Recent Advances in Old Chinese Historical PhonologySOAS, University of London, November 5-6
Baxter and Sagart’s usage of recently excavated Chu manuscript sources
Marco Caboara(Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
Main Points
• Features of B&S’s new system
• New manuscript sources (corpora, script features, reference tools)
• Bai Yulan’s “dictionaries”
• Analysis of three examples (and counterexamples) from Bai Yulan
• A couple of other problematic cases
• Conclusion
Traditional and new approach
19922014
Features of B&S’s new system
• New sources
• Internal reconstruction
• Hypothetico-deductive approach
• Is the system truly falsifiable?
The Shanghai Museum Manuscripts
Bai Yulan’s Dictionaries
2008420 pages
20121060 pages
3 claims based on Bai Yulan
a) 工 gōng < kuwng < *kˤoŋ ‘work’/公 gōng < kuwng < *C.qˤoŋ ‘father; prince’
b) 羊 *ɢaŋ > yang > yáng /昜 *laŋ > yang > yáng
c) 語 yǔ < ngjoX < *ŋ(r)aʔ / 禦 yù < ngjoX < *m-qʰ(r)aʔ
Split of 工 and 公
• 工 gōng < kuwng < *kˤoŋ ‘work’
• 公 gōng < kuwng < *C.qˤoŋ ‘father; prince’.
• Thought to be homonyms
• According to BYL the words written with 工 gōng and the words written with 公 gōngdo not overlap at all
• B&S account for this through the uvular hypothesis
• 公 gōng < *C.qˤoŋ was used as phonetic in:
• 瓮wèng < ‘uwngH < *qˤoŋ-s ‘earthen jar’
• 容 róng < yowng < *[ɢ](r)oŋ ‘contain’
SHANGBO.PINGWANGYUWANGZIMU 6.35.4
(STRIPS 2,3) MACHENGYUAN 6: 269, 270
城公起曰: The duke rose up and said:
“臣将有告, “I am now going to report
吾先君[2] 莊王至河淮之行, that when the former lord
[king Zhuang of Chu] had reached the area of the Huai river,
煮食於蒐, he cooked food at Sheng Kui.
(醢) 不爨, The plate of pickled sauce was not cooked in the oven,
王曰: and the king said:
"瓮不盍." “The earthen jar should not be covered.”
工 gōng < kuwng < *kˤoŋ ‘work’公 gōng < kuwng < *C.qˤoŋ ‘father; prince’.共 gòng < gjowngH < *N-k(r)oŋʔ-s ‘瓮wèng < ‘uwngH < *qˤoŋ-s ‘
Counterexample
(BYL 2012: 650)
Merger of 羊 yáng and 昜 yáng
• 羊 yáng ‘sheep’ and 昜 yáng ‘bright are homophones in MC
• 羊 yáng is is phonetic in 羌 *C.qʰaŋ > khjang > qiāng ‘western tribes’ and 姜 *C.qaŋ > kjang > jiāng ‘a family name’
• 昜 yáng has xiéshēng contacts to MC d-, th-, sy-, dr-
• 羊 *ɢaŋ > yang > yáng and 昜 *laŋ > yang > yáng
• They write mutually exclusive sets of words in paleographical materials (BáiYúlán2008:265–268)
Contact after the merger
From the Han manuscript of the 儀禮注疏:卷三：士相見
(Bai Yulan 2012: 674)
Split of 五wǔ and 午wǔ
• 五 wǔ < nguX ‘five’ and 午 wǔ < nguX ‘seventh earthly branch’ are homophones in MC
• B&S reconstruct them as 五 *C.ŋˤaʔ and 午 *[m] .qʰˤaʔ (*m-qʰ- evolves to MC ng-)
• Xiesheng contacts and word family relations of 午 wǔ are not with nasals:
• 杵 *t.qʰaʔ > *tʰaʔ > tsyhoX > chǔ ‘pestle’
• 所 *s-qʰ<r>aʔ > srjoX > suǒ ‘place (n.)/ 處 *t.qʰaʔ-s > tsyhoH > chù ‘place (n.)
Counterexample 1:語 *ŋ(r)aʔ interchanges with 禦 yù *m-qʰ(r)aʔ
GUODIAN.WUXING 8.29 STRIP 34
肆 (=肄) Toiling (=being persistent)
而不畏強語 [禦]，and not fearing violent resistance,
果也。 is decisiveness.
不
畏
強
語
Counterexample 2:語 *ŋ(r)aʔ interchanges with 許 *qʰ(r)aʔ
SHANGBO.MINZHIFUMU 2.4.7 (STRIPS 9-10)
子夏曰: Zi Xia said:
「其在許[語/辯]也, "This words of his
美矣! are really beautiful
JI XUSHENG 2: 19 n.25
From Cook 2012: 33
矜 *k-riŋ > king > jīn‘boastful’/’pity’
http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/chuwenzi
Shuōwén :矜：矛柄也。从矛、今聲。矜 jīn: the handle of a spear. 今 [jīn < kim < *[k] r[ə]m ‘now’] as phonetic The original phonetic is 令 líng < *riŋ.
In the Guōdiàn A version (GD 3, strip 7), it is written with 矛máo on the left and 命mìng on
the right.
命 *m-riŋ-s> mìng ‘command (n.)’ 令 *riŋ-s > ljengH > lìng ‘issue a command’
http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/chuwenzi
How to falsify this etymology?
• “In fact, we consider it likely that the {矜} *k-riŋ meaning ‘boastful’ is from the same root as 命 *m-riŋ-s; perhaps the intended meaning is something like ‘imperious’ or ‘inclined to order people around’. The {矜} *k-riŋ meaning ‘pity’, on the other hand, is probably related (though perhaps not synchronically) to (946) 憐 *rˤiŋ > *rˤin > len > lián ‘love; pity’ (The character 憐 is rather late; the earliest form of this character in Gǔwénzì gǔlín (GG 8.1065) is from a Qín stone inscription.)” (B&S 2014: 238)
Complex word initial consonant onsets九 jiǔ /肘 zhǒu
• 肘 zhǒu < trjuwX < *t-[k] <r>uʔ ‘elbow’
• 九 jiǔ < kjuwX < *[k] uʔ ‘nine’
• 九 jiǔ originally represented {肘} zhǒu and was used as a loan character to
write {九} jiǔ
• But it is difficult to reconcile the Middle Chinese initials tr- and k-
Supporting evidence:TB comparison, Internal Reconstruction
• Written Tibetan khru ‘cubit’ / rGyalrong /tə²² kru³³/ ‘elbow’
• Old Chinese had a prefix *t- with inalienable nouns :
• 妐 *t-qoŋ > tsyowng > zhōng ‘father in law’
• 肘 *t-[k] <r>uʔ > trjuwX > zhǒu ‘elbow’
• 齒 *t-[kʰ] ə(ŋ)ʔ or *t-ŋ̊əʔ > tsyhiX > chǐ ‘front teeth’
• 喙 *tl̥o[rʔ]-s, *l̥o[rʔ]-s > tsyhwejH, xjwojH > huì ‘snout’
• 臭 *t-qʰu(ʔ)-s > tsyhuwH > chòu ‘foul smell’
朽 *qʰ(r)uʔ > xjuwX > xiǔ ‘rot, decay’
SHANGBO.JIANDAHANBOHAN 4.18.3 (STRIPS 8, 3) JI XUSHENG 4: 74-75 吾所得地於莒中者，Among the lands I got in Ju, 無有名山名溪. there are no famous mountains or rivers.
Fu 膚 *pra= Ju莒 *kra. Should we postulate *p-kra ?
One Shangbo example
Conclusion
• Phonological evidence from the Chu script is often problematic
• The hypothetico-deductive approach needs more empirical testing
• Suitable testing techniques still have to be developed
• B&S 2014 has not yet superseded Baxter 1992 and Schuessler 2009 as a practical tool
