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Sino-Xenic vocabularies

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Sino-Xenic vocabulariesare large-scale and systematic borrowings of the Chinese lexicon into theJapanese,KoreanandVietnameselanguages, none of which aregenetically relatedto Chinese. The resultingSino-Japanese,Sino-KoreanandSino-Vietnamesevocabularies now make up a large part of the lexicons of these languages. The pronunciation systems for these vocabularies originated from conscious attempts to consistently approximate the original Chinese sounds while readingClassical Chinese.They are used alongside modernvarieties of Chineseinhistorical Chinese phonology,particularly the reconstruction of the sounds ofMiddle Chinese.[1][2]Some other languages, such asHmong–MienandKra–Dai languages,also contain large numbers of Chinese loanwords but without the systematic correspondences that characterize Sino-Xenic vocabularies.

The term, from theGreekξένος(xénos,'foreign'), was coined in 1953 by the linguistSamuel Martin,who called these borrowings "Sino-Xenic dialects".[2][3][4]

Background[edit]

See also:Adoption of Chinese literary culture

There had been borrowings of Chinese vocabulary into Vietnamese and Korean from theHan period,but around the time of theTang dynasty(618–907), Chinese writing, language and culture were imported wholesale into Vietnam, Korea and Japan. Scholars in those countries wrote inLiterary Chineseand were thoroughly familiar with theChinese classics,which they read aloud in systematic local approximations ofMiddle Chinese.With those pronunciations, Chinese words entered Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese in huge numbers.[1][2]

The plains of northern Vietnam were under Chinese control for most of the period from 111 BC to AD 938 and, after independence, the country adopted Literary Chinese as the language of administration and scholarship. As a result, there are several layers of Chinese loanwords in Vietnamese. The oldest loans, roughly 400 words dating from theEastern Han,have been fully assimilated and are treated as native Vietnamese words. Sino-Vietnamese proper dates to the early Tang dynasty, when the spread of Chineserhyme dictionariesand other literature resulted in the wholesale importation of the Chinese lexicon.[5]

Isolated Chinese words also began to enter Korean from the 1st century BC, but the main influx occurred in the 7th and 8th centuries AD after the unification of the peninsula bySilla.The flow of Chinese words into Korean became overwhelming after the establishment ofcivil service examinationsin 958.[6]

Japanese, in contrast, has two well-preserved layers and a third that is also significant:[7]

  • Go-onreadings date to the introduction ofBuddhismto Japan from Korea in the 6th century. Based on the name, they are widely believed to reflect pronunciations ofJiankangin the lower Yangtze area in the lateNorthern and Southern dynastiesperiod.[8]However, this cannot be substantiated, and Go-on appears to reflect an amalgam of different Chinese varieties transmitted through Korea.[9]
  • Kan-onreadings are believed to reflect the standard pronunciation of the Tang period, as used in the cities ofChang'anandLuoyang.[10]It was transmitted directly by Japanese who studied in China.[9]
  • Tōsō-onreadings were introduced by followers ofZen Buddhismin the 14th century and are thought to be based on the speech ofHangzhou.[10]
Examples of Sino-Xenic readings
Character Middle
Chinese[a] 		Modern Chinese Sino-Vietnamese Sino-Korean (RR) Sino-Japanese[13][14] gloss
Mandarin Cantonese(Yale)[b] Go-on Kan-on Tōsō-on
Nhất ʔjit yī yāt nhất il ichi itsu one
Nhị nyijH èr yih nhị i ni ji two
Tam sam sān sāam tam sam san san three
Tứ sijH sì sei tứ sa shi shi four
Ngũ nguX wǔ ńgh ngũ o go go five
Lục ljuwk liù luhk lục ryuk roku riku ryū six
Thất tshit qī chāt thất chil shichi shitsu seven
Bát peat bā baat bát pal hachi hatsu eight
Cửu kjuwX jiǔ gáu cửu gu ku kyū nine
Thập dzyip shí sahp thập sip jū shū ten
Bách paek bǎi baak bách baek hyaku haku hundred
Thiên tshen qiān chīn thiên cheon sen sen thousand
Vạn mjonH wàn maahn vạn man mon ban 10 thousand
Ức 'ik yì yīk ức eok oku yoku 100 million
Minh mjaeng míng mìhng minh myeong myō mei min bright
Nông nowng nóng nùhng nông nong nō dō agriculture
Ninh neng níng nìhng ninh nyeong nyō nei peaceful
Hành haeng xíng hàahng hành haeng gyō kō an walk
Thỉnh tshjengX qǐng chéng,chíng thỉnh cheong shō sei shin request
Noãn nwanX nuǎn nyúhn noãn nan nan dan non warm
Đầu duw tóu tàuh đầu du zu tō jū head
Tử tsiX zǐ jí tử ja shi shi su child
Hạ haeX xià hah hạ ha ge ka down

In comparison, vocabulary of Chinese origin inThai,including most of thebasic numerals,was borrowed over a range of periods from the Han (or earlier) to the Tang.[16]

Since the pioneering work ofBernhard Karlgren,these bodies of pronunciations have been used together with modernvarieties of Chinesein attempts to reconstruct the sounds of Middle Chinese.[2] They provide such broad and systematic coverage that the linguistSamuel Martincalled them "Sino-Xenic dialects", treating them as parallel branches with the native Chinese dialects.[3][4] The foreign pronunciations sometimes retain distinctions lost in all the modern Chinese varieties, as in the case of thechongniudistinction found in Middle Chineserhyme dictionaries.[17] Similarly, the distinction between grades III and IV made by the Late Middle Chineserime tableshas disappeared in most modern varieties, but in Kan-on, grade IV is represented by theOld Japanesevowelsi1ande1while grade III is represented byi2ande2.[18]

Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese scholars also later each adapted the Chinese script to write their languages, usingChinese charactersboth for borrowed and native vocabulary. Thus, in the Japanese script, Chinese characters may have both Sino-Japanese readings (on'yomi) and native readings (kun'yomi).[8]Similarly, in thechữ Nômscript used for Vietnamese until the early 20th century, some Chinese characters could represent both a Sino-Vietnamese word and a native Vietnamese word with similar meaning or sound to the Chinese word, but would often be marked with a diacritic when the native reading was intended.[19]However, in theKorean mixed script,Chinese characters (hanja) are only used for Sino-Korean words.[20]The character-based Vietnamese and Korean scripts have since been replaced by theVietnamese alphabetandhangulrespectively, although Korean does still use Hanja to an extent.[21]

Sound correspondences[edit]

Foreign pronunciations of these words inevitably only approximated the original Chinese, and many distinctions were lost. In particular, Korean and Japanese had far fewer consonants and much simpler syllables than Chinese, and they lackedtones.Even Vietnamese merged some Chinese initial consonants (for example, several different consonants were merged intotandthwhilephcorresponds to bothpandfin Mandarin). A further complication is that the various borrowings are based on different local pronunciations at different periods. Nevertheless, it is common to treat the pronunciations as developments from the categories of the Middle Chineserhyme dictionaries.

Middle Chinese is recorded as having eight series of initial consonants, though it is likely that no single dialect distinguished them all. Stops and affricates could also bevoiced,voiceless or voicelessaspirated.[22]Early Vietnamese had a similar three-way division, but the voicing contrast would later disappear in thetone splitthat affected several languages in theMainland Southeast Asia linguistic area,including Vietnamese and most Chinese varieties.[23]Old Japanesehad only a two-way contrast based on voicing, whileMiddle Koreanhad only one obstruent at each point of articulation.

Correspondences of initial consonants
Middle Chinese Modern Chinese Sino-Vietnamese[24][25][c] Sino-Korean[26][27] Sino-Japanese[28]
Mandarin[29] Go-on Kan-on Tōsō-on
Labials Bangp p/f *p> ɓ[d]⟨b⟩ p/pʰ[e] ɸ > h ɸ > h ɸ > h
Bàngpʰ pʰ/f *pʰ> f[d]⟨ph⟩
Tịnhb p/pʰ/f *b> ɓ[d]⟨b⟩ b
Minhm m/w m[f]⟨m⟩, v ⟨v⟩ m m b[g] m
Dentals Đoant t *t> ɗ ⟨đ⟩ t/tʰ[e][h] t t t
Thấutʰ tʰ tʰ ⟨th⟩
Địnhd t/tʰ *d> ɗ ⟨đ⟩ d
Nên n *n> n ⟨n⟩ n n d[i] n
Lail l *l> l ⟨l⟩ l r r r
Retroflex stops Triʈ ʈʂ *ʈ> ʈʂ ⟨tr⟩ t/tʰ[e][h] t t s
Triệtʈʰ ʈʂʰ *ʂ> ʂ ⟨tr⟩
Trừngɖ ʈʂ/ʈʂʰ *ɖ> ʈʂ ⟨tr⟩ d
Dental sibilants Tinhts ts[j] *s> t ⟨t⟩ tɕ/tɕʰ[e] s s
Thanhtsʰ tsʰ[j] *ɕ> tʰ ⟨th⟩
Tòngdz ts/tsʰ[j] *s> t ⟨t⟩ z
Tâms s[j] s s
Tàz z
Retroflex sibilants Trangʈʂ ʈʂ *ʈ> ʈʂ ⟨tr⟩ tɕ/tɕʰ[e] s
Sơʈʂʰ ʈʂʰ *ʂ> ʂ ⟨s⟩
Sùngɖʐ ʈʂ/ʈʂʰ s/tɕ/tɕʰ[e] z
Sinhʂ ʂ s s
Palatals Chươngtɕ ʈʂ *c> tɕ ⟨ch⟩ tɕ/tɕʰ[e]
Xươngtɕʰ ʈʂʰ *tʃ> s ⟨x⟩
Thiềndʑ ʈʂ/ʈʂʰ *ɕ> tʰ ⟨th⟩ s z
Thưɕ ʂ s
Thuyềnʑ z
Nhậtɲ ʐ~ɻor syllableəɻ ɲ ⟨nh⟩ z > ∅ n z z
Dĩj j z~j ⟨d⟩ j j j j
Velars Kiếnk k[j] k ⟨k/c/q⟩, *ʝ > z~j ⟨gi⟩ k/h k k k
Khêkʰ kʰ[j] kʰ ⟨kh⟩
Quầnɡ k/kʰ[j] k ⟨k/c/q⟩ k g
Nghiŋ ∅/n ŋ ⟨ng⟩ ŋ > ∅ g g
Laryngeals Ảnhʔ ∅ *ʔ> ∅ ʔ > ∅ ∅ ∅ ∅
Hiểux x[j] h ⟨h⟩ h k k
Hạpɣ h ⟨h⟩, v ⟨v⟩ ɣ > g/w > g/∅

The Middle Chinese final consonants were semivowels (orglides) /j/ and /w/, nasals /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/, and stops /p/, /t/ and /k/. Sino-Vietnamese and Sino-Korean preserve all the distinctions between final nasals and stops, like southern Chinese varieties such asYue. Sino-Vietnamese has added allophonic distinctions to-ngand-k,based on whether the preceding vowel is front (-nh,-ch) or back (-ng,-c). AlthoughOld Koreanhad a /t/ coda, words with the Middle Chinese coda /t/ have /l/ in Sino-Korean, reflecting a northern variety of Late Middle Chinese in which final /t/ had weakened to /r/.[34][35]

In Go-on and Kan-on, the Middle Chinese coda-ngyielded a nasalized vowel, which in combination with the preceding vowel has become a long vowel in modern Japanese.[36]For example,TōkyōĐông kinh,isDōngjīngin Mandarin Chinese. Also, as Japanese cannot end words with consonants (except for moraicn), borrowings of Middle Chinese words ending in a stop had aparagogeadded so that, for example, Middle Chinesekwok(Quốc) was borrowed askoku.The later, less common Tōsō-on borrowings, however, reflect the reduction of final stops inLower Yangtze Mandarinvarieties to a glottal stop, reflected by Japanese /Q/.[37]

Correspondences of final consonants
Middle Chinese Modern Chinese Sino-Vietnamese[38] Sino-Korean[39] Sino-Japanese[28][40]
Mandarin Go-on Kan-on Tōsō-on
-m n m ⟨m⟩ m /N/ /N/ /N/
-n n ⟨n⟩ n
-ng ŋ ŋ ⟨ng⟩/ɲ ⟨nh⟩ ŋ ũ/ĩ[k]> u/i ũ/ĩ[k]> u/i
-p ∅ p ⟨p⟩ p ɸu > u ɸu > u /Q/
-t t ⟨t⟩ l ti > chi tu > tsu
-k k ⟨k⟩/ʲk ⟨ch⟩ k ku/ki[l] ku/ki[l]

Middle Chinese had a three-way tonal contrast in syllables with vocalic or nasal endings. As Japanese lacks tones, Sino-Japanese borrowings preserve no trace of Chinese tones.[41] Most Middle Chinese tones were preserved in the tones of Middle Korean, but they have since been lost in all but a few dialects.[42] Sino-Vietnamese, in contrast, reflects the Chinese tones fairly faithfully, including the Late Middle Chinese split of each tone into two registers conditioned by voicing of the initial. The correspondence to the Chinese rising and departing tones is reversed from the earlier loans, so the Vietnamesehỏiandngãtones reflect the Chinese upper and lower rising tone while thesắcandnặngtones reflect the upper and lower departing tone. Unlike northern Chinese varieties, Sino-Vietnamese places level-tone words withsonorantand glottal stop initials in the upper level (ngang) category.[43]

Structural effects[edit]

Large numbers of Chinese words were borrowed into Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese and still form a large and important part of their lexicons.

In the case of Japanese, the influx has led to changes in the phonological structure of the language.Old Japanesesyllables had the form (C)V, with vowel sequences being avoided. To accommodate the Chinese loanwords, syllables were extended with glides as inmyō,vowel sequences as inmei,geminate consonantsand a final nasal, leading to themoraicstructure of later Japanese. Voiced sounds (b,d,z,gandr) were now permitted in word-initial position, where they had previously been impossible.[14][44]

The influx of Chinese vocabulary contributed to the development of Middle Korean tones, which are still present in some dialects.[20][45] Sino-Korean words have also disrupted the native structure in whichldoes not occur in word-initial position, and words showvowel harmony.[20]

Chinese morphemes have been used extensively in all these languages to coin compound words for new concepts in a similar way to the use ofLatinandAncient Greekroots inEnglish.[46] Many new compounds, or new meanings for old phrases, were created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to name Western concepts and artifacts. The coinages, written in shared Chinese characters, have then been borrowed freely between languages. They have even been accepted into Chinese, a language usually resistant to loanwords, because their foreign origin was hidden by their written form. Often, different compounds for the same concept were in circulation for some time before a winner emerged, and sometimes, the final choice differed between countries.[47]

The proportion of vocabulary of Chinese origin thus tends to be greater in technical, scientific, abstract or formal language orregisters.For example, Sino-Japanese words account for about 35% of the words in entertainment magazines (where borrowings from English are common), over half the words in newspapers and 60% of the words in science magazines.[48]

See also[edit]

Other languages[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^Transcribed usingBaxter's notation.The initialh-represents a voiced fricative[ɣ]or[ɦ],[11]while the final lettersXandHrepresent the rising and departingtonesrespectively.[12]
  2. ^Unlike Mandarin, Cantonese faithfully preserves all the final consonants of Middle Chinese.[15]
  3. ^Graphemes are given in angle brackets.
  4. ^abcIn syllables withchongniugrade IV finals (denoted as-ji-in Baxter's notation), labial stops usually shifted to dental stops in Sino-Vietnamese.[30]
  5. ^abcdefgIn early prescriptive dictionaries, Middle Chinese aspirates always yield Sino-Korean aspirates, but in actual pronunciation aspiration is unpredictable.[31]
  6. ^In syllables withchongniugrade IV finals, the Middle Chinese initialmyielded the Vietnamese initial spelledd,which was formerly*dʲand is[z]or[j]in modern dialects.[30][32]
  7. ^Yieldsm-in syllables ending in original-ng.[33]
  8. ^abIn Modern Sino-Korean, dentals [t]/[tʰ] preceding a palatal approximant [j] become palatalized as [tɕ]/[tɕʰ], respectively, e.g. Điền:ttyen>cen,Định:ttyeng>ceng.
  9. ^Yieldsn-in syllables ending in original-ng.[33]
  10. ^abcdefghIn Standard Chinese, dental sibilants [ts]/[tsʰ]/[s] and velars [k]/[kʰ]/[x] preceding vocalic and non-vocalic [i]/[y] merge into [tɕ]/[tɕʰ]/[ɕ], respectively, e.g.Thanh:cīng> qīng,Khước:küè > què.
  11. ^abĩafter-e-andũafter other vowels[40]
  12. ^abkiafter-i-andkuafter other vowels[40]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^abMiyake (2004),pp. 98–99.
  2. ^abcdNorman (1988),p. 34.
  3. ^abMiyake (2004),p. 98.
  4. ^abMartin (1953),p. 4.
  5. ^Alves (2009),pp. 623–628.
  6. ^Sohn & Lee (2003),pp. 23–24.
  7. ^Miyake (2004),p. 100.
  8. ^abShibatani (1990),p. 120.
  9. ^abFrellesvig (2010),p. 275.
  10. ^abShibatani (1990),p. 121.
  11. ^Baxter (1992),p. 58.
  12. ^Baxter (1992),p. 31.
  13. ^Miller (1967),pp. 106, 111, 336.
  14. ^abLoveday (1996),p. 41.
  15. ^Norman (1988),p. 217.
  16. ^Pittayaporn (2014),pp. 47, 64.
  17. ^Baxter (1992),pp. 75–79.
  18. ^Pulleyblank (1984),p. 96.
  19. ^Hannas (1997),pp. 80–81.
  20. ^abcSohn (2001),p. 89.
  21. ^Hannas (1997),pp. 71–72, 86–92.
  22. ^Baxter (1992),pp. 45–46.
  23. ^Norman (1988),p. 53.
  24. ^Wang (1948),pp. 13–27.
  25. ^Miyake (2004),pp. 119–122.
  26. ^Miyake (2004),pp. 112–116.
  27. ^Qian (2018),pp. 104.
  28. ^abMiller (1967),pp. 105–110.
  29. ^Baxter (1992).
  30. ^abBaxter (1992),p. 283.
  31. ^Miyake (2004),p. 115.
  32. ^Miyake (2004),pp. 119, 122.
  33. ^abMiller (1967),p. 106.
  34. ^Lee & Ramsey (2011),p. 69.
  35. ^Miyake (2004),p. 113.
  36. ^Miller (1967),p. 105.
  37. ^Miller (1967),p. 109.
  38. ^Miyake (2004),pp. 123–124.
  39. ^Miyake (2004),pp. 113, 116.
  40. ^abcFrellesvig (2010),p. 283.
  41. ^Miller (1967),pp. 110, 112.
  42. ^Lee & Ramsey (2011),pp. 168–169.
  43. ^Pulleyblank (1984),pp. 160–161.
  44. ^Shibatani (1990),pp. 121–122.
  45. ^Lee & Ramsey (2000),pp. 168–169.
  46. ^Shibatani (1990),p. 146.
  47. ^Wilkinson (2000),p. 43.
  48. ^Shibatani (1990),p. 143.

Works cited[edit]

  • Alves, Mark J. (2009),"Loanwords in Vietnamese",in Haspelmath, Martin; Tadmor, Uri (eds.),Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook,De Gruyter, pp. 617–637,ISBN978-3-11-021843-5.
  • Baxter, William H.(1992),A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology,Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter,ISBN978-3-11-012324-1.
  • Frellesvig, Bjarke (2010),A History of the Japanese Language,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,ISBN978-0-521-65320-6.
  • Hannas, Wm. C. (1997),Asia's Orthographic Dilemma,University of Hawaii Press,ISBN978-0-8248-1892-0.
  • Lee, Iksop; Ramsey, S. Robert (2000),The Korean Language,SUNY Press,ISBN978-0-7914-4831-1.
  • Lee, Ki-Moon; Ramsey, S. Robert (2011),A History of the Korean Language,SUNY Press,ISBN978-0-521-66189-8.
  • Loveday, Leo J. (1996),Language Contact in Japan: A Sociolinguistic History: A Sociolinguistic History,Oxford University Press,ISBN978-0-19-158369-8.
  • Martin, Samuel Elmo(1953),The phonemes of ancient Chinese,American Oriental Society.(review)
  • Miller, Roy Andrew(1967),The Japanese Language,University of Chicago Press,ISBN978-0-226-52717-8.
  • Miyake, Marc Hideo(2004),Old Japanese: A Phonetic Reconstruction,RoutledgeCurzon,ISBN978-0-415-30575-4.
  • Norman, Jerry(1988),Chinese,Cambridge University Press,ISBN978-0-521-29653-3.
  • Pittayaporn, Pittatawat (2014),"Layers of Chinese loanwords in Proto-Southwestern Tai as evidence for the dating of the spread of Southwestern Tai"(PDF),Manyusa: Journal of Humanities,20(3): 47–68,doi:10.1163/26659077-01703004.
  • Pulleyblank, Edwin George(1984),Middle Chinese: a study in historical phonology,Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press,ISBN978-0-7748-0192-8.
  • Qian, Youyong (2018),A Study of Sino-Korean Phonology,Routledge,ISBN978-1-138-241640.

Further reading[edit]

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