Chapter 1814 Medieval Phonetic Specimens
This is indeed the biggest problem in linguistics, but as Zhou Zhi said, until now, everyone is still used to using a set of phonetic symbols to record text during fieldwork. pronunciation and intonation.
Of course, this set of phonetic symbols will be much more complicated than the pinyin of Mandarin, and it should even be more complicated than Cantonese, which retains the most medieval pronunciation.
In later generations, an "orthodox dispute" suddenly emerged between Cantonese and Mandarin. Many northerners believed that Cantonese could not be the "authentic Chinese" in ancient times because of the geographical location of Cantonese. remote place , so Cantonese people could only be considered "foreigners" outside the Central Plains at that time, so their speech must be as awkward as foreigners speaking Chinese, and the pronunciation left behind must be very different from the languages of Chang'an and Shaanxi during the Tang and Song Dynasties.
This statement seems to be reasonable, but it is actually a kind of speculation such as free mental evidence. The biggest drawback in studying literary and historical issues lies in "free mental evidence".
Regarding the origin of Cantonese, there are two main legends. One is the Yayan language originating from the Central Plains in the north, and the other is the Chu language originating from the Chu State. However, from the Han Dynasty to the Tang and Song Dynasties, Han people from the Central Plains continued to migrate to Lingnan, which promoted the development of Cantonese. development and finalization.
In particular, the Yongjia Rebellion and the demise of the Song Dynasty caused three waves of immigration in Guangdong Province. The language of the Central Plains in the north continued to impact the local language. Scholars from the "well-dressed and distinguished families" in the Central Plains gradually dominated the Lingnan region. The political, economic and cultural development direction of Cantonese has promoted the development of Cantonese.
By the Song Dynasty, Cantonese became a language that not only corresponded to the pronunciation of medieval Chinese but also had some independent vocabulary. It was almost the same as modern Cantonese dialect, and the foundation of modern Cantonese dialect had been laid.
At the same time, after it was finalized in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, its influence from the Central Plains suddenly became smaller. In the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongols moved their capital to Dadu within the sixteen states of Yanyun, and promoted the local dialect as the official dialect. As a result, the difference between the Central Plains language and Medieval Chinese continued to grow. At that time, the Central Plains language developed rapidly in the direction of BJ Mandarin. most significant The characteristic of "Ping Shang Go Ru" is the rapid disappearance of the entering tone, and at the same time, the emergence of soft tones that do not belong to the traditional four tones of "Ping Shang Go Ru". This change has been retained in Mandarin today, while Cantonese, which has been established, has not been affected by the Yuan Dynasty and is independent. develop.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the rhymes of Mandarin in Central Plains further disappeared, and the initial consonants of Ji Qixi were completely palatalized into jqx initials.
And these are retained in many dialects. Taken together, Cantonese is one of the southern dialects that retains more elements of Medieval Chinese. The most prominent feature is that it relatively completely retains the common entry tone in Medieval Chinese. The more critical evidence is the initial consonants of Cantonese. The , finals and tones are highly consistent with the official rhyme book of the Song Dynasty, "Guangyun".
Chen Li, a scholar of the Qing Dynasty, even believed that the tones of the Guangzhou dialect were consistent with the rhymes of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, "Qie Yun", and believed that "people from the Central Plains have migrated to Guangzhou for more than a thousand years, and today's Guangyin is actually the sound of the Central Plains during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. ." Nan Huaijin also believed that Cantonese was the Mandarin language of the Tang Dynasty.
This is not to say how great Cantonese is, nor is it to say how bad Mandarin after the Yuan Dynasty is, nor is it to say that the language with a complex phonetic system is more advanced, and the language with a simple phonetic system is lower-level.
On the contrary, it is a normal rule that language changes from simple to complex, and then from complex to simple.
Even in Cantonese, there are many "lazy" pronunciations in Cantonese in Hong Kong Island, which is a simplification of traditional Cantonese.
Therefore, this was originally an academic issue of language evolution, but in the end it turned into a dispute about the "quality" of languages used in later regions. It really left Zhou Zhi speechless.
In fact, in the eyes of truly pure scholars, this question is very simple. If you want to study the Mandarin of the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, you don’t need to study Cantonese. However, if you want to study the pronunciation and rhyme of the official language before the Song Dynasty, There is no doubt that although Cantonese cannot correspond to the pronunciation of modern Chinese in the Yuan Dynasty and after the Yuan Dynasty, it can correspond to the pronunciation of "Guangyun" in the Song Dynasty, and it is the best "specimen" for studying medieval Chinese.
Then "Guang Yun" developed from "Qie Yun" of the Tang Dynasty, so it is also of great reference significance for the study of Tang Yun. That's all.
The most direct application of rhyme is poetry. Even in ancient prose, the so-called "literary is to look at mountains and dislike the level" actually has rhythmic ups and downs.
In the Tang and Song dynasties, all scientific examiners regarded rhyme as a stumbling block, just like English CET-4 and CET-6 for college students today, which are required to pass. Once the wrong rhyme is used in the scientific examination, the test will be in vain.
In the Song Dynasty, the imperial court even allowed students taking the imperial examination to bring "Qie Yun" into the examination room as a reference book. Su Dongpo studied rhyme from the Taoist priests of the Arctic Academy since he was a child. When he was old, he was ridiculed by Li Qingzhao for not following rhyme in his lyrics. , from these we can know the importance of rhyme in Tang and Song literature.
So it is conceivable that Cantonese, which has inherited the most from "Qie Yun", plays a very important role in the study of medieval phonology.
The pronunciation system of Cantonese is more complex, with nineteen initial consonants, nine ventral rhymes, eight final rhymes, and fifty-six finals. The tones are Yin Ping, Yin Shang, Yin Qu, Yang Ping, Yang Shang, and Yang Qu. , Yin enters, Zhong enters, Yang enters.
The Cantonese language itself is also divided into regions, represented by Wuzhou dialect. The phonetic system has as many as 24 initial consonants and 58 finals.
But even though there are many, it is still not enough. In traditional Chinese phonology, Shamen Shouwen created thirty initial consonant representatives in the late Tang Dynasty, which is called the benchmark initial consonant system of the Tang Dynasty. The Song Dynasty people also created "Yun" "Picture", there are thirty-six letters in the rhyme diagram, which were also passed down by Shou Wen. This is the famous "Thirty-Six Characters of Shou Wen" in phonetics.
After many studies by later generations of scholars, various plans emerged. In the end, Wang Li and other big figures determined it to be thirty-three tones.
Learning is like this. Zhou Zhi and the old man were chatting like normal gossip. As they chatted, the direction of the subject seemed to gradually become clear.
“Then I will first follow Mr. Gao Benhan’s approach and collect dialect samples from various places, but this time we will use sounds, and then combine them with the study of "Guangyun" to analyze and collect syllables that can be constructed, and The thirty-six characters of "Shou Wen" and the final rhymes of Qie rhyme are expressed by sounds. Come out."
"After finding out the pronunciation of the initials and finals," Mr. Gu said, "We still have to infer the initials and finals that are not in the specimen, and at the same time, we have to use the "Guangyun". 》Fanqie, read out each text mark. ”
In addition to initial consonants, pinyin also includes the combination of rhyme, abdomen, and ending, such as the pronunciation of waist, moon, and head, abdomen, and tail in Mandarin.
Medieval Chinese is even more complicated. For example, in Hakka and Cantonese, the rhyme ending also contains m. For example, in Cantonese, the pronunciation of three is sam. The rest include p, t, and k. In Hakka and Cantonese, There are reservations in Gan, Min and other dialects.
There is also a glottal stop, which is a weakening of the three medieval rhyme endings. It is not even found in Cantonese, but is retained in Gan and Wu dialects.
The two were originally chatting about methods, and while chatting, they went to the academic discussion. When they realized that they had been talking for a long time, they quickly pulled back.