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379

TocharianLoanWordsinOldChinese:Chariots,ChariotGear,andTownBuilding

Alexander LubolskyLeidenUmveisity

In t h i s paper I am going to present theirst e s u l t s of a long-termproject, which starteda iew years ago,whenmycolleague George vanDriem,a specialist in the fieldof Sino-Tibetan linguistics, askedmetolookfor possible Indo-European (incasu, Tocharian) loanwords inOldChinese. We haveknownfor 80 years (sincePolivanov 1916)thattheChinesewordforhoneyis likelyto be ofndo-European,probablyTocharian,origin:

Chin.mi 5f 'honey' < EC mjit < OC ^mjit/'1 m i tToch.B m i t 'honey' < PToch. ' f m ' g t - < PIE 1 med 'u-.The question is whethei there aremoreTocharianloanwordsthatcan bediscovered in the OldChinese vocabulary.As astartingpomt,I have used the magnificentbookon OldChinesephonology byWilliam H.Baxter(1992).On the onehand,t h i sbookgives an account of the ways in which Old Chinesephonologycan be reconstructed and presents the newest insightsonthematter, being asynthesisof important studiesby Pulleyblank,Jaxontov, Li, Bodman,and Starostin,who have pursued thepioneeringefforts of Karlgren. On the otherhand,Baxter hasproposed several important improvements for the reconstruction ofOldChinese and presented a coherent phonological System.2Mostimportant forourpurpose, however,is the fact that t h i sbookcontainsacorpus of morethan2,000reconstructed Old Chinese words. InAppendixC of h i s book, Baxter presents the reconstruction of therhymewordsof the ShljingBookof des ,a collection of OldChinesepoetry, the oldest portions of which are considered to date tothebeginning of the fi r s t millenniumBCE,although the collection sOtherp o s s i b l e Chinese loanwords f r o i n Tocharian, discussedbyPulleyblankons e v e r a l occasions (e.g.Chin.shm$f-f"'hon'Toch.B secake, Pulleyblank1962: 109, 226, 1995:427f.;Chm.yngkui -^ft 'asafoetida'Toch. ankwas,Pulleyblank1962: 99 w i t h ref.), concern Wandenuorte, of unknown etyinology,s o t h a t t h e ir Tocharian provenance cannot beascertained.2 I would h ke to s t r e s s t h a t , i n s p i t e of theongoing debateconcerningparcular points,there i s a great dealof consensus about the p r i n c i p l e s andt h e r e s u l t s of the reconstructionof Old Chinese. To my knowledge, thedisagreementainong s c h o l a r s does not a f f e c t rays t u d y in anys i g n i f i c a n t way.

Thr K i n n - ' \ i r rmd / / h n n \ n P / / , l / Wi, 7 l ...

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380 Alexander Lubolskyawhole was reeditedtoward the end of t h a t millennium. In thecaseof theShljlng, we have a corpus limitedto a certaindegree in time andspace,which has clearmethodological advantages. In addition to therhymewords of the Shying, I havemadeuse of theOldChinesereconstructionsmentioned by Baxter in the main t e x t of h i s book. Alli n all, the OldChinese corpus in which I have been searching iorTocharianloan words consistsof some2,400woids.3Meanwhile,workon Old Chinese reconstruction has ontinued,and s Professor Baxter told his audience during a mini-course inLeiden(summer1995),the reconstruction can now be refinedinsomerespects.4 I have givenhis new reconstructions aftera slash.Tocharian,the easternmost representative of theIndo-Europeanfamily,is attestedin two d i a l e c t s or languages, nowns Tocharian AandTocharian B. The bulk of the textscomposedin Tocharian isreligiousliterature, almost entirelyof Buddhist origin.This factgreatlyinfluenced the attestedTocharian vocabulary, only a smallportion ofwhich consistsof terms pertaining to everyday life. Even aquicklook at theTocharian vocabulary revealsthat we aredealingwith l i t e r a l l yhundreds of loanwordsfrom Sanskrit, Prakrit, andIranian,so that the inheritedlexicon israther limited.On thecontrary,thepoemsof the Shljing are of a non-religious nature,abounding in descriptions of nature and everyday life. It istherefore aprio ri to be expected that theamountof demonstrable loan words willbesmall.

Another point whic hhampers the comparison is that ofchronology.The Tocharian textswere probably writtenin the periodbetweenthe 6th and 8th Century CE. Even by reconstructing Proto-Tocharian, we presumably cannot reach beyondthe 4th Century BCE.Thismeansthat there s t i l l is a considerable gap between the period ofpossible contacts of Tocharians with the Chinese and thereconstructedProto-Tocharian.Here, somehelp can beobtainedfromthendo-Europeancomparison,sincewegenerallyknowwhatthe originalformmust have lookedlike.

Lookingat the Old Chinese vocabulary through the glassesof anIndo-Europeanist involves various methodological dangers. A verylargeproportion of Old Chinesewordsis onosyllabic.Therearelimitationson possible syllableonsets and, especially, codas. Thismeansthat thenumberof possible syllablestructures is not very high,themoreso s voicedness, aspiration, and nasalization of the i n i t i a l3I f the OldChinese reconstruction i s given below without anyreference, itmeanst h a t the word can be found in Appendix C (The rhyme words of theShijin$of Baxter'sbook. Otherwise, I g i v e thenumber of theexample in thebodyof thebook. Baxter's Handbook ofOld ChinesePhonology issimply referredt o s "Baxter".4Thechanges a r e l a r g e l y n o t a t i o na l : i n p a r t i c u l a r , Baxter w r i t e s t s g a n di n t e r p r e t s the ontrastof QVvs. CVas Cvvs. Cv.

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TocharianLoan Words in Old Chinese 381consonantscan be duelooriginalprefixes. I fethen tolerateratherloose phoneticand semantic correspondences, we might find an Indo-European parallelfor p r a c t i c a l l y every Chineseword.The largeamountof look-alikesmakesa very s t r i ctmeth odology indispensable. have usedthree c r i t e r i a in order to distinguish between probable loanwordsand simple look-alikes:

A. The OldChineseandTocharianwords mustmatchbothsemanticallyand phonetically.This radierobvious riterionmakesmereject,for instance, theoften proposed borrowing of Chin.niu -Ox,cow, c a t t l e '< EC ngjuw < OC *ng0ji/*ng"'ifrom PIE *g>"ou-/ g eH3u-(Toch.B hau*, A ko'cow').These words have only onephoneme*gwincommon,which seems insufficient to me.

Bl.The Old Chinesewordmust be isolatedin the sense that ithasno other cognates than Tibetan. This criterionis based on newinsightsconcerning the d i a l e c t a l positionof Chinese (cf. vanDriem1995).For instance, the connection of Chin.qun j(_'dog' < ECkhwenX

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382 Alexander Lubotsky I tmay appear tempting to connectToch.AB l i t t - 'to remove,

driveaway', B l y a u t oOpening',A l o t 'hole', cf. alsoA lyutam 'ravine,chasm', B laute'moment,period' (=German'Abschnitt'), bul, in myopinion, at the present stageof ourknowledgeabout Sino-Indo-European contacts, t h i s connection does not deserve seriousconsideration.This is ot to say t h a t words of t h i s semantic categorycannot beborrowedforinstance,German Bresche, Dutc h bres,Russianbres"breach' areallborrowed from French breche, which, in itsturn,hasbeen borrowedfrom Germanic (cf.German brechen 'tobreak'),but in view of the Situationsketched above,whenan Indo-Europeanetymology can e a s i l y befoundfor p r a c t i c a l l y every OldChineseword,we must f i r s t refrainfromcomparing wordsfromthebasicvocabulary.

In my paper I s h a l l concentrate on two semantic f i e l d s , viz.'chariots,chariot gear' and 'town building'.There isamplearcheologicaland historicalevidence that chariots and f o r t i f i e c l townscameto ChinafromtheWest(see various archeological contributionsto t h i svolumeand the bibliographies attachedto them), sothat it isconceivable that the Chinese terminology ior chariotry andfortificationhas beenborrowed froman Indo-European language.Chariots andchariot gear(1) Chin. j i f l sheng ' c h a r i o t ( w i t h fourhorses)' < EC z y i n g l l < OC ^Ljmgs/*LngsToch.B klenhe, k l a n k ' v e h ic l e , Skt. y n a - , vhana-,Toch. AB h l n k - 'tor i d e , t r a v e l (byv e h i c l e ) ' , PIE * k l e n g - (cf. Modern German l e n k e n 't oguide,conduct', Wagenlenker'chunoteer').

TheChinesewordis clearlya derivativeof cheng(samecharacter)'tomount,ride (in a chariot)' < EC zying, which may be reconstructedsOC*Ljing/*L3ng(s t h i swordis not attestedamongtherhymesofthe Shijing, it is not discussed in Baxter'sbook).The symbol of thenotation*L in Baxter's reconstruction refersto an unclear i n i t i a l * /-clusterwhich yielded EC 2 3 1 - . It hasbeenpointed out tomeby severalparticipantsof the Conference, owever, that t h i s clustercan hardly beOC *kl-. The reconstruction of the OldChinese i n i t i al */-clustersis noteasy.Baxter (232ff.) essentiallyfollowsBodman(1980:108-13, 143-145,168-171), who assumes * 2 - c l u s t er s of two types for Proto-Chinese(astage intermediate between Proto-Sino-Tibetan and OldChinese).In onetype, written **Kl-, medial **/behaves l i k e medial *r, so that */-6Note, i n c i d e n t a l l y , t h a t t h i s Chinese word f a m i l y has cognates inBurmese(seenote 5) and in the K i r a n t i languages, e.g.Limbu < h t t > 't o takeaway,remove',which means t h a t t h i s companson does not stand the le s t of

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384 AlexanderLubotsky(5)Chm.3$'cainagc pole'< ECtr]uw

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TochananLoan Word? i n Old Chinese 385find twowords f o i a'wagon, ehicle', viz.

Chmju$- \ e h i c l e ' < E C/y o

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Tochanan LoanWoids i n OldChinese 387loch B trenk, A t r a n k bc fixedto', FIE d h e r ^ 1 (A\. d n n j a i t i i c i n i o i r c ' , Skt. d r h y a t i beihm', etc.).The original m e a n i n g of the word seems to be 'postin

framewoikusedinrearingeaithwalls'(Karlgren1957: s.v.8341).( 1 2) Ginn b i ^ i 'wall'

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388 Alexander LubotskyEuropeanlanguage. We may indicateat l e a s t two semantic fieldswhereborrowing took place: chariots/chariot gear and town building.

2.Someof these loanwordscan be positivelyidentified sborrowings from Tocharian: t h i s is the case with words (1), (2), (5),(6), (8), (12) and, possibly, (9). There are various reasons for t h i sidentification: for(1)and (9) it is the limited distributionof theparticularwordinndo-Europeanlanguages; for (2) H i s the specificdevelopmentof * k w e k < toToch.B kok; for (5) and (12) it is theTocharian mergerof voiced and voicelessstops; for (6) it is theunique Tocharian developmentof *uffto*uabetween consonants;and, finally, for (8)it is theunique Tocharian development *dh > tsintheposition before another aspirate.AbbreviatioiisAv. AvestanBurm.BurmeseChin. (Modern)ChineseEC Early ChineseHitt. HittiteMHG Middle High GermanOC OldChineseOCS OldChurchSlavonicOE OldEnglishOHG OldHigh GermanOIc. Old IcelandicOlr. Old IrishOP OldPersianGoth. GothicGr. GreekL LepchaLat. LatinPIE Proto-Indo-EuropeanPToch.Proto-TocharianSkt. SanskritTib. TibetanToch. TocharianW WrittenBurmese

ReferencesBaxter,William H.1992 A Handbook ofOld ChinesePhonology.Berlin- NewYork: Mouton - deGruyter.Benedict,Paul1972 Smo-Tibetan: A Conspectus.Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.

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TochananLoan Words in OldChinese 389Bodinan, N i c h o l a s C.1980 ProtoChineseandSinoTibetan:Data Towards E s t a b l i s h i n g the

Natureo f t h e R e l a t i o n s h i p , C o n t n b u t i o n s t o I hstoncalLinguistics, FransvanCoetsemandLindaR.Waugh(eds.).eiden, Brill, 34199.Coblin,Weldon South1986 S mologist's Uandhsl ofSmol'ibetanL e x i c a l Compansons.Monument aSericamonograph series XVIII.Nettetal: SteylerVerlag.Drieinvan, George L.1995 BlackMountainConjugationalMorphology, ProtoTibetoBurmanMorphosyntax, and theL i n g u i s t i c Position of Chinese, New Honzons

in TibetoBurmanM o r p h o s y n t a x , Yoshio N i s h i , Ja mes A. MatisoffandYasuhikoNagano (eds.), SenriEthnological Studies 41,Osaka, 229259.l l i h n a r s s o n , Jo rundur1985 Toch.A h c , Lat. cutis,OIcel.hud< I.-E. *kuHtis skin , Zntschrifur

vergleichendeSprachforschung^, 162-163. 1996 Matenah ora TochananIhstoncal a n d E t y m ol o g i c a l D i c t i o n a r y , ed. byAlexander LubotskyandGurun S o r h a l l s o t t i r , w i t h the as s i s t anc eofSigurur II .Plsson. Reykjavik: Mvisindastofnun I l s k o l a Islands.

I s e b a e r t , L.199311994]Etyma tocharica, ActaOnentaha Belgica VIII, 291-299.Karlgren, ernhard1957 Grammata Serica Recensa.Stockholm: TheMuseumof Far EasternA n t i q u i t i e s , b u l l et i n 29.Pinault,Georges-Jean_1987 Notes d'onoinastiquekoutcheenne, TochananandIndo-EuropeanStudies 1,77-97.Polivanov,E.D.1916 Indoevropejskoe *medhu ~ obscekitajskoe m i t , Zapishi Vostocnago

OtdelenijaRusskago Arxeologiceskag o O bscestva, t. XXIII, vyp. I-II.Petrograd,263-264.

Pulleyblank,Edwin G.1962 The Consonantal System of OldChinese, AsiaMajor 9, 58-144 and206-265.1973SomeNew Hypotheses ConcerningWordFamilies in Chinese,Journal ofChinese Linguistics l/l, 11-125.1991 Lexicon of e con st r u c te d Pronunaationm EarlyMiddle Chinese, LateMiddleChinese, and Earlyandann.Vancouver: UBC Press.1995WhyTocharianspybMrna/ of ndo-European Studies 23, 15-430.

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390 Alexander LubotskySchmidt, KlausT.1987 Zu einigenArchaismen inFlexionundWortschatz desTocharischen,S t ud i en zum indogermanischenW o r t sc ha tz , W.Meid(ed.).nnsbruck: IBS,89-300.Schuessler,Axel

1987 ADictionary ofEarlyZhou Chinese. Honolulu: U n i v e r s i t y of HawaiiPress.Shaughnessy,Edward L.1988 HistoricalPerspectiveson the Introduction of t h e Chariot i n t oChina, Harvardournal o f A s i at i c Studies 48: l ,189-237.Smith,E.1910-1911 "Tochansch", di e n e u e ntde ck t e i n d o g e r m a ni s c h e S p r a c h e Mittelasiens.K r i s t i an i a.vanWindekens, Albert J o r i s

1976 Le tokhanen confronte avec l e s a u t r e s langues indo-europeennes. Volume l: l aphonetiquee t l e vocabulaire. Louvain: Centre internaonal ded i a l e c t o l o g i e generale.Winter,Werner1962 DieVertretung indogermanischer Dentaleim Tocharischen.Indogermanische Forschungen67, 16-35.