, call’ , we can see
at once that these three characters do in fact constitute a hsieh sheng series.” (1994:
103-104)
There is no doubt whatsoever that lìng � liaj � h is the phonetic in mìng � miaj � h,
and in the oracle-bone script, they are not distinguished, both being written � . In
addition to sometimes functioning as a place name, Xu Zhongshu (1988: 1000-1001)
assigns it the meaning “� � � � � � � � ” (issue an order to make something
happen) on the basis of inscriptions like:
� � � � ! " # � $ . % & ' ( ) [$ ] (Heji 14295)
(On) Xin Hai (day), Nei divined: (The) present 1st month, Di (will) order rain. (On the)
fourth day, (a) Jia Yin (day), (in the) evening, [(it) rained].
Boltz himself even acknowledges the association between mìng � and lìng � :
“The analysis and explanation of � is a little less clear-cut than of � and � ,
because � ling < lji ng,-s ‘command’ seems to play an etymonic role, and in the
inscriptions the graph � stands often for the word ming < mrjings ’ fate, destiny’ .”
(ibid: 104, fn.16). Boltz’s suggestion that “the � element may be a phonetic
determinative (in the reading ming) in � to specify the reading ming < mrjings for � as against ling < * lji ng,-s.” (ibid.) purely on the assumption that � is phonetic in � (see 2.3a below) and � (see below) seems all the more unlikely when one
considers that the variation in initials can be easily explained by the presence of a
10
bilabial prefix: lìng � liaj � h < *ra�j � � < * � a
�j � � ; mìng � miaj � h < *m-ra
�j � � <
*m-� a�j � � . The derivation of EMC l- from * � - follows Pulleyblank’s suggestion that in
the Western Han dialect * � - shifted to * r- to have then in some characters “acquired
the pronunciation with initial l- that they have down to the present day” (1991b: 65).8
Pulleyblank also puts forward the question “Was * � also the source of medial * -r-?”
(ibid: 70), but provides no answer. In the reconstruction system used here, in order to
account for xiesheng relationships like the above, it has been assumed that, in some
cases, at least, it was.9 Matisoff (2003: 529) compares � with Proto-Tibeto-Burman
* r-mi � ~ *mi �n ‘name; order, command’. The allofamic variation between the two
forms compares well with the fact that mìng � seems to rhyme as *m-� �� j � � > minh
in the Shiji ng, in spite of its EMC form which is clearly derived from the ablaut
variant *m-� a�j � � 10. As regards Matisoff ’s gloss of ‘name’, Karlgren (1964: 219)
observes that mìng � miaj � h was often used as a loan graph for míng � mjiaj � ‘name’ which also rhymes in the OC � * -a
�j � rhyme group. There is, however, no
evidence for a medial * -r- in the latter word, as shown in 2.2a below.
As for the graph � , in his attempt to explain away all huiyi characters, it seems Boltz
was partly drawn to � as a possible phonetic because ni� o � t� w’ seems
completely unrelated. However, a closer examination of the oracle-bone graph for � �shows that the � component was in fact originally the graph for ji
� k� j <
*kwa�j11 which belongs to the xiesheng series for xi
� � j < *a� kwa
�j.12 Shima (1971:
239) only lists seven occurrences of the graph, all of which are in incomplete
transcriptions. However, one may assume the present day meaning of the graph ‘ to
8 He compares this to an alternative change of * � - to d- in Type A words or j- in Type B words that perhaps came about due to “an earlier dialectal divergence between the Luoyang and Western Han dialects” (ibid). For words that maintained the pronunciation of the Luoyang dialect, he suggests an evolutionary process from * � - that came about “either through dissimilation from the labialized final in words li ke yo
�u � , or more generally, or it may have become * l rather than * r, or have already shifted
from * r to * l, in either case participating in the palatalization of Western Han *l to EMC j-” (ibid). 9 However, as wil l be discussed below, Handel (2002: 21) notes that medial r is often assumed to have been caused by a prefix of some sort. 10 See fn.15 for a further discussion of this. 11 Pulleyblank explains the loss of labiali zation by means of a rule that “ labiovelar stops and fricatives lost their labialization in the environment of the low vowel * -a-.” (1991b: 52) In the case of words with the relatively higher vowel * -� - the labialization is assumed to be maintained, although one must also note the lowering of * -� - to * -a- in certain cases. A good example of this is found in Luo & Zhou (1958: 154) who cite the case of hu� � xwa’ < *xw�� l � ‘ fire’ which on the basis of its OC form would have been expected to give EMC xw� j’ . 12 Later oracle-bone forms of the graph � � are written � , clearly depicting the graph � � as the phonetic component. The relationship between � and � has also been noted by Qiu who comments: “The rooster is well known for its (auspicious) crowing; for this reason a mouth (“ � ” ) was placed beside a chicken to express this meaning. Later the element depicting a chicken was replaced by that for bird (“� ” )” (2000: 197). He does not however make any phonetic link between the graph for chicken and the pronunciation of the character.
11
ring, sound; cry of birds/insects etc’ is a continuation from its original sense, as shown
by inscriptional phrases like:
…� � � � � � � � … (Heji 36)
…(On) Geng Shen (day), (there) also was thunder13 (and there) were bird cries
On the basis of the reconstructed form for mìng � above, one could assume the
following reconstruction: míng � miaj � < *m-raj � < *m- a
j � . Such a
reconstruction compares extremely well, especially as regards the medial * -r-, with
Proto-Tibeto-Burman *mri � ‘ sound, noise’ as reconstructed by Matisoff (2003: 307).
Nevertheless, there is an alternative explanation that the EMC m- initial derived from
a labiovelar and that medial *-r- was derived from an alternative source. Pulleyblank
(1991b: 59-60) suggests a change of * � w > m in wèi � mujh < * � w� t 14 but also
proposes that it delabializes to * � - as in niú � � uw < * � w� � due to unspecified
circumstances. There is good evidence for the change * � w > m15, as shown in xiesheng
relationships like máo � maw < * � wa�w which is phonetic in hào � xawh < xwa
�w
and háo � � aw < *a� kwa�w. The above evidence gives one good grounds for
reconstructing míng � miaj � as * � wraj-� which compares very favourably with the
reconstructed form for ji� � k� j of *kwa
�j.
The fact that the comparative PTB form, *mri � , has a labial initial, does not
necessarily have to preclude the reconstruction of a labiovelar initial in � . The
phonetic affinity of the two initials is close enough for it not to be an issue. By way of
comparison one may note the common comparison of OC velars with PTB dentals in
for example, cù � tshw� t < *kkj� w-t (perhaps derived from * -kk� w-t) and PTB
*s-dut ‘ tie/knot; conclude/finish’ .16 As regards the source of the medial * -r-, it seems
most likely to have come from some sort of prefix. It would certainly make more
sense from the OC point of view if the meanings of the clearly related PTB roots
* r-mi � ‘name; order, command’ and *mri � ‘sound, noise’ were reversed, as the
retroflex feature of � seems to be derived from the internal change of its root initial
after the labial prefix, while in � , it seems to have come from an external prefixal
13 The gloss of ‘ thunder’ follows the proposal of Takashima (2003b: 82-84). Takashima comments that contextual evidence points to “a natural phenomenon…[that] has something to do with cloud formations and rainbows” , while palaeographical evidence allows the graph � to be best interpreted as a pictograph of a drum with a striker held by a hand pounding on top” (ibid: 83). 14 Pulleyblank assumes that wèi � mujh < * � w� t� � is “derived from *m- + the perfective particle ji EMC kijh < *k�� ts, giving * � w� t� s by assimilation of the velar stop to a nasal and the transfer of the labial feature from the lost prefix” (1991b: 59). This seems plausible. 15 The initial * � w- could also probably be derived from *a! xw-. See the discussion in 3.1. 16 This comparison is cited in Matisoff (2003: 368) based on an argument first proposed by Bodman (1969: 327-345).
12
source. This would also explain why � was able to be used as a loan-graph for �
because as Handel observes “Tibeto-Burman prefixal elements may or may not be
reflected in individual forms in daughter languages. The fact that prefixal * r- does
correspond in approximately half of the proposed [PTB and OC] cognates is
persuasive evidence for a correspondence; the fact that it does not correspond in the
other half is only to be expected” (2002: 21).
The xiesheng series of xi� � � � j < *a� kwa
�j, to which míng � miaj < * wra
j-
belongs, is actually a subset of a series headed by xì � � � jh < *a� kwa�j�. The
relationship of the two graphs can be more clearly seen in their oracle bone forms and � respectively, both depicting a hand holding threads, the latter having an
additional ‘man’ element beneath it. The Shuowen analyzes g� n � kw� n’ > *kw��� n� as “� � � � ” (derived from � with � as phonetic). By drawing an erroneous
analogy with the graphs su�n � sw� n and yìn � jinh (see 6.2), Boltz suggests that a
polyphonic � is the phonetic. He comments that “It is clear that if � is taken at
face value to stand for the word hsi < *gigs ‘bind’ , it cannot be phonophoric in �
kun < *ksw� n. The majority of commentators consequently invoke the allographic
form of the character, � , in which they identify � hsüan < *gwin as the
phonophoric… [T]he proposal is only a good approximation, because… [it] belong[s]
to the chen < * -in rime group, distinct from the ! w� n < * -(j)� n group to which � belongs. In spite of this discrepancy in rime group… there are many apparent
cases of hsieh sheng series or word family contact between the chen and ! wen
rime groups” (1994: 123-124). It seems that Boltz has already formulated the counter
argument to his hypothesis, for as is demonstrated in 8.3, with xiesheng relationships
like y"n # $ %n < $ &' n and she(n ) * in < *xj &' j + , proto-OC *-&' j + appears to have
merged with OC *-&' n in some cases before the time of the Shiji ng (the remaining
words then merged sometime before the Han dynasty). This would allow for a
reconstruction of g, n - kw& n’ < *kw&.. n$ < *kw&.. j + $ in which xuán / 0 w1 n <
*a2 kw&.. j + is quite clearly phonetic. The argument may be taken one step further with
the observation that xiàn/xuán 3 0 w1 n(h) < *a2 kw&.. j + (4) is also a derivative of xuán / 0 w1 n < *a2 kw&.. j + and similarly has 5 rather than / in its modern graphic form..
An explanation for this may be found in the fact that xì 5 0 1 jh and xuán / 0 w1 n
are not only graphically but quite possibly phonetically related. If xuán / 0 w1 n is
treated as deriving from *a2 kw&.. j-+ , this forms a nice comparison with xì 5 0 1 jh <
*a2 kwa. j4 .
13
2.2a The Xiesheng Series of � � *ma'j + -t, � *ma
'j + -t
4, � *ma
'j +
Concerning the character for míng � , Boltz suggests that “all i nstances of �
intended to be read ming, standing for the word meaning ‘name, call ’ would come to
be written � precisely because � itself was ambiguous as to reading, k’ou or ming.
The � element was the determinative, in this case phonetic, that was added to
resolve the ambiguity, leaving the unadorned graph � to stand for k’ou ‘mouth,
orifice’ unambiguously. That the graph � itself was polyphonic, pronounced ming <
*mjiang and standing for the word ‘brighten’ , as well as hsi < * rjiak meaning ‘night’
is suggested by Hsü Shen’s � � (ca. 55-ca. 149) entry for � in his Shuo wen chieh
tzu � � … where, after analyzing the character as � � � � ‘derived from
‘mouth’ and from � ,’ he adds � � � ‘as for � , it is ming < *ming ‘dark’ ,’
which must be his way of indicating that the graph � was to be read as ming, and
understood as phonophoric in the character � , not as hsi or anything else.” (1994:
105). With Boltz’s observation that � is the phonetic in � , and his suggestion here
that � is a phonetic in � , it seems strange that Boltz bothers to carry through his
attempt to identify a polyphonic pronunciation of míng for � purely on the basis of
his inabil ity to explain the pronunciation of the character míng � . Simply because
Xu Shen provides a semantic gloss for � as míng m1 j + < *ma. j + , does not
necessarily imply that it is a polyphonic graph.
Although, a ru-sheng word like yuè � + uat seems an unlikely phonetic, developing
an argument first suggested in (1995a: 190-1), Pulleyblank (2001: 55) has suggested
that “The graph [wài � E. � wajh < * � wa�t� ‘outside’ ] has yuè � E. � uat ‘moon,
month’ apparently in a phonetic role. The same ‘moon’ graph is also phonetic in míng � E. m[j] iaj� < *ma� � j ‘name’ , which, I suggest, was probably a homophone of [a]
lost word for ‘moon’ so that we can reconstruct � as a derivative with an added *-t
suffix, *m� ja�t, with metathesis of the nuclear vowel to avoid the final cluster * � jt
which would have violated a constraint on syllable structure. The rounding of the
initial in the Middle Chinese form can be attributed to the lost initial *m-. Type A
word wài � *m� ja�t� ‘outside’ , with � as phonetic could then be analyzed as ‘not
inside’ , having the negative morpheme *m- found in wú � E. mua� ‘don’t’ etc. + [nèi �] * � jw�� t� < * � j�� p� ‘ inside’ , with ablaut of the vowel from * � to *a”. Aside from the
difficulties pointed out by Takashima (personal communication, 2004) of associating
a modal *m- negative with an adjective being used as a participle where one would
have expected the non-modal negative f� u � puw’ 17, scholars have been reluctant to
17 See Takashima (1973; 1996.1: 364-382) for a discussion of the distinction between negatives. The
14
accept Pulleyblank’s proposal because, superficially at least, it seems too powerful.18
Permitting the assumption that a suffixal element could be added to a closed
consonantal coda to cause a violation of syllable structure, would allow one to be able
to set up Old Chinese reconstructed forms that could relate just about any word in the
OC lexicon with another. However, although not explicitly stated by Pulleyblank, his
theory does not necessarily involve the arbitrary application of suffixes to obtain the
results required. Elsewhere Pulleyblank has pointed out that “Tibetan has two suff ixes,
-s and -d (= original * -t), which are nearly but not quite in complementary distribution,
corresponding to Chinese * -� suggesting that the final cluster in the word for ‘night’
[� * + ja''[ � ] k4 ] could have been * -kt rather than * -k
�” (1995a: 191). While the related
implication that the departing tone may have derived from * -t in some cases, seems
rather just to be a way of bolstering the tentative hypothesis that � * + ja''[ � ] k4 is
related to Indo-European *nokw-t- ‘night’ , the idea that in its application, suffixal * -t
may have functioned like suffixal * -4 in being applicable to a variety of different
codas is particularly interesting. In this way, yuè � + uat, which was not a departing
tone word in EMC, may be assumed to have derived from * + jwa't < *ma
'j + -t, while the
related word wài � + wajh which is in the departing tone, may be assumed to have
come from + jwa't4 < *maj + -t
4.
2.2b The Xiesheng Series of � � *k� a� � �
, � *m-� a �
In the OB inscriptions, Xu Zhongshu (1988: 748) has suggested that when occurring
as a place name � “ � � ” (is the same as � � ):
alternative reading bù � put is assumed to derive from a fusion of � and � as evidenced by the use of fú � put to represent � � in the Classical language. The phonological development has been accounted for by Pulleyblank accordingly: “ I suspect that the negative � , which was normally encliti c, consisted etymologicall y simply of the consonant *p. When pronounced as a separate, full y accented, syllable, it was provided with a shwa vowel and a final glottal stop, *p � � , giving the Early Middle Chinese pronunciation puw� , Pekingese fo
�u, now written with a separate character � , but originall y
simply � … Similarly zhi� � probably consisted of the root * t, supplied with a shwa vowel and a
final glide to conform to the rules of syllabification… The combination *p + * t would have been syllabified as *p � t, from which, assuming what I call Type B prosody symbolized by a grave accent *p �� t, one derives EMC put by regular rule” (1991c: 39-40). 18 Sagart (1999: 160) comments that “A simpler and phoneticall y more straightforward explanation for the role played by � in ming2 � ‘name’ (yue4 as an abridged form of ming2 � ‘bright’ serving as phonetic in ming2 � ‘name’) was presented by Karlgren (1964a: 219)” . Both Sagart and Karlgren seem oblivious to the fact that � and � are in different rhyme groups, � * -a and ! * -aj respectively. Also of note is that in his study of the words represented by " , # and � , Takashima (2004:3 fn.3) makes reference to Pulleyblank’s hypothesis, commenting that “ If one allows oneself to pile a number of hypotheses upon another, one could consider that somehow these three words [ " , # , � ] are eventually related. However I am not sure if one should do so” .
15
� � �[� ]� � (Yibian 7030)
Tested: Call (on) Ji19 [(to) plough] at Ming
…� � � � � (Yibian 3290)
…Shou ploughs at Ming (and) reaps20 an abundant21 harvest.
The word � may be found in the OB script written as � . The similarity of this
form to the OB form of � has, in addition to their slightly similar pronunciations,
lead certain scholars to suggest they are related, as was noted in fn.18. However, it
was noted in the same footnote that they are in different rhyme groups, and a closer
palaeographical analysis shows that many of the forms for � are written � with the
component � � and that the other forms, � and � , are just graphic
simpli fications. It is the form � which is attested as the primary form in the
Shuowen, and it is clearly related to the Shuowen graph � , now written as méng �
miaj � . Regarding the graph � , the Shuowen says “� � � ” (read as � ), which
would give it a reading of gu� ng � kwa� ’ , although it also notes that “� � � � � ! "” (Shizhong [an official title] Jia says read it li ke # ). Whatever the case may
be, it seems that $ , which here will be given the former reading suggested by the
Shuowen, is the phonetic in % /& . The EMC pronunciation of míng % /& miaj '
suggests a medial * -r- in the OC form, which can be accounted for by a reconstruction
*mra( ' which may well have derived from a root form * ) a
( ' with a prefixal *m-:
*m-) a( ' . This would compare very nicely with a reconstruction of gu* ng + kwa, ’
as *k-a. , / . As with 0 /1 , 2 is attested in the oracle-bone inscriptions as a place
name:
3 4 56 7 8 9 : ; < = 2 (Qianbian 5.20.2)
Wu Yin (day), Bin tested: (The) King goes (to) bring22 zhong23 (to plant) millet at
19 The rationale behind interpreting > as ji
? @ is discussed in Takashima (2003b: 109-111).
20 The word A literall y means ‘to receive’ . It may be negated by both B and C in phrases li ke DE A and C F G . In the former A represents an active/dynamic verb performed by people and should be translated ‘not perhaps reap’ , whil e in the latter it represents a passive/stative verb reflecting the fact that harvest is bestowed by an external force (i.e. the gods) and should be translated ‘not perhaps receive’ . See Takashima (1973; 1996.1: 364-382) for a description of the different functions of the negatives in the oracle-bone inscriptions. 21 The translation of H as ‘abundant’ here follows Takashima (1978). This is a rejection of Nivison’s idea that H “ is standardized in a use that allows it to have reference” (1978: 30) allowing it to derive “possessive pronoun effects ‘his/her/their’ and demonstrative adjective effects ‘ this/that/the’” (ibid: 1). Takashima’s most recent rebuttal states that “ H is basically a verb meaning ‘ there is, have’ and not the pronominal or the referential. The separation of “existential” and “referential” is a fundamental distinction, so that by interpreting H as meaning ‘ its’ here, as is done by Nivison, is to blur it” (2003b: 65). 22 The transcription of the graph I as ji
? J tsK j ‘ to bring, carry’ rather than the standard
interpretation of it as di? L tK j with the meaning “M N ” (to reach) identified in the Shuowen, follows
16
Guang/Ming.
2.3a The Xiesheng Series of � � *a� xja�� �
k, � * � ja�� �
k�, � *ka
�� �k
The graph xì � ziajk, may be reconstructed as � *a� xja�� �
k, along with its xiesheng
derivative yè � jiah < * � ja�� �
k�. The word zhì � t� iajk is analyzed in the Shuowen
as being “ � � ” (derived from � ‘meat’ on top of � ‘ fire’ ) with the
definition “� � ’ (to fry meat). Unfortunately, the graph is not attested in the
inscriptional language to test this analysis, but it seems little more than folk
etymology based on a graphic confusion of � with .24 It seems that � is
functioning purely as a phonetic in � , an analysis which would then nicely account
for its reconstructed OC pronunciation *ka�� �
k.
A graphically and semantically related graph is sù � suwk < xj�� wk which is written
in the Shuowen as � and is attested in the OB script as � . Takashima (2004: 8)
comments that “the word su � ‘ (morning) twilight’ is the time for activities when
no artificial light was needed. On the other hand, the time reference of xi � may
well have been when there was no sunlight” . It occurs in inscriptions like the
following:
� � � � � (Heji 27522)
(It should) be (that we) enter (the ritual center?) from (morning) twilight to (perform a)
you-cutting-sacrifice.
However, in spite of the semantic and graphic connections, it seems that � is
unrelated to � . The word sù � suwk < xj�� wk is homophonous with sù � suwk <
xj�� wk.25 The connection is pointed out in the Shuowen which states “� ! " # $ Takashima (2000: 377-381). In comparing % to its small-seal form, he comments that “one is forced to equate the diamond-shaped object (or lozenge) with the horizontal line at the bottom. This is impossible for we know [from the Shuowen entry “& ' ( ” () represents the ground)] that the line in question represents the ‘ground’ on which a man is standing… If * is the phonetic [following a personal communication by Boltz, 1997] and + the signific, one might take a more direct path and arrive at the word ji/*tsid , [a xiesheng derivative of - represented in the oracle-bone script as . ] ‘ to bring, carry’ , in which bei / ‘cowry’ serves as the signific indicating the object, instead of serving as the agent of bringing”. 23 See fn.45 for a definition of the meaning of this word. 24 The oracle-bone forms of 0 and 1 are very similar: and 2 respectively. The confusion between the two has perpetuated into the modern script where graphs that originall y had 0 as their bushou (radical) are now written with the graph for 3 (originall y graphicall y indistinguishable from 1 ). 25 Matisoff (2003: 328) compares 4 with PTB *s-r(y)ak ‘ spend the night; day of 24 hours’.
17
� � �” (the guwen form of
� is derived from
� and � , � is derived from
this). It is attested in the OB script as � or � / , and Matsumaru and Takashima
(1994: 209) list it along with (� ) in the same group (0848). The precise meaning
of � in the OB script is unclear, but Takashima’s (1973: 80-81) gloss of ‘seated (in a
row in ancestral altar)’ in inscriptions like the following seems very plausible:
� � � � � � (Ninghua 1.384)
Tested: Zu Yi (will be) seated (next) to Fu Yi.
The common graphic element in the graphs � and � is the kneeling figure
(although the figure is not kneeling in � / � , the presence of the mat � presumably
serves to suggest this). Fowler (1989: 332-334; 355-356) has suggested a relationship
with zhù � t� uwk < *k�� wk and shú � d� uwk < *a� k�� wk. This is a very interesting
observation, and he has further proposed that the OB graph � ( ) is the phonetic on
the following grounds: “Since there are no soft text examples of jî [= j ! ] " , the SW
identification of this character is by no means certain. I suspect that it may be a
variant of zhù # /$ , since it occurs in some forms of zhù % /$ , [such as & ]26” (ibid:
332), adding that “I therefore feel that Xu Shen’s guess that " is pronounced like jî ' is wrong” (ibid: 334). Support for Fowler’s hypothesis may be found in the fact
that although the Guangyun suggests an EMC reading of kiajk for " (the same as j ! 'kiajk), also listed in the same category is the graph jí ( kiajk which has another
reading, not listed in the Guangyun, but listed in the Jiyun, of jué ( k)ak which
must have derived from OC *kra*wk or *kr +* wk. The Shuowen analysis “, - . ” (read
as / ) which rhymes in the Shiji ng as * -a0 1
k, suggests that the OC form was probably
*kr 20 wk and that it had derived from a proto-OC *kr 20 1 k. Consequently, it seems likely
that Fowler was correct in his analysis and one may therefore reconstruct sù 3 /4
suwk < *xj25 wk further back to proto-OC *xj25 1 k. The graphic distinction that Fowler
sets up, also allows a distinction to be made between zhù 6 t7 uwk < *k25 wk < *k25 1 k
and xio8ng 9 xwiaj : < x; ra5 : which are phonetically unrelated but graphically appear
to be in a xiesheng series. The fact that 9 only occurs as < or = , neither of
which depict the extended arms shown in some forms of 6 like > , as opposed to ?, suggests that at a very early stage, @ (A ) was borrowed to represent B (C ) in
the graph now written as D . The graph shú E dF uwk < *aG kHI wk < *aG kHI J k is also a
source of interest, for its right hand component is attested in the graph yì K L jiajh <
* L aItM which is attested in the OB script as N (its precise semantic function is unclear
but its transcription is supported by its related bronze script forms). While the
26 As regards cases where O or P was used to represent the word Q (R ), Fowler (1989: 277-278) suggests that the very few cases where S was used rather than T , were due to scribal error.
18
phonetic relationship of the pronunciations *a� k�� �k and * � a
�t� is unclear under the
present knowledge of OC historical phonology, a similar example may be found in the
relationship between the graphs mài � ma� jh < * -ra�t� ‘sell’ and yù < juwk <
*a� �� wk < *a� �� �k ‘sell ’ , which Sagart (1999: 207-208) has suggested may be variants
of each other with the following observation: “The word mai2 � *? > meaï occurs in
the Guang Yun with the gloss � ‘ seeing aspect’ ; the Ji Yun gives another form
mai4 � meaïH glossed as � � ‘ look sideways’ , which still exist in colloquial
Xiamen: bai6 ‘take a look” . A solution may have something to do with Pulleyblank’s
(2004: 159) observation that * -� � k may have sometimes merged with * -� p (see 8.4)
which, on the basis of the above evidence, may perhaps be extended to *-a� k and
* -ap as well. The fact that *-p� merged with * -t
� very early on (see fn.133) suggests
that mài � ma� jh < * -ra�t� may have ultimately derived from * -ra
�p
� < * -ra
� � k�. This
has very interesting implications for the evolution of bèi � pajh < *a�t�, the phonetic
in � and perhaps also � , which is discussed further in 8.4.27
2.3b The Xiesheng Series of � � * � ja� �
-t�, � * � ja
�� �-k, ! * � jja
� �-k
Interestingly, the Shuowen analyzes " as being “ # $ � % & ” (derived from '
with ( as abbreviated phonetic). Takashima (2004: 1-5) provides some oracle-bone
examples where the graph yì � jiajk, usually treated in an adverbial sense ‘also’ , is
used to stand for the word yè " jiah ‘night’ , stating “as to the question of why not
many more examples are found we can only speculate. The possibil ity of dialect
mixture cannot be ruled out because all these examples are from the Bin diviner group
inscriptions, but more likely the graph $ could well have stood for the word "
because they were phonologically very close and morphologically related as well. The
Shang could have read appropriately depending on context” (ibid: 5):
) * + , - . / 0 � [=" ] 1 2 (Heji 40248)
Ji Chou (day) divination, tested: It rained. Thereupon28 tonight (there will) not (be)
misfortunes.
To further exemplify the relationship of � with " , one may note that in its
27 It also allows one to treat 3 as phonetic in fù 4 buw’ < * -56 7 8
‘carry on the back’ (the glottal suff ix correlating with the final * -k coda), related to bèi 9 p5 jh < * -5: k;
< * -5: 7 k; ‘back’ . Matisoff
(2003: 199) compares 4 with Proto-Tibeto-Burman *bew ‘carry on back’ . 28 For the translation of < = as ‘ thereupon’, see Takashima (2004: 4) who compares it with > =which he translates as ‘hereupon’ , commenting that “ the words < and > are deictically ‘distal’ and ‘proximal’ (cf. their use as pronominals)” .
19
oracle-bone form, � appears as � . Although the graph only appears to function as a
grammatical particle with an adverbial function of ‘also’ (as well as a loan graph for�), it is generally taken to be the proto-form of yè � jiajk < * � ja
�� �k ‘armpit’ to
which the dots under the man’s arms are making reference. Matisoff compares �
with PTB *g-yak ‘armpit / cubit’ (2003: 326) and this seems likely.29
As regards the pronunciation of � , Pulleyblank comments that “The graph yi �
EMC jiajk, like the standard form of , contains da dajh, which has words with
EMC d- and th- in its phonetic series to the exclusion of t-; that is, it is of the * l or * � j
type. I suspect that had initial * � j and plays a phonetic role in both 30 and � .”
(1995b: 58-9). While Pulleyblank does not speculate as to whether dà is the
29 Sagart has taken particular objection to Pulleyblank’s argument for an OC initial * � j-, stating that “A sound change * j > l (while n > n !) is unusual, to say the least. One of Pulleyblank’s key examples is the W[ritten] B[urmese] word for ‘night’: nya1 which he regards as a true cognate of Chinese ye4 � MC y� H ‘night’ . He reconstructs the Chinese word with initial * � j, evolving to MC y- [IPA j-]. In this case Pulleyblank’s reconstruction appears to go against the use of yi4 as � *blak > yek ‘armpit’ as phonetic in ye4 � ‘night’ , since the lateral initial in ‘armpit’ is well -establi shed in Chinese, being reflected as l- after prefix in Cantonese ka-la�k-t� i and Fuzhou k� -lou� -a, both ‘armpit’ . Moreover, the Chinese word for ‘armpit’… is probably a true cognate of the T[ibeto] B[urman] word for ‘arm’, * lak, reflected as l in TB (for instance lak in WB). Therefore yi4 � ‘armpit’ must be a true l- word. The word for ‘night’ ye4 � was assigned to the phonetic series of ‘armpit’ already in early Western Zhou bronzes, ca. 900 BCE. If Pulleyblank is right that ye4 � originall y had a nasal initial, the change � j > l that he has to assume must have already occurred by then” (1999: 34-36). Firstly, Pulleyblank’s reconstruction does not contradict the fact that yì � jiajk < * � ja
� �k is phonetic in yè � ji ah < * � ja
� �k�,
with the correspondences with initial l- in modern day Cantonese and Fuzhou or Tibeto-Burman languages simply representing different reflexes of the same original phoneme in different linguistic environments. One must also note that Pulleyblank’s reconstruction of an OC initial * � j goes back to well before the time of the Shijing, presumably during the formative stages of the script. Sagart also fail s to find any convincing alternative explanation to replace Pulleyblank’s * � j- and merely comments that “ It seems what Pulleyblank regards as a palatal nasal was a particular condition of the lateral * l-. I will assume that the condition was a nasal prefix. This prefix cannot have been *m-, since the sequence *m-l- has other reflexes in Middle Chinese. It may have been *N-. I will assume that the sequence *N-l- evolved li ke * l- into Middle Chinese, but was occasionally represented as a nasal in pre-Middle Chinese loans to other languages. We should therefore consider the WB form nya1 as a Chinese loan-word, and reconstruct the Chinese word for ‘night’ as bN-lak-s > y� H, borrowed by Burmese at an intermediate stage of development: N-y� H” (ibid: 35). 30 It is theoretically possible to reconstruct yí � ji as * � j�� � -l, which suggests that dà � dajh < * � ja
� �-t� could have been a possible phonetic, contrasting only in the vowel ablaut and suffixal features.
However, there is no xiesheng evidence for the final * -l being a suffix, and Matisoff (2003: 422) compares its xiesheng derivative � ‘ fat over the stomach’ with PTB *tsil ‘ fat, oil ’ which clearly shows evidence of the * -l coda. Furthermore, although the identification of yí � in the oracle-bone inscriptions is somewhat unclear, it seems that it was represented by the graph which does not consist of the graph � : ! " #$ % & ' ( ) * + ,
(Bingbian 276) Geng Yin (day) divination, Bin tested: This 60-day-cycle (the) King will go-on-foot (to) attack (the) Yi. Consequently, while the similar phonetic values of yí
, and dà - , may well have influenced the
development of the graph for into its modern day form, it seems unlikely that dà - was phonetic in the earliest known stages of the script. See Takashima (2003b: 67-71) for the rationale behind interpreting
' as the ‘sixty-day-cycle’ and Keightley (2000: 37-39) for a discussion of the function
and role of this time period.
20
actual phonetic for yì � , or just specifies its initial * � j- component, one may suggest
that dà � was the phonetic by adopting the following reconstructions: dà � dajh <
* � ja� �
-t�; yì � jiajk < * � ja
� � �-k. Support for reconstructing * -t as a suffix in is
found in its variant EMC reading da’ presumably derived from OC * ja� �
-l � (similar
alternations may be observed amongst its xiesheng derivatives like tuó/duò da(h) <
* ja� �
-l(�) and dì � d� jh < * jja
�t�). Furthermore, Matisoff (2003: 484) compares it
to PTB *ta-y ~ * ta ‘big’ which shows no evidence of a final * -t coda.
Also related to the xiesheng series discussed here is dí � d� jk which Pulleyblank
has pointed out “had � , the phonetic speller in ye � ‘night,’ on one bronze form.
The Shuowen says that � has � as ‘abbreviated phonetic,’ evidently preserving a
tradition that the correct form had � , rather than � ” (1991b: 58). Although the
EMC pronunciation d� jk suggests an OC form of * jja�jk, Pulleyblank has suggested
that an “alternation between Old Chinese * -� in a Type B syllable and � j in a Type A
syllable is a fairly common pattern and probably reflects a throwing forward of the
feature of frontness from the initial on to the final in a Type A syllable. Compare, for
example, jie � EMC ts� t [< kj��� jk < kj��� k] (Type A) but ji � EMC tsik [< kj�� k]
(Type B)” (1991b: 66). On this basis, one may assume that in the case of di � d� jk,
OC * jja�jk derived from proto-OC * jja
�k, or rather * jja
� �-k with a suffixal * -k
element by analogy with yì � jiajk < * ja� � �
-k (see also the discussion in 3.3 below
concerning the word shèng � � iaj h).
21
Chapter 3
A Polyphonic � ‘Ear’?
3.1 The Xiesheng Series of � � *a� xj �� � , � *a� xja� �
-� , � *xwr � �
The character róng � � uaw� “ is analyzed in the Shuo wen as � � � � (derived
from �
with � as abbreviated phonetic). In spite of pointing out himself that “ in � ts’ung itself the � [or more precisely the � /� element], also read ts’ung <
* tshung, is clearly the phonophoric, and the � appears to be a semantic
determinative of the conventional kind” (1994: 114), Boltz suggests that “The graph � can then be explained as representing the word * tshung ‘hear keenly’ , originally
written, according to our hypothesis, with just the graph � , as a parasemantically
logical, extended use of the already existing character � ‘ear’ . It was subsequently
specified phonetically as * tshung, not *znj � gx, by the addition of � * tshung as a
phonetic determinative, leaving the unadorned � to stand unambiguously for the
word *znj � gx ‘ear’ .” (ibid.)
The word � ‘ear’ is attested in the oracle-bone inscriptions as � . Aside from
functioning as a place/personal name, it is used with its present day meaning:
� � � � � (Yizhu 271)
Tested: (An) ailing ear is [= means] (there will) be mishaps31.
Its relationship with róng ! " uaw# and róng $ " uaw# is less apparent than the
obvious phonetic relationship between the two of them. Neither ! nor $ is found
in the earliest forms of the script which makes a graphic analysis difficult.32 The
Shuowen defines$ as “% & ' ( ) ! * + ” (tangled hair, derived from , and -
as abbreviated phonetic), and this seems likely on the basis of the other forty graphs
31 The functional translation of . as ‘mishaps’ follows Takashima (2003b: 120-122; 286-287). 32 There is a graph which may be transcribed as / for which Xu Zhongshu (1988: 1415) suggests “0 1 2 ” (read as 2 ) on the basis of inscriptions li ke: 3 4 5/ 6 (Cuibian 720) (On) Jia Zi (day) (the) rain stops. On the other hand, Yu Xingwu (1979: 13) suggests “/ 7 8 9 : ,… ; < = > ? 8 ,@ < 6 A B > ?8 ,‘C / 6 ’> 6 C 8 < D ” (E and F may be used the same way… just as delicate fur is called F , delicate [ i.e. light] rain may also be called F , ‘ not E rain’ means the rain is not light). Inscriptional evidence is too limited for any real judgment to be passed on the above analyses, but purely on the basis of the form of the graph, one may safely assume that the direct ancestor of G does not appear in the OB corpus.
22
listed in the Shuowen with an upper � component that all take their lower component
as their phonetic. It turns out that � r � � � ’ is in fact the phonetic in the graph róng �
but rather than for reasons of polyphony, it may be explained due to the same suffixal
-� after the final glide that was posited in the reconstruction for míng � above. As
regards the initials, the xiesheng character ch� trh� ’ < *xwr � � clearly implies a
velar fricative in � r � � � ’ . In order to account for alternations between * � - and *x- in
Old Chinese or h- in modern day Southern Min dialects, Pulleyblank has suggested
that although in certain cases this could be due to the devoicing of nasals perhaps as
the result of prefixation, in other cases “The Min evidence is easier to explain by a
contrary hypothesis, namely that voiceless fricatives were nasalized in standard
Chinese by the same prefix *a� [now written *a� ] which was responsible for creating
the Middle Chinese voiced obstruents, but that the process was less complete in Min
than elsewhere, so that when voiced aspiration was lost and replaced by the register
distinction in the tones [in Min the prefix *a� did not cause a merger of OC *a
�p- and
*a�ph- which both gave EMC b-, but rather maintained the distinction after the prefix,
which Pulleyblank suggests “may have caused breathiness rather than voicing in Min”
(ibid: 15), to be replaced by a yin/yang tonal register distinction after the prefix was
lost], the original fricatives reemerged” (1989: 16). Using the above evidence, the
following reconstructions may be suggested: � r � � � ’ < *a� xj �� � 33, róng � � uaw�
< *a� xja� �
-� , ch� trh� ’ < *xwr �� �
3.2 The Xiesheng Series of � � *xjra�j � , � *kkja
�j � , � *xja
�j � , � *xj(r)a
�j �
In a strikingly liberal interpretation of even his view of the role of polyphony, Boltz
suggests that “the zodiograph � standing as we have seen primarily for the word
*znegx ‘ear’ , but also parasemantically for ts’ung < * tshung ‘ (aurally) perceptive,
keen’ [see the above analysis in 3.1], had still another reading, this one in the �
keng rime group, Old Chinese * -ing” . The suggestion that � , � , � all belong to a
xiesheng series headed by a polyphonic � , unfortunately involves the confusion of
different xiesheng series through an inadequate palaeographical analysis.34
Firstly the graph she�ng � � iaj � < *xja
�j � quite clearly belongs to the phonetic series
33 The reconstruction of *a� xj- > - in labial environments is a development of Pulleyblank’s (1991b: 77) idea that * ! j- > -. This relationship between *a� xj- and * ! j- is discussed in fn.36 below. 34 Boltz also includes the character " # $ " % k& ' j ! ’ < *kra
(j ! ) in this series. This graph is relatively
recent in origin and hence it is difficult to analyze with any degree of certainty. Without any better evidence to the contrary, one may but follow the Shuowen definition that it is * + , - . (derived from / with 0 as abbreviated phonetic ).
23
of she�ng
� � iaj � < *xjra
�j � , as shown by its oracle-bone form � , and the enlarged
form � , where it is clearly composed of � and � with (= �
) as the phonetic.
Shima (1971: 314) only lists one example each of � and � , both of which are
incomplete inscriptions with unclear meanings. However, the graphically related form occurs in many inscriptions as a place name and most likely represents qìng �
kh� j � h < *kka j � � , suggesting that the transcription of the related graph � and � as �
is correct:
� � �� � � � � � � � � (Qianbian 2.44.1)
Wu Shen (day) divination, tested: (The) King hunts (at) Qing. (He) doesn’t encounter
rain. This occurred.35
This xiesheng series also includes the series of qi�ng � tsh� j � < *kkja
j � which even
in the modern form retains a form of �
, albeit slightly modified, as its top
component. Li Xiaoding (1965.5: 1739) suggests that there is one occurrence of �
in the OB corpus in Fuyin 22 where it occurs before the character � . However, on
the basis of other inscriptions containing the phrase � � ‘ southern chamber’ , it
seems likely that it is just a corrupted form of � � . At any rate, the bronze forms
show that the graph clearly contains the �
element.
Another graph in the xiesheng series of �
is x�ng � iaj � /siaj � < *xj(r)a�j � which
is attested in the OB script as ! and consists of the phonetic element (= �
)
above the graph " (= # ). Xu Zhongshu (1988: 376-377) glosses it accordingly:
“$ % & ' , � ( $ % � )” (It means ‘ inspect’ . * + is therefore to inspect the
hunting). In its original nominal sense , means ‘ field’ with a verbal sense of ‘ to be
on the field’ . It seems the meaning of ‘ to hunt’ is an extension of this latter sense:
- . / , 0 1 2 3 4 5 (Jimbun 2050)
(If the) King inspects (the) field (there will) not (be) harm (and he will) not encounter
heavy rain.
As for the graphs ti6ng 7 th8 j 9 and shèng : ; iaj 9 h in which Boltz erroneously
35 The transcription of the graph < as è = > ? @ jk follows Qiu (2003: 127) who comments that “ ‘= ’A
‘ B ’ C D E F G H I ,J D F K L M N O P B Q R .‘ B ’ K S T R ,‘ = ’ K U T R , V T G W XY…‘= ’Z [ \ ] ^ _ ‘B ’ ” (
` and a are in the same Old Chinese b rhyme group and Middle
Chinese hekou, grade I a rhyme group. a has the initial c
, `
has the initial d
, and their initials belong to the same [xiesheng] series…
` should be able to be read as a ). To = , he
therefore assigns a meaning of e f ‘bring about’ or Z g ‘be realized” . Such an interpretation is supported by Takashima’s (2003b: 440) observation that < “appears to belong to the later periods, replacing the expressions with yun h ‘ indeed (such-and-such happened)’ of the early periods.”
24
assumes a polyphonic � is the phonetic, the role of their actual phonetic component,
t �ng � d� j � , is addressed in 3.3 below.
3.3 The Xiesheng Series of � � *a� xja� � , � *xja
� � , *xja� � , � *m-� a
� � , *a� k�a� � �
The phonetic relationship between the words t �ng � d� j � < *a� xja�j� and ti
�ng �
th� j � < *xja�j� 36, as well as shèng � � iaj
� h, which does not appear in the Shiji ng but
its lower � component suggests a reconstruction of *xja�j� �
is relatively
straight-forward. As regards their graphic forms, in the OB script � is written �and � is written � / � . Examples of in the OB corpus are few and incomplete,
with Shima (1971: 114) citing only three occurrences. However, its similarity with the
bronze forms shows that the transcription is correct. Xu Zhongshu (1988: 1287)
glosses it accordingly: “! " � , � # $ % ” (read as & with a meaning of ‘ to
li sten’ ). However its common use as a noun in the bronze script, combined with its
occurrence after ' /( in its limited OB examples, suggests that had a nominal
rather than a verbal function37:
…' (Heji 261)
… (there) are sheng
…( ) (Yibian 6533)
… (there) aren’t those38 sheng
36 This differs from Pulleyblank’s (1991b: 55-56) original assumption that *xj- only fronted to th- before * -* - while before -a- it became x-. Pulleyblank tentatively suggested this because he believed hè +
xak to have had a palatal *xj- initial that lost its palatal feature in Type A words before -a-, while in Type B words before -a-, it became , - in xiesheng words like shè - , iah. In his 1995b emendation, however, Pulleyblank suggested that *xj- gave EMC
.- in all cases, and that it was rather an initial
cluster *xj- that gave th- in Type A words and , - in Type B. Pulleyblank makes no comment on the effect of the following vowels, but on the basis of the above, it seems that shè - , iah can be reconstructed as *xja
// 0k., allowing hè
+ xak to be reconstructed without a palatal initial as *xa
1k.
Consequently, until further evidence may prove otherwise it will be assumed that *xj- gave th- in all Type A words. The assumption of an *xj- cluster giving th- in Type A and , - in Type B words, suggests that an *a2 xj- cluster is analogous in its reflexes with * 3 j- which gave d- and j- respectively in Type A and B. This was demonstrated in 3.1 with the words 4 5 6 7 8 ’ < *a2 xj */ 9 and róng : 7 uaw3 < *a2 xj *1 9 -3 . 37 This could, of course, be an example of what Takashima (1996: 259) has termed an “emphatic verb phrase” where “a verb or verb phrase is nominalized by the main verb you ; < = or wang > ” to make an otherwise active verb into a noun which is inherently non-active. 38 The interpretation of qí ? g8 here follows Nivison’s (1992: 13) suggestion that ? has anaphoric reference when it occurs in a pronominal position such that “qi in the alternative is thus acting on an idea already introduced, which is implicitly being referred back to as ‘old information’ .” Nivison attempts to extend this to a meaning of ‘definitely’ when occurring in a pre-verbal position that rejects the most commonly accepted interpretation of it as a “dubitative” qi, first properly developed by Chen (1956: 87-89). Nivison seems to be misled in this analysis, for there is no reason that simply because
25
Whether sheng here refers to ‘sage’ in its modern sense of the word is unclear,
however, one may tentatively hypothesize that the forms � and � evolved from �due to their explicit focus on the auditory senses of the word, rather than on the more
general meaning of ‘sage < learned one < hearing person’. In the OB corpus, in
addition to functioning as a place/personal name, � has the verbal meaning still
attributed to it in the present day:
� � � � � (Bingbian 358)
Tested: (The) King’s hearing (things39) is [= means] misfortune
Consequently, although the role of the phonetic � is less obvious in the oracle-bone
forms of � than in the case of , it seems likely that it served the same role in both.
In this regard, Qiu has made the following observation: “Both ‘ ’ shèng [‘sage’] and
“� ” ting ‘hear’ have developed from the same graph. The ancient pronunciations of
the two graphs were similar and there are examples of their being used for one
another in ancient texts. The oracle bone forms cited above [for shèng ] can in fact
also be explained as ‘� ’ . In the bone script ‘� ’ is generally written ‘ � � ’ (the ancient
script form in the Tri-script Stone Classics appears as such); the graph shows an ear
listening to sounds form a person’s mouth. The only difference between this graph
and the bone forms of “ ” cited above is the presence or absence of the element
person (“ ” ); the two in origin were probably allographs of one character…. The
Pia�nh� i’s (� � ) explanation of ‘� ’ as an ancient script form of ‘� ’ (apud Ka
�ngxi
�
zìdi� n) is perhaps based on good reason” (2000: 195-6).
As for the character � , Boodberg suggested that � “ is phonetic in � *s�i� äng -
‘perspicacious’… and � *mi� wang -‘ to look from a distance,’ ‘ to pay homage’ (cf…
also � *d’ ieng… ‘court, hall,’ � *d’a�ng… ‘hall ’ )” (1937: 348). In response Van
Auken comments that “Boodberg’s theory is far from compelling, for � *hleng� �
can occur as a definite article that it must also have an adverbial sense of ‘definitely’ . Takashima’s latest argument (1996: 7-8) is that “modal qi responds to the intricacies of what linguists and logicians call ‘presupposition’…. qi is used either to affirm or deny the diviner’s presumption that the oracle would respond in a certain specific way” to which he adds that “Since I characterized the modality of qi as operating on the scale of ‘possibilit y/certainty’ and ‘ intention/wish,’ there is no reason for me not to allow the fluctuation of modalit y in the diviner’s presumption of Yes or No itself” . This is a very good suggestion, and the fluctuation may be represented by a translation of ‘perhaps’ before controllable verbs and ‘will ’ before non-controllable verbs. 39 Takashima (2003b: 253) comments that “The subject phrase… ‘ the king’s hearing’ is frequently followed by a predicate to the effect that it does or does not mean some kind of disaster, misfortune, curse or calamity…[Such inscriptions] are very similar to � ! " ‘ the king’s dream means misfortune’ inscriptions, suggesting that [# ]…, like ‘dream,’ refers to some experience of the king’s that could be interpreted as ominous” .
26
and � *mjang(s) are in different rhyme groups and have different initial consonants.
Furthermore, the gloss ‘ to pay homage to’ , apparently based on Sheu Shenn’s entry, is
at best questionable with regard to the graph as it was used in the early received
corpus, and is not supported by bronze and bone evidence. We cannot entirely rule out
the possibility that at a much earlier stage of the language, � played a phonetic
role… but this does not seem very likely” (ibid: 529). Superficially at least, Van
Auken’s criticism, seems valid, however it wil l be shown that, in spite of his
questionable linguistic analysis, Boodberg’s hypothesis was in fact correct. As an
alternative hypothesis, Van Auken has argued that “ � ‘eye’ may have been the
etymonic in the graph � , which based on its OB form � may be transcribed as � ,
associating the word with the meaning ‘ look’ and a pronunciation in the Yang * -ang
rhyme group”. She suggests that “ in the SBI [Shell and Bone Inscriptions], the word � shianq < sjang(H) < *sjang(s) ‘see’ appears to have sometimes been written with � [:� ] as instead of with [: � ] as � . The element � may have functioned
as the phonophoric in this graph, which otherwise has no readily identifiable phonetic
component… The element � may also have been the original phonophoric in the
graph tzang < tsang < * tsang ‘good’ … The graphs � guanq < kjwangH <
kwjangs ‘oppose’ and � goang < kjwangx < kwjang� ‘ run away in fright,’ the latter
attested as SBI � … also suggest a link between a labialized initial and final * -ang
and the element � .” She even goes so far as to suggest that “the word � shiing <
*sjeng� ‘scrutinize’ is usually reconstructed with final * -eng, but Sheu Shenn gives
the archaic form � (p.137), suggesting a possible * -ang reading, and so � ~ �
*sjang� (?) may be a member of this group as well.” (2002: 529-530).
The character x�ng � � iaj � ’ < *xjra�j � � has already been discussed in 3.2 above and
must be removed. As regards the other four characters, it is unfortunate that with the
exception of wàng � mua� h itself, Van Auken chooses to base her argument on
characters which are very poorly attested in the OB corpus and whose transcriptions
are at best tentative. This puts her hypothesis on a loose footing before it has even
begun. The Shuowen definition of za�ng � tsa� < *kja
� � as being � � !
(derived from " with #
as phonetic) is certainly correct according to Xu Shen’s
Han-time version of the graph. Xu Zhongshu glosses the oracle-bone graph $ as %
with the meaning given by Xu Shen of “good” (1988: 321-322). However this is
based on very limited evidence as the three examples listed by Shima (1971: 111) are
of uncertain meaning. The only complete one is:
& ' ( ) * ) + , $ - . / 0 (Tongzuan 388)
(The) King, prognosticating, (if we) perhaps (succeed in) catching (game), perhaps (it
27
will) be (on a) Bing (day) � , perhaps (it will) be (a) Yi (day) � .
Without any better evidence to the contrary, one has little choice but to follow Xu
Shen’s definition. Xia�ng � s�a� < *xja
� � is even harder to define. It is often used as
the transcription for three different oracle-bone graphs: � , � and � . Xu
Zhongshu distinguishes � from the other two by transcribing it as
which he treats
as a “ � � ” (terr itorial name) or a “ � ” (personal name) (ibid: 653). Here it is
rather arbitrarily given the reading ‘Chen’ on the basis of its � component:
� � � � � � � (Yicun 999)
(On) Jia Chen (day) Lady Chen ritually-prepares two tun 40 for (the)
Yang-mountain-power.
The graphs � and � are treated by Xu Zhongshu (ibid: 364-5) as variants of each
other, although he does provide different interpretations of the two: “� � ” (examine)
for the former (which he seems to be basing on the Shuowen definition of the graph);
“� � � ,‘� � �’� ‘ � � �
’� � ” (read as , ‘ ! " # ’ has the meaning ‘ $ " # ’ )
for the latter (see below for a translation of % & ' ) . Inscriptions with ( are too
few and incomplete to draw any meaningful conclusions as regards its meaning. As
for ) , Xu Zhongshu is presumably basing his interpretation on inscriptions like:
* + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; 2 < = (Jinghua 2)
Zhi Guo, reporting, says Tu Fang surrounded (us) in our Eastern borders (and
delivered a) damaging-blow (to) two settlements. Gong Fang also invaded our
western border fields.
There is only one inscription containing > with any context in the OB corpus, and
Xu Zhongshu’s definition could possibly fit i t:
? @ A B C D E F G…H I J K L M N O (Zhuihe 28)
Indeed (there) is coming bad-news from (the) West. Zhen reporting says… Jia Fang J two settlements. 13th month.
While Xu Zhongshu should be commended for identifying a certain structural and
contextual similarity between the two inscriptions, there is not enough evidence to
40 According to Takashima (1996.2: 71-72), the word represented by the OB graph P “could have referred to a pair of the right and left scapulas, as well as to a pair of contrasting carapace and plastron”. The transcription of it as tún Q follows Xu Zhongshu’s (1989: 45) comment that the bronze forms of Q are “R S T U V W ” (like the oracle-bone forms).
28
evaluate whether his suggestion is correct or not. The case of guàng � kua� h and
gu� ng � kua� ’ will be discussed below in relation to wàng � mua� h.
The graph � is much better attested in the inscriptional language and one can be
fairly confident of its transcription as � . The vast majority of occurrences are before
the graph chéng � . Takashima says that wang originally meant ‘to view (from a
distance), search,’ giving rise to a special meaning of ‘perform a vista (ritual)’ and
cheng “was originally a pictograph of a man on top of a tree… a hui-yi with two
related pronunciations: ch’eng/*dj � ng ‘ to ascend, mount’ and sheng/ *dj � ngh ‘chariot
(< what one rides on); set of four’ . Shirakawa (1984: 458 [ � Jito, � � : � �
Tokyo
: Heibonsha]) thinks that in the bone inscriptions � ‘means ascending a high
place and scouting’ (� � � � � � ) and that it also appears as the name of a person
engaged in such activities. Thus, the Wang Ch’eng � � appear frequently as
scouts” (2003b: 73):
� � � � � � � � � � ! " # $ (Bingbian 22)
Yi-mao (day) divination, Nan tested: (The) King follows Wang Cheng (to) attack Xia
Xi41. (He) receives abundant assistance.
Such an analysis seems to fit well with the form of the graph which clearly depicts a
human form with a large eye on the top of it. Returning to the question of the phonetic
relationship with t%ng & d' j ( , one may first note that the graphs ) (* ) and + (, )
are identical in form except they have ‘eye’ - and ‘ear’ . as the respective top
components. It would seem very strange therefore if , had t /ng 0 as its phonetic
but * had 1 as its phonetic. Of course, logic is not necessarily the primary factor
in the composition of graphs, but with graphs of such similarity and with such a
strong semantic relationship, “to look (afar); scout” and “to hear; sage”, one would
expect a correspondence. It was pointed out in 2.3b that Pulleyblank (1991b: 66) had
observed that palatal features of initials could be thrown forward to palatalize velar
codas of Type A syllables. It may also be assumed that a medial * -j- would have had a
very similar effect, and on this basis one may assume a proto-OC form of *a2 xja3 4
for
t /ng 0 d5 j 4 < *a2 xja3j4 and *xja
3 4 for ti
6ng 7 th5 j4 < * xja
3j4. As for shèng , 8 iaj 9 h,
it is a Type B word that does not rhyme in the Shiji ng and one may assume that its
pronunciation remained as : *xja; 9 < throughout the OC period until its coda finally
palatalized in EMC. However, as further exempli fied in fn.95, it seems medial * -j-
41 The transcription of = as xi
> ? xjwia@ ‘a horn pin used to loosen knots’ follows Gao Hongjin
(1960: 170-171). This differs from Yu Xingwu’s (1940: 22) transcription of it as weAi B C wia@ which,
as Takashima (2003b: 74) points out, fail s to account for “how a [zhou] graph showing a man in a pit…. connects with a bone graph which looks li ke an inverted picture of a tendril attached to a horn.”
29
may well have had a palatalizing effect on velar codas of both Type A and B syllables.
Evidence for this is provided by the fact that there are no Grade IV reflexes (i.e. those
that implied the presence of an OC medial * -j-) of OC syllables in * -ak/* -a� or
* -� k/* -� � . This would then suggest that � had become *xja�j � � by the time of the
Shiji ng. Whatever the case may have been, the above analysis puts all three words in
the same proto-OC rhyme group as wàng � mua� h which may accordingly be
reconstructed as *m-ra� � � < *m-� a
� � � . This compares extremely well with PTB *mra�
‘see / look toward’ as suggested by Matisoff (2003: 303). The word is also clearly
related to gu� ng � kua ’ < *a k�a� (and its xiesheng graph guàng � kua h <
*a k�a� � , presumably like the OB forms for � focusing on specific components of
the original graph � to specify a particular meaning) which seems to be attested in
the OB script as � . Graphically it is the same as � � , just with two ‘eye’
components instead of one. It only occurs in one inscription with any context where it
seems to function as the name of a divinity (on the basis of its graphic form, an
‘all-seeing’ one) to whom sacrifices were performed, but on the basis of the above
analysis one may be fairly sure that its transcription is accurate:
“…� � � ” (Fuyin 38)
… (perform a) liao-burning-sacrifice to Guang.
30
Chapter 4
A Polyphonic � / � ‘Eye’?
4.1 The Xiesheng Series of � � *a� kwj �� m, � *kra
�m, � *kwja
�m, kkwa
�m, � *a� xwa
�m, � *a� xwja
�m.
Boodberg (1937: 343) suggested that “ *mi� uk had the variant reading **GEN as
evidenced by � *ngan (Ph. *k� n) – ‘eye,’ *k’ân -‘ to look’ and its appearance in
a slightly different graph in � *kien.42 It is also ‘etymonic’ in � *kien –‘ to see,’
where � *n�z�i� e�n is most probably a phonetic ‘complement’” . In a footnote to this, he
further commented that “ � in its oldest graphic forms is identical with � . *kien is
derived from *GLen which root had also a variant form *GLam which is reflected in
*klam; with the phonetic � *p’ i � m, also in � *li� � m < BL � m”. Boltz has modified
Boodberg’s theory of a polyphonic � somewhat to suggest the following phonetic
relationships: “� chien < * kians ‘ to see’… � mien < * mjians ‘ face’… � huan <
*gwans ‘official’… � hsien < *xjians ‘ law, rule’… � man < *mjans
‘extended’… The appearance of initial m-… is probably due to an original labiovelar.
Notice that functionally � chien mien are synonymous in the meaning ‘ to face,
to have an interview or meeting with’ , and are undoubtedly cognate words. From
these data we can postulate a hsieh sheng series, based on the graph ! " # ‘eye’ ,
read *kians or *mjians ‘ to see, to face’… # st[ood] for two words, ‘eye’ mu <
*mj $ kw and ‘see, face’ chien < *kians ~ mien < *mjians ( < *ngw- ? ), where the
nouns and verbs are entirely unrelated phonetically” (1994: 105).
In contrast to these two arguments for a polyphonic # , Pulleyblank (1995a: 175-176)
has proposed a root mjkw ‘eye’ , which he posits in mù # muwk < *mj $% kw [more
recently reconstructed with a labiopalatal final * -$% & k (2004: 158)], with which he
explains the evolution of jiàn � and miàn : “In ST *mj- is probably the same as
the body part prefix in Tib. mgal ‘ jaw,’ mgo ‘head,’ m' hu ‘ lip,’ etc… Ch. Jiàn � ,
EMC k( nh < * -kja)n* ‘ see,’ which has the graph for ‘eye’ combined with that for rén +
‘man,’ must be cognate to Tib. mkhyen-pa ‘know,’ and I assume that it is a
derivative of *mj-kw ‘eye’ + a suffixal element: *mjkwa,n- > *kja
,n-. Ch. miàn .
‘ face,’ EMC mjianh, the graph of which also contains the element ‘eye,’ is probably
also a closely related word with Type B prosody: *mjkwa/n- > *mja
/n-” . This
hypothesis has been criticized by Vovin thus: “Pulleyblank suggests that *mj- is a
42 More precisely a 900 shift in orientation of the graph 1 (= 2 ) gives you 3 (= 4 ). See the discussion in fn.45.
31
body part prefix in Chinese and Sino-Tibetan (1995[a]: 117 [sic. 175]) with a
reference to Benedict (1972: 117ff). There is indeed a prefixed *m- Benedict
describes, but it can be separated in words which also occur in prefix-less form in
certain languages along with prefixed in others… Nothing of the sort is attested for
‘eye’ , which appears in all TB languages always with initial m-” (1995: 325-6).
Vovin’s observation is correct, however a closer analysis of Tibeto-Burman forms for
‘eye’ show that is was usually preceded by an s- prefix: (s-)mik / s-myak. According
to Matisoff, “The clearest semantic contribution of *s- to noun roots is in words for
animals and parts of the body, where it definitely represents a reduction of the syllable
*sya ‘animal / flesh / body” (2003: 102). This prefixal *s- may be comparable to
Pulleyblank’s palatalizing *�- prefix in Old Chinese, which would then explain
Pulleyblank’s palatal glide after the m- initial of � : *�m�� � k > *mj �� � k. However,
whether � originally had this palatal feature is immaterial, for the link of � with � may be questioned on palaeographical grounds.
In the oracle-bone script, in addition to both functioning as names and also
occasionally with a meaning ‘ to spy on’ presumably as a graphic variants for wàng � (c.f. Xu Zhongshu, 1998: 362), mù � � refers to an actual human eye, while
jiàn �
� is generally associated with a variety of meanings related to
seeing/inspecting:
� � � (Heji 165)
Tested: (The) King perhaps ails (in his) eyes.
� � � � � � � � � (Bingbian 124)
Ji Wei (day) divination, Nan43 tested: Fou perhaps comes (to have) audience44 (with
the) King. 1st month.
While � , the graph for jiàn �
k� nh, does superficially appear to be composed of �
43 According to Guo Moruo (1931), � is a suspended musical instrument. This interpretation is based on references in the Shij ing to music in the South and also on its similar graphic form to qing � ‘musical stone’ and gu � ‘drum’. In his analysis of the terms for North and South in the Shang, which he attributes to nan � ‘ stomach’ and bei � ‘back’ accordingly, Sagart (1988: 251 fn.12) adds the following to Guo’s analysis: “En particulier, l’élément de droite � ou � figure une main tenant un maillet. Le nom d’un off iciant des cérémonies divinatoires, consigné de nombreuses fois dans les inscriptions oraculaires, � , combinait le caractère � et la main au maillet” (In particular, the element on the right � or shows a hand holding a hammer. The name of an officiant of divinatory ceremonies, mentioned many times in oracle inscriptions, ! , combines the character " and the hand with a hammer). 44 This follows Takashima’s analysis that “ In classical Chinese, chien # ‘ to see’ is also used with the technical sense ‘have audience with’ . This meaning seems most appropriate to the present context” (2003b: 282).
32
[= � ] and a kneeling figure � , the OB graph � which graphically is composed of � on the right with � [= � ] on the left, may be transcribed as jiàn � ka�mh
‘ inspect, mirror’ with the ‘eye’ component being represented by chén � d in rather
than . Examples of � in the oracle-bone inscriptions are few, but it is clearly
functioning as a place/personal name:
…� � � (Zhixu 932)
… to Jian burn (a victim at the stake).
The different EMC codas of jiàn �
k nh and jiàn � ka�mh seem to suggest that �
is not phonetic in � . However, Pulleyblank has put forward the hypothesis that chén � d in, which would normally be reconstructed as *a� kwj �� j � , could perhaps be
reconstructed as *a� kwj �� m on the basis of the relationships between words like tia�n �
th n < *xj �� j � which is phonetic in ti� n � th m, and the fact that there are “no cases
in any tone of EMC -� m with velar initials going back to the Old Chinese *-� m rhyme
category and no cases of chóngni � finals in -jim after velar initials. This might
suggest that all cases of *C-j� m (as opposed to initial palatals including * j) shifted to
C-j� � j in both Type A and Type B syllables” (1995a: 178).45 This is a very interesting
hypothesis, and certainly can explain the relationship of jiàn � ka�mh < *kwra�m
�
(see fn.47 for a discussion of the effects of the medial *-r- in preventing the final coda
from dissmilating) with chén � d in < *a! kwj "# j $ < *a! kwj "# m. As regards the
relationship with jiàn % k& nh, a standard OC reconstruction would be *kwja�n� on the
basis of it rhyming with the words ' and ( in the ) * -an rhyme group in Xiaoya
45 Such a reconstruction allows Pulleyblank to suggest that “at an earlier stage it [the root of chén * ] was kw-j-m, exactly the reverse of ‘eye’ [ + m-j-kw] The change in orientation of the ‘eye’ graph was a kind of visual pun to represent the phonetic inversion” (ibid: 177). This is unli kely for two distinct reasons: as noted in fn.42, the shift in orientation was merely a rotation of 90, , while full inversion of the graph that could theoretically have brought about Pulleyblank’s phonetic inversion was commonplace for many graphs in the OB script to which no change in phonetic or semantic function is attributed; the graphs * and + were never used interchangeably in the inscriptional language, and their meanings ‘eye (ball )’ and ‘servant’ respectively, that have been preserved down to the present day, were never confused: - . / 0 1 2 * 3 (Cuibian 1155) Bing Yin (day) tested: (It should) be (the) Ma (tribe’s) lesser servant (who is) called. One may however note that while the Shuowen definition “ * 4 5 6 7 5 8 9 : ; < ” (Chen is pull. It is serving the ruler. It looks like the shape of bending in submission) seems to attempt to identify the shape of the graph with its earliest attested meaning, the semantic association of an eye with a meaning of servilit y is not unique in this case. Takashima suggests a meaning of ‘ those who gather or follow (under the sun)’ for the graph zhòng = t> uw? h < *k@A w? B < *k@A C ? B , in a kind of ablaut relationship with zú D dz@ wk < *aE ka
F Ck ‘ those who gather (under the banner)’ , and puts forward the possibilit y
that the change of the ‘sun’ determinative to ‘eye’ in bronze inscriptions may imply ‘ those who gather/follow under the watchful eye’ , and he adds that “ this downward-looking eye may be compared with the upward or sideways-looking eye…. in ch’en * ‘servant, minister’ (2003b: 86). Pulleyblank also suggests a similar case of ‘ root inversion’ for the xiesheng series of G . This is called in to question in 7.1 below.
33
217.3 of the Shiji ng.
However, following on from Pulleyblank’s suggestion that *C-j� m shifted to C-j� j� ,
one may also note the extremely limited distribution of OC * -am, in comparison to
OC *-an, as a final rhyme after initials which support a labiovelar reconstruction.
While in the OC � * -� m rhyme group there are words like hán � � � m < * a� kw��� m46,
there seem to be no cases (exluding those with medial * -r-47) in the corresponding OC � * -am group. Although theoretically this could be no more than a coincidence, a
tentative hypothesis to account for this curious distribution may be set up on the basis
that rhymes in * -am shifted to *-an in words with labiovelar initials due to
dissimilation of the labial coda from the initial. One may note that the corresponding
ru-sheng counterparts did not undergo any sort of change in the coda: hé � � p <
*a� kw��� p and hé � ap < *a� kwa� p. Neither did words with pure labial nasal initials
such as fán � buam < *a� pa�m,48 although their xiesheng derivatives in the * -�� m
rhyme group went through another kind of dissimilation, reflective of the frequent
rhyming contacts between words in * -� m and * -� w /* -� � , as shown by words like
fe�ng � puw < *p�� m. In the case of jiàn � k� nh < *kwja� n� , whose labiovelar
initial may be justified through its relationship with xiàn � � � nh < *a� kwja� n� 49, the
46 It should be noted that the word xián � � a�m, put in the * -am group by Karlgren (1957: 162) as a solitary entry, should probably be reconstructed as *a� kwr ��m according to the vowel lowering after labiovelars (see fn.11) to compare with its phonetic ji
�n � kim < *k�� m. Nevertheless, the presence of
the medial * -r- might explain why dissimilation did not occur if it did indeed belong to the *-am group. 47 There are xiesheng relationships like jia
�n � k� m and xián � � m that would suggest a labiovelar
initial in at least the latter. However, derivatives li ke lián ! liam show that it was probably a palatolabiovelar with the EMC medial -w- being lost before a labial coda, suggesting OC reconstructions of *k"a�m, *a� k"a�m and *# a�m respectively. In the case of ji àn $ ka�mh, mentioned above, its derivatives li ke ji àn % � a�m, with a low -a- vowel, suggest a labiovelar series rather than a palatolabiovelar one. However, the failure of the final consonant to dissimilate suggests that it was prevented by the intervening medial * -r-. Of note in this regard is that the xiesheng series also has derivatives beginning with EMC l-, like lán & lam and lán ' lam which clearly derive from velar initials as shown by their PTB correspondences *g-ram ‘ indigo’ and *gram ‘basket’ respectively, as suggested by Matisoff (2003: 299). Matisoff reconstructs *g-ram for the former due to a correspondence with Written Tibetan * rams (ibid: 300), showing a similar loss of the initial velar. However, as Pulleyblank (1995a: 181) points out “The conditions under which the first consonant in initial clusters of the Cr- type was dropped, leaving initial * r, changing to middle Chinese l-, are not well undersood” , and any further reconstruction at this stage is not possible. 48 This contrast between labiovelars and pure labials is nicely demonstrated in modern day Cantonese where, according to Bauer and Benedict, “w-, kw-, and khw- tend not to combine with rimes ending in labially articulated consonants (-m, -p, -w)” (1997: 20). Although Bauer and Benedict put this down to being part of a broader tendency towards labial dissimilation, they do note that, as regards words with pure labial initials and codas, “we do find a few such combinations, namely p( m, p( p, ph( p, and m( m from the colloquial vocabulary” (ibid: 422) which “do not appear unusual or exceptional when viewed within the broader framework of areal phonetic features of other Yue dialects and some languages of the Southeast Asian linguistic area” (ibid: 428). 49 If one follows Handel’s comment that the voicing prefix “ is probably cognate with Proto-Tibeto-Burman *m-” (2002: 15), this reconstruction nicely supports Matisoff’s suggestion that it is comparable with Proto-Tibeto-Burman *m-kyen ‘know’ (2003: 311). As regards the relationship of
34
above hypothesis would give a proto-form *kwja�m� which could then have served as
phonetic in jiàn � ka�mh < *kwra�m� (the medial * -r- having prevented dissimilation,
as noted in fn.47). Further xiesheng evidence can be found in other word families to
support this hypothesis. An interesting example is hán � � an/� am, whose two
variant EMC readings not only justify the dissimilatory process outlined above, but
also suggest that it did not occur in all dialects, although it undoubtedly affected the
majority. Another example is yán � �an which, although it cannot be reconstructed
with an original labiovelar initial due to its xiesheng derivatives like xìn sinh,
might well have had a labial prefix *m- in its proto-OC form. Support for this prefix
may be found in the word xi�n � sin < *xjj �� j < *xjj �� m (undoubtedly phonetic in
yi�n � � im < * � �� m) which Matisoff (2003: 306) compares with PTB *m-sin ‘ liver,
bitter’ , and must have been phonetic in � as shown by its OB form � .
Unfortunately, Matisoff provides no PTB comparison with � but the unpredictable
behaviour of PTB prefixes, sometimes attested in individual forms in related
languages and other times not (see 2.1 above) gives the hypothesis some credence. In
a similar manner to the case of � in 2.2a above where *m- j- was assumed to give
* jw-, it may be assumed that proto-OC *m- - gave * w- which then developed into
EMC * - (as discussed in 2.1). This would then suggest a reconstruction of yán � �an < * wa�n <* wa
�m < *m- a
�m which is supported not only by its phonetic xi
�n � sin < *xjj �� j < *xjj �� m, but also by its xiesheng derivatives like zha
�n � t� iam <
*kja�m50. Xu Zhongshu’s (1989: 221-222) transcription of � as � with a gloss of
this with Pulleyblank’s prefixal pharyngeal glide *a� -, which he suggests is “probably cognate to Tibetan h� a-c
�hung and the Burmese prefix � a-” (1991b: 43-44). Sagart, who reconstructs this prefix as
an unspecified nasal *N-, has pointed out that “A-ch’ung is believed by several scholars to have represented prenasalization when in left-graph position, and especiall y in the present tense of verbs. See Beyer 1992 [The Classical Tibetan Language. Albany: State University of New York Press]: 47, note 10) for early transcriptional and loanword evidence. Certain modern Tibetan dialects also reflect a-ch’ung as prenasalization” (1999: 74). While Sagart’s observation is not strong enough to simply refute Pulleyblank’s proposal which is very well supported in its relationship with the * -a- infix in Pulleyblank’s (1989) a/� ‘ introvert/extrovert’ vowel ablaut hypothesis, certain similarities with a nasal prefix must be accepted. One may observe that while modal voicing, the most common form of voicing attested in most languages around the world, is caused by the effect of the larynx on otherwise voiceless obstruents, and hence historically may be conditioned by a laryngeal or pharyngeal prefix, prenasalization is also well attested as the cause of the voicing assimilation in nasal + stop sequences e.g. Bura, cited by Ladefoged and Maddieson (1996: 125-6). Although in many languages, like Bura, the nasal consonant of this initial cluster is retained, this is no reason to assume it always was, especiall y if it was prefixal in origin, in which case it may have been dropped with its trace only being left in the following consonant. Nevertheless, as Sagart’s observation aptly points out, historicall y it is very diff icult to clearly distinguish the two, and it seems likely that there would have been variation across related languages. Consequently, with the ‘ introvert/extrovert’ vowel ablaut analysis on his side, it seems safer to adopt Pulleyblank’s hypothesis until new evidence may be found to suggest otherwise. 50 The reconstruction of � which does not occur in the Shijing is supported by xi
�n � sin < *xjj �� j � <
*xjj �� m which is attested in the OB script as where � ! is undoubtedly playing a phonetic role. The reconstruction of " as proto-OC *m-� a
�m differs from the hypothesis put forward by Pulleyblank
(1991c: 31) and Sagart (1999: 135) that yán " � #an is derived from y$ % � #a& < * � a� '
with a formative * -n suffix. It does not, however, preclude the possibilit y of an *-m suffix playing a
35
“� � , � � � ” (sacrificial name, hence an ‘announcing sacrifice’ ) may be justified
on the basis of corresponding bronze forms where it has its present day meaning of
‘say’ , as well as contextual evidence in OB inscriptions:
� � � � � (Yibian 4708)
Tested: (The event of the) King holding (an) announcing-sacrifice51 to Zu Ding (will
unfold) correctly.
As regards the other words suggested by Boltz, these may accordingly be
reconstructed as ka�n � khanh < kkwa
n� < kkwa
m
�, màn � muanh < *a� xwa
�n� <
*a� xwa�m
�, miàn � mjianh < *a� xwja
�n� < *a� xwja
�m
�. The word hua
�n � � wa�nh is
problematic due to its rentention of the -w- medial and, following Pulleyblank (1995a:
178), “the problems that this raises must be left aside for the present” .52 Boltz’s
suggestion that xiàn � x�anh < *xwa�n� is related to this series is incorrect because,
following the Shuowen analysis “� � � � � � � ” (derived from � and from �
with � as abbreviated phonetic), its phonetic is clearly ha�i � � ajh < *a� kwa
t�.53
4.2 The Xiesheng Series of � � *m�� k, ! *m� k(�), " # $ *x-ma
% &k
As for the actual xiesheng series of ' , it is quite clearly unrelated to that of ( .
Pulleyblank comments “mào ) E. mawh < * -*+ wk, < * -*+ - k
, ‘cover’ , also read mò ) E. m* k < *m*+ - k, has mù ' as phonetic according to one version of the
Shuowen and there does not seem to be any other good explanation for the presence
morphological role. 51 Xu is presumably drawing a relationship with the gao . ‘announcing ritual’ (see fn.62) 52 Attempts have been made to identify some of these graphs in the oracle-bone script. Shima (1971: 101) lists two inscriptions with the graph / which has been variously transcribed as0 (Ding Su 1980: 96), 1 (Xu Zhongshu 1988: 805) and 2 (Sun Changxu 1986: 235-249). The two examples li sted by Shima both refer to the same event, and the function of the graph / , which is found preceding 3
, is unclear. The longer of the two may be transcribed as follows: 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < 7 = > ? @ / 3 A 7 B C ? D E F G HI J K L M N O P Q R(The) King prognosticating says: (There wil l) be hostilities. (On the) eighth day, (a) Geng Xu (day), (there) were clouds from the East S T R
(In the) afternoon there appeared (a) rainbow from (the) North (which) drank in the He (river). [See Takashima (2002: 112-113; 131) for a discussion of the OB graphU
, here translated as ‘hostilities’] The OB graph V has been treated as W by Xu Zhongshu (ibid: 992-993) who glosses it as a “X YZ
” (terr itorial name). It does not seem to be attested in the bronze script and so such a suggestion is hard to verify. Xu also (ibid: 284-285) transcribes the graph [ as \ with the meanings of “] Z
” (personal name) and “^ Z _ X Y Z
” (place name or terr itorial name). Again the graph does not seem to be attested in the bronze script. 53 The alternation of nasal with plosive codas is not uncommon in xiesheng series and does not require one to set up * -t and * -n as separate suff ixes added to the same OC * -a` root, as is required in the case of a and its xiesheng derivatives discussed in 7.1.
36
of the ‘eye’ element in the graph” (2004: 158-159). The graph is not attested in the
inscriptional language so paleographical evidence cannot elucidate this further. One
may also note the xiesheng derivative xù � � � xuawk ‘ rouse, urge’ whose initial
bears the same relationship to mù � muwk as, for example, hu�n � xw� n ‘dusk,
evening’ does to mín � min ‘suffering, distress’ , or he�i � x� k ‘ black’ does to mò
m� k ‘ (pitch) black, ink’ . In order to account for such an alternation, Baxter (1992:
188-218) and Sagart (1999: 24-42) reconstruct a voiceless set of sonorant initials that
they write with an h preceding the sonorant. Such a transcriptional convention seems
curious when, as Sagart points out, “There is no initial *h in the present system [of his
OC reconstruction], although a guttural fricative *x is reconstructed” (ibid: 26).
Sagart also suggests that “In the voiceless series [of sonorants], the nasals lose their
nasal character, and all, both nasal and non-nasal, evolve into Middle Chinese
voiceless obstruents (*hm- > x- ~ xw-, * ahn- > th-, * bhn- > sy, *h - > x-, *h w- > xw,
* ahl- > th-, * bhl > sy-, *hr- > x- ~ thrj-, *hw- > xw-)” (ibid.). Both Baxter and Sagart
use these voiceless sonorants to account for xiesheng relationships like, for example,
the alternation in nasal and dental initials between nán � nan and ta�n than.
Although it is assumed that a similar place of articulation is all that is required for
words with different initials to occur in the same xiesheng series and so just as * � -
and *x- may alternate, so may *n- and * -t, the totally different places of articulation of
*m- and *x- in � and � or � and � , make the case more complex. It is
certainly very curious that Sagart’s *hm- has the same EMC reflexes as *h - and
*h w-, a fricative x being very difficult to derive phonetically from a labial m.
Pulleyblank (1991b: 55) has suggested that an alternative cause of the aspiration of
EMC obstruents, in addition to the reduplication of initials, may have been a prefixal
*x-. Pulleyblank says little else on this process, but one may assume that the
suggestion is based on the common derivation of pre-aspiration from plosives
preceded by a fricative of some kind, which in this case developed into post-aspiration.
Although aspiration is uncommon with initials other than plosive obstruents which are
the only ones attested in Middle Chinese, Matisoff has pointed out that “Many T[ibeto]
B[urman] languages, including Burmese, Pumi, and the Chin group, have a series of
voiceless or aspirated nasals, which can easily be shown to derive from earlier
combinations of *s- or * � - with a nasal root initial” (2003: 37). He compares � and � with Proto-Tibeto-Burman *s-nak, adding that “There is also a nasal-final allofam
represented by W[ritten] B[urmese] ma ~ hma ‘ ink’ (< PLB *s-ma or � -ma )”
(ibid: 329). Aspirated and voiceless nasals are not attested in Middle Chinese, but this
does not necessarily preclude the prefixal *x-, representing in this instance
Proto-Tibeto-Burman * � - and *s-, from occurring before nasal initials. Further
37
support for this hypothesis may be found in Matisoff’ s comparison of hu�n � xw� n <
*xw�� n < *x-m�� n with PTB *s-mun ‘dark’ (2003: 309).
Whether Baxter and Sagart’s reconstruction of a voiceless sonorant series is actually
required remains to be seen as further progress in the study of Old Chinese word
families is made, but it is interesting to note that all of Sagart’s Middle Chinese
plosive reflexes of voiceless nasals are aspirated. Although in the derivation of *x-m-
> *xw-, the labial feature is retained in the EMC reflexes of words like hu�n � xw� n <
*xw�� n < *x-m�� n, in the case of xù � � �
xuawk < *xwa� �
k < *x-ma� �
k, the loss of
this feature may be accounted for by the rule that labiovelars lost their labial feature
before the low vowel -a- (see fn.11). However, in the case of he�i � x� k, one would
have expected an EMC form of xw� k. However, the fact that the labial feature has
disappeared seems to imply some kind of labial feature in the coda. Perhaps here we
have another case of Proto-OC * -� � k merging with * � k (see 8.4).
Also of note in relation to this series is the word méi � mi < *mr �� l ‘eyebrow’ which
Matisoff compares with PTB *mul ~ *mil ‘hair (body), eyebrow’ (2003: 505). It is
attested in the OB script as � or . Unfortunately, aside from functioning as a
territorial/personal name, its function is unclear. However its transcription is
supported by its form in the bronze script. Both graphs clearly contain the components ( � ) or � ( ) respectively. However, as the above discussion has shown, there
is no etymological relationship between � or and so a relationship must be
looked for elsewhere. Fowler (1989: 144) has pointed out a comparison with the OB
graph � , which he treats as (being analogous to wéi � muj > *m�� l)54 “which
shows the hair[s] of the head all pointing in the same direction, and méi � /� …
which shows the hairs of the eyebrow all pointing in the same direction” . Fowler’s
observation is important as it makes a clear distinction between the graphs ( )
and (� ) which scholars like Xu Zhongshu (1989: 1041-1042) have failed to
differentiate. A further comparison may also be suggested with � � � � muj’ < *m�� l � ‘ tail ’ which Matisoff compares to PTB * r-may ‘ tail ’ (2003: 221). It may well be
attested in the OB script as � , although Shima (1971: 27) lists only one example in
which its meaning is unclear, and no corresponding examples have been found in the
bronze script.
54 Fowler (ibid: 181-182) comments that “The basic meaning of wei � is ‘small, fine, slight, weak’, and I think the present graph represents this by emphasizing the long fine hair on the person’s head”. Unfortunately the graph seems to only occur as a place name, but the bronze form of the homophonous xiesheng graph � suggests that the transcription is correct. Matisoff (2003: 201) compares � to PTB *mw� y ‘ fine, deli cate’ .
38
Chapter 5
A Polyphonic � ‘Fire’?
5.1 The Xiesheng Series of � � *xja�w, � *xa
�w, � *kja
�w-k
Boodberg’s (1937: 343) argument that “� ** � wâr – ‘f ire’ in the meaning of ‘burn’
was probably pronounced ** TSÄK [fn. “That is as if equal to � * t�’ s�i äk – ‘ red’ <
‘ fiery’ where � is ‘etymonic’ . In � reduplicated > � � G we probably have the
graph reverting to the phoneme * � wâr ] ~ ** TSUG and served ‘phonetic-etymonic’
in * t’ s�i äk – ‘ to roast,’ � * t’ s
�i äu – ‘ to burn,’ � ** TsuG – ‘ to scorch’ (ph. in �
* ts’ i � u-G ‘autumn’) and possibly � *d’ i � k” , has been reiterated by Boltz who
states that jia�o � ‘ to roast, scorch’ , liào � ‘burnt offering’ , bia
�o � ‘ leaping
flames’, ga�o � ‘ lamb’, bia
�o/páo � ‘ to change color (of animal or bird) “all…
belong to the � hsiao < * -(j)agw Shih ching rime group, and are written with
characters containing the � huo ‘ fire’ constituent. Moreover, the first three are
clearly semantically related to some aspect of ‘ fire’ . In these three characters the �
‘ fire’ element is functioning both as a phonophoric and a semantic component; i.e.
what we have called an ‘etymonic.’ In [the latter two]…, representing words that do
not have any apparent semantic link to ‘f ire’ , the � is limited to a phonophoric role.
In all cases, as a phonophoric, it must have had a reading in the Hsiao rime group,
different from and unrelated to its standard known reading as huo < *hw� rx (� wei
< * -(j)� d rime group)” (1994: 122).
Firstly Boodberg’s examples of yì � jiajk, zhì � t� iajk and di d! jk must be
dismissed for the reasons outlined in 2.3. Similarly Boltz’s example of jia�o " is
effectively accounted for in 5.2, as are bia�o � and bia
�o � in 5.3. As for liào # , it
is the only one of Boltz’s characters with a definite oracle-bone counterpart, $
‘ liao-burning-sacrifice’ , and it is quite clearly a xiangxing graph. This leaves only ga%o &
to support the Boodberg/Boltz hypothesis. The word ga%o
& has in fact been the
subject of some debate in the OB corpus. In his unpublished 2001 manuscript, Boltz
brings up the case of &
again, but makes no mention of the different opinions
involved, simply stating that “The OB forms of &
gau < *ka'w ‘kid’ are, as the
modern graph would suggest, in their simplest form composed of a ( ‘sheep’ over a ) ‘ fire’ . The semantic role of the ( ‘ sheep’ is not hard to understand, but the
presence of the )
‘ fire’ element is puzzling. At the same time there is no obvious
phonophoric in the character… It would be natural… at the formative stage of the
39
script to use th[e] same (picto)graph ( to represent the word gau < *ka'w ‘kid’ , even
though that word bears no phonetic similarity to yang < *gra�ng. If that was what
happened, the graph ( would have been thus a polyphone. And if ( was in fact a
polyphone, one of the possible readings of which was gau < *ka'w, then the graph
)
(with a reading in the shiau < * -aw �
rime group) would have been a perfect
determinative to specify the gau < *ka'w reading, meaning ‘kid’ , as opposed to the
yang < * gra�ng reading meaning ‘sheep’.” (2001: 7-8). Even if one is will ing to accept
Boltz’s theories of polyphony, which he seems to assign to any graph for which he
cannot find a phonetic explanation, a graph wholly composed of two polyphonic
components with hypothetical readings unattested in the modern language seems to be
stretching his already overly flexible parameters. The OB graph � , that Boltz
presumes to represent ga%o
&, is now commonly interpreted as yue � /� ‘mountain
peak’ 55 which seems to be referring to some kind of natural divinity, although
Akatsuka’s (1977: 92-105) treatment of it as yang (( + � ) is more faithful to the
original palaeograph and is adopted by Keightley who treats it as the “Yang Mountain
Power” (2000: 105):
� � � � � (Heji 10076)
(Perform a) you-cutting-sacrifice (to) pray56 (for) harvest to (the) Yang (Mountain
Power), (the) He (River Power), (and the predynastic spirit) Nao.
As regards the actual oracle-bone form for ga o � , Xu Zhongshu (ibid: 414-415) has
proposed that it should be used to transcribe the graph � about which he says “� �� ¦ ¦, ¦ ¦� � , � � � � � � � (derived from � and from ¦ ¦, ¦ ¦ represents � , �� is used as a huiyi for � ” and to which he assigns the meaning “� � � � � ”
(sacrifice which uses a sacrificial animal). Shima (1971: 214) lists only three
inscriptions with the graph, but it is clear from context that it must refer to a sacrificial
animal rather than a sacrificial process:57
55 Serruys (1982. 482-7) comments: “Though it is argued that the graph ! usually has a flat, square shape as against a rounder shape for " , sometimes with additional dots (representing the fire sparks), there are still many exceptions. If the Shang graph was indeed # ‘ lamb’ one should expect it to occur in texts where ‘sheep’ are mentioned as sacrificial victims, and one should be able to explain why there is always mention made of $ % or $ (small, young (penned) sheep) but no # .” 56 The interpretation of & as da
'o ( ‘ to pray for; prayer ritual’ , rather than hu ) , follows the
proposal of Ji Xiaojun (1991: 33-34) that the phonetic for ) in the SW should be read as ta*o + , and
that consequently & would be best treated as da'o ( .
57 This runs counter to the traditional interpretation, first suggested by Shang Chengzuo (1923: 11.2a *11.3299), which defines , as follows: “- . / 0 1 , . 2 3 . , . 4 / 5 ” (it makes one character with 6 ‘submerge’ , submerging a cow is called 6 , submerging a sheep is called 7 ). One could, however, argue that in this context it means ‘ libated sheep’ to be li ao-burning-sacrificed.
40
…� � � � � � � � � [= ]… (Tieyun 86.3)
…Chen (day) divination, Nan tested: Specifically58 liao-burning-sacrifice ten pigs
(and) lambs, liu-cutting-sacrifice…
This certainly seems like a more tenable hypothesis, especially as xi� o � siaw’ <
*xja w forms a nice phonetic for ga
�o � kaw < * xa
w. Although the oracle-bone graph
for � is written as three dots � , rather than the four in � , Xu Zhongshu (1989:
414-415) notes that the graph � , which is usually transcribed as � , “� � � � ” (has
the same meaning as � ). This is not surprising for, as mentioned in fn.72, the
number of components in bivalent and trivalent graphs does not reflect a specific
quantity. One may note for example that the OB graph � , that may be transcribed as �, sometimes occurred as � . Xu Zhongshu’s theory is also nicely supported by the
graph � què/qi� o � ts�ak < *kja�w-k ‘ small bird, sparrow’ which not only is
phonetically related to xi� o in its root form, but also contains the graph for xi� o , ! , as its top component.59
5.2 The Xiesheng Series of " " *kwj #$ w% , & *'-ka�w
Further to his proposal (1994: 122), cited in 5.1 above, that the phonetic in & was a
polyphonic ( , Boltz has more recently added the following: “The character & is
not registered as occurring in Shang inscriptions, but JGWB [Jiaguwen Bian, Beijing
1934, Sun Haibo ed.]… gives a graph in which the top component is ) instead of & , with ( underneath, i.e. * , and the Shuowen says that this form with ) is read
like & jiau < ksa�w ‘ roast’… It seems plausible to identify the same word jiau <
58 Takashima’s interpretation of this graph as xiang + ‘specificall y’ is well supported by inscriptions where it is used to quali fy the copula wei , that exemplify its function of “highlighting and contrasting” (1996.1: 475): - + , . / 0 1 . 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : 2 ; … (Bingbian 197.4) (We) should not specifically (on the) Yi Hai (day) you-cutting-sacrifice (to) Xia Yi 15 decapituri, li u-cutting-sacrifice 10 specially-reared-sheep, four… He also points out that it is “employed predominantly in the negative…. But the fact that xiang is also used in positive sentences should impel us to look for a non-linguistic (sociological, historical or ritual) reason for the restrictions on its usage” (1996.2: 144). 59 One may note, however, that Karlgren observes that in spite of appearing to be composed of ‘small ’ and ‘bird’ , it is “possibly, a bird with a tuft on its head” (1964: 288). Certainly the OC pronunciation *kja
<w-k of = does bear some similarity to the reconstructed form *k-> a
? > -k for @ ‘horn’ (see 5.3). However, the initial velar in the latter form is assumed to be the result of a prefix and not to be part of the root form, and their seems li ttle reason to reconstruct a rounded *-> coda in the former. Also of note is that Boodberg (1940b: 130) has pointed out that = ‘small bird’ was often used as a cognomen for people born in the year of the rooster, a kind of tufted bird. With the only examples of = in the oracle-bone script as a territorial/personal name, and it not appearing in the bronze script, it is very diff icult to test the theory. Consequently, with semantic and phonological advantages in favour of the A
interpretation, this should be adopted unless new evidence proves otherwise.
41
ksa�w ‘ roast’ as underlying the two variant graphs, with either
� or � on top.”
(2001: 7). In fact, a closer analysis of the oracle-bone graph � , referred to by Boltz,
reveals that the top component is not in fact � �, but � . The Shuowen also
analyzes qiu� � tshuw < kkj�� w as being “ � � ” (derived from � with � as
abbreviated phonetic). However, Qiu (2001: 234) has pointed out that “The zhòuwén
form recorded by the Shuo�wén had already changed into � … The Shuo
�wén
statement ‘with � as abbreviated phonetic’ should be corrected to ‘with as
abbreviated phonetic’ .” Consequently it seems very likely that Xu Zhongshu’s (1989:
1116) gloss of � ( � as “� � � � ” (the qiu of chunqiu) is correct:
� � � � � � � � � (Heji 32968)
Ding Chou (day) tested: This autumn (the) King wil l (send out a) big mission.
As for ( ), aside from functioning as a place name, Xu (ibid: 783-784) treats it
either as being the same as � , or “! " # $ ” (possibly meaning locust plague). In
addition, when it seems to occur in a sacrificial context, he glosses it as “% & � ' �( )” (a sacrificial practice concerning the autumn time) or perhaps “% & # * �)
” (a sacrifice concerning a locust divinity). The difficulty over the two
interpretations, � and # , has been neatly summarized by Serruys, who observes
(1974: 89) that the “explanation [proposed in Chang Tsung-tung’s Der Kult der
Shang-Dynastie im Spiegel der Orakelinschriften: Eine paläographische Studie zur
Religion im archaischen China, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1970)] that ‘ locusts were
being scared away at harvest times (� ) by burning grass’ (hence the addition of the
element + ) needs further proof. Moreover, it does not explain the different readings
huang and ch’ iu” . Serruys’ criticism is well-founded and an interpretation of � for , as well as for � , seems generally preferable to # . However, the graphic form of does seem to depict some kind of flying insect which presumably represented its
primary meaning before it was used as a jiajie for qiu, � tshuw < kkj-. w. In
inscriptions like the following it is preceded by the verb / ‘ (conduct a) pacifying
ritual’ which suggests a meaning of ‘placate’ when it occurs before 0 ‘ rain’ and 1
‘wind’ . Perhaps here it means to placate the havoc caused by locusts:
2 3 45 / 6 7 (Ninghu 1.119)
Yi Hai (day) tested: (We) will (conduct a) pacifying-ritual (of the) locust (plague) to
Xun.
The above discussion clearly demonstrates that the OB graph 8 (of which according
to Qiu (ibid.) “the character 9 in the Shuo:wén is probably a corrupt variant” and
42
which is erroneously treated as phonetic in � ) does not seem to share any
etymological relationship with � . As for the phonetic component in jia�o � tsiaw,
Qiu comments that “In their use of graphic compounds, “� ” and “� ” are often
interchangeable; e.g. ‘� ’ chú ‘young (bird)’ can also be written ‘� ’ ; ‘� ’ ji� ‘chicken’
is also written ‘ ’ . According to the Shuo�wén, ‘� ’ is ‘ the general designation of
short-tailed birds’ while ‘� ’ is ‘ the general name for long-tailed birds.’ Pulleyblank
has suggested a phonetic relationship between ni o � t� w’ and zhui � t� wi by
comparing them with ji � k� j < *kwa
�j, and reconstructing them respectively as
*kwj �� w� and *kwj �� l, stating that “Here we evidently have a root *kw-j ‘bird’ with
various extensions: *kw-a-j, *kw-j-l, *kw-j-w” (1995a: 172). This seems like a very
likely hypothesis60 and Pulleyblank’s reconstruction of ni o � t� w’ > *kwj �� w�
should be adopted. This could easily have functioned as phonetic in jia o � tsiaw,
although in order to conform to the guidelines of what could constitute a xiesheng
series, the derivation of EMC ts- in � would have to be attributed to *�-k-, rather
than *kj- as posited earlier, giving a reconstructed form of *�-ka
�w.
5.3 The Xiesheng Series of � /� � * � a� � -k, � *k-� a
� � -k, � * � a� � -k, � * a� p-� a
� �
Boltz’s proposal (1994: 122) that páo � ba�w ‘roe deer’ (also read bia o � piaw
‘ to weed; bold, warlike’) and bia o � pjiaw ‘ leaping flames’ are derived from a
polyphonic � (see 5.1 above) seems untenable. To deal with the graph � first, it is
clearly graphically related to lù � l � wk < * � a� � k ‘deer’ . Sagart has noted that “ it
seems possible in Chinese to relate the words for ‘deer’ and ‘horn’ , as in a number of
Indo-European languages where the old word for ‘deer’ has been replaced by an
adjective meaning ‘horned’ because of a hunting taboo... The name of the horn is
jiao3 � * ak-rok > k wk with concrete count noun k- prefix. A doublet reading for
the same character is listed in the Ji Yun as luwk (< * arok) with the gloss � , ! " #$ ‘ jiao3 � means adult wild animals’ (adult animal with horns) 61. This is
homophonous with the name of the deer which can now be etymologized as ‘ the
horned one’.” (2001: 161). A phonetic and semantic relationship between the two
words for ‘horn’ , ji o � ka�wk < *k-� a� � k and lù � l � wk < * � a
� � k, and the word
for ‘deer’ , lù � l � wk < * � a� � k, can certainly be established. Further to this, one may
60 Pulleyblank (1991b: 77) only makes reference to EMC t- deriving from labiovelar initials preceding a medial * -j-. However, the xiesheng series of % contains the word d& o ' taw’ which cannot have had this medial *-j- as it would have given an EMC reflex t( w’ . As Pulleyblank himself observes, the exact conditions for the shift of velars to dentals “have still to be determined” (ibid: 52). 61 Sagart’s translation is slightly inaccurate. The phrase “) * + , - ” should reall y be translated as “) is an animal which is no longer a baby” .
43
also observe that the word for ‘roe deer’ páo � ba�w may also be included in this
family. Although its rhyming in the Shiji ng suggests a reconstruction of *a� pra�w <
*a� p-� a�w, one may note that the OC rhyme group � * -a
� � lacks any Grade II rhymes
(i.e. rhymes where the vowel quality has been affected by a medial, or prefixal, * r)
which suggests that proto-OC *-ra� � may have merged with * -ra
�w. The addition of � to this xiesheng series suggests that the final * -k on the forms for ‘horn’ and ‘deer’
above is a suffixal element. This is supported by Matisoff’ s (2003: 480) comparison
of � with Proto-Tibeto-Burman *kr � w-k which provides clear evidence for a
suffixal * -k. As for the Type B variant bia�o piaw, which as Karlgren (1957: 301)
points out is a loan for the homophonous graphs ‘ to run’ and � ‘ to weed’, the
existence of the Type B rhyme * -rua� < * -ra �
suggests that these xiesheng derivatives
must have come about after the merger of * -ra� �
with * -ra�w. Also of note is that *-a
� �
without any r-colouring also seems to have merged with * -a� �
in some cases.
Examples of this may be found in xiesheng relationships like: g� � k� ’ < kwa� � �
with zh� � trua� ’ < *kwrja � �
as phonetic which in turn has dòu � d� wh < *a� ka� � �
as phonetic (see 8.6); bù � b� ’ < * a� pa� � �
and its alternative reading p� u � b� w’ <
*a� pa� � �
(see fn.78 for a discussion this xiesheng series). The near homophony of the
two OC forms of � , which following the above logic were presumably
homophonous in proto-OC as *a� pa� � �
, suggests that this was a dialectal phenomenon.
As for bia�o � pjiaw < *p-ja
w (an older graphic, and slight phonetic, variant for pia
�o �
phjiaw which is nowadays more usually found written as bia�o � pjiaw),
Pulleyblank (1995c: 293) has pointed out that “the upper part of the graph [ya�o] �
[�jiaw < * ja
w] is found in the ka
�ishu
� form of
� EMC phjiaw and its derivatives.
Though this graphic connection is not confirmed by earlier inscriptional forms, it
probably indicates that the common phonetic element * -jaw was recognized at the
time of the Qín script form”. The Shuowen gloss of as “� ! " � # $ ” (a kind
of big deer, derived from %
with & as abbreviated phonetic) shows how by the
Han period, when Xu Shen was compiling the Shuowen, ' and ( had developed
very similar pronunciations. This does not, however, mean they were necessarily
etymologically related, and there are no graphic or phonological reasons to assume
that they were.
44
Chapter 6
A Polyphonic � ‘Child’?
6.1 The Xiesheng Series of � � *a� kj��� � , � *a� kj��� � -k
� / *a� kj��� � � , kj�� � , *a� kj� � -n,
Boltz has suggested that “Both characters [su�n � sw n and cún , EMC dzw n]
have the � component, and are in the same Old Chinese rime group, viz., � w n
< * -(j) n… [This] would lead to the conclusion that the graph � was phonophoric
in both, with a reading in the w n < * -(j) n rime group” (1994: 123-124).
The fact that cái � dz j is the phonetic in cún dzw n was pointed out by
Yakhontov (1970: 57), to whom Boltz (1994: 125) also makes reference, who
comments that in “rounding arose relatively late as an irregular development. In
Old Chinese both syllables rhymed only with words having unrounded vowels… and appears as phonetic in � dzhien ‘a second time, repeatedly’ and in several other
characters with the same pronunciation. The character itself originally had as its
phonetic � dzh� i (*dzh� ) ‘ talent’ .” While the theory of OC reconstruction used here
does not distinguish between round and unrounded vowels for, as Pulleyblank (1993:
366) has pointed out, such a hypothesis is strongly weakened by “the fact that we
need more than two rounded vowels, or the assumption of at least some rounded
vowels before velars in order to accommodate the Shi�ji�ng rhyme distinctions, and the
need to assume that * -s did not have the same effect as other coronals in causing the
diphthongization of rounded vowels” , Yakhontov’s observation that the xiesheng
series of cún � dzw� n predominantly consists of words with unrounded features
such as jiàn � dz� nh < *a� kjj �� n� suggests that the rounding was indeed a secondary
development. Whether it was due to some unidentified labial prefix remains unclear,
but with the absence of any evidence and the fact that it seems rounding appeared
relatively late in the evolution of the word, it can be safely ignored for the purposes of
reconstruction used here. As for cái � dz� j and zài dz� j’ with its alternate
departing tone reading zài dz� jh, these presumably derived from *a� kj��� ! , *a� kj��� ! " and *a� kj��� ! � respectively. These form a nice comparison with PTB (t)sa#y ~ (d)za#y
‘ talent, aptitude’ as cited by Matisoff (2003: 221). This also suggests that the *-n coda
of cún � dzw� n was the result of a suff ix, giving a reconstructed form *a� kj�� ! -n. In
the oracle-bone inscriptions zài is written with the graph $ : % & '( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 (Zhuihe 30)
45
Yi Hai (day) divination, Xing tested: (The) King treats Xiao Yi (as a guest)62 with (a)
xie-ritual-sacrifice63. (There is) no blame64. (It is) on (the) 11th month
Also undoubtedly related to this series is the graph za�i �
ts� j < * kj��� � (also with
derivatives that appear to perhaps have once had a velar suff ix like zài � ts� jh < *
kj��� � (-k)� which rhymes with words like xi
� � sik < *xj�� k in the Shiji ng, in this case
Ode 203.4) which the Shuowen defines as “ � � � ” (to harm, derived from � with � as phonetic). That the Shuowen is correct in this analysis is clearly
shown by the OB graph for � , � , where the phonetic component � is clearly
visible. It occurs in inscriptions like:
� � � � � � � � � � (Jimbun 2050)
(If the) King inspects (the) hunting-ground (there will) not (be) harm (and he will) not
encounter heavy rain.
6.2 The Xiesheng Series of � � /� *xj� ! , " *kj� ! , # *xj�$$ ! -n, % * & j� ! -n'
Boltz’s (1994: 125) suggestion that “ it may be that the word ts’un < *dzw� n [( ] with
its fundamental sense of ‘endure, be perpetuated’ , was seen as semantically akin to
sun # *gsw� n ‘descendants, posterity’ and to % yìn < *grj � ns [‘descendants’ ]” is a
very interesting observation. While the characters may simply exist in a zhuanzhu
relationship, Boltz’s has tried to give the latter two some kind of a xiesheng
relationship: “Given the occurrence of the common graphic element ) * + in the
three characters [su,n # sw� n ‘grandchild, descendant’ , yìn % jinh ‘descendant,
posterity’ , g- n . kw� n’ ‘name of a legendary fish’ ]…, and the fact that the words
62 Takashima (2000: 117) comments “since the verb bin / ‘hosting ritual’ can specify an Oins, it makes good sense semanticall y to regard it as a ritual, but not a sacrificial verb…. However, it nevertheless lacks the [+request] feature and therefore, no OI is associated with it” . Bin may therefore be included in Takashima’s group of [+ ritual] verbs, which, aside from 0 , all have a [+request] feature: dao 1 ‘prayer ritual’ , zhu 2 ‘ invocation ritual’ , ning 3 ‘pacification ritual’ , yu 4 ‘ lustration/exorcism ritual’ , guan 5 ‘ libation ritual’ , gao 6 ‘announcing ritual’ (also occurring as a regular [-ritual] verb meaning ‘to report’ ). 63 It7 (1996:1 22-3) comments that in the second half of Period-II , there is the emergence of “an organized system of sacrifices to the former Kings and Queens…. Starting from Shang Jia and following the generations downwards, the five sacrifices called Ji 8 , Zai 9 , Xie : , Rong ; < => ?
, and Yi @ were made to the ancestors in proper order on the day corresponding to the heavenly ancestor’s name. This sacrificial system continued until the reign of Lin Xin in the first half of Period III …. It was revived in the reign of Di Yi and Di Xin in Period V.” In this work, these five sacrifices are translated as ‘ritual-sacrifice’ to distinguish them from other regular sacrificial verbs. 64 Concerning the issue of ‘blame,’ ItA (1996:1. 26) points out that “unlike a curse, [it] was used with reference to sacrifices performed on the same day as the divination. We might see it as embodying a concern as to whether the ancestor would accept the sacrifice” .
46
all belong to the � w� n < * -(j)� n rime group, we have no reason not to consider the� ~ � component a phonophoric with a reading in * -(j)� n” (1994: 123). The case
of � has been dealt with in 2.1. As for � , the idea that it could be composed of two
polyphonic graphs, neither of which have maintained their polyphonic pronunciation
down to the present day, and both of which are acting as phonetic components in the
graph, seems highly unlikely. Nevertheless, Boltz’s assumed relationship between � , � and � may well exist, just not for the reasons he cites.
Unfortunately yìn � jinh < * � j� -n does not appear in the oracle-bone inscriptions,
but its later forms show that it is graphically related to the xiesheng series of si� � /
s� < *xj� 65 with which a phonetic connection can also be made. The simplified
form of � as the top component in its modern form, need not be an issue for this is
also the case in the related graph zi� � ts� < *kj� . Both � / and � occur in the
OB script, the former as � / � which appears to be a personal name, the latter as �
which seems to function as a demonstrative pronoun or a pronominal adverb:66 � � � �� (Kufang 2.X1)
Tested: (It is) this crack (that we should) use.
The Shuowen treats � as a huiyi graph, analyzing it as “� � � � ” (derived from � and from � ). However, there is also an oracle-bone form which appears to
consist of � and � , of which Shima (1971: 149) lists three occurrences.
Unfortunately, all of these are too fragmentary to glean any meaning, but the later
bronze forms suggest that the transcription is correct. It seems likely that here too si�
/! s" < *xj#$ % is the phonetic. As with the case of & , there is a difficulty in
accounting for the rounded feature. Although the handful of other graphs containing ' also seem to show this rounding, one may assume that the rounding may have
developed as a later feature; it should be noted that & does also have some rounded
derivatives like the homophonous graph cún ( dzw# n. This would suggest a
reconstructed form of *xj#$ % -n, which is clearly related to the PTB word *syu(w) ~
*syu(w)-n ‘grandchild’ , cited by Matisoff (ibid: 499), where the final * -n can also
clearly be seen as a suffix.67
65 Concerning ) and its relationship with * , Qiu notes: “The graph resembles two skeins of sil k. In the earliest stages of the ancient script, ‘ * ’ and ‘ ) ’ were a single undifferentiated character. Later ‘ * ’… was considered a separate character read mì” (2000: 179). 66 It may be distinguished from + (see fn.38) on the basis that in its pronominal function it has no anaphoric reference, and in its pre-verbal form it has no modal function. 67 Also perhaps a member of this xiesheng series is the graph , which has been subject to a variety of interpretations. Lefeuvre (1997: 335) identifies the upper component as - which he treats as the phonetic and comments that the lower part “ is very similar to . ” and suggests that it “seems to mean
47
6.3 The Xiesheng Series of � /� �/� * � �� w-k, � *pp-x�� w, � *p-x� w , � x� w , � * � �� w, * � �� w
Boltz (1994: 111) comments that the graphs � , � , � , �
, � , � , � and �
“comprise a series based on the character � with a pronunciation in the yu <
* -j � gw/-j � kw [� ] group, not read as tzu < * tsj � gx. This pronunciation does not
survive in the later stages of the language as a reading for the character � , of course,
but the evidence… suggests that it might once have been associated with � ,
probably as a result of using the simple zodiograph for ‘child’ to write the word
*grj � kw ‘child birth’ . It seems reasonable to suggest that at the early stage of the
language the word for ‘childbirth’ might be written with the graph that depicts a child
and that stands zodiographically for the word * ts� gx ‘child’ .”
Although the relationship of � to the other graphs seems more likely to be that of
zhuanzhu68, Boltz’s bringing together of all the above graphs should be commended.
However, especially in light of the fact that Boltz has already proposed a different
‘ to come upon something’ , ‘ to encounter’.” Takashima (2000: 381-384) has provided an alternative interpretation that the lower component is “ the abbreviation of � or � (= � )” adding that “ this is an abbreviated grapheme shared with the graph for xin � ” , and concluding that “Now if… [it] has the phonetic wu � , what possible word could have been represented by it? In my view the best candidate stil l remains wu � , ‘ to go against, resist’ .” Such an analysis allows him to translate the two contexts in which � occurs, before � and before � , as ‘ to go against the numen of the bone’ (ibid: 376) and ‘resist (the performance of) the rong ritual’ (ibid: 383) respectively. There may also be another alternative which, on the basis of such limited evidence, must also be very tentative. Based on the graphic confusion of � and � in the OB script, one could assume that the top component of � is in fact � . Such an interpretation is bolstered by the fact that there is one occurrence of the graph in Qianbian 843, reminiscent of the reduplicative forms of � /� � / � and � . As for the lower component, it may well be the graph ! , as Lefeuvre pointed out. While there is often a vertical line through the middle of the OB graph for ! , this is not always present and should not prevent a comparison from being made. The situation is much the same as with Takashima’s comparison with � where there is sometimes a horizontal or warped line in the graph and sometimes there is not. As a direct transcription, one could therefore propose the graph zi
" # ts$ < *kj%& ' ‘black’ . This would then
give the following translations: ‘blacken (the) rong’ , referring to the degree to which the rong, which Takashima (2003b: 215) has suggested may have been ‘strips of meat’, should be burnt; ‘blacken (the) plastron’ , referring to the degree of blackening caused by the application of heat in the divinatory process. As regards the latter interpretation, there is unfortunately no evidence of different degrees of burning on the plastron. Furthermore, the unclear semantic function of the graph ( , as well as the lack of information about the nature of the rong ritual in the former interpretation, means such an analysis must remain highly speculative in want of further evidence. 68 Although Sun Haibo (1934: 357) attempted to identify ) with the OB graph * , this suggestion has not been adopted by other specialists. Xu Zhongshu (1989: 1577) simply says “+ , - . / ” (what it is composed of is unclear) with the tentative suggestion that “0 1 2 3 ”(perhaps it is a place name). The earliest attested forms of xiào ) xa$wh are in the bronze script where they all contain the same upper component depicted in graphs like k4 o 5 khaw’ and l 4 o 6 law’ which was undoubtedly serving as phonetic. As noted in fn.4 above, Serruys (1957: 152-153) has suggested that máo 7 maw may have been an “endomorphic phonetic” in these graphs.
48
polyphonic reading for � (see 6.1 above), the assumption that this is an example of
polyphony may be questioned. While one might be tempted to assume that zì � ts� ’ < *kj�� � derived from a proto-OC rhyme * -�� �
, which in the case of the above list
developed into its variant OC reflex * -�� w, this seems unlikely for this would suggest
variant OC reflexes in the same xiesheng series. In fact, the solution may be found in
a thorough analysis of old forms of the graphs which suggests that they were actually
derived from a different xiesheng series headed by the OB graph � . This graph
seems to consist of a baby surrounded by parturition fluid. In the OB script, Xu
Zhongshu (1989: 1581-1582) treats it as a variant of the graphs � and � , depicting
either a human figure or a female figure giving birth to a baby. It may be
transcribed as yù � /� juwk < � �� w-k ‘ raise, nourish’ and seems to have a meaning
of ‘descendants’ 69: � �� � � � � � � � � � (Buci 162)
Jia Xu (day) divination, Lü tested: (On the) next Yi Hai (day), (perform a)
rong-ritual-sacrifice to (the) descendants (of) Zu Yi.
The word fú � phua� , in spite of its irregular EMC reflex, clearly rhymes as * -�� w in
the Shiji ng (supported by its xiesheng derivatives like fú � buw < *a� p-x�� w). If its
labial initial is treated as a prefixal element of some sort, its relationship with yù � /� juwk < �� w-k becomes apparent. It occurs in the OB script as ! , with the
alternate forms " and # , and Xu Zhongshu (ibid: 895-896) treats it as fú $ bua�
‘prisoner’ in inscriptions like:
% & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < * = ; = > ? @ 6 A 7: ; < B ; B C D(Jinghua 6)
(On the) fourth day, (a) Geng Shen (day), (there) also was (the) coming of bad-news.
From (the) north, Zi Xi reporting says (on the) evening70 (of a) Jia Chen (day), (the)
Fang (conducted a) corrective-campaign at You. Captured people numbered 15 men.
(On the) fifth day, (a) Wu Shen (day), (the) Fang also (conducted a)
corrective-campaign. Captured people numbered 16 men. (This happened) on (the) 6th
month.
69 The graphs E and F are quite clearly depictions of the birth of a child. However, in the oracle-bone script the concept of birth is written with the graph G , usually given a functional, though etymologicall y unrelated gloss of mi H n I , and the graphs J and K seem to be exclusively used in a metaphorical sense for descendants. 70 The semantic distinction between xì L ziajk < *aM xja
NN Ok (see 2.3a) and xi
P Q siajk < *xja
NN Ok is
unclear.
49
Although there is no evidence of the parturition fluid in the graphs for � , it seems
likely that the graph was simpli fied in much the same way as the case of the �component in � (see 8.1) which is missing the phallus in the latter graph. Evidence
for such an assumption comes from the related graph b� o � paw’ , which the
Shuowen analyzes as “ � � � � � � � ” (derived from �
and from
abbreviated , is the guwen form of � ). As will be demonstrated below, its
bilabial initial was probably the result of a prefix. This would allow for a tentative
reconstruction of *p-x�� w� , although the exact nature of the velar initial is difficult at
this stage to ascertain with any certainty. While in the OB script it seems to be attested
as � , there are some bronze script examples where the parturition fluid is marked,
and it is also quite clearly marked in Xu Shen’s Han time form � , with the two
additional dots either side of � . In the OB inscriptions, it seems to have the same
meaning as attested in its modern form, and may function either as a verb ‘ to protect’
or a noun ‘protection’ :
� � � � (Bingbian 305)
(There will be) no protection, (he will) perhaps die.
Undoubtedly related to b� o �
paw’ < *p-x�� w� is h� o � xaw’ < *x�� w� (also read
in the departing tone as hào � xawh < *x�� w� ). It is attested in the OB script as � ,
differing only in its component, rather than ! in " , which compares nicely
with the variant forms # and $ of % /& . In the OB inscriptions it seems to only
occur as a personal name:
' ( ) * + , * - (Yibian 4098)
Tested: Lady Hao having (an) ailment is [= means] (there will ) be mishaps.
The graph yóu . juw < * / 01 w is not attested in the Shuowen. The Shuowen does
however list yóu 2 juw < * / 01 w which it analyzes as “3 4 5 6 ” (derived from 7
with 8 as phonetic). The late occurrence of the graph yóu 9 juw < * : ;< w suggests
that the reanalysis of the = component of > as the semantic determiner for the
whole graph ? , allowed a xiesheng series with words like @ to develop, with the
putative graph 9 at its head. Xu Zhongshu (1989: 732-733) transcribes the OB
graph A as ? , treating it as a place name:
B C DE F G H I J K (Kufang 1033)
Xin Mao (day) divination, Ji tested: (The) King perhaps hunts at You.
50
As for yóu � juw < * � �� w, Xu Zhongshu (ibid: 1199-1200) suggests that it is
derived from the OB graph � . Unfortunately Shima (1971: 149) lists only two
examples of its occurrence, both on the same fragment with no real context. However,
with the lack of any counter-evidence, Xu’s suggestion may be taken as it stands.
It was suggested that the xiesheng series outline above is headed by the OB graph � .
It may be further proposed that this graph is the original form of tú � /� dw� t <
*a k� w-t, and that � and � , with which it was equated above, may be exclusively
identified with the modern word yù /� juwk < � �� w-k. In this regard, Boodberg
has proposed the following zhuanzhu relationships: “The ‘ inverted child’ � *t’u� t is,
as has been recognized since Hsü Shên, equivalent in etymonic value to � * t’u� t –
‘ to come out suddenly’ (in which � *g’ i wet is probably ‘phonetic’ ), a synonym of � * t’ i ue
�t < BDu� t – ‘ to come out,’ on one hand, and of � * � u� t – ‘sudden’ and �
* ts’u� t < BTsu� t – ‘sudden,’ on the other. *BDut ~ BSut is also related to *BSoG
~ GLoG… [a]s shown by the reading * li� �� u < *GL � u for � … > � – ‘ to flow.’ I t is
probably this phono-semanteme ‘ to flow’ > ‘f luid’ which is represented by the alleged
‘hair streaming down’ in the lower part of � ” (1937: 350-1). More modern OC
reconstructions show Boodberg’s suggestion to be correct: xué � � w t < *a� k! w�" t <
*a� k! �" w-t, phonetic in tú # dw� t < *a� k�" w-t; chu$ % t& hwit < *kk'( w-t (also related
to suì ) swih < *xj'( w-t*); cù + (, ) tshw' t < *
*-kk'( w-t. Such an analysis firmly
supports the reconstruction of palatolabials in the xiesheng series of - /. , as well as
providing support for the bilabial prefix suggested for / and 0 , as it is also
attested in the words f1 i 2 phuj’ ‘( third day of a) new moon’ and p1 i 3 ph' j’ ‘sun
at dawn’ in the xiesheng series of chu$ % t& hwit < *kk'( w-t.71
71 Matisoff (2003: 464) compares chu
4 5 with its Erya gloss of ‘nephew’ with Proto-Tibeto-Burman
*m-tu ~ *m-du ‘nephew/descendant’ (the dental root initial often being connected with OC velars, as discussed in 2.1 and 8.4).
51
Chapter 7
A Polyphonic � ‘Woman’?
7.1 The Xiesheng Series of � � *na� � �
, � *nra� �
-n, � *�a
� � �-n, *
�a
� �-n, *
�a
� �-t, � *kra
� -n
On the basis of the graphs a�n � ‘settled’ , y� n � ‘tranquil ’ , nàn/nuán � ‘ to
quarrel’ and jia�n � ‘ licentious’ , which all belong to the OC � * -an rhyme group,
Boltz proposes that n� � ‘woman’ functioned as phonetic with “a second reading
that must have been approximately * � (r)an” (1994: 108). He further adds that “To
explain a graph as having two unrelated readings we must be prepared to show that
the meanings of the two words in question can both reasonably be seen to be depicted
by the graph. For the reading nü ‘woman’, of course there is no problem, the character � is in fact a zodiograph of a woman kneeling with arms crossed in front: � …
When the moment came, at the formative stage of the script, to write the word * � an
‘settled’ , or the clearly related word * � rans ‘ tranquil ’ , what better recourse than to use
the already established graph of the kneeling, i.e., ‘seated’ woman?... Before the
* � ran reading was lost, the graph must have been used quasi-paranomastically to
write the other two words in this set, � nan/nuan and � chien” (1994: 108).72
Pulleyblank has proposed the following alternative hypothesis: “In addition to the
words for which the graph � appears to be a speller for the phonetic kernel *na,73
72 A curious feature of bivalent and trivalent graphs that bear no phonetic relationship with their single form counterpart, is that many of them tend to fall into the OC * � m/� p and *am/ap rhyme groups. One may note: lín � lim < * -�� m and se
�n � � im < * -�� m; yán � wiam < * -a
�m and yàn � ji amh <
* -a�m
; p! n " phim’ < * -�� m# ; xié $ % & p < *-�' p. No such correlation seems to exist for the initials,
but it is significant that the word sa�n ( sam < * -�' m also fall s into this rhyme sequence. Sagart has
suggested that “ the root in san1 ( is that found in can1 ) in the meaning ‘accumulate’. The same root (with unexplained final -* ) occurs in tan3 + *a(C, )-hl -m* > thomX ‘numerous’ : ‘ three’ is the minimum number for an accumulation. In this connection a more plausible true cognate of san1 ( in Tibeto-Burman is Lushai hlom ‘ in numbers’ (also has the idea of ‘many, all or several’ )” (2001: 151). While this does not seem to be reason enough to reject the phonetically very suitable Tibeto-Burman cognate *g-sum ‘ three’ , Sagart’s point that “ ‘ three’ is the minimum number for an accumulation” is very pertinent and perhaps explains the phonetic association with three for these graphs. While including the bivalent graphs in this may seem curious, one may note that the number of valents in the graph was not a reference to a specific number in the real world and was merely a means of differentiating the graphs according to their semantic nuances, e.g. � ‘woods’ and � ‘ forest’ . 73 Pulleyblank (1998: 155-6) provides the following examples: “As far as rú . is concerned, there is li ttle basis for assuming that the OC initial was anything other than simply *n-, like that of r/ 0 (1 ) ‘ you’… The words with 2 as phonetic speller include such words as rú 3 EMC 4 5a6 ‘ interlaced (roots); eat; estimate,’ shù 7 EMC 8 5a6 h ‘ kind, forgiving,’ xù 9 EMC s5a6 h ‘raw sil k, floss; cotton wadding,’ also read chù 9 EMC trh5a6 h ‘ to season food’ and n: EMC nr 5a6 h ‘ knotted and muddled silk floss.’ One may hypothesize that except for the first of these, which presumably had the bare initial *n-, the other words had prefixed consonants of some kind but without more evidence there is no way to tell
52
by itself or enlarged with various consonants, there are other words where it appears
to stand for *an, that is, the same consonant and vowel in the reverse order… In
support of the hypothesis that the ‘woman’ graph could be used phonetically for *an
as well as *na it is interesting to note that � is once written for � in one passage
of the silk manuscripts of Laozi from Ma Wang Dui. This is late, but it suggests that
even at the end of the third century BCE the phonetic connection was felt to be close
enough for ji � jiè” (1998: 157-158).
In spite of the fairly liberal constraints on what could and could not constitute a
xiesheng series, Pulleyblank’s hypothesis, in much the same way as his proposal that
there is an inverted relationship between the roots � *m-j-kw and � *kw-j-m (see
fn.45), seems somewhat far-fetched. Although it will be seen that Boltz’s arguments
for a polyphonic � are misled, Boltz’s suggestion that there is a relationship
between words like � and � is a good one, and this is something to which
Pulleyblank does not make reference. In the oracle-bone inscriptions, � � is most
commonly found as a personal/place name, however there are cases where it seems to
have a semantic function very much like the one attested today:
� � � � � � � � (Xubian 5.6.1)
Gui You (day) divination, Zheng74 tested: (If the) King’s stomach doesn’t settle,
(there will be) no progress.
This meaning seems to be almost diametrically opposed to the meaning assigned to
n(u)án � n(w)a� n in the Shuowen “ � � ” (to quarrel), a graph which does occur in
the oracle-bone script as � , but whose usage is confined to a personal name.
Ignoring any fanciful folk etymologies that a woman in a house is calm, while two
women together are quarrelsome, it seems highly likely that � was playing a
phonetic role in both. In fact it seems that all of Boltz’s and Pulleyblank’s xiesheng
derivatives may be accounted for by the simple positing of morphological * -n and * -t
what these consonants may have been… Other words written with nú � [EMC n� ‘(wives and) dependent children] as phonetic include: nú � EMC n� ‘ treasury,’ also used for nú � ‘wife and children’… n� � E. n� ’ ‘ crossbow’ ; n� � E. n� ’ ‘exert oneself, strain’ ; nù � n� h ‘angry’ ; ná � EMC nra ‘ take’ etc. More aberrant are náo ! ‘clamour’ and náo " ‘disorderly,’ both EMC nra w and obviously variant spell ings of the same word.” 74 Xu Zhongshu (1988: 285-286) transcribes # as guài $ , stating that the semi-circular component in the middle of the graph “ % & ' ( , ) * ( + , - . / 0 1 , 2 3 4 5 / 6 7 , ) ' / 8 9 , :0 ) ; < = > ” (depicts the form of a jade pendant, a ‘bi’ jade of a ring-like shape with a hole, a huiyi with two hands grasping it, the original character for ? ‘ jade pendant’, derived from @ ‘ jade’ with a signifier added later ). The graph A does not occur in any other contexts than a diviner’s name, and neither zhe
Bng C nor guài D are attested in the Bronze script. Here the transcription of zhe
Bng C is
adopted because this seems to account better graphically for the two hands in the original palaeograph. One may compare it to the graphs E and F , usually glossed as shòu G and yuán H respectively.
53
suffixes. There are two sources of evidence that they must be suffixes, rather than
original codas: Internal xiesheng evidence in words like n� � nr �a� ’ < *nra� � �
‘woman’ 75, nú � n� < *na �
‘ like, if ’ , nán na�n < *nra �
-n ‘ to quarrel’ 76, y� n� �a�n’ < *
�a �
-n ‘ tranquilize’ , a�n �
�an < *
�a �
-n ‘settled, peaceful’ , è� �at
< *�a �
-t ‘rotten meat’ , è � �at < *
�a �
-t ‘bridge of the nose’; the external
etymological relationship between rú � � �a� < *na� �
and ruò � � �ak < *na� �
-k
‘accord with, like, if ’ where a * -k suffix is being employed. As regards the alternation
in initial components between *n- and *�-, a similar case may be noted in the
xiesheng relationship between yo�u �
�uw < *
� ��w and náo � naw < *n
�w. The
way to a full explanation probably lies in an examination of words like nia�n/ya
�n � �
ian where, as noted by Pulleyblank (1994: 95), the word has developed an
alternative reading with an *n- initial from an EMC *�- initial. In addition, Yuan
(1960: 33) has pointed out that “� � � � � � � , ! " # $ % & ' ( ) � � � , * � : ‘+ ’‘ , ’‘ - ’. ; / 0 # $ % , 1 2 3 4 5 � 6 7 8 , & ' 9 % : , 9; < ' = ) > -, ? @ A B C D E F G H ,I “J ” “K ” “L ”M N , O P Q cnie, cni,
cnian, R S Q c ie, c i, c ian” (Among Beiji ng words with qichi [unrounded high
front vowel] initials, a portion of them in certain areas are all words with soundless
initials, for example ‘yiTn’ ‘ yán’ ‘ yóu’ ; another portion of words, even some derived
from the old yi [ U ] initial, in certain areas have differences, in many areas it is ‘ zero’ ,
while there are also several areas where it is a nasal sound like in the three words
‘yè’ ‘ yí’ ‘ yán’ read in Zhongqing [Chungking] as cnie, cni, cnian, in Chengdu as c ie,
c i, c ian).77 Accounting for the velar initial in the word jiaTn V kaWn > *kra
X Y-n
‘ licentious’ , is much simpler. Pulleyblank treats the initial glottal stop as “an
obligatory onset for vowels” which seems likely as there are “a large number of
xiesheng series in which Z - occurs by itself as the only initial. This is unusual in the
case of other consonants” (1995c: 290), but also notes that “There are, of course, also
cases in which glottal stop alternates with other consonants, especially velars, where
75 Matisoff (2003: 173) compares this with “WT [Western Tibetan] nya-ma ‘mistress of the house, housewife’ . Also apparently in this word family are WT nyag-mo ‘woman’ , and Chinese [ /\ ‘ lady, woman, mother’ OC ni] ang [in the reconstruction used here: nr ^a_ ’ < *nra_ a ].” On the basis of Tibeto-Burman evidence, Pulleyblank has suggested a reconstruction of nb c as *wna(d )a arguing that “ I suspect, however, that it was actually a prefixed consonant that prevented the initial *n from palatalizing and caused it to become retroflex instead. Benedict has suggested a connection with Tibetan mna-ma ‘daughter-in-law’ and related forms in other Tibeto-Burman languages (1972: 187) which seems quite persuasive from a semantic point of view. One might, for instance, reconstruct *wna
e(f )g , assuming that in Tibetan the prefixed consonant assimilated to initial nasal of the root while
in Chinese it unrounded to velar [f ], which being acousticall y close to retroflex [h ] would have fused with the following [n] to give the EMC form” (1998: 149). Such a hypothesis does not fit with the argument presented here that nb c nr ^ai ’ is phonetic in nán j na^n, the Grade II vowel quality of the latter being representative of a feature of retroflexion. 76 This graph also has a variant reading nuán j nwa^n < *nra
kw-n.
77 The symbol represents a palatal-alveolar nasal. The tone marking c represents yangping l m .
54
acoustic similarity may have played a role in the choice of phonetic spellers” (ibid.).
7.2 The Xiesheng Series of � � * � �� � , � * � � �� � �
Commenting on the oracle-bone graph � , generally transcribed as lái l � j, which
often appears to consist of above , Boltz suggests that this “arise[s] from the
use of the reduced lai < *m-r �� h as a phonetic determinative to specify precisely
that the intended reading of the potentially ambiguous bottom element is based on its
use to write muu < *mrw�� � by the addition of the two extra strokes conventionally
used to distinguish from � . The reduced lai is thus not only a phonetic
determinative, but a redundant one at that. And the explanation… is in a sense the
same: the graph � is used with its muu < *mrw�� � lexical (and thus phonetic) value,
not neu < *gna � , even though it looks like � , not , and is thus a perfectly natural
phonophoric in a script that recognizes and allows for the polyphonic use of graphs”
(2001: 4). The story however cannot be that simple for, in spite of belonging to the
same OC zhi� � * -� � rhyme group, m� � m� w’ and m� i � m� j’ have different
EMC rhymes,78 a phonological difference which Boltz says “ is not clear” (ibid).79
Karlgren (1934: 43) attempted to explain the apparent discrepancy by positing a
medial -w- in � : “A general rule in the hie sheng characters says that k’ai k’ou
78 A similar alternation in Type A syllables occurs in the xiesheng series of � which has derivatives li ke bèi � b� j’ and póu � b� w. Baxter (1992: 468) makes reference to an Yìji
�ng rhyme sequence
where the word � appears to rhyme in the � � � � *-a group (however see the discussion in 5.3 above). This suggests that the EMC unrounded codas originally derived from * -� . One may further hypothesize that * -� then became * -� w, to form that small group of words li sted in the OC ! * -� w rhyme group with EMC reflexes of * -� w, rather than the more standard * -aw, that Baxter (ibid: 507-509), who reconstructs it with a notational *-U, suggests may have occurred after labial initials. There is also evidence to suggest that the xiesheng series of " derived from * -� due to the xiesheng derivative w# $ mua% rhyming as * -a in the Shijing. However by Shij ing times & and " rhyme together which suggests a change * -� > * -� ' . The reasons for the alternation in the OC reflexes * -� ' and * -� w derived from proto-OC * -� has yet to be established. 79 It should also be noted that there is a similar discrepancy in the EMC reflexes of Type B syllables after labialized initials of the Zhi
� ( * -� ' group which appear to be of two forms: -uw and -(j)wi. This
is epitomized by the graph ) which has the pronunciation gui� < kwi as well as qiu
� < kuw. Unlike the
distinction in Grade-I, this encompasses a much greater variety of words and often cuts through individual xiesheng series. The solution to this problem will most likely lie in the identification of a distinct feature affecting the initials of the relevant words, rather than in the in any re-assignation of phonetic components as wil l be shown to be the solution to the problem addressed in this paper. Li Fang-kuei (1971: 32) accounted for it with a distinction between a medial -j- for words with an EMC -uw final and -ji- for words with an EMC -(j)wi final. Unfortunately, he provided no explanation for the reasoning behind this and it seems more of a notational device than any phonological statement. Baxter (1992: 470) suggested that “rounding assimilation was blocked by medial * -r, presumably because the change * r-color fronted vowels after * -r- so that the conditions for rounding assimilation were not met” . Unfortunately he is unable to provide any substantial evidence for this claim and admits that “ the exact formulation of this change is unclear” . The question remains open.
55
[rounded initial] and ho k’ou [unrounded initial] words do not serve for each
other…Here we have � m�� u phonetic in � muâi. Is it then possible to reconstruct � Arch. m� g phonetic in � mw� g? Yes it is. For the words with labial initials are
exceptions from the general rule.” Unfortunately, while labialized labials do occur in
some languages, such a phenomenon is unattested in Chinese and this makes
Karlgren’s solution very unlikely. In Li Fang-kuei’s re-analysis of Karlgren’s system
of Archaic [= Old] Chinese, he comments that the rounded coda “clearly evolved
under the influence of labial initials” (1974: 254) but then fails to provide a solution
to the problem, stating that “We are still uncertain about this and are unable to specify
why * -� g after labials came to have two readings” (ibid.). Instead of focusing on the
initials, Baxter attempted to explain the distinction by assigning the two words to two
separate OC rhyme groups with the suggestion that the rounded final originally came
from the Hóu � group but shifted to the Zhi� � group in certain cases: “Thus we
have…�
m� < muwx < *m(r)o ‘mother’ , � m i < mwojx < *m� ‘each, every’…
The problem is that the syll ables I reconstruct as *P(r)o regularly rhyme as * -� in the
Shi�ji�ng… and show xiéshe
�ng contacts with words in * -�… I account for these facts by
assuming that *P(r)o merged with *P(r)� in some Old Chinese dialects, including
some represented in the Shi�ji�ng and in xiéshe
�ng characters” (1992: 466). Such an
explanation is also inadequate for, as Pulleyblank observes, a shift of m� �
from the
Hóu � group to the Zhi� � group in the Shiji ng dialect “ is not consistent with the
fact that w� � rhymes in the hóu group in the Shiji ng” (2004: 158). As an
alternative hypothesis, Pulleyblank has suggested “ it would be tempting to attribute it
to a survival of the older distinction between * - � and *- � ” (ibid). A shift of *m�� �
> m� j and *m�� � > m� w does make sense phonologically, wi th the high palatal feature
of � being preserved in its EMC reflex -j. Unfortunately, as noted in fn.78, from the
perspective of the Shiji ng rhymes there seems to be no such distinction in the zhi� �
group, unless one simply assumes that the two finals * -� � and *-� � were close
enough to rhyme together.
In fact, a solution had already been hinted at by Pulleyblank (1995a: 188) who
suggested that it is the “additional graphic element [above �
] that is perhaps
connected with the fact that the Middle Chinese final is - j rather than - w”, but
developed this no further. As Boltz, and others, have observed, this additional element
often appears to be lái � l � j < * � �� � < * � �� � which has derivatives such as mài �
m� � jk < * � � r �� k < * � � r �� � k. 80 One may assume that this was also the phonetic in m� i 80 The idea proposed by Sagart (1999: 183) that “ the graphic connection with mai4 � strongly argues for a lost iambic prefix m� - in lai2 � ‘ to come’” is unlikely as shown by Ting’s observation that Sagart’s proposal for disyllabic iambic words in Old Chinese is a violation of the Monosyllabic Principle of one character representing one syllable and that “ in the absence of rational arguments to
56
� m� j ’ < � � �� � � < � � �� � � and its derivatives like hu� xw� j ’ < *x� �� � � < *x� �� � � ,
and that the xiesheng series of m � m�� w’ < m�� � � was totally unrelated. In the
case of the latter, the labial initial would have rounded the final coda, while in the
case of the former, it was the palatal feature of its front-rounded initial that spread.
The spreading of the palatal, rather than rounded, feature of such initials is supported
by Pulleyblank’s observation that xù � / xwik ‘water channel, city moat’ “rhymes
in � kj in the Shiji ng, where it is written � with xu� � EMC xw� t <*x � �� kj ‘ blood’
as phonetic” (1995a: 183). One must of course assume that the shift * � � - > *m- was
completed only after the labial feature of the initial had spread to the coda in words
like m� � m� w’ < *m�� � and that a similar spread did not occur in later stages of
the language.
As regards the discrepancy over the lower component being m� � or n� � , a
similar interchange may be noted in the words � and � , represented
interchangeably by , or by its variant with a line in the middle . One may note
that many other characters that now contain the modern graph for ! were
sometimes written in their earliest forms with the two dots of " and yet did not end
up being transcribed in this way. As it turns out, m# i $ and its derivatives are the
only ones out of numerous examples that did. It may be suggested that this occurred
because the shift of the * % & - initial of $ to a labial, meant that $ became
phonetically more similar to " than to its original phonetic ' . This would then
effectively explain the later development of the script with " not only being used as
the substitute for ! , but it also reducing ' to a peripheral component at the top of
the character as it took over its status as the perceived phonetic.
With the phonological problems out of the way, a further difficulty with $ that
should be addressed is exactly what its original meaning was. In the oracle-bone
inscriptions it may be found in sentences such as the following:
( ) *+ , - . (Xucun 2.744)
Wu Shen (day) divination, perhaps burn (at the stake) three .
.
Contrary to standard interpretations of ,
as / , Qiu (1983-5: 292-3) observes that
“The ancient practice of burning people in order to seek rain is well borne out by the
oracle bones, which often mention the ,
rain seeking ceremony… The Shuo wen,
‘Huo bu’ says ‘/ , 0 1 2 3 . 4 5 , 0 6 (jiao means to cross sticks and burn them;
from fire, jiao sound).’ This meaning does not tally with the use of the oracle-bone
the contrary, there is no reason to reject this meaningful principle.” (2001: 199).
57
graph,
... We propose that the element � is not 0 , but a variant of � . .. [being]
almost identical to certain forms of the character � ” .81 Qiu’s suggestion that huáng � � wa� < *wa� � may be treated as the phonologically very closely related wa
�ng � �
wa� < *�a� wa
� � ‘crippled, deformed (person)’ is strongly supported by Qiu’s
suggestion that the direct objects following ,
are “probably for the most part the
[female] people who were burned in order to seek rain… In view of the ancient
written records regarding the burning of and � , it seems most logical to
conclude that these women were probably witches” (ibid: 301). As for the graph wu �
mua� which may be reconstructed as *mra �
< *m-�a �
, Qiu posits no such
phonological connection, however one may suggest a word family relationship with � m� j’ < * � � �� � � < * � � �� � � . In its nominal sense, this would suggesting a similar
meaning to that of wu �
‘witch, shamaness’ , and in a verbal sense, a meaning of
‘become bewitched/possessed’ 82:
…� � � � � (Jimbun 2043)
… (The) King shouldn’t83 hunt. (He will) perhaps (become) bewitched.84
Shima (1971: 136-7) lists numerous inscriptions containing m� i � . Noticeably, when
a subject is specified it is almost always wáng � ‘king’ , and the majority of the
inscriptions are of a hunting related context. According to Shafer “words belonging to
the wang [� ‘king’ ] family are: � k’uang (*k’ iwang) ‘square box,’ ‘ crooked(!)’ ; � k’uang (*g’ iwang) ‘mad’ ; � wang (* -iwang) ‘crooked,’ ‘ depraved’ ; kuang
(*kiwang) ‘deceive.’ The predominant ideas are ‘crooked,’ ‘deceitful,’ ‘mad.’ Wang
(*wâng) ! itself is said to connote ‘emaciated,’ ‘crippled.’ This group of words
81 Whether one can further extrapolate Qiu’s findings to include other cases of graphs generall y transcribed as " remains debatable: e.g. Heji 806 # $ % & ' ( ) * ‘Jiaxu (day) tested: Order Niao (to) seek + . (He) acquired (him)’ , where Qiu (1986: 186) treats , as - saying “ ‘- ’. / ‘0 ’ , 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 :
. ; : < = > : ? @ A B C, D E F G / H I ” (Read J as
K, indicating
the shape of a kind of deformed abnormal person. When Yin people held sacrifices involving burning people to seek rain, they were often the sacrificial victims). 82 This interpretation of mL i M differs from the standard interpretation, voiced by Xu Zhongshu (1988: 46-47), that suggests it should be treated as huN O ‘regret’ or huì P ‘become dark’ , depending on context. Both of these interpretations seem rather arbitrary with no real justification. 83 Serruys (1974: 59) comments that “The real argument for Q as a variant of R [is] that…. Q is almost exclusively found in period III of the bone inscriptions. In these pieces we can see the negatives S
, T , U are in no way lacking, but that it is exactly R which is glaringly absent.” Takashima (personal communication, 2004) has suggested that palaeographically the graph V (=R ) may be considered an abbreviation of W (=Q ), with the two dots on the left of the graph being a sign of repetition. 84 One may also note that mL i M is always negated by fú
S put which according to Takashima
(1973; 1996.1: 364-382) is used before non-modal (i.e. uncontrollable), non-stative verbs, which is exactly what an interpretation of ‘become bewitched/possessed’ entails: …X Y Z …
S M (Jimbun 2049) …(The) King (should) perhaps hunt… (He will ) not (become) bewitched.
58
suggests strongly the shamanistic character of the prehistoric Chinese king, and
probably the delirium of the great shaman when possessed by a spirit, and the
deceitfulness of his oracle. Compare the kinship of wu � ‘shamaness’ with wu �
‘ false witness’… Now the wang � was the wang � – the king in his ceremonial
role as the chief of the shamans” (1951: 161-2). If Shafer’s analysis is correct, one
may conclude that the diviners were concerned about allowing the Shang king out
into the countryside in case he became possessed while away from home. This is
supported by Keightley’s (2000: 116) observation that “To the extent, accordingly,
that the Shang kings found strength and support – political, religious, and
psychological – in their settlements, camps and cult centers, they would have felt
exposed, vulnerable, and uncomfortable in the open countryside where the protection
of their ancestors, no longer focused in the cult center, would have been dissipated by
distance and subject to challenge by whatever powers took strength from the local
landscape and its communities.”
As regards the etymological development of m� i � , one may note that in the Bronze
script, it is often glossed as m�n � min’ with a meaning of ‘diligent, thorough’. By
the time of the Shujing, Shiji ng and Lunyu, it seems to have developed its present day
meaning of ‘each, every’ , while in the Zuozhuan and the Shuowen it is given the
meaning ‘ luxurious vegetation’ , now written as mèi � m jh. The common semantic
theme of all the above glosses is one of pervasive abundance, a logical derivation
from a graph which originally referred to spiritual possession/bewitchment. Keightley
notes that “The oracle-bone graph was certainly ancestral to the graph for the
later term wu � , ‘ spirit medium,’ but it is doubtful that it had such a meaning in the
Shang inscriptions, where it appears, in a number of inscriptions, to have served as the
name of a Power to whom the Shang offered cult… The very shape of the oracle-bone
graph suggests the quadrate nature of the Power concerned. On occasion, in fact,
the Wu powers were identif ied with a particular direction” (2000: 72-73):
� � � � � � (Heji 34157)
Xin Hai (day) divination: (Perform a) small di-binding-sacrifice85 (to the) North Wu
One may assume that m� i � , which originally denoted Keightley’s ‘spirit medium’,
later became indistinguishable from the directional power wu� � with which it
merged, while the graph � itself went on to develop independently, ultimately
85 Takashima (2003b: 156) states that “ the interpretation of taking � as � ‘bind, tie up’ is supported by the fact that it is followed by such sacrificial victims as dogs, pigs, ovines, fowls (roosters), and human (often the Ch’iang men)”.
59
leading to its modern day meaning.
60
Chapter 8 Other Suggestions of Polyphony
8.1 The Xiesheng Series of � � *kra� �
-l � , � *kra�� �
, � *kra�� �
Boodberg argued for a polyphonic role for the character sh� � ia on the following
basis: “� *s�ia - ‘hog,’ ‘pig.’ Synonym and homograph of � * âi ... Undoubtedly
‘phonetic’ in � *ka – ‘house.’ S[huo]W[en] 7B states that � *ka is abbreviated
‘phonetic’ in the latter which is the equivalent of saying that � was also read *ka.”
(1937: 341). Boltz has tried to provide further support to this hypothesis by suggesting
that the graphs zhu� � tr �a < * -ra
� � ‘pig’ , ba
� � pa� < *-ra
�� � ‘sow’, qú � g�a <
* -ra� �
‘kind of boar’ all also took a polyphonic � as their phonetic, stating that
“Were it not for the graph � chia < *krag, we would be inclined to see the �
element… merely as a semantic determinative, the other element in each case being
the phonophoric” (1994: 118).
Boltz’s failure to thoroughly examine the oracle-bone forms of the characters in his
analysis of the script has been commented on before.86 Had he done so in this case
for the characters � , � and � , he would have realized that the above hypothesis
is untenable. The graph � is found in the oracle-bone inscriptions as � where,
besides functioning as a place/personal name, it has the meaning of ‘pig, swine’ still
attested today:
� � �� � � � � ! " # $[=% ]
& (Heji 32674)
Ding Si (day) tested: Hold (a) liao-burning-sacrifice to Fu Ding (of) 100 dogs, 100
pigs (and) liu-cutting-sacrifice87 100 oxen.
An OC reconstruction of *kra'l ( for sh) # * ia+ ’ is suggested by the Shuowen gloss of
86 See for example, C.A. Cook’s (1996: 403-5) review of Boltz’s work where she states: “The analysis of palaeographical sources, and not simply the early Han manuscripts from Mawangdui with which Boltz is most familiar, is one serious lacuna in this otherwise worthy book… Boltz is clearly only comfortable with the post Qin-Han reformation standardized script. He relegates paleographic texts for use as mere tools for the comparison of local graphic variants and not as primary linguistic material” (ibid: 404). 87 In a sacrificial context, the graph , - is read as liú . , following the interpretation of Takashima (1996:2. 88) that “Mao is normally understood as ‘ to slaughter.’ This is based on the meaning of li u . (*lj / gw) ‘ to kill , mutilate, destroy,’ a word from the classical Chinese lexicon written with a xiesheng graph which has - (*mr / gwx) as its phonetic. The graph for mao, with its equal sides and central division, must have embodied some concept related to the idea of ‘divided-into-half’ or ‘biform,’ though it is diff icult to make any more specific deductions.”
61
its xiesheng derivative � for which the Shuowen says “� � � ” (read as � ),
which may be reconstructed accordingly: sh� /ch� � � ia� ’ < * kral .
As for the graph jia � ka� < *kra
� ‘male pig, boar’ , Xu Zhongshu (1988: 1049)
uses it to transcribe the OB graph � , giving the following definition: “� � � , � �� �” (male pig, used as sacrifice):
� � � � � (Bingbian 114)
[Offer] 10 boars to Shang Jia
A relationship between sh� � and jia � is exemplified by the middle component
of the OB graph � which seems to have been written interchangeably as � or �
in Period-I inscriptions. Xu Zhongshu (ibid: 798-799) glosses the graph as jia � ka�
< *kra �
which, aside from a personal/place name, defines it as “� � ! � ” (that
in which a person lives) and “" # � $ % ” (former king’s ancestral temple):
…& '…( ) …* � � � � ) … (Tieyi 1.7)
…Wu (day) divination… tested: Perhaps… (sacrifice) bao-captives88 to Shang Jia’s
ancestral-temple. Perhaps…
On this basis, one may assume that the middle component of the � � was
originally � � but was abbreviated to + � as the script developed. This concurs
with the Shuowen analysis of � as: “, - . / 0 ” (derived from 1 with 2 as
abbreviated phonetic). The reason for this substitution, aside from graphic
simpli fication, must have had something to do with the phonetic relationship between
the graphs. It may be assumed that the word sh3 4 5 ia6 ’ was formed by adding a
suffixal * -l to the root form *kra7 8
(to give a form *kra7 8
-l 9 , also distinguished by its
glottal feature giving rise to a tonal distinction), which is attested in jia: ; ka< <
*kra== 8
and jia: > ka< < *kra
== 8. One may note that the component ? , a graph which
first seems to appear in the bronze script and is given the meaning “@ A ” (‘ to
borrow’ ) in the Shuowen, was added to the graph later simply to specify its
pronunciation.
88 This follows Takashima (2003b: 408-409) who suggests it as a functional interpretation on the contextual grounds that “B can be possessed” ; “B is modified by to C ‘many’… as well as by ta D ‘big’ ” ; “B is collocated with chih ‘shackled prisoner’ .” He also adds that in the case of Bingbian 330, it occurs with other inscriptions “ in which the Shang ritualists were concerned with making an offering (E ) of fa F ‘decapituri’… of fu G ‘captive’ (yet another kind) and chieh H ‘handmaiden (?)’ .”
62
8.2 The Xiesheng Series of � � *kk�� � -n�, � *xj �� � � , � *xj �� � � , *kwr �� � � , *p-� a� �
There is no obvious phonetic relationship between cùn � tshw� nh and sh� u � � uw’ . Consequently Boodberg concluded that “we must note � *ts’u� n – ‘ inch’ <
‘ thumb’ < ‘hand,’ which is graphically identical with � *s�i� �� u – ‘hand’ and in this
last reading is ‘phonetic’ in � *s�i� �� u, � * t’âu, phonetic sub-determinative in �
*d’âu, ‘etymonic’ in � *ti� �� u – ‘wrist,’ and phonetic in � **d i� �� u” (1937: 343).
Undoubtedly, his inabil ity to see the phonetic connection between the two graphs was
due to the relatively youthful state of Old Chinese reconstruction in his time.
Neither cùn � nor sh� u � are attested directly in the oracle-bone script. However
one may note the occurrence of � which Xu Zhongshu transcribes as zu�n � tsw� n
with the tentative gloss “� � ! " # $ % , & ' ( ) ” (possibly has a meaning of
offer upwards in tribute , used as a sacrifice name) in inscriptions like:
* + ,- . � / 0 1 2 [=3 ]4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < (Lin 2.3.2)
Bing Wu (day) tested: = offers (in tribute) gui-cut 89 Qiang, thirty,
liu-cutting-sacrifices three specially-reared-sheep, fu-sacrifices90 one ox to (the)
ancestral-temple. (They were) used. 8th month.
One may also note > , glossed as shòu ? /@ A uwh with the same meaning it has
today, in inscriptions like:
B C D ? (Bingbian 407)
Tested: (The) King (should) go hunting.
That cùn E tshwF nh and shG u H A uw’ are probably related is shown by the graph
zhG u I truw’ which graphically contains the phonetic cùn E , but in its modern
pronunciation sounds very similar to shG u H . The * ts- initial of cùn E tshwF nh
must have developed from a palatovelar *kj- indicating that the medial -w- probably
arose from the addition of a suffixal * -n to what was originally a rounded coda. Other
graphs in the xiesheng series suggest that this rounded coda was *-J . This would
89 The graph K , seeming to depict a kind of axe, which appears to be the predecessor of suì L , is treated here as guì M . 90 The graph N seems to depict a quiver of arrows. Xu Zhongshu (1989: 486) transcribes it as O ‘quiver’ with the suggestion that it should be read as pì P ‘split open’ . The phonetics fú Q buwk and fú R buwk are homophonous making this a very plausible hypothesis, especiall y in the light of the above inscription where it is written with two other cutting sacrif ices.
63
suggest an OC form *kkjw� � n� < *kk�� � -n
� where the suffixal * -n has caused metathesis
of the labial feature of the * -� coda, causing palatalization of the initial and leaving a
rounded medial * -w-. Such a reconstruction compares nicely with sh� u � � uw’ <
*xj �� w < *xj �� which is related to the Type A word t� o � thawh < *xj � �. The
graph zh� u � truw’ is also obviously related, although its initial * t- is somewhat
more difficult to explain. Pulleyblank has suggested that *xwr- > trh- in words like
ch� u � trhuw’ , where the initial cluster “can account for both the retroflexion and
aspiration of the EMC form” (1991b: 55). The word ch� u � trhuw’ is undoubtedly
related to zh� u � truw’ , which suggests that an initial cluster *kwr- could account
for the non-aspirated EMC initial in the latter, giving a reconstructed form of *kwr �� .
Supporting evidence for this may be found in relationships like zhu� � t� ua� < *kwja
�
and zhu� � trua� < *kwra
� �. Undoubtedly also related to this word family is the
xiesheng series of fù � pua� h. In this case the EMC initial could well have been the
result of a prefix, and for it to be maintained implies that the root initial of the word
must have been a glide or fricative of some kind. A tentative reconstruction of fù �
pua� h < *p-ja� � �
< *p-� a� � �
would effectively account for this.91
8.3 The Xiesheng Series of � � * -ra�jk, � *-��� j � , ! * -r �� j � , " *-r �� j � , # * -�� j �
Boltz suggests a polyphonic reading for cè� t$ h� % jk on the basis that “phonetically
the word ts’e < * tshrik [� ] has nothing in common with either pien < *pjanx [! ] or
shan < * san ~ *sran [" ]” (1994: 119).
Without even attempting phonological reconstructions of the three words in question,
the fact that they are all related may be shown by a proper palaeographical analysis.
Firstly, the oracle-bone form for � , & , often appears to occur in exactly the same
context as di' n ( t) n’ , * , which in EMC would have had the same rhyme as a
word like bia+n , p) n. Matsumaru and Takashima (1996: 62-3) list them in the same
category (0259) as variants of one another:
- . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 (Bingbian 315)
Bing Shen (day) divination, Nan tested: (If) Jia raises (the) document [= takes the
commission], (issue a) call (to) follow (him to) attack (the) Ba (tribe).
9 : ; < =…
3 > 5 6… (Kikko
? 2.11.11)
91 Matisoff (2003: 198) compares the xiesheng derivatives fú @ ‘ intestines’ and fA B ‘bowels’ with Proto-Tibeto-Burman *pwu ‘ intestine’.
64
Ren Shen (day) divination, Nan tested: …raises (the) document [= takes the
commission], (issue a) call (to) follow…
Similarly there are two graphs � and � , composed of � with � or �
respectively, that occur in similar contexts (although � is occasionally also found as
a variant for � or � ) and appear to have variant forms � and � where the �element has been replaced by :
� � � � � � � (Xucun 1.1603)
Yi You (day) divination, tested: The King (makes a) pledge (by inscribing)92 to Zu
Yi.
…� � � � � � � … (Nanbei, Fang 5.58)
… Wei (day) tested: (Make a) pledge (by inscribing) to Bi Geng…
Furthermore, as for the word bia�n � p� n, mentioned above, this seems to be attested
in the oracle-bone script as � , a graph which could be directly transcribed as � ,
with � , rather than � , as phonetic. Unfortunately the meaning of this word is
unclear and so the correspondence must be made purely on graphic correspondences.
As regards a phonological reconstruction of these words, the initials seem to have
been affected by a complex process of prefixation about which knowledge is lacking
across the whole Sino-Tibetan family, and so no concrete proposals will be given here
for their reconstruction. As for the finals, there seems to be a morphological
alternation between nasal and plain palatovelars in the coda: *�-j � or * jk: cè � t� h� jk
< *-ra�jk, di! n " t# n’ < * -$%% j & ' , pia
(n ) phjian > * -r $* j & .93 The situation for sha
(n +
, a- n > * -r $% j & is a little more complex as one must assume vowel lowering of * -$ -
to -a- to have taken place between OC and EMC, as the expected EMC reflex would
have been , $ - n, although the required environment of a labiovelar initial, as
postulated by Pulleyblank (1991b: 72) seems to be lacking. A parallel situation may
be observed in the case of the graph zhà . t, h$ - jk for which the Shuowen says “/ 92 Takashima (2003b: 115-119) suggests the graph 0 has a meaning of ‘pledge by inscribing’ when occurring by itself and a meaning of ‘stab, pierce’ when occurring before animal/human sacrificial victims. He equates it with the word cì 1 tshiah < *kkjra
2jk
3 ‘stab, pierce, inscribe’ . This seems li kely
for 4 is a derivative of cè 5 t6 h7 8 jk < *kkjra9jk, which Qiu (2000: 268) observes “was often
borrowed to write ‘: ’ cè ‘register, book’ ” in ancient texts. 93 The Shuowen analysis of pia
;n < phjian as “ = > : ” should, according to Miller (1953: 207-209),
be read “ = > : ? ” (derived from @
with A as phonetic). Miller suggested that phonetics that no longer made sense to the Song editor of the Shuowen, Xu Xuan (916-991), whose version of the Shuowen was the only one that survived to the present day, were deleted.
65
� �” (� is an abbreviated phonetic), however � also occurs in the Guangyun
with two more readings in which the vowel has lowered, t� ha� jk and � a�nh, the latter
one clearly related to � .94 There is, however, a graph lún � lwin, analyzed in the
Shuowen as a huiyi graph “� � ” (derived from � and from � ) which could
possibly be related to the above series. Although it rhymes as * - � n in the Shiji ng,
there is evidence to suggest that under certain circumstances proto-OC * - j � became
OC *- n. One may cite, for example, y�n � � �n < � � n which clearly has she�n � � in < *xj � j � as its phonetic (all the more apparent in their OB forms � and �
respectively)95, or hu�n � xw� n < *x-m�� n (see 4.2 for a discussion of the function of
the *x- prefix) which has mín � mjin < *m�� j � as its phonetic. It seems that in
certain words the shift from *� -j � > n after * -� -, that occurred between OC and EMC,
happened earlier under, as yet, unspecified conditions. It may have been simply due to
different dialects being reflected in the Shiji ng rhyming, but this seems unlikely and it
was probably rather due to different phonological conditioning environments. It
should also be noted that the shift of * � j � to � n occurred very early on in the change
from OC to EMC with Buddhist transcriptional evidence showing that it had already
occurred uniformally across the whole lexicon by the time of the Han dynasty, as
attested by transcriptions like ! EMC " uw-d# n for Sanskrit ‘ udayana’ (see
Coblin 1983: 255). Of particular relevance here is the fact that, as Pulleyblank (2001:
54) observes, the initial of $ was “probably a labial or labiovelar. Compare lún % ,
E. lwin, also read gua�n E. kw& 'n”. If this word is indeed related to the xiesheng series
of ( , it may provide clues to the vowel lowering in the case of ) .
8.4 The Xiesheng Series of * * *kwj �� + � " , , *--k�� + k, . *
--a/ k�� + k, 0 *a/ kwa
� + k-, 1 *
--kw�� + k
Boltz has suggested that “The oracle-bone graph 2 , typically equated with 3 ting
(OC *tja4 5 6
) ‘ tripod’ , may have stood for the word tsei (OC * j 74 k) ‘slay (in a sacrificial
sense)’ as well (modern 8 ). The etymonic constituent of 8 tsei < * j 74 k ‘slay’ is 9
tse < *c74 k, which in turn may be analyzed as having the element : as phonophoric,
read not as pei, but in a pronunciation similar to tse < *c74 k or te < *t74 k. The latter
possibility is based on the fact that modern ; te < *t74 k is graphically derived from : plus < , i.e. . Given the ku wen graph = for 9 , the implication of the above
94 Xu Zhongshu (1989: 646) suggests that > occurs in the oracle-bone script as ? which he glosses as a “@ A B ” (terr itorial name). 95 The word she
Cn D E in < *xj FG j H ‘body’ is also related to yùn I ji H h < *aJ xj FG H K ‘pregnant’ (see
fn.36 for the theory behind the reconstruction of *aJ xj-), attested in the OB script as L . As noted in 3.3, this suggests that in the word represented by D , the OC medial * -j- palatalized the Type B velar final of *xj FG H to give *xj FG j H .
66
analysis is that � may also have had a reading comparable to � in � , i.e., similar
to *c�� k or * t�� k. This, together with the numerous oracle-bone inscription contexts in
which the graph � / � seems to have a meaning akin to ‘slay’ , suggests the
hypothesis that the graph could have stood for the word tsei < * j �� k” (1990: 1).
Written in response to Takashima’s 1987 study of the use of � in oracle-bone
inscriptions, Boltz’s suggestion provides some interesting new approaches that have
been taken up by Takashima in his 1994 revision of his previous article. He however
cautions that “The assumption of graphic multivalence appears to be producing an
uncontrollable escalation in the number of possible meanings… [and] is producing
almost as many problems as it is solving. I believe that this assumption is still
fundamentally valid, but it is crucial for us to keep its inherent limitations in mind”
(ibid: 360-1). Takashima comments that while in certain cases, Boltz’s proposed
interpretation “would yield an acceptable meaning… trying to interpret [Yicun 783: � � � � � ]… the same way would yield a distinctly odd result – ‘strings of
jade’ can hardly be chopped up” (ibid: 360). To this he adds that “Leaving aside the
problem of the extent of semantic congruence between the graph in its original usage
(‘cauldron, tripod’) and its second or other usage (‘ to chop’ or ‘chopped meat’), we
should note that no meaning related to ‘cauldron’ itself has yet been found for a graph
which obviously depicted that very object. Though not impossible, this does seem
rather strange, particularly since the classics often use ding ‘cauldron’ . Thus, the best
way to make sense of [Yicun 783]… might be to understand ding in the sense of ‘ding
cauldron’ used adverbially. Such an interpretation is also congruent with the
interpretation that takes ding as equivalent to yi ding � (as it would have been
expressed in classical Chinese) meaning ‘ to do something by employing a cauldron’”
(ibid: 362).
Takashima is wise to be cautious, for a thorough palaeographical and linguistic
analysis will show that neither bèi � pajh nor d�ng � t� j � ’ were polyphonic.
Nevertheless, inscriptional evidence shows that the graph � was often erroneously
used for � when used as a component in graphic composition. The cause of this
confusion may well have been a similarity in pronunciation (see the discussion in 2.3a
where it is suggested that � may have rhymed as * -a� k in proto-OC which would
compare well with the * -� � k/*-� � � rhyme reconstructed for the � series here)96. In
addition to the example cited by Boltz (1990: 1) above, who comments on guwen
forms of zé � ts� k being written as � , which may in fact be traced back to the
96 It seems unlikely however that � and � were etymologicall y related as there is no graphic or semantic connection in their oracle-bone forms.
67
Bronze script, another example of such substitution occurs with graph jù � gua� h,
about which Xu Zhongshu (1988: 241) observes that the oracle-bone graph � is “�� � �… � � � . <� �
> ‘�
,� � .� � � � ’ .� � � � � � � � …� � � � � � ” (the same as the Bronze script � … all [of which are] derived
from � and from � . The Shuowen [says] ‘� is placing with both hands. (It is)
derived from � and from abbreviated � ’ . The Bronze script also has ones derived
from � and from � …Those derived from � are thus erroneous forms of those
derived from � ). In addition, Rao Zongyi (1959: 279) has noted that the Shuowen
lists guwen forms for � and its xiesheng derivative � , of � and � respectively.
The former is treated by Xu Zhongshu (1989: 700) as occurring in the OB script as with a form of ! as its lower component. Unfortunately, like " (# ), it is only
sporadically attested in the OB inscriptions and its semantic function is unclear. There
is also one possible example of ! being used to write $ in the case of % , clearly
composed of ! and & , which only occurs in one inscription:
' ( )* + , - . / % 0 (Bingbian 356)
Bing Zi (day) divination, Bin tested: Fu Yi (being) . 97 means (the) King will be % .
Takashima (2003b: 419) says that “Whatever word it may have expressed, it is a verb
that takes the king as its object. And since the apodosis is the same and the protasis
different… and, furthermore, given that .
is a stative verb, the diviner must have
presented the protasis as topical ‘as for.’ That is, the import… is something like ‘As
for Fu Yi being .
, it means that it does % the King’ .” Matsumaru and Takashima
(1993: 98) list % together with 1 2 ‘defeat’ in the same category (0423).
Whether they are variants of each other is unclear, but 2 ‘defeat’ certainly is a
possible interpretation for 3 in the above inscription. Unfortunately, the graph 1
also only appears in one very short inscription, but bronze forms show that
interpreting it as 2 is probably correct98:
4 5 2 (Qianbian 3.27.5)
Tested: Not have [= suffer] defeat.
97 Takashima (2003b: 419) comments that “ 6 7 8 shows a person carrying a basket on the head, the primary form of tai 9 ‘carry on the head’. Its use in transmitted texts for yi 8 ‘different’ is a phonetic loan. The way it functions in inscriptions is rather mysterious… The way 8 is used in Bronzes does not help much… [and] none of these seems appropriate in the context of the above inscription. It seems rather to be used as a verb which can specify both the li ving… and the dead… as its subjects. And since it is negated by pu : , it must be a stative verb” . 98 Xu Zhongshu (1989: 337) also treats the OB graph ; as < . However Takashima (2003b: 321) points out that in Bingbian 165, “ it cannot mean ‘defeat/suffer defeat’ , since its negation by = … shows it is a controllable activity” . Unfortunately, inscriptional evidence seems too sparse to provide any alternative interpretations.
68
The word zé � /� ts� k may be reconstructed in Old Chinese as *kj�� k (presumably
derived from *�-k�� k as will be seen by analogy with other xiesheng characters). Also
clearly related to � , as Boltz observed, is zé/zéi � dz� k < *a� kj�� k, which may well
have originated from *�-a� k�� k99 as the velar coda is not palatalized (see the discussion
in 3.3 regarding the palatalization of proto-OC velar codas). One may however
suggest that � and � both go back to an OC �� � k, as evidenced by their
relationship with jù � gua� h < *a� kwa � k
�, and also dé/d i � t� k, which Pulleyblank
reconstructs with final * -�� � k on the following basis: “There are a number of contacts
between the Old Chinese * -� k rhyme and * -� p that suggest that *-� k may have
sometimes merged with * -� p. A shift of labiovelar kw- to p- is a familiar type of
phonetic change, for instance, in Ancient Greek. Front-rounded velars are less
common cross-linguistically but it seems reasonable to suppose that they too could
have been subject to such a change. Xiamen has a colloquial form siap for the word sè � E. s� k ‘stop up’… Moreover it is supported by the existence in the Guangyun of
alternative readings for a similar word sè �
E. � ik and E. � ip ‘astringent; unsmooth’ ,
also written � in the second reading… We can also compare sè �
E. s� k, Xiamen
colloquial siap ‘stop up’ , with Tibetan sub-pa ‘ to stop up, plug up, close, cork’ . This
also suggests a very interesting Tibeto-Burman comparison for both dé � E. t� k ‘get,
obtain, manage to, able to’ and dé � E. t� k ‘virtue’ . Tibetan has a verb gtub-pa ‘ to be
able’ and another word t’ub-pa with two related senses… ‘ to get the better of, to be
able to cope with, to be a match for, etc.’ and… ‘a mighty one, one having power and
authority,’ suggesting that these two Middle Chinese homophones may indeed be
etymologically related” (2004: 159-160)100. Pulleyblank makes no comment about the
OC initial for � , and an OC * t- would certainly be the most simple, both in terms of
its EMC reflex and the Tibetan comparisons cited by Pulleyblank. However, the
correlation of PTB dentals with OC velars suggests a possible alternative. Further
support for this is also found in the graph � /� 101, a simpli fied form of ài � � � jh <
* � �� k� , about which Li Leyi (1996:5) says: “� � � � ! " ,# $ � % & ' ( ) * 99 As regards the voicing prefix which Sagart reconstructs as *N-, but here is treated as *a+ - (see fn.49), Sagart comments that “ I suppose that unli ke other prefixes, N- was bound too closely with the following consonant to have a loosely attached variant” (1999: 74). While the OC reconstruction system used here does not subscribe to Sagart’s distinction between two types of prefix, fused and iambic (see ibid: 14-19), which Ting (2001: 199) has criticized (see fn.80 where this is presented in more detail ), his observation on the nature of the voicing prefix is interesting, for in the above reconstruction it is assumed that another prefix could occur before the voicing prefix due to the close-knit relationship of the voicing prefix with the root initial. 100 Pulleyblank does however note that “ the early forms of dé [, ] ‘get’ have bèi - ‘cowrie’ rather than zhí . [in dé / ]” (ibid: 159). 101 The latter form 0 is currently still in use in Mainland China, having been officiall y reintroduced during the script reform of the 1950s.
69
� � � � � � � �” (according to contemporary sources, the earliest examples of
this kind of graph are from more than 2000 years ago in the Han-Chao era). The
conditioning environment to derive EMC t- from an OC velar is usually that it must
be a labiovelar *kw- occurring before a medial * -j- in a Type A word, see Pulleyblank
(1991b: 77). It does not seem possible to reconstruct this medial * -j- in dé � t k;
however, one may suggest that this feature was accounted for by the presence of a
prefixal * -, giving a reconstruction of dé � t k < *
-kw� k < *
-kw� � k. Although
this prefix is not attested in the possibly cognate Tibetan words gtub-pa (which
interestingly shows evidence of a velar initial) and t’ub-pa, cited by Pulleyblank
above, Handel’s observation that “Tibeto-Burman prefixal elements may or may not
be reflected in individual forms in daughter languages” (2002: 21), that was
commented on in 2.1, can account for this. By way of comparison, one may cite the
word de ng � t � (most likely related to she
ng � � i � < *xj � � ), which in light of its
xiesheng character zhèng � t� i � h <* kwj � � ) presumably had a velar initial. It could
therefore be reconstructed as *-kw� � which compares nicely with Matisoff ’s (2003:
304) suggestion that it is related to PTB *s-tya� ‘upper part, rise, raise’ . As for d�ng� t� j � , the most obvious solution would be to reconstruct it as *kwja� j � . However this
does not concur well with the phonetic values of the xiesheng series posited above.
An interesting anomaly in the Old Chinese phonological system is that the OC rhymes
* -j � w > � w and * -j � wk > -� jk do not seem to have a nasal counterpart *-j � w� .
However, just because it is not attested in the Shiji ng rhyming, does not mean it did
not exist. The word d�ng �
does not occur in the Shiji ng, but one could hypothesize
that it may belong to this lost rhyme *-j � � � that, by analogy with the EMC reflexes of
* -j � w and *-j � wk, would have given EMC -� j � . One could therefore suggest the
following reconstruction: d�ng�
t� j � ’ < *kwj � w� � < * kwj � � � � .
8.5 The Xiesheng Series of � � *a� k�� � -� , � *a� kwa� �
In spite of the fact that they all have clearly identifiable phonetics, Boltz (1994: 118)
suggests that l ! l " ’ ‘salt (marsh)’ is phonetic, with a polyphonic reading in the
OC # * -a� m rhyme group, in xián $ % � &m ‘salty’ , ji ' n ( k� &m’ ‘saline’ and yán ) jiam ‘salt’ . He bases this hypothesis on the Shouwen statement that the graph tán� d� m, which had a seal form * consisting of l + , l - ’ and hòu . / 0 w’ , is “1 23 4 5
]6 7 8 ” (derived from 9 with : as abbreviated phonetic).
Matisoff compares the four Proto-Tibeto-Burman words for ‘salt/salty’ * la (2003:
173), *hyam (ibid: 299), *gryum (ibid: 308) and * tsa (ibid: 174) with the
70
corresponding Old Chinese words for ‘salt/salty’ l � � l � ’ , xián � � � �m, yán �
jiam and cuó � dza respectively. Boltz makes no mention of the word cuó � dza,
presumably because a logical sequitur of his argument would require positing a third
alternative reading for l � � to account for it. Unfortunately tán d� m is not
attested in the oracle-bone script102, but on the basis of the seal form , one may
make a tentative hypothesis that hòu � � � w’ , defined in the Shuowen with the
homophonous word hòu � ‘ thick’ , is the phonetic.
The alternation between EMC -m and -n in certain xiesheng series was commented on
in 4.1 with the example of tia n � th� n and ti� n � th� m that Pulleyblank (1995a:
178) suggested may be because “all cases of *C-j� m (as opposed to initial palatals
including * j) shifted to C-j� � j in both Type A and Type B syllables” . A further
example is so ng � s� w� , zhèn � drin’ and zhèn � drim’ . This xiesheng series
also shows an alternation between a labiovelar coda and an alveolar nasal which may
also be seen in examples like: go ng � k� w� and g� n � kw� n’ ; chén � d� in and
nóng � naw� .103 An explanation for this phenomenon probably lies in the frequent
rhyming contacts between words in * -� m and * -� w� in the Shiji ng,104 for which
Pulleyblank offers the explanation that “The final labiovelar consonant… may have
been pronounced like the final in Vietnamese -ông, which is realized with double,
labial and velar articulation [ � u�� m]” (1977-8: 197)105. While * -� m and * -� w� are
distinct rhyme categories in the Shiji ng, one might suggest that proto-OC * -� � which
102 Xu Zhongshu (1988: 608) points out that although Tang Lan [
! " # $ % Yinxu Wenzi Ji. & ' : ( ) * +
Beii jing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1934] translates the OB graph , as - on the basis that the top . (/ ) component of the graph became 0 which is an error for the 1 component of the small-seal form of 2 (3 ), “4 5 , 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ A B C 9 D … E F G H 9 I J ” K the graphic forms of 5 and 6 are different, [and] from a lexical perspective are not at all ali ke… Therefore what Tang says may be debated). 103 The Shuowen entry for L states: “M N O P Q R ” (to plough, derived from S with T as phonetic). The oracle-bone forms U and V which Xu Zhongshu (1988: 257-258) treats as variants of the same graph show that the phonetic component must have rather been the lower
W component.
Although examples of V are few in the OB script, it seems one can discern a slightly separate semantic function from U : … XY Z [ \ ] ^ _ ` a (Qianbian 4.10.3) …divination, Zheng tested: Order many ] and _ (to) capture Zai (tribesmen). …b cd e f g h i j k (Qianbian 5.48.1)…Si (day) divination, Lü tested: (As for) Fu Ding’s gui-cuttings, (it should) bej that we you-cut. On the basis of the above inscriptions, one may tentatively assume that l refers to agricultural workers (as evidenced by the semantic determiner for hand sm ), while j refers to agricultural produce (as evidenced by the semantic determiner for trees
n) in the above case used as a sacrificial
offering. In later periods of the script the graphs seem to have merged as j , while l also developed a meaning of ‘morning’ which later came to be written o . 104 See Baxter (1992: 549-550) for a listing of these rhyme sequences. 105 Pulleyblank (1991b: 50) has also suggested that “An irregular rhyme such as huang p EMC q war rhyming with jian s EMC katm, yan u EMC r iam, and lan v lam in Ode 305/5 may be a (dialect?) survival of * -ar w.”
71
is usually believed to have merged with * -� w� , in some cases may have also merged
with * -� m. Such a theory is nicely supported by Pulleyblank’s observation, discussed
in 8.4, that “There are a number of contacts between the Old Chinese * -� k rhyme and
* -� p that suggest that * -� � k may have sometimes merged with * -� p. (2004: 159).
Coupling the above hypothesis with the evidence that proto-OC *-� j � sometimes
became OC *-� n (see 2.1), the following tentative reconstruction could be suggested
for the xiesheng series mentioned above: so�ng � s� w� < *xja
� � � , zhèn � drin’ <
*a krj � j � � < *a krj � m� < *a krj � � � � , zhèn � drim’ < *a kr � m� < *a kr � � � � ; chén
d� in < * lj � n < * lj � j � < * lj � m < * lj � � � , nóng � naw� < *n �� � � . As for the series of
go�ng � k� w� < *ka
� �-� and g� n � kw� n’ < kw�� n� < k�� � -n� , the rounded feature in
the latter requires the assumption that the nasal codas in the EMC forms were
originally suffixes. Now returning to the question of tán � d� m and hòu � � � w’ , it
turns out that this provides a nice solution to their relationship, allowing them to be
reconstructed as *a� k�� m < *a� k�� � -� and *a� kwa� � respectively. Further support for this
argument is found in the fact that the Shuowen also lists a variant guwen � �
(ancient script) form for the graph � [=� ] of � . This consists of l ! l " ’ with
dòu # d$ wh beneath it. The word dòu # occurs in the same rhyme group as hòu % & $ w’ < *a' kwa
( ) and may be reconstructed as *a' ka
( ) *, which also corresponds very
nicely with the reconstructed form *a' k$( ) -+ of tán , . One may assume that the very
similar pronunciations of # *a' ka( ) *
and %
*a' kwa( )
allowed for this graphic
interchange. The graph # is discussed in 8.6 below.
8.6 The Xiesheng Series of - . *kwja
/ 0, 1 *kwa
2 0-n, 3 *kwja
/ 0 4, 5 *a6 ka
2 0 7, 8 a6 ka
/ 0 7
The Shuowen defines zh9 3 t: ua6 ’ accordingly: “; < = 3 > ” (? is a flame in the
middle of a lamp) and comments “ @ A B ” ( C is also phonetic). Boltz (2001: 8)
identifies this @ with the same one that occurs in the middle of D in its
oracle-bone form and suggests that “here it is likely functioning as a phonetic
determinative to specify one or another of the cognate words shuh < draEgwF , *dra
Egws
[G ] ‘ tree’ , ju < * traEgw [D ] ‘ tree trunk, stalk, stem’ or juh < *dra
EgwF [H ] ‘pillar,
post’ , all of which could be reasonably represented in an emerging writing system
with the same graph that was used to write the basic word muh < * maIkw [J ] ‘ tree’ .”
The idea that mù J mK wk could have polyphonically represented all three of these
words seems to a rather unnecessary hypothesis when, as wil l be seen below, all of
these words appear to be attested in the oracle-bone script. Nevertheless, Boltz’s
suggestion that @ is the phonetic in D , and his observation of a zhuanzhu
relationship between G , H , and D is very interesting. Matisoff (2003: 452)
72
compares zhu� D t� ua� < *kwja
� � ‘vermill ion’ with Proto-Tibeto-Burman * t(y)a ‘ very
red, flaming red’ which, in light of the correspondence between PTB dentals and OC
velars seems very likely. He also links the suffixed form * t(y)a-n ‘ red’ with da�n �
tan ‘ red’ , attested in the oracle-bone script as � which also seems to contain this �component. When derived from an OC velar, EMC t- usually comes from *kwj- in
Type A words. In the word for da�n � tan, it is not possible to reconstruct a medial
* -j-; however, one may suggest that � had a root form *kwa� �
to which a suffixal * -n,
also attested in the PTB form, was added. As was seen before in 8.2, metathesis of the
*�- coda to the front of the rhyme would cause the palatalization of the initial. In this
case, the initial was already labialized and so it seems likely that the *� glide would
have caused the initial to develop as it would have done had it been followed by a
palatalizing medial * -j-: da�n � tan < *kw� a
n < *kwa
�-n. Such a reconstruction
compares extremely well with the other word for ‘ red’ zhu � t� ua� < *kwja
� � and
shows a clear relationship between the two.
Both zhu � t� ua� < *kwja
� � and da
�n � tan < *kw� a
n < *kwa
�-n are attested in the
oracle-bone script as and � respectively. Unfortunately neither is attributed
any more semantic content than functioning as a place name, but both are attested in
the bronze script with the respective meanings of ‘ vermill ion’ and ‘cinnabar’ and on
that basis may be read with some certainty.
… � …� � … (Houbian � 12.8)
… divination, Bin… at Zhu…
� � �� � � (Jingjin 3649)
Ji Mao (day) divination, (the) King (is) at Dan
As for the graph zh� � t� ua� ’ < *kwja� � �
, Li Xiaoding (1965.5: 1735) suggests that it
is derived from the oracle-bone graph � . It also seems to only occur as a place name,
but the graphic similarity and its near homophony with zhu� t! ua" < *kwja
# $
suggests that they could have been referring to the same place:106
% & ' ( ) * (Heji 8063)
Tested: This day go to Zhu.
The word shù + d, ua- h < a" ka# $ .
occurs in the xiesheng series for dòu / d0 wh <
*a" ka1 $ .
, differing only in its Type B prosody as opposed to Type A. Although absent
106 Interestingly, Yan Yiping (1988: 15) actually transcribes the graph 2 as zhu
3 4 t5 ua6 .
73
in the modern form of � , its oracle-bone graph clearly contains the phonetic �
in the middle of the graph. The connection of the bone graph � , consisting of � as
its bottom left component, with � has been questioned because its right component
depicts a plough � which in the modern form has become � . Whether Xu
Zhongshu’s (1989: 653-654) conjecture that “� � � � � � � � � ” (one
uses a plough to puncture the ground to make holes up from which a tree or plant can
rise) is correct or not, it seems likely that the right component became distorted to �
due to a phonetic association between the root word underlying the xiesheng series of
cùn � tshw� nh < *kk�� � -n� and the pronunciation of shù � d� ua� h < a� ka
� � �. The
modern graph � also seems to contain the graph zh� � trua� ’ < *kwrja� � � (the
rhyming of its xiesheng derivative g� � k ’ in the *-a� ! group in the Shiji ng was
due to the merger of proto-OC *-a� � with OC * -a� ! in some cases that was discussed
in 5.3) which is undoubtedly also a derivative of dòu "
d� wh < *a� ka� � �. It is attested
in the OB script as # which clearly shows the lower $ component, and often
appears to be interchangeable with % , attested as & with a meaning of “' % ( ) ”
(strike a drum as a sacrifice) according to Xu Zhongshu (1989: 518), in inscriptions
like: * + , - . / 0 1…2 … (Yicun 233)
Wu Xu (day) tested: Gao perhaps (performs a) drumming-ritual (during107 the)
rong-ritual-sacrifice to… (of) six…
In the case of the modern form 3 of the OB graph 4 , it seems that in the evolution
of the script, the upper 5 component was confused with the upper component of # /, with a semantic determinative 5 then being added later to replace the lost
original one. This change had already started to occur in the late stages of the OB
script where a Period-V form of 3 is written as 6 , with the /
component clearly
present. Both $ and 3 are limited in the OB corpus to occurring as place names.
Just as was the case with 7 and 8 , the very close phonetic relationship suggests
these two graphs may well have been referring to the same place:
9 : ; < $ = … (Jiabian 1613)
107 It seems that certain practices were performed during the five ritual-sacrifices (see fn.63 for a description of these). Commenting on the series of inscriptions in Cuibian 279 which are all of the form: > ?
X @ A B ; C ?X D A B ‘ (The) King (treats) X (as a) guest (with) a xie-ritual-sacrifice. (There
is) no blame; (The) King (treats) X (as a) guest (with) a nai-ritual sacrifice. (There is) no blame’ , ItE (1996:1 26-7) says it “ inquires whether the ancestors wil l accept the sacrifice if a nai (?) D ritual is performed during the xie sacrifice…. It is possible that the diviners first inquired whether the xie sacrifice would be accepted, and then, if the answer was negative, asked if the addition of the nai ritual would satisfy the ancestor” .
74
Jia Zi (day) divination: (It should) be (at) Dou (that we) hunt…
� � �� � � � � � � (Xubian 3.28.6)
Yi You (day) divination, at Shu tested: (The) King hunts. (In his) going (and)
returning (there was) no calamity.
75
Concluding Remarks If this paper has served its purpose in effectively elucidating hitherto obscure xiesheng
relationships, then ideally the conclusions should speak for themselves. As a further
note, however, the appearance of this work will ideally bring two important
considerations to light:
Firstly, the phonological relationships identified in this paper are heavily dependent
on the reconstruction system outlined by Pulleyblank (op. cit.). It is hoped that this
paper has demonstrated how the correct application of such a system can identify
xiesheng connections for which other competing reconstruction systems have not been
able to provide explanations.
Secondly, there is an obvious need for all academics working in the field of Old
Chinese word families to be thoroughly trained in Chinese palaeography. Attempts to
reconstruct etymological links without regard to the earliest attested forms of the
script are a priori doomed to be inadequate and incomplete.
76
Appendix 1 The Reconstruction of Chinese
Middle Chinese
One of the most fundamental features of Pulleyblank’s reconstruction of Middle
Chinese is the distinction between Early Middle Chinese (EMC) and Late Middle
Chinese (LMC). The distinction may be clearly observed in the shift in rhyming
practices through the Tang dynasty (618-907 A.D.). Throughout the early Tang, poets
generally rhymed according to the tongyong and duyong categories of the rhymes in
the Qieyun (a rhyme dictionary compiled at Chang’an in 601 A.D after the
reunification of North and South China under the Sui (581-618 A.D.), based on a
maximization of the distinctions represented in the educated forms of speech in the
Northern and Southern Dynasties). This ‘standard’ language, codified in the Qieyun,
is referred to by Pulleyblank as Early Middle Chinese (EMC). The tongyong and
duyong categories, are listed in the table of contents of the Guangyun (a rhyme
dictionary dating to 1007-8 A.D. which is an enlargement of the earlier Qieyun
dictionary) and respectively refer to which independent Qieyun rhymes may be
rhymed together and which must be kept separate for the purposes of poetic
composition of regulated rhymes in civil service examinations. In some cases, a few
of the earliest Tang poets show an even greater discrimination between the Qieyun
rhymes than those represented by these categories. Regarding the origins of the
tongyong and duyong distinction, Pulleyblank (1984: 139) notes that there is a record
in the Feng Shi Wen Jian Ji, written by Feng Yan in c.a. 800 A.D., of Xu Jingzong
presenting a memorial to the throne in the early Tang dynasty suggesting that certain
rhymes should be allowed to be used together in poetry. While it is unknown what
these rhymes were, Pulleyblank says that “one may infer with some confidence that
there was a continuous tradition from Xu Jingzong’s time onward. In only two or
three cases does one find seventh century poets making finer discriminations, and by
the eight century the pattern was set” (1984: 139). In the ninth century, however, one
sees the emergence of a new style of rhyming, based on the sixteen she categories to
which the first official reference is made in the later Song dynasty (960-1229 A.D.)
rhyme tables, but on the basis of the order of the rhymes in the Yunjing (a rhyme table
of pre-Song origin that uses forty-three tables to represent the rhymes of the
Guangyun and divides words into a system of four grades that will be discussed
below), one can assume were already well established by the late Tang. This new
‘standard’ of late Chang’an speech, codified in the Yunjing, is referred to by
Pulleyblank as Late Middle Chinese (LMC). Although reconstructions of Middle
77
Chinese do not vary to the same degree as Old Chinese, there is still no universally
accepted reconstruction of this either, and certain scholars still even reject a
distinction between EMC and LMC.108
In addition to the distinction between EMC and LMC, the most notable feature of
Pulleyblank’s Middle Chinese system is how it deals with the Type A (Grades I, II , IV)
and Type B (Grade III) distinction that Karlgren (1954) distinguished by means of
positing a medial -j- in the latter. The rationale behind Karlgren’s theory was that the
fanqie spellers109 seemed to fall into separate sets for Grades I, II and IV from that of
Grade II I, and that Grade III initials must have been palatalized by a following yod.
Although, it seems that the four grades set up in the Yunjing reflect degrees of
palatalization of the initials, Pulleyblank points out that “It has been difficult to
imagine how one could have a four-way contrast based on the single parameter of
palatalization. Karlgren decided that Grade III was characterized by the glide j
(written i� in his transcription system) and Grade IV by the vowel i. He at first thought
that Grade II was also characterized by a glide of a more fugitive kind, but then
adopted Maspero’s suggestion that Grade II originally had a low front vowel which
only gave rise to a palatal glide after velar initials. Since he believed, on the basis of
Sino-Vietnamese, that this glide had already appeared before the end of the Tang
[618-907 A.D.] and that the rhyme tables had only come into existence in Song
[960-1229 A.D.], there was an evident contradiction in this as an interpretation of the
meaning of the grades, but if he was ever aware of the problem did not face it” (1984:
74).
As an alternative hypothesis, Pulleyblank has proposed a paradigm that is wholly
represented only after outer (relatively low vowel) rhyme groups with back initials as
K-, Kj-, Ki-, Kji, commenting that “This was a simple set of distinctions
(supplemented by certain redundancies such as the long vowel in Grade II…) which
would have been easily recognizable by a native speaker and which could have been
demonstrated by ostension” (ibid: 75). Pulleyblank’s reconstruction for the grades is
based on the following assumptions: “Type B syllables in EMC had one of three high
vowels i, �, u, either alone or followed by a. Between EMC and LMC,
� and u were
subject to a fronting rule, giving i and y respectively. EMC wi also gave y… There is
no real obstacle to the assumption that the condition for palatalization of the dentals
between Old and Middle Chinese was provided by the [+ high] feature in the vowels i,
108 See for example Norman and Coblin (1995). 109 The term fanqie refers to a way of representing the pronunciation of a character by taking the initial of one well -known character and the final of another.
78
� and u, rather than by a hypothetical j glide for which there is no direct evidence and
which never appears in the transcriptions of foreign words or pre-Tang borrowings of
Chinese words in foreign languages” (ibid: 178-179); Type A, Grade II , finals are
derived either from Old Chinese *Cr- clusters (or a prefixal * r-) which gave the EMC
retroflex vowels ar and � r which later merged as � r to then develop into the LMC long
aa vowel with a palatal glide after back initials, or they are derived from the loss of i
after EMC retroflex sibilant initials; Type A, Grade IV, finals developed from Old
Chinese *Cj- clusters (or initials with a palatalizing prefix) that gave the EMC vowel � which then broke to LMC jia with the j being preserved only after back initials. A
full description of these processes may be found in Pulleyblank (1984). One may note
that Pulleyblank has used the above analysis to effectively account for the chongniu
(pairs of words with the same initial and rhyme but where one is found in Grade III
and one in Grade IV) on the following grounds: “When -�aj fronted to -iaj, the
non-palatal character of the vowel � survived as a feature of velarization: k
�aj > k
�iaj,
p�aj > p
�iaj. At the same period, the segmental r after velar and labial initials was
being reduced to a feature of retroflexion in the following vowel: kriaj > kriaj, priaj >
priaj. The acoustic similarity between velarization and retroflexion led to a merger
between the two types. If this reasoning is correct, the original difference between the
so-called chongniu, that is the cases where the same initial is found in two different
homophone groups within the same rhyme, one corresponding to Grade III and the
other to Grade IV in the rhyme tables, was between retroflex ri (Grade III) and plain i
(Grade IV). At some point a palatal glide developed in front of the latter, after which
retroflexion became redundant and eventually disappeared” (1984:173-5).
Old Chinese
Although studies on Old Chinese rhymes were already being conducted by a variety
of scholars in the Song dynasty (960-1229 A.D.)110, the first systematic categorization
of Old Chinese (OC) rhyme groups was conducted by Gu Yanwu (1613-1682 A.D.)
who through analyzing ancient texts, with a main focus on the rhyme words in the
poetry of the Shiji ng (a collection of 305 poems dated between 1000BC and 600BC),
established ten rhyme categories.111 This was a major contribution that correctly
110 The best known, and only surviving, work being Wu Yu’s (ca. 1100-1154)
� � Yun Bu (Rhyme
Supplement), reprinted in 1934 by � � � � , � Weinan Yanshi, Chengdu. 111 Gu Yanwu’s work on phonology is collected in his five volume work � � Yinxue Wushu (Five Books on Phonology), originally published in 1667 and more recently republished in 1933 by �� � � , � Weinan Yanshi, Chengdu. It is in the fifth volume, � � � Guyin Biao (Table of Ancient Sounds), that he outlines his ten Old Chinese rhyme groups. See Baxter (1992: 155-6) for a brief summary of his findings.
79
assumed that the language had changed over time and that the tongyong and duyong
categories of the Guangyun could not be used to explain the rhyming of the Shiji ng.
Later scholars modified and enlarged these categories by comparing them with the
rhymes of the Qieyun and the Guangyun. The current standard analysis of Old
Chinese rhyming follows the analysis of Jiang Yougao (1928) with Wang Li’s (1937)
emendation to give 31 Shiji ng rhyme categories.112 The phonological reconstruction
of the finals is a source of much debate, but all attempts are guided by a projection
backwards from the Qieyun to create a complete phonological statement for the
development of a particular character’s pronunciation.
As regards the initials of Old Chinese, the evidence is even more sparse and there is
no closed system like that provided by the rhyme tables for Middle Chinese. Xiesheng
series (groups of characters with the same phonetic components), appear to bring
together characters with what were once similar initials, but the exact
correspondences are unclear. Pulleyblank (1991b, 1995b) has proposed that the
Tiangan Dizhi (twenty-two calendrical signs) originated as phonograms for the
original consonants of the Chinese language. On this basis he has established six
classes of consonants that may be subdivided accordingly: stops k, kw, kj, k� , t, p;
fricatives x, xw, xj, x� , �; nasals � , � w, � j, � � , n, m; glides � 113, w, j, � , l. The
developments of these initials into their EMC reflexes is extremely complex. As a
general rule one may note the following: retroflexion is assumed to have been caused
by a medial, or prefixal, * r (which in some cases may have derived from the initial
* � ); aspiration either resulted from reduplication of the initial consonant (*pp > ph)114,
or possibly from an unidentified prefix such as *x- (*xp- > ph); voiced initials were
created by a prefixal pharyngeal glide *a� - which Pulleyblank suggests is “probably
cognate to Tibetan h� a-c�hung and the Burmese prefix � a-” (1991b: 43-4)115. A
summary chart of the changes in initials from EMC to OC, not covered by the
standard changes listed above, is provided below. It is based on the chart provided by
Pulleyblank (1991b: 77-78) including some additional derivations included in the
body of the text but not in the chart, as well as amendments suggested in later papers
112 This number has been questioned by Starostin (1989), Baxter (1992) and Zhengzhang (2000) who divide the traditional rhyme groups by reconstructing different vowels to account for frontness and roundness. In all three systems the traditional yuán group is treated as having three distinct finals: * -an, * -en and *-on. See below for Pulleyblank’s rejection of this. 113 This is written as * - when occurring in syllable initial position. As a coda it is written * -� . 114 Pulleyblank says that this is “a process that is alleged to occur in the morphophonemics of Tsangla” (2000: 39). 115 Pulleyblank states: “ I posit a morpheme *a in Old Chinese, which could appear as an independent word in the coverb yú � , ‘ in, at’ EMC �a� < àa
�, with its sandhi variant hu
� � , EMC � � < � a
�a�-, as a
non-syllabic prefix *a-, cognate to Tibetan h� a-c�hung, which caused voicing of initial obstruents, and as
an infix.” (1989: 8).
80
(in particular 1995b and 1995c):116
*k > k (A), t � (B)
*a� k > d (A), d� (B)117
*k j > ts (A/B)
*kw > kw (A/B before � ; � > a in some cases), k (A/B before a), t (A before j), t � (B
before j)
*a� kw > � w (A before � ), gw (B before � ?), � (A/B before a)
*k � > kw� (A before � ), kjw (B before � ), kw (A/B before a)
* t > t (A), t� (B)
*p > p
*x > x (A/B), k (some A/B before � ?) kh (some A/B before a?)
*a� x > �
*xj > s
*x j > th (A), � (B)118
*xw > xw (A/B before � ; � > a in some cases), x (A/B before a)
*xwr > trh
*x� > xw (A, some B), sw (some B)
* � > th (A), � (B)
*a� � > d (A), j (B)
* � > �
* � j > d (A), j (B), n/ (A/B in labializing environments; the latter before high vowels)
* w > m/
* � > m (A), * r > l (B)
*n > n (A), (B)
*m > m
* � > k (A, some B before a), j (B)
* � � > kh (A?), z (B)
*w > � w (A before a), w (B before a), � (A before ), g (B before )
* � a� w > � w119
* j > � (A with vowel fronting), � ji (B)120
116 A = Type A syllables, B = Type B syllables 117 As noted in fn.60, Pulleyblank has observed that the exact conditions for the shift of velars to dentals “have still to be determined” (1991b: 52). Pulleyblank does not make a comment on when *a� k- becomes *g- or when *a� kw- becomes g(w)- through the regular voicing process, as opposed to shifting to dentals and velar fricatives as outlined in the table above. 118 See fn.36 for a discussion of this interpretation of Pulleyblank’s system. 119 Pulleyblank (1995c: 302) suggests that “EMC � w represents OC * � a
�w- [now written * � a� w-], that is
the prefix *a�, supplied with the obligatory glottal stop of an initial vowel, in front of *w” .
120 Pulleyblank (1995c: 292) suggests that “at some point OC * j was treated as a vowel initial and glottali zed: * j � * � j” (1995c: 292).
81
* � > d (A), j (B); or * r > l (A/B)
* l > d (A), � (B)
Pulleyblank also sets up the same consonantal inventory in syllable final position,
although this does not include the fricative series which he assumes may have
“merged with the yin [glide] finals… before the time of the Shiji ng” (1991b: 51).121
For words with non-velar initials or finals, which may be labialized or palatalized
themselves and thus affect the vowel quality, that others have reconstructed with
rounded vowels and front vowels, Pulleyblank assumes that “* -n, * -t and *-l were
formative suffixes122 and… when they were added to morphemes ending in a
rounded glide, the glide moved in front of the nucleus: *Caw-n � *Cwan, etc”
(1993a: 367) and that front vowels are derived from “Cj- clusters or perhaps in some
cases a palatalizing prefix such as *�-” (2004: 7)123. On this basis, Pulleyblank is able
to set up a rhyme vowel contrast of just two vowels; one ‘ inner’ schwa vowel -� -
alternating with zero, and one ‘outer’ vowel -a-124. This gives the following
121 Pulleyblank supports this by saying: “There is, of course, no a priori reason why Old or Proto-Chinese should have had the same set of consonants in syllable initial and final position. This was certainly not true of Middle Chinese nor is such a situation found in modern dialects. Nevertheless, we know that reduction in syllable finals has been a continuing process in the diachronic evolution of East Asian languages and it is therefore not unreasonable to hypothesize that there may have once been a stage in which syllable initial and final possibili ties were the same, especiall y if, as I suspect, the language was not simply monosyllabic as it later became but could have unaccented syllabic suff ixes as well as prefixes” (1991b: 51). 122 On the basis of the relationship in Classical Chinese between the negative particles ending in * -t, fú �
put and wù � mut versus wú � mua� and bù puw’ , Pulleyblank suggests that “ judging by later usage, one should regard bù and wú as the unmarked terms and define the opposition as, perhaps, non-punctual versus punctual or aoristic or as stative versus changes of state” (1991c: 38). Focusing on their specific functions in the oracle-bone language, Takashima (1994.1: 382) prefers to classify the particles according to their modalit y which is identified morphologically by their initials: bù puw’ and fú
� put both being non-modal, wù � mut and wú � mua� both being modal. As Takashima
observes, Pulleyblank’s aspectual distinction can also be applied to the pre-Classical language and consequently he has “paid equal attention to the initials as indicating modality, but it has also become clear that the finals reflect aspects” (ibid). As regards the suff ix *-n, on the basis of the Classical Chinese particles ya
n � ian, rán � ian, yún � wun ‘say so’ (derived from the same root as yue
�
wuat ‘say’ used to introduce quotations), yuán � wuan ‘ thereupon’ , Pulleyblank concludes that there was “a suffix *-n, inherited from Sino-Tibetan that may originall y have been a mark of non-perfective or durative aspect, the anaphoric pronominal meaning being a secondary development” (1995d: 80). The function of suff ixal * -l has not yet been clearly identified. 123 The argument for a palatalizing *
�- prefix is made in Pulleyblank’s 1995b emendation of his 1991b
paper where he replaces the initial *s- from his 1991b consonantal system to posit instead the palatal fricative *xj. This change also requires him to change his original *xj to a lateral fricative * � -. This is made on the assumption that “*x j would have become a palatal fricative [ � ], or even palato-alveolar [
�]
at a very early period… One of the important functions that has been attributed to Sino-Tibetan *s is that of a suffix and prefix. As a suffix it plays an important role in Tibetan verbal morphology and, more generally, in word formation. It has been identified as the source of the Middle Chinese Departing Tone. This is not affected if we change the reconstruction to *x j. In fact it helps to account for the fact that after *t the suffix gave a palatal glide -jh in EMC. It is likely that it also had a palatalizing effect as a prefix” (1995b: 2). 124 Such a system is not too different from that of Li Fang-kuei (1971) who postulated four main
82
reconstructions for the for the traditional 31 Shiji ng rhyme categories:125
Yin (a) Yang (b) Ru (c)
I � -� m � -� p
II � -am � -ap
II I � -� l � -� n � -� t IV(i) � -al -an -at
(ii) � -at� 126
V -� j � -� j� � -� jk
VI � -aj � -aj� � -ajk
VII � -� � � -� � � -� k
VII I � -a� � -a� � -ak
IX � -� w � -� w� � -� wk
X � -a� -a� � ! -a� k
XI " -aw # -awk
rhyme vowels -$ -, -a-, -i-, -u- with an additional class of labiovelar consonants in initial and final position. As Pulleyblank observes “The four vowel system that he sets up is certainly quite attractive in terms of naturalness but he still does not succeed in making a uniform distribution of vowels and final consonants. The vowels -% - and -a- occur in front of all consonants classes but -i- is found only in front of dentals and velars and -u- is found only in front of velars. Moreover, to complete his system he requires three vowel clusters, i % , ia and ua, which are considered to rhyme with % or a and which have a limited and defective distribution. This aspect of his system, which seems to me rather ad hoc and arbitrary, detracts considerably from its naturalness” (1991b: 45). Pulleyblank’s reduction of this to a two-way contrast between -$ - and -a-, according to the methods outlined above, has been questioned by other scholars in terms of naturalness. However as Pulleyblank observes, Northwest Caucasian, Australian, New Guinean languages, as well as modern day Mandarin have all been analyzed in a similar fashion. Furthermore, Pulleyblank (1993b: 63-118, 135-141) has suggested that such an analysis can also be made of Proto-Indo-European. 125 When occurring as finals, the secondary vocalic articulations of the velars are written with semivowel preceding the consonant, rather than after with a raised semi-vowel. This is a purely notational distinction with no phonological implication. 126 The rhyming of the Shijing suggests that when rhymes in & * -at are followed by an * -
' suffix,
they should be reconstructed as their own rhyme class ( * -at' . This only occurs in words of this type,
the reason for which has been outlined by Pulleyblank as follows: “Old Chinese rhyming and hsieh-sheng contacts between Middle Chinese words with open syllables and words with final stops are far more common in the departing tone. This is most apparent in those Middle Chinese rhymes which exist only in the departing tone… and which show abundant contacts with -t. Recognition of this phenomenon at one time led Karlgren to suppose that the final stop consonants had been lost under the influence of tone. He later abandoned this idea in favour of the reconstruction of voiced -g, -d, -b, but he left unexplained: (1) why vocalization of -d to -i should always result in the falling tone, while the parallel vocalization of -r to -i or -0 could result in any tone, (2) why, although final -g gave all three tones, contacts with -k are much commoner in cases where it gave the falling tone… According to Haudricourt[‘ s study of Vietnamese] it can be shown that the falling tone has developed from an earlier final -h representing an original -s [reconstructed in this paper as -
']. He suggested that the same thing
may have happened in Chinese… [There is] supporting evidence from early transcriptions which show that a final sibilant form original * ts was stil l pronounced in Chinese until the third century A.D” (1962: 216-217). See also fn.133.
83
As regards the missing finals for a complete system -� � , -� � � , -� � k and -aw� ,
Pulleyblank suggests: “It appears that *-� � � merged with * -� w� in the standard
language and with * -a� � in proto-Min. On the other hand *-� � k merged either with
* -� k or * � wk in the standard language and with * -a� k in proto-Min. We have found
cases where * -� � merged with * -� � but there may also be cases where it merged with
* -� w” (2004: 159)127; “As far as *aw� is concerned, I suspect it lost its labialization
and merged with -a� ” (1991b: 50).128
Pulleyblank’s vowel system is also contingent on two other features. The first is a
prosodic distinction between words with rising and falling accents, the latter of which
“was responsible for the insertion of a high central vowel, � , as the first element in the
nucleus of Type B syllables, either replacing /� / or forming a diphthong with the
following /a/” (1994: 73)129. This prosodic contrast provides an explanation for
Pulleyblank’s EMC distinction between Type A finals (those with a plain -� - or -a-
vowel nucleus) and Type B (those with a high vowel nucleus -i-, -� - or -u- either
replacing -� - or occurring as a diphthong with -a-). The second is a vowel length
distinction which is used to explain cases where positing initial * r- to explain Type
A, Grade II, finals “contradicts the hypothesis that - was merely an obligatory onset
127 A selection of Pulleyblank’s (2004: 157-159) examples may be quoted accordingly: “The clearest example is ér � E.� in which the graph, as a pictogram, belongs primarily to a word that we can reconstruct as *n�� � meaning ‘whiskers’ but which was borrowed at an early stage, presumably after * -� � had shifted to * -� � , to write the particle ér � *n�� � ‘ then, and (as a connective between serial verbs); your’ , a weaker variant, in both senses, of n� i � E.n� j’ < *n�� � � ‘ then; your’ . Graphically � plays a phonetic role in xu
� � E.sua� < sna
� � ‘wait; require, need’ a homophone of xu
� � ‘beard;
wait’… Ér � is also phonetic in rù � E. � uwk ‘ fish roe’ , also read ér E. � � , and in n� E. nruwk, also E. nr �k, ‘shame’ (equivalent in the first reading to n� ! ). This suggests that * -� � k simpli fied either to * -� �k or * -� wk, presumably in different Old Chinese dialects. Another contact between the Old Chinese rhyme group zhi
� " in * -� � and the h# u $ rhyme group in *-a
� is w% & E.mua� <
*ma� �
‘ insult’ , with m' i ( *-m� j ‘every’ as phonetic… [T]he Min colloquial forms indicate a third alternative merger with *-a
�k: dú ) E. dawk < * �� � k F[uzhou] t* y� ( + ) tu� (, ), X[iamen] ( + ) tak
(, ) t- k… The pattern of merger of * -� � - with *-a�- in Min is more strongly supported in the case of
words in the yáng cateory with cases li ke do�ng . E. taw/ < t�� w/ < *t�� � / . F[uzhou] t* y/ ( + ) tu/
(, ), X[iamen] ta/ ( + ) t- / (, )” . 128 Pulleyblank (1991b: 50) provides the following examples: “An irregular rhyme such as huang 0 EMC 1 wa/ rhyming with ji an 2 EMC ka�m, yan 3 EMC / iam, and lan 4 lam in Ode 305/5 may be a (dialect?) survival of * -a/ w; compare hao 5 EMC 1 aw ‘moat,’ which is probably cognate to huang 6 EMC 1 wa/ ‘moat.’ A similar merger of *awk with *ak occurred in all Grade III finals and many Grade I finals between Old and Early Middle Chinese.” 129 In his 1992 reconstruction, Baxter adopted Karlgren’s medial yod hypothesis unchanged. However in his 1995 revision, he seems to have adopted Starostin’s (1989) proposal for a vowel length distinction. This has been criticized by Pulleyblank for a variety of reasons including the “key problem [of how to account for]… the palatalization of dentals in Type B syllables” and the fact that “ In the post-Hàn period the vowel length distinction is assumed to survive unchanged, only to disappear suddenly without trace in the Middle Chinese of the Qièyùn, being replaced in some cases by small changes in vowel quality” . He concludes that “Starostin’s account of the development of Middle Chinese from Old Chinese is entirely ad hoc and not to be taken seriously” (2001: 32-35).
84
for vowel initial words” (1995c: 294-5)130 as well as to “account for the two types of
distinct reflexes in Type B syllables in Middle Chinese derived from the OC yú �
category… and OC ge�� � category” as shown in words like zhu
� � t� � a� < * tàa� and
zhe� � t� � a� < * tàaa� 131 and “the two types of EMC reflexes in -� ak and -iajk
respectively for entering tone words in the… [OC duó ] category” (ibid: 302-3) for
example in zhuó t� � aa� k < * kàk and shí � d� iajk < * a� kàak132.
In addition to the *a� -, * - prefixes and the * -n, *-t and * -l suffixes mentioned above,
suffixal * -� and *- which are assumed to have given the EMC rising and departing
tones respectively may also be postulated with a good degree of certainty in Old
Chinese.133 There was undoubtedly an extremely complex system of affixation in Old
130 Pulleyblank bases this on the following phonological process: “ I assume that in Type A syllables the second mora in long vowels was raised to � : *aa
� > EMC a� > � � > LMC (j)a�. Medial *r was also
metathesized and then velarized to � in Type A syllables, Cra�- > Car- > Ca� -, Cr�� > C� r- > C� � -,
merging with original long vowels. Vowel length was retained in LMC and continues to be reflected in the long [a�] of modern Cantonese” (1995c: 302). 131 Pulleyblank assumes the following phonological derivation to explain the development of Type B syllables in the OC yú � (*-a
� � � > -iaa� and * -a
� � > �a� ) and ge
�� � (* -a
� �l > -iaa� and * -a
�l > -ia� )
groups: “ In terms of syllable structure… the difference is between VV diphthongs and V followed by a glide. This suggests that it could go back to a vowel length distinction in Old Chinese… Assuming that there was a distinction of vowel length, *-aa
� versus * -aaa
�, in the yú � category, this would have
given * - �aa� and * - �aaa
� [in Type B syllables]. To derive the EMC rhymes from this, I assume that both
were shortened by one segment * - �aa� lost its second V segment and became *- �a� while the overlong
syllable * - �aaa� was reduced to * - �aa
� but remained distinct. After coronal initials *- �aa
� fronted to *-iaa
�
but * - �a� was unaffected” (1995c: 296-299) 132 Pulleyblank assumes the following phonological derivation to explain the development of Type B syllables after non-retroflex coronal initials in the OC duó � (*a
�k > �aa� k and *a
�� �k > iajk) group: “On
the assumption that it reflects the OC distinction between long and short *a, we must assume that the * - �aa- was fronted to * -iaa- under the influence of a coronal initial, after which the overlong syllable was reduced to -ia-, while * - �a- was unaffected. This was followed by the fronting of final * -k to -kj (written -jk in my EMC transcription) after -ia-” (1995c: 301-2). It must be made clear that such a distinction is only made for non-retroflex coronal initials, for medial *-r- after velar and labial initials “merged with * � to give high front -i-” causing the same change of the final plain velar to a palatal velar after -ia- (as was the case with coronal initials followed by a long vowel):* -ra
�k > iajk, while in
the case of coronal initials “r merged [with them] to form retroflex segments: * tr > t�r, *tsr > t , etc., in
which case the inserted high vowel -i- was unaffected” (ibid.): * -ra�k > - �aa� k.
133 The evidence for a suffix * -! has been discussed in fn.126. Although * -at
! rhymes as a separate
rhyme category in the Shijing, in the cases of other ru-sheng codas in -t!, * -k
!, * -jk
!, * -wk
! and * -" k
!,
they all seem to have given EMC reflexes analogous to those of their respective yin-sheng codas * l!,
* -� !
, * -j!, * -w
! and * " !
respectively. These changes seem to have sometimes affected Shijing rhyming, with for example, words in * -k
! rhyming with others in* -
� !. As for -p
!, it seems to have merged with
-t! well before the time of the Shijing, as shown by cases li ke rù # $ ip < * % j&� p and its xiesheng
derivative nèi ' nw& jh < * % j&( t! < (% j&( p!). The Yin-sheng (glide) and yang-sheng (nasal) codas
developed regularly as their counterparts without a suffixal*-!. As for the suffix * -) , Pulleyblank says:
“The internal Chinese evidence for a final glottal stop on the rising tone has been discussed rather thoroughly by Mei Tsu-lin (1970 [Tones and Prosody in Middle Chinese and the Origin of the Rising Tone. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 30: 86-100]). He mentions in particular the survival of a final glottal stop in this tone in some modern dialects, including Wen-zhou and some outlying Min dialects, and the evidence from the Tang period that the rising tone was considered most appropriate to represent vowel shortness in transcribing Sanskrit into Chinese characters” (1978: 174).
85
Chinese, however reconstruction of this is still in its elementary stages. Even in PTB
where the role of affixation is much more apparent, Matisoff (2003: 93-96) lists eight
different evolutionary courses for prefixes to take, often with little predictability.134
At the current stage of knowledge, it is very difficult to assign any precise
morphological function to OC affixes and the grounds for positing them are usually
based on xiesheng evidence within the parameters of normal phonological change.135
134 The eight listed are: prefix preservation; prefix loss or absence; prefix substitution or prefix alternation; prefix fusion; prefix preemption (“whereby the prefix drives out the original root initial” ); reprefixation; metanalysis of an original cluster with loss of initial consonant (“a true consonant cluster consisting of root-initial consonant plus glide gets metanalyzed as a prefix plus root-initial glide, with subsequent loss of the ‘prefixal’ element” ); metanalysis of compound > prefixation (the end of the first syllable of an original compound has been incorporated into the onset of the second syllable, so that the first syllable has essentially been ‘prefixized’ , or treated as prefix” ) (ibid.: 93-96). 135 Sagart (1999: 63-135) provides a good analysis of the principle arguments for the variety of prefixes, suffixes and initial clusters that have been posited for Old Chinese.
86
Appendix 2 Comparative Table of Old and Middle Chinese Rhyme Groups
The following charts show a comparison of the reconstruction of Old Chinese rhymes
and their Middle Chinese reflexes according to Karlgren (1954), Li Fang-Kuei (1971),
Baxter (1992; 1995) and Pulleyblank (1984; 1991b).
The following points may be noted:
• The numbers assigned to the groups correspond to the table on p.82.
• The initial * w- in the lower sections of the OC rhyme groups is used to represent
all types of labial and labialized initials
• In Pulleyblank’s system only EMC, and not LMC, reconstructions are given. The
systems of Karlgren, Li and Baxter do not explicitly make a distinction between
the two.
• In Li’s system no Middle Chinese reflexes are given as they are identical to
Karlgren’s, bar a few notational distinctions.136
• All reconstructions are given in the International Phonetic Alphabet, adopted
throughout this paper, rather than in any other systems of transcription that may
have been used by the respective authors.
• Pulleyblank’s * -a� glide reconstructed after the open vowel * -a as a syllable
closure in EMC, is included in the table for reference. However following the
practice in his lexicon (1991b), they are not included in the EMC transcriptions
used in the body of this thesis.
136 Li Fang-kuei changes the Middle Chinese -i reflex, of the
� group, to -ï as a functional notation
to distinguish it from -(j)i derived from the � group. He does the same to -ai and -wai of the � /� group changing them to -aï and -waï to distinguish them from -ai and -wai of the� group. He also makes a notational distinction between the chongniu (see the discussion on p.79), which Karlgren did not recognize in his system, by reconstructing a contrast between medial -i- and -ji-. See Li (1974: 224-227) for an English summary of these changes.
87
Karlgren Li Baxter Pulleyblank
Ib. �
� m>�� m � m � �m/u�m>� m �� m>� m � m>a�m r� m r� �m/ri �m/ru�m>� m r�� m/(r)j �� m>� �m
j � m>j � m [j� m>j � m] (r)j(i)� m (r)� m/(r)im/(r)um>(j)im (r)�� m/(r)j �� m>(j)im
i � m>iem i � m i �m>em j � m>� m
(j)u�m>(j)u w(j)� m w(r)� m/w(r)um>juw w�� m>uw
Ic.
� p>�� p � p � �p/u�p>� p �� p>� p � p>a�p r� p r� �p/ri �p/ru�p>� p r�� p>a�p
j � p>j � p [j� p>j � p] (r)j(i)� p (r)� p/(r)ip/(r)up>(j)ip (r)�� p/(r)j �� p>(j)ip
i � p>iep i � p i �p>ep j �� p>� p
IIb. �
� m>� m am a�m/o�m>am/� m a�m>am
am>am ram ra�m>� m ra�m>a�m
a�m>a
�m riam re�m/ro�m>� m rja
�m>� �m
ja�m>j� m jam am/(r)om>j� m a
�m>�am
jam>j � m (r)j(i)am (r)am/(r)em/(r)om>j(i)em (r)a
�m/(r)ja
�m>(j)iam
iam>iem iam e�m>em ja�m>� m
jwa�m>jw� m wjam wam/(r)om>j� m wa
�m>uam
IIc. � /
� p>� p ap a�p/o�p>ap/� p a�p>ap
ap>ap rap ra�p>� p ra�p>a�p
a�p>a
�p riap re�p/ro�p>� p rja
�p>� �p
ja�p>j� p jap
ap/(r)op>j� p a�p>�ap
jap>j � p (r)j(i)ap (r)ap/(r)ep/(r)op>j(i)ep (r)a�p/(r)ja
�p>(j)iap
iap>iep iap e�p>ep ja�p>� p
jwa�p>jw� p wjap wap/(r)op>j� p wa
�p>uap
88
III a. �
� d/r>�� i � d � � j>� j �� l>� j � d/r>a�i r� d r� � j>� j r�� l>� � j
j � d/r>je�i/ji j � d/(r)ji � d � j/(r)� j>j � j/ij �� l/(r)�� l>� j/(j)i
i � d/r>iei ied � � j>ej �� l>� j
w� d/r>w�� i w� d w� � j/uj>w� j w�� l>w� j
w� d/r>wa�i wr� d wr� � j/ruj>w� j wr�� l/rw�� l>w� � j
jw� d/r>jwe�i/jwi wj � d/wji � d~w(r)j � d w� j~uj/wr� j~(r)uj>jw� j/wij w�� l/wr�� l~(r)w�� l>uj/(j)wi
III b. �
� n>� n � n � �n>� n �� n>� n � n>a�n r� n r� �n>� n r�� n>� �n
j � n>j � n/je�n j � n/(r)ji � n � n/(r)� n>j � n/in �� n/(r)�� n>�n/(j)in
i � n>ien ien � �n>en j �� n>� n
w� n>u� n w� n w� �n/u�n>w� n w�� n>w� n
w� n>wa�n wr� n wr� �n/ru�n>w� n wr�� n/rw�� n>w� �n
jw� n>ju� n/jue�n wj � n/wji � n~w(r)ji � n w� n~un/wr� n~(r)un>jun/win w�� n/wr�� n~(r)w�� n>un/(j)win
III c. � /�
� t>� t � t � �t>� t �� t>� t � t>a�t r� t r� �t>� t r�� t>� � t
j � t>j � t/je�t j � t/(r)ji � t � t/(r)� t>j � t/it �� t/(r)�� t>� t/(j)it
i � t>iet i � t � �t>et j �� t> � t
w� t>u� t w� t w� �t/u�t>w� t w�� t>w� t
w� t>wa�t r(i)� t wr� �t/ru�t>w� t wr�� t/rw�� t>w� � t
jw� t>jw� t/jwe�t wj � t/wji � t~w(r)j � t w� t~ut/wr� t~(r)ut>jut/wit w�� t/wr� t~(r)w� t>ut/(j)wit
Va. �
� (r)>� ar a� j>a a�l>aa
a(r)/[a�r]>a/[ai] rar ra� j>� ra
�l>a�
jar/ia/[ja�r]>ie
� (r)j(i)ar (r)aj>je (r)a
�l>ia
ja>ja jar Aj>j� a� � l>iaa
w� (r)>u� war/uar wa� j/oj>wa wa�l>waa
wa(r)>wa wrar/ruar wra� j/roj>w� wra( �)l/rwa�( �)l>wa�
89
jwar/wia/[jwa�r]>wie
� wj(i)ar/(r)juar w(r)aj/(r)oj>jwe w(r)a
�l/(r)wa
�l>(j)wia
IVb. �
� n>� n wan a�n>an a�n>an
an>an ran ra�n>� n ra
�n>a�n
a�n>a
�n rian re�n>� n rja
�n>� �n
ja�n>j� n jan an>j� n a
�n>�an
jan>j � n (r)j(i)an (r)an/(r)en>jen (r)a�n/(r)ja
�n>(j)ian
ian>ien ian e�n>en ja�n>� n
w� n>u� n wan/uan wa�n/on>wan wa�n>wan
wan>wan wran/ruan wra�n/wre�n/ro�n>w� n wra
�n/wrja
�n/rwa
�n>wa�n
jwa�n>jw� n wjan/juan wan/on>w� n wa
�n>uan
jwan>jw� n wj(i)an/(r)juan wran/w(r)en/(r)on>jw(i)en wra�n/w(r)ja
�n/(r)wa
�n>(j)wian
iwan>iwen wian we�n>wen wja�n>w� n
IVc(i). �
� t>� t at a�t>at a�t>at
at>at rat ra�t>� t ra�t>a� t
a�t>a
�t riat re�t>� t rja
�t>� �t
ja�t>j� t jat at>j� t
a�t>�at
jat>j � t (r)j(i)at (r)at/(r)et>j(i)et (r)a�t/(r)ja
�t>(j)iat
iat>iet wiat e�t>et ja�t>� t
w� t>u� t wat/uat wa�t/o�t>wat wa�t>wat
wat>wat wrat
wra�t/wre�t>w� t wra
�t/wrja
�t>wa� t
wa�t>wa
�t ruat ro�t>w� t rwa
�t>w� � t
jwa�t>jw� t wjat/juat
wat/ot>jw� t wa�t>uat
jwat>jw� t wj(i)at/(r)juat wrat/w(r)et/(r)ot>jw(i)et wra�t/w(r)ja
�t/(r)wa
�t>(j)wiat
iwat>iwet wiat we�t>wet wja�t>w� t
IVc(ii ). �
� d>� i adh a�ts>ajH a�t�>ajh
ad>ai radh ra�ts>� jH ra�t�>a� jh
a�d>a
�i riadh re�ts>� jH rja
�t�>� � jh
ja�d>j� i
jadh ats>j� jH a�t�>�ajh
jad>j � I (r)j(i)adh (r)ats/(r)ets>j(i)ejH (r)a�t�/(r)ja
�t�>(j)iajh
90
iad>iei iadh e�ts>ejH ja�t�>� jh
w� d>w� i wadh/uadh wa�ts/o�ts>wajH wa�t�>wajh
wad>wai wradh wra�ts/wre�ts>w� jH wra�t�/wrja
�t�>wa� jh
wa�d>wa
�i ruadh ro�ts>w� jH rwa
�t�>w� � jh
jwa�d>jw� i wjad/juadh wats/ots>jw� jH wa
�t�>uajh
jwad>jw� i w(r)j(i)adh/(r)juadh wrats/w(r)ets/(r)ots>jw(i)ejH wra�t�/w(r)ja
�t�/(r)wa
�t�>(j)wiajh
iwad>iwei wiadh we�ts>wejH wja�t�>w� jh
Va. �
(� d>a�i) rid ri � j>� j r�� j>� � j
je�d>(j)i (r)jid (r)ij>(j)ij (r)�� j>(j)i
ied>iei id i � j>ej �� j>� j
(w� d>wa�i) wrid wri � j>w� j wr�� j>w� � j
jwe�d>(j)wi w(r)jid w(r)ij>(j)wij w(r)�� j>(j)wi
iwed>iwei wid wi � j>wej w�� j>w� j
Vb. �
[� n]>a�n rin ri �n>� n r�� j � >� �n
je�n>j(i)e
�n/j� n jin/(r)jin in/rin>(j)in/in �� j � /r�� j � >(j)in/(j)ian
ien>ien in i �n>en ��� j � >� n
[w� n]>wa�n wrin wri �n>w� n wr�� j � >w� �n
jwe�n>jue
�n/jw� n wjin win/wrin>(j)win/win w�� j � /wr�� j � >(j)win/(j)wian
iwen>iwen win wi �n>wen w��� j � >w� n
Vc. �
[� t]>a�t rit ri �t>� t r�� jk>� � t
je�t>j(i)e
�t/j� t jit/(r)jit it/rit>(j)it/it �� jk/r�� jk>(j)it/(j)iat
iet>iet it i �t>et ��� jk>� t
[w� t]>wa�t writ wri �t>w� t wr�� jk>w� � t
jwe�t>jue
�t/jw� t wjit wit/writ>(j)wit/wit w�� jk/wr�� j � >(j)wit/(j)wiat
iwet>iwet wit wi �t>wet w��� jk>w� t
VIa. � /�
e�g>ai rig re�>� � ra
�j>a� j
91
je�g>j(i)e
� (r)jig (r)e>j(i)e (r)a
�j>(j)ia
ieg>iei ig e�>ej a�j>� j
we�g>wai wrig wre�>w� � wra
�j>wa� j
jwe�g>jw(i)e
� w(r)jig w(r)e>jw(i)e w(r)a
�j>(j)wia
iweg>iwei wig we�>wej wa�j>w� j
VIb. �
e� >� � ri � re� � >� � ra�j � >� � j �
je� � >j � � (r)ji � (r)e� /re� >j(i)e� /j� � (r)a
�j � /ra
� �j � >(j)iaj �
ie� >ie� i � e� � >e� a�j � >� j�
we� >w� � wri � wre� � >w� � wra�j � >w� � j �
jwe� � >jw� � wji � we� /wre� >jwie� /jw� � wa
�j � /wra
�j � >(j)wiaj �
iwe� >iwe� wi � we� � >we� wa�j � >w� j �
VIc. �
ek>� k rik re�k>� k ra�jk>� � jk
je�k>j � k (r)jik (r)ek/rek>j(i)ek/j� k (r)a
�jk/ra
� �jk>(j)iajk
iek>iek ik e�k>ek a�jk>� jk
wek>w� k wrik wre�k>w� k wra�jk>w� � jk
jwe�k>jw� k wjik wek/wrek>jwiek/jw� k wa
�jk/wra
�jk>(j)wiajk
iwek>iwek wik we�k>wek wa�jk>w� jk
VIIa. �
� g>�� i � g � �> � j �� � >� j � g>a�i r� g r� �> j r� � >� � j
j � g>i (r)j(i)� g (r)� >i (r)�� � >�
(w)� g>�� u/u � i w� g w� �/(r)o�>w� j/uw w� � >� w/w� j
w� g>wa�i wr� g wr� �>w j rw� � >w� � j
ju�g/j(w)� g>j �� u/jwi wj � g/wji � g w� /wr� >juw/wij (r)w�� � >uw/(j)wi
VIIb. �
� � >� � � � � � � >� � � � >� � � � >� � r� � r� � � > � r� � >� � j �
j � � >j � � (r)j(i)� � (r)� � >i � (r)�� � >(j)i �
92
w� � >w� � w� � w� � � >� � w� � >w� �
w� � >� � wr� � wr� � � > � wr� � >w� � j �
ju� � /wj � � >ju� /wj � � wj � � /wji � � w� � /wr� � >juw� /wi � w�� � /wr�� � >uw� /wi �
VIIc. �
� k>� k � k � �k>� k � k>� k � k>� k r� k r� �k> k r� k>� � jk
j � k>j � k (r)j(i)� k (r)� k>ik (r)�� k>(j)ik
w� k>w� k w� k w� �k>� k w� k>w� k
w� k>� k wr� k wr� �k> k wr� k>w� � jk
ju�k/wj � k>juk/wj � k wj � k/wji � k w� k/wr� k>juwk/wik w�� k/wr�� k>uwk/wik
VIII a. �
� / g>u� ag a�>u a �
>� � /a�g>a rag ra�>� ra
�>a�
j � /jag>jw� (r)jag (r)a>j� (r)a� �
>�a� j� /ja
�g>ja jiag A>j� a
� � � >iaa�
w� /w g>u� wag wa�>u wa �
>� w� /wa
�g>wa wrag wra�>w� wra
�>wa�
jw� /jwag>ju w(r)jag w(r)a>ju w(r)a� �
>ua�
VIII b. �
� > � a� a� � >a� a � >aa� �
a� � >� � ra� ra� � >� � ra
� >a� j �
ja� � /ja� >j� � /ja� (r)jia� /(r)ja� ra� /(r)a� >j� � /ja� ra
� � /(r)a� � >iaj � / �aa� �
w � >w � wa� wa� � >wa� wa � >waa� �
wa� � >w� � wra� wra� � >w� � wra
� >wa� j �
jwa� � /jwa� >jw� � /jwa� wjia� /wja� wra� /wa� >jw� � /jwa� wra
� � /wa� � >wiaj � /uaa� �
VIII c. �
k> k ak a�k>ak ak>aa� k
a�k>� k rak ra�k>� k ra
k>a� jk
jak>jak (r)jiak/(r)jak rak/(r)ak>j� k/jak ra�k/(r)a
�k>iajk/ �aa� k
93
ja�k>j� k/j k jiak Ak>jek (acute) a
�� �k>(j)iajk
w k>w k wak wa�k>wak wak>waa� k
wa�k>w� k wrak wra�k>w� k wrak>wa� jk
jwak>jwak wjiak/wjak wrak/wak>jw� k/jwak wra�k/wa
�k>wiajk/uaa� k
IXa. �
og/[ug]> u/�� u � gw u�/U�>aw/uw � w>aw/� w
o�g>au r� gw ru�/ri �w>� w r� w>a�w
jog/[j �� g]>j(i)e�u (r)j(i)� gw (r)u/(r)iw>juw/jiw (r)�� w/(r)j �� w>uw/jiw
iog>ieu i � gw i �w>ew j � w> w
[jw� g]>jwi wji � gw wru>wij wr�� w>(j)wi
IXb. � /�
o� >u� � � � w u� � >� w� � w� >aw�
o� � >� � r� � w ru� � >� w� r� w� >a�w� (� �w� )
jo� >ju� (r)j � � w (r)u� >juw� (r)�� w� >uw�
IXc. � /�
ok>u� k � kw u�k>� wk � wk>awk
o�k>� k r� kw ru�k/ri �wk>� wk r� wk>a�wk (� �wk)
jok>juk (r)j � kw (r)uk/(r)iwk >juwk (r)�� wk>uwk
iok>iek i � kw i �wk>ek j � wk> jk
Xa. �
u(g)>e�u ug (r)o�>uw a
�>� w
ju(g)>ju (r)jug (r)o>ju(w)137 (r)a� �
>ua�
Xb. �
u� >u� u� o� � >uw� a � � >� w�
u� � >� � ru� ro� � >� w� ra
� � >a�w� (� �w� )
137 Baxter (1992: 502) comments “We often find M[iddle]C[hinese] TSrjuw < TSrjo instead of the expected TSrju” . It seems more likely that such words were derived from proto-OC *- � (corresponding to a reconstruction of the� group as * -a
�) which in turn gave * - w > uw. This would
explain variations li ke q� tshua� ’ < *kkja �
and z(h)òu � d� uwh < *a� kjr � � .
94
ju� >jw� � (r)ju� (r)o� >j� w� (r)a� � � >uaw�
Xc. �
uk>uk uk o�k>uwk a �
k>� wk
u�k>� k ruk ro�k>� wk ra
�k>a�wk (� �wk)
juk>jw� k (r)juk (r)ok>j� wk (r)a� �
k>uawk
XIa. �
� g> u agw a�w>aw aw>aw �� g>au ragw ra�w/re�w>� w raw>a�w
j � g>j u [j �� g>je�u] (r)j(i)agw (r)aw/(r)ew>j(i)ew (r)a
�w/(r)ja
�w>(j)iaw
i � g>ieu iagw e�w>ew jaw> w
XIc. � /�
� k/[� k]/[uk]>u� k/ k/uk akw a�wk>� wk/ak/uwk awk>awk/aa� k/� wk �� k>� k rakw ra�wk/re�wk>� wk rawk>a�wk
j � k>jak (r)jakw (r)awk/(r)ewk>jak (r)a�wk>�aa� k
i � k>iek iakw e�wk>ek jawk> jk
95
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