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On the Nasal Finals Confusing of Multi-Sound Characters in Ancient Chinese

  • The Japanese Language Association of Korea
  • Abbr : JLAK
  • 2018, (58), pp.101-114
  • DOI : 10.14817/jlak.2018.58.101
  • Publisher : The Japanese Language Association Of Korea
  • Research Area : Humanities > Japanese Language and Literature
  • Received : August 26, 2018
  • Accepted : November 14, 2018
  • Published : December 20, 2018

Lee, Kyong Chul 1

1동국대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study explored changes in the syllable structure in Old Chinese by analyzing instances of the alternation of Nasal finals with other finals through multi-sound characters in Ancient Chinese. The following conclusions were drawn. (1) Word-final Nasals in Language A of Early Old Chinese changed to Vowel u・i・∅ in Language B of Middle Old Chinese. (2) Early Old Chinese had closed syllables, for example, CɑC and C1C2ɑC1C2. The syllable C1C2ɑC1C2 in Early Old Chinese changed to an open syllable, such as C1ɑ∅・u・i or C2ɑ∅・u・i in Middle Old Chinese. Therefore, the initial a double consonant can be reconstructed easily, but athe final double consonant waiss difficult to reconstruct. (3) In Language AB in Middle Old Chinese, which was formed through a contact between Language A and Language B, there existed many sub-language groups such as AB1(C)→AB2(Q・N)→AB3(t・k・n・ŋ)→AB4(p・t・k・m・n・ŋ), according to the word-final consonant. This is also observed in changes in word-final consonants form Ancient Chinese to Modern Chinese as well as in Chinese dialects. (4) Early Old Chinese had closed syllables wherein many consonants continued, such as CɑC or C1C2ɑC1C2 or C1C2C3ɑC1C2C3. These syllable structures suggest that meant Early Old Chinese was influenced by asome language that was dissimilar tohad totally different syllable structures from Chinese . (5) It is necessary to further study many Altaic languages around China and Old Korean in order to clarify the double consonant syllable system in Early Old Chinese.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.